UN envoy for Africa's Great Lakes region Mary Robinson on Monday reported encouraging signs and "renewed opportunity" for effort to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"I believe we do meet at a moment of renewed opportunity," said Robinson while briefing the UN Security Council behind closed doors via a video link from Africa, where she visited the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa and Ethiopia in a week-long tour to seek the views of political and non-government leaders on the implementation of the UN-brokered "Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region."

It was her first briefing to the 15-nation UN body since she was appointed as UN secretary-general's special envoy for the region in March.

"There is a fresh chance to do more than just attend to the consequences of conflict, or to manage crises of the kind seen again most recently last November. There is a chance to resolve its underlying causes and to stop it for good," she said, adding that while there are no guarantees of success, "we can be sure that if it fails, the consequences will be grave."

In a statement to the Council, Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner for human rights, said that "success will require an all-out concerted series of actions that are both serious and sustained at the national, regional and international level."

She told the Council that she was "glad to report some encouraging news" as Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi "stated their willingness to implement their commitments under the Framework" and supported her role as the UN envoy to the region.

The Framework, adopted in February with the support of 11 nations and four international organizations, known as the 11+4 aims to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in eastern DRC and to build peace in the long-troubled region.

She added that it was also encouraging to see that the leaders in the region, particularly DRC President Joseph Kabila and President Kagame of Rwanda, continue to talk to each other, either bilaterally or through the intergovernmental group known as the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which is due to hold a summit on recent developments in the region in July.

Robinson's visit came amidst seemingly heightened tensions in the region as the 23 March Movement (M23) armed group publicly decried the upcoming deployment of the Force Intervention Brigade within the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), and broke off the so-called Kampala talks.

In March, the Security Council 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 the eastern DRC.

She said the overwhelming majority of the Congolese she met with in Kinshasa and Goma were enthusiastic about the Brigade, while many in the humanitarian community and officials in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda expressed concern about the potential consequences of military operations.

Robinson told the Council that the Brigade should "act mostly preventatively, as a deterrent with limited strategic military operations" and operate "in full compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law, and with maximum consideration for the protection of civilians."

Meanwhile, she also reiterated her support for the stalled Kampala talks between the DRC government and the M23 group, and urged Kabila "to remain committed to this process with a view to expediting it as soon as possible."

Robinson said she also sought to encourage participation for the 11+4 oversight mechanism which is due to meet for the first time on May 26 on the margins of the African Union Jubilee Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then again in September at the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York.

The UN envoy said she plans a second visit to the region later this month. Endi

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