10 November 2008
Johannesburg — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has promised to send "immediately" teams of military experts to assess the situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
During the extraordinary SADC heads of state summit held in Johannesburg on Sunday, the Congolese government asked for military support. But the other SADC members decided that any response to this request would depend on the findings from the experts.
The military teams will work on the ground, and present a report to SADC as well as recommendations on measures that should be taken to defend Congolese civilians.
The only military support immediately available to the DRC government will be in the form of equipment for its armed forces (FARDC), not the dispatch to Congo of any SADC troops.
A SADC military team will be sent to advise the high command of the FARDC, and SADC monitors will be sent to the DRC's borders with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao said it was "premature" to speak of sending troops to the DRC. "The first step is to send a team of experts who will leave immediately", he stressed. "They will assess the situation on the ground, produce a report and present recommendations on measures to be taken".
"The conflict cannot be solved by military means", said Salomao. "We argue that the two sides to the conflict must be brought to sit at a negotiating table. The use of arms is a last resort".
Salomao denied reports that Angolan troops are already on the ground in the DRC supporting the FARDC - but he warned that a SADC peace-keeping force might at some stage be required.
"SADC cannot sit back and watch passively the incessant and destructive acts of violence perpetrated by any armed groups against innocent people in the DRC", he said. "If and when necessary, SADC will send peace-keeping forces to the provinces of North and South Kivu".
The summit recommended that the troika of the SADC organ on political, defence and security cooperation (consisting of Swaziland, Mozambique and Angola), should meet with the troika of the Great Lakes countries to avoid any duplication of efforts, and to chart out jointly a path for the future.
The top priority, as far as SADC is concerned, is to establish a ceasefire between the FARDC and the troops loyal to rebel general Laurent Nkunda, and to establish ncentration of minerals in the world, and there's a convergence of interests", he said. "But there are also some remnants of the past, of the previous civil war and the Rwandan genocide. These are wounds that never healed. All these factors make it very difficult to manage the situation".
For his part, Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi said that a key cause to the conflict is that some rebel groups are refusing to implement the various agreements signed in the past with the Congolese government.
The most important issue immediately, he said, was to protect Congolese civilians. To this end, SADC would work with the great Lakes countries "to find a solution".
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