The Special Representative of the Secretary General for the DR of Congo, Alan Doss, says armed groups should not be allowed to take control of Rutshuru territory. He was speaking during a fact-finding tour to the North Kivu Province on 31 August 2008.

This visit, which comes one day after the clashes that opposed the Congolese armed forces with the CNDP of the renegade Laurent Nkunda, precede the meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) that is taking place in Kinshasa on the 1st of September 2008 and to which the DRC, Rwanda, the European Commission, the United States as well as MONUC are participating.

In an interview with Radio Okapi, Mr Doss said he'd come to the area to tell the local population it shouldn't hinder MONUC's peacekeeping work.

He said "We're here simply in our role as peacekeepers" and he added "The only goal of the Peacekeeping Mission is to let Congo return to normal and help end fighting once and for all".

The Congolese Defence Minister, Tshikez Diemu, said the Congolese Government was fully behind the Amani Process, which is designed to bring peace to the east of the country. Mr Diemu wondered why there had been a return to hostilities after 8 months without major incidents.