28 Nov 2012

UN / DR CONGO

The Security Council today extended the arms embargo and other sanctions imposed against armed rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and will consider additional targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23 rebels that recently occupied the eastern city of Goma. UNTV

Posted at: November 28, 2012 4:46 pm

Duration: 02:14

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / DR CONGO
TRT: 2.14
SOURCE: UNTV 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: 28 NOVEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1.	Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

28 NOVEMBER 2012, NEW YORK CITY

2.	Various shots, Security Council vote
3.	Med shot, delegates
4.	SOUNDBITE (French) Atoki Ileka, Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ambassador to France:
"The experts' report clearly and unambiguously establishes that the Rwandan government is continuing to violate the arms embargo. It is directly providing military aid to the so-called M23 rebels, facilitating the recruitment of combatants for the movement, inciting and facilitating desertion of soldiers from the Congolese armed forces, providing arms, munitions and information as well as political advice to the M23."
5.	Med shot, delegates
6.	SOUNDBITE (French) Atoki Ileka, Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ambassador to France:
"The clearly shown support of Rwanda to the M23 after the Congolese authorities had said that they were willing to arrest former General Bosco Ntaganda for whom there is an arrest warrant by the ICC [International Criminal Court], is a clear obstacle to carrying out the arrest mandate of the Court. It is clear today that Rwanda has acted to deflect attention in order to remove Bosco Ntaganda from international justice."
7.	Med shot, delegates
8.	SOUNDBITE (French) Olivier Nduhungirehe, First Counsellor for the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations:
"It is particularly regrettable that some member states of this Council who even as they bear a great deal of responsibility in the conflict in Congo, especially following their escapades in the region, have a crusade against Heads of State and they seem to be searching for scapegoats in the conflict. The crisis in Congo started after the independence. Several peacekeeping missions were deployed in the country where one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa, benefitted for a long period from external support from countries around this table in exchange for profitable contracts, and we are still paying the price now."
9.	Med shot, delegates
10.	Zoom out, Security Council

STORYLINE:

The Security Council today (28 November) extended the arms embargo and other sanctions imposed against armed rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while expressing its intention to consider additional targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23, the rebel fighters that recently occupied the eastern provincial capital of Goma.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council extended until 1 February 2014, the sanctions that were first introduced in 2003 as the DRC reached the end of a brutal civil war that engulfed the vast country on and off for five years and is estimated to have killed as many as five million people.

The Council also requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to renew the mandate of the group of experts monitoring these measures until 1 February 2014.

After the vote, Atoki Ileka, who is the DRC's ambassador to France, said that the latest report by the group of experts "unambiguously establishes that the Rwandan government is continuing to violate the arms embargo."

Ileka levelled a series of accusations against the Rwandan government, saying that it is "directly providing military aid to the so called M23 rebels, facilitating the recruitment of combatants for the movement, inciting and facilitating desertion of soldiers from the Congolese Armed Forces, providing arms, munitions and information as well as political advice to the M23."

He also said that Rwanda "is a clear obstacle" to carrying out the arrest of M23 leader Bosco Ntaganda, as mandated by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ileka said "it is clear today that Rwanda has acted to deflect attention in order to remove Bosco Ntaganda from international justice."

Rwandan representative Olivier Nduhungirehe, in his address to the Council, indicated that his country was a victim of a search for "scapegoats in the conflict" by some members of the Security Council.

Nduhungirehe said that after the DRC became independent, "one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa, benefitted for a long period from external support from countries around this table in exchange for profitable contracts, and we are still paying the price now."

Today's resolution contained strong condemnation of the M23 soldiers, who mutinied from the DRC national army in April, and which occupied Goma, the capital of North Kivu, last week after launching a new wave of attacks that have uprooted more than 140,000 civilians.

The Council demanded that the M23 and other armed groups "cease immediately all forms of violence and other destabilizing activities" and reiterated its demand that any and all outside support to the M23 stop without delay.

It also expressed its intention to consider additional targeted sanctions against the M23 leadership, those providing external support to the group, and those who violate the sanctions regime and the arms embargo.