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STORY: UN / ALAN DOSS
TRT: 4.32
SOURCE: UNTV / MONUC / IRIN
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY / MARCH 2009, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO / FILE
FILE – UNTV – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
UNTV - 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Alan Doss in studio
3. Close up, hands
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“They are struggling to pay their national security services, the army, the police, and so forth. And that is always dangerous, we know that. You know when the security services aren’t paid and aren’t paid on time, there are dangers. I don’t want to exaggerate this, but equally well I think we have to recognize that for a very poor country like the Congo, this collapse in the international economy has hit very hard, and there are potential very serious repercussions for national security.”
MONUC - MARCH 2009, RUTSHURU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
5. Various shots, Kalengera market
UNTV - 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“It has also meant that the government has been distracted from you know the fundamental problem of the Congo which is economic and social development. We’re making progress I believe on the political front, and we’re seeing gradually the beginning of the end of the conflict in the eastern Congo. But these other problems now, especially the economic crisis, are welling up and are therefore making it very difficult for the country to chart a course ahead.”
FILE – IRIN – JULY 2006, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
7. Various shots, gold mining
UNTV – 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“Certainly the prospects for peace today, lasting peace, in the eastern Congo, are much much better than they were a few months ago.”
MONUC – MARCH 2009, RUTSHURU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
8. Wide shot, UN peacekeepers in Kalengera market
9. Close up, peacekeeper
10. Med shot, women in Kalengera market
UNTV – 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“Right now it is the so-called FDLR, the ex-Interahamwe, ex-FAR forces from Rwanda that fled across the border after the genocide in 1994 and afterwards. They are still there. They still control significant areas of North and South Kivu, they terrorize populations, they control economic resources, and have been involved in many, many violent acts and in particular many against women and children. So they need to be now dismantled and disarmed.”
FILE – MONUC – 31 JULY 2008, NORTH KIVU PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
12. Med shot, former FDLR combatants
13. Close up, combatants with guns
14. Med shot, combatants handing in weapons
UNTV – 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“MONUC will continue to work with the national armed forces to take on the LRA. But it will take time. And we cannot guarantee obviously that there will be no reprisals against local people. But there are reprisals anyway. There are risks, but there are risks if we don’t do anything.”
MONUC – 15 MARCH 2009, DUNGU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
16. Wide shot, Doss arriving at ceremony to mark start of departure of Ugandan troops from DRC
17. Various shots, Ugandan and Congolese troops
UNTV – 8 APRIL 2009, NEW YORK CITY
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo:
“You know there are always rumors in the Congo and I’m careful not to respond to rumors. What I will say is that we have worked with the states of the region. As you know the Secretary-General had appointed some time ago a special envoy, former president Chissano, who has worked with the governments of Uganda and Sudan, as well as the Congo to put a peace agreement in place, the so-called Juba peace agreement which maps out a process. That has been offered to the leader of the LRA Mr. Kony, but despite many promises he hasn’t signed that.”
MONUC – 15 MARCH 2009, DUNGU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
19. Pan right, soldiers marching
The UN envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Alan Doss says that the global economic crisis could potentially have “very serious” security consequences in the DRC.
Doss spoke to UNifeed in an interview ahead of his briefing to the UN Security Council today (9 April).
Asked how the global economic crisis was playing out in the DRC, against the background of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warning at the recent G20 summit that the global economic crisis is turning into a “security crisis” in some parts of the world, Doss noted that the crisis had hit the Congo “very hard” because of its dependency on trade in mineral resources.
Doss said the Congolese budget minister recently told him that state revenues were down 70 percent against one year ago. State coffers rely heavily on export taxes for mineral resources, where demand had dropped. Doss said reserves are far too tiny to make up for the shortfall.
He predicted that the knock-on effects of the crisis would hit social services, health and education, but also “more critically” he said the government was “struggling to pay” the national army and police. Doss pointed out that “when the security services aren’t paid and aren’t paid on time, there are dangers”.
Though he did not want to exaggerate the dangers, he said “we have to recognize that for a very poor country like the Congo, this collapse in the international economy has hit very hard, and there are potential very serious repercussions for national security.”
Doss called on the international community to help the government pull through the economic crisis.
He noted that one effect of the on-again, off-again fighting in the country’s east had been to distract the Congolese government from “the fundamental problem of the Congo which is economic and social development.”
Doss said political progress meant that “we’re seeing gradually the beginning of the end of the conflict in the eastern Congo”, but he warned that other problems, “especially the economic crisis, are welling up and are therefore making it very difficult for the country to chart a course ahead.”
Still he judged that the prospects for “lasting peace” in eastern Congo were “much, much better than they were a few months ago”, thanks to better relations between the Congolese government and its neighbors Rwanda and Uganda.
Asked which of several armed groups still terrorizing the east posed the biggest threat to peace and security in the region, he singled out the FDLR, a Hutu-dominated militia from Rwanda that fled across the border after the genocide in 1994. Doss noted that “they are still there”, controlling “significant areas” of the North and South Kivu provinces along with economic resources. He recalled that the group had been involved in “many, many violent acts”, in particular against women and children, and called for it to be dismantled and disarmed.
The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC known as MONUC, which Doss heads, has been trying to convince former FDLR fighters to disarm by supporting their repatriation to Rwanda.
Regarding the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), another armed group from Uganda that is notorious for extremely brutal attacks on civilians, Doss said that MONUC would continue to work with the Congolese army to “take on” the LRA, but warned that it would take time, and there was no guarantee that this wouldn’t result in reprisals against local people. But he said reprisals were already taking place anyway, adding “there are risks, but there are risks if we don’t do anything.”
Ugandan troops withdrew last month from the DRC at the end of a controversial joint operation between the Ugandan and Congolese armed forces against the LRA.
Asked about rumors that the government of Sudan might be backing the LRA, Doss said “there are always rumors in the Congo and I’m careful not to respond to rumors”. He pointed to the work of the UN special envoy and former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano to put a peace agreement in place with the help of the governments of Uganda, Sudan and the Congo. He noted that the so-called Juba peace agreement has been offered to the leader of the LRA Joseph Kony, but “despite many promises he hasn’t signed that.”
Alan Doss, a national of the United Kingdom, has served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and head of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) since October 2007. He previously held a number of senior positions in other UN peacekeeping missions as well as the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
