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STORY: UN / GREAT LAKES
TRT: 2.42
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
25 JULY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“Peace would mean a new chance for development and lasting security for some of the world’s most sorely tested people. I am therefore deeply concerned about the current hostilities between the M23 movement and the Congolese armed forces. All Parties need to return as soon as possible to the Kampala talks. I have called for maximum restraint and urge all Framework signatories to jointly and individually respect their commitments.”
5. Med shot, Mary Robinson
6. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“The crisis that we witness today underscores what we already know. It is a stark reminder of what fills the vacuum in the absence of good governance, basic dignity, and in the absence of firm leadership that holds accountable those who violate basic standards of decency.”
7. Med shot, delegate
8. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, United States Secretary of State:
“The United States is deeply concerned about recent reports of external, resumed external support to M23 as well as of collaboration with the FDLR. So, I want to be emphatic here today; all parties must immediately end their support for armed rebel groups. All governments must hold human rights violators and abusers accountable. We must end the era of impunity, and that, unfortunately, has been rampant.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mary Robinson, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region:
“Such a strategy and the Council’s engagement with the Great Lakes region will bear fruit only if all actors involved, at the local, national, regional, and international levels push in the same direction and if, let me reiterate this, there is an immediate cessation of hostilities in eastern DRC. I believe that there is some political momentum at the moment. We need to create and encourage space for dialogue and support for tough decisions. We need to tell each other the truth, quietly when necessary, but firmly, and stick to our commitments to the PSC Framework if we are to make a real difference this time.”
11. Med shot, Kerry
12. Pan right, Security Council
The Security Council today (25 July) reiterated its commitment to the United Nations-brokered peace accord for Africa’s strife-torn Great Lakes region and demanded an immediate end to hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fresh clashes between armed rebels and Congolese troops have sent thousands of civilians fleeing for safety.
Speaking to a Security Council high-level debate on the Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said peace in the Great Lakes region “would mean a new chance for development and lasting security for some of the world’s most sorely tested people.”
Ban expressed concern about the current hostilities between the 23 March Movement (M23), and the Congolese armed forces and urged all parties to return “as soon as possible” to the Kampala peace talks and to “respect their commitments.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry, presiding today’s high-level debate, said the crisis in the region “is a stark reminder of what fills the vacuum in the absence of good governance, basic dignity, and in the absence of firm leadership that holds accountable those who violate basic standards of decency.”
Kerry said the United States is “deeply concerned” about recent reports of external support to the M23 rebels as well as to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), another rebel group.
He emphasised that “all parties must immediately end their support for armed rebel groups” and “all governments must hold human rights violators and abusers accountable.”
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson, in her briefing to the Council said the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Agreement for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), signed in February in Addis Ababa “will bear fruit only if all actors involved, at the local, national, regional, and international levels push in the same direction” and if "there is an immediate cessation of hostilities in eastern DRC.”
Robinson said that “there is some political momentum at the moment” but all involved will have to abide by their commitments to the Framework “if we are to make a real difference this time.”
Over the past year, the M23 along with other armed groups, has clashed repeatedly with Congolese armed forces (FARDC) in the eastern DRC, with the rebels briefly occupying Goma, the region’s main city, in November 2012.
The fighting, which erupted again in recent days, this time dragging in a group of Ugandan-based rebels, has displaced more than 100,000 people, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in eth region which includes 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and 6.4 million in need of food and emergency aid.
The Council issued a statement condemning all hostilities in the region and, in addition to the M23, cites other armed groups, including the FDLR, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF-NALU), and the Mayi Mayi Kata-Katanga.
In an attempt to squelch the fighting, the Security Council in March authorized the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army, against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC.
The brigade – which is currently being built up in North Kivu province and will ultimately consist of more than 3,000 peacekeepers – is tasked with neutralizing armed groups, reducing the threat posed to State authority and civilian security and make space for stabilization activities.
