On Wednesday, the UN security Council votes on the renewal of the UN Mission MONUSCO in the Congo. Their mandate expires at the end of the month. In the DW Interview with head of Mission Leila Zerrougui draws a balance sheet of the insert.
DW: Ms. Zerrougui, this year it will be 20 years that the MONUSCO – previously MONUC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. What has changed in the last 20 years in terms of safety, particularly for the population in the East of the country?
Leila Zerrougui: A Lot Of Things. We are now in a country that is United in spite of all the difficulties. While there are still armed groups in at least six of the 26 provinces. But no one occupied more areas, which is not able to penetrate the national army. There are enormous challenges in relation to the professionalization of the army and the police, the sovereign tasks of the state and in relation to border controls. But there is progress. Also thanks to all the efforts of the International community.
But if you say, for example, the people in the town of Beni, the Situation has improved greatly, will make you laugh, or rather cry, because there are still regular attacks by the ADF militia. What say you? How do you react?
The Beni Region is the area in which almost 70 percent of our troops have been used. We have our special unit of the FIB. We have a lot of staff in the use, because it is an area that needs our protection. When I say, there is progress, then I am speaking from an area of 2.5 million square kilometers.
You speak of the FIB, the rapid reaction Force, which was established in 2013 and in the same year with the defeat of the M23 militia, a spectacular success. Since then, we no longer hear much of her…
And yet the number of killed soldiers was in the year 2017 at the largest (15 Tanzanian blue helmets were killed in December 2017; in the case of an attack to 2018, Tanzanians and seven Malawians, NB died. d. Red.). It was hard for me to meet their families in Tanzania and in Malawi. Peace troops that are forced to wage war, even though they are supposed to bring peace. It is much more complicated than you think…
Leila Zerrougui heads the UN Mission in the Congo
Ms. Zerrougui spoke about the progress of the country, but you have also mentioned areas in which there is violence. As Kasai was, as Tanganyika, Ituri. The conditions are favorable for a withdrawal of Monusco?
Many of the armed groups. Today’s challenge is: Will we have the resources to include and for you to pay? We have this phenomenon in Ituri with the FRPI, we have this phenomenon in Tanganyika. There is hope. But that is not going to be make in two months.
So the Mission is not deducted immediately? With all of the work, the training of the Congolese army, which you have mentioned. The Mission will take a little longer?
The President of the Republic (Félix Tshisékédi, Anm. d. Red.) said: Give me some time to identify priorities, and prepare for the end of the UN Mission. No one, neither the former President (Joseph Kabila) is still present, ask that the MONUSCO remains forever. And I don’t think that those who decide about our mandate, have this intention.
The ADF is a difficult enemy, which is difficult to fight militia. A Dialog with her would be desirable and it would be at all possible? Finally, it is not a uniform structure, but a dispersed active militia.
It is not a militia it is an armed group that has settled in the 1980s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Ex-President) Mobutu had given them this area. So you are of the opinion that it belongs to you.
And you mingle with the population…….
Of course, there are marriages, and there are economic aspects. They sell Gold and wood in the neighbouring countries. We should not, of course, make sure that you will be to an armed group, which could have an increasingly international Dimension.
I don’t think problems through weapons alone solved. Of course, we will not put you on a wall and shoot them. There are children and women among them. We will kill you? We need to make an effort to take care of you, to integrate you. There is always a social Dimension, a political Dimension, a Dimension that allows us to turn the tide. Otherwise, nothing will change and the instability will continue.
Leila Zerrougui at the beginning of 2018, the special representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the democratic Republic of the Congo and the head of the MONUSCO (the United Nations stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), The Algerian lawyer was previously inter alia Chairman of the UN human rights Council and special representative for children in armed conflict.
The Interview was conducted by Dirce Köpp and Fréjus Quenum.