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United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

Congo-Kinshasa: Special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo's Comments to the Media

Olusegun Obasanjo

15 November 2008

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press conference

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has been appointed special envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He spoke to journalists in Kinshasa Saturday after seeing President Joseph Kabila and before heading to Goma in the eastern DRC to see rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.

Gentlemen and ladies of the press after the meeting of the Great Lakes Regional Conference leaders the UN Secretary General and the AU President of the Commission in Nairobi last Friday and the communique that came out of that I decided that starting from yesterday I should start the first round of consultation within the region to start moving forward.

So I went to Angola yesterday and met President dos Santos. Last night I met President Kabila. This morning I've met the leaders of the Senate and the National Assembly and then of course the representatives of countries that are members of the Security Council.

All in all trying to draw together what are the strands that people have that we need to have, put together for us to be able to move forward and that has gone fairly well so far. Immediately after I finish with you I go to Goma. From Goma I will be seeing Nkunda - he was kind enough to ring me up three days ago and speak to me while I was still in Nigeria and he expressed that he is full of expectation for us to meet and talk face to face. I am also looking forward to that and from there we move on.

President, what message did President Kabila give you. Is he ready to talk to General Nkunda?

Well he did not give anything that I would call conditions but we are at the exploratory stage now. And of course I will report back to him and to the leaders in the region what I get out of Genreral Nkunda. General Nkunda nobody can say for certain what he wants and I believe that's very important that we get authentically from him what he wants.

What message do you take to him?

To him?

What message do you take to General Nkunda?

That the international community expects a durable ceasefire to address the issue of humanitarian crisis and tragedy, then to move forward to find durable peace and political stability that we need (for) sustainable development in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Are you concerned about outside forces coming in? There's talk of outside forces coming in?

No I'm not because I don't see any outside forces coming in.

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