UN chief, World Bank leader team up for DRC
- By Masimba Tafirenyika
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 22, 2013
"This funding will help revitalize economic development, create jobs and improve the lives of people who have suffered far too long," said Mr. Kim, adding, "Now the leaders of the Great Lakes region, by restarting economic activity and improving livelihoods in border areas, can boost confidence, build economies, and give new opportunities for millions of people."
"In its simplest form," observed The Economist, a UK-based business weekly, "their [Messrs. Ban and Kim] idea is get the World Bank to use its financial muscle to back the UN's political agenda." According to the magazine, Mr. Kim quipped to Mr. Ban, "You bring the troops and we'll bring the dollars."
"A peace deal must deliver a peace dividend: Health, education, jobs, opportunity," the UN Secretary-General said after the two leaders met with President Joseph Kabila of Congo in Kinshasa. Touched by the crowds that greeted the entourage during a visit to Goma, Mr. Ban urged the world to invest in those people who have suffered so much and so long.
Peace guarantors
The joint visit started off in the DRC, where Mr. Ban and Mr. Kim held discussions with President Kabila. They then flew to neighboring Rwanda for talks with President Paul Kagame, before meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
At the heart of the visit was an accord called the "Framework for Peace, Security and Cooperation," signed by 11 African heads of state on February 24, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The most important aspect of the framework is that the countries of the Great Lakes region agreed not to interfere in each others' internal affairs by, among other things, not providing assistance or support of any kind to armed groups operating in the region.
In order to make it credible, the accord needed peace guarantors. These guarantors went on to include the UN secretary-general, the African Union commissioner, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique as chair of the Southern African Development Community and President Museveni in his capacity as chairman of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
The framework is not about security alone, Mr. Ban was quick to emphasize. It is also crafted to lay the groundwork for a political dialogue that is expected to create conditions for peace and economic development in the DRC and across the region.
There are some concerns that the intervention brigade's offensive operations might provoke retaliatory attacks by the M23 and other rebels against soft targets, particularly civilians. A consortium of international nongovernmental organizations with operations in the DRC wrote to Mr. Ban, urging him to make protection of civilians a priority for the brigade.
Talking to reporters after meeting with President Museveni, Mr. Ban made it clear that the "brigade cannot and does not and will not substitute the primary responsibility of the DRC government" to maintain and preserve its territorial integrity. "Therefore the primary responsibility lies with the DRC government and within those parameters, we will do our best," he said.
Echoing Mr. Ban's pledge to do his best to bring peace to the DRC, Mr. Diop, the World Bank's vice-president, voiced a similar responsibility, "We simply cannot achieve our goal to end extreme poverty and boost prosperity within a generation unless we help people in the world's fragile and conflict-affected states. They are the ones who need us the most." These statements, if backed by action on the ground, will likely give the Congolese justification for their cautious optimism.
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