From: Judy Miriga
Good People…….
I hope Mary Robinson understands the complexity and brutality of M23 inflicting in Congo and not favor Kagame who has been a darling of the UN in the past.
Ideally, as many people feels, Congo has nothing to discuss with M23.
Kagame who is the owner of M23 should decide what to do with it and own responsibility to it. The UN should subject M23 to ICC Hague where Bosco is waiting for them there to answer charges…..To ask Congo to negotiate with M23 is being mean to Congo. It is like Congo was signed up for slaughter house where M23 was engineered to exterminate the Congo people from existance…….which means, who ever brings that topic that Congo talk to M23 must explain why M23 is Congo problem and not that of Kagame……….and this will mean the whole world will have to discuss the matter to save Congo from further inhumanity.
Let the Truth be told about Congo………!!!
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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UN’s Mary Robinson in Goma after surge in DRC fighting
Tuesday 03 September 2013
UN Great Lakes Envoy to Address Rwanda Role in DRC Crisis
Gabe Joselow
September 02, 2013
GOMA, DRC — The United Nations envoy to the Great Lakes region says she will be direct with Kigali about evidence of Rwandan support for the M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Mary Robinson also hopes the recent military advances against the rebels will create a window for a political solution to the crisis
Robinson arrived Monday in Goma, the economic hub of eastern DRC, as part of a diplomatic tour of the region. Her visit follows nearly two weeks of fighting between Congolese armed forces and the M23 rebels on the outskirts of the city. She is due to attend a September 5 summit in Kampala of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region [ICGLR], which will bring together regional leaders to discuss the conflict.
Rwanda, a member of the conference, has been accused of supporting the M23 rebels, a group made up of former rebel soldiers who defected from the Congolese army last year.
Direct talks
Speaking to reporters in Goma, Robinson said she is prepared to address the issue directly with Rwanda. “I do not say one thing in Goma and another thing in Rwanda. I say tough things, especially to people who need to hear those tough things directly. And I am prepared to speak very truthfully, but also to continue to engage with Rwanda, because that is my role and my responsibility,” she said.
The U.N. Group of Experts has published evidence linking Rwanda to the rebels, and the United States has called on Kigali to end its support. Rwanda has repeatedly denied any ties to M23.
Other foreign envoys, including Boubacar Diarra of the African Union and Russ Feingold from the United States, are due to join Robinson on her tour of the region, which includes a stop in Rwanda.
MONUSCO muscle
A new U.N. intervention brigade, part of the U.N. peacekeeping force MONUSCO, was seen as being instrumental in helping the Congolese army push the rebels to beyond striking distance from Goma.
Robinson said she supports MONUSCO’s aggressive operations, which she sees as having opened up a chance for dialogue.
“What I see as being valuable is that there is now potentially a window for the political discussions,” she said.
Robinson also said she would like to see the renewal of the Kampala talks between the Congolese government and M23. Those talks fell apart as fighting intensified during the past few months.
Special envoy Mary Robinson arrives in Kinshasa
By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE | September 2, 2013
KINSHASA, Sept 2 – Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy to the African Great Lakes region, arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday, after warning against an escalation of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile east.
Her visit, which will also take her to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda, follows new attacks on civilians in the country’s east, which has already suffered two decades of conflict.
The former Irish president was greeted on her arrival in the capital by Martin Kobler, head of the UN mission for stabilisation in the DRC (MONUSCO).
MONUSCO said on Sunday that she would travel to eastern city of Goma on Monday to meet representatives of “provincial authorities and civil society” such as trade unions and religious organisations.
Her programme shows that she will spend the week in the region, travelling to Uganda on Wednesday and the Rwandan capital Kigali on Friday.
The visit comes at the same time as the army and Monusco forces have begun an offensive and gained ground against the M23 rebels. The UN claims that the M23 group is funded by Uganda and Rwanda.
In November, the M23 rebels occupied Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, but agreed to pull-out following intense international pressure.
Mary Robinson is responsible for trying to implement a framework agreement, signed in February, to bring about peace in North and South Kivu.
UN special envoy arrives in Congo
September 2, 2013
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — United Nations special envoy Mary Robinson has arrived in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, following a week of heavy fighting pitting Congolese and U.N. troops against a rebel group entrenched in the hills above the strategic city.
Robinson will meet with Congolese leaders before traveling to Uganda and Rwanda. The rebels, who are widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, announced a ceasefire on Friday.
Lambert Mende, the Congolese government spokesman, said on Monday he hoped Robinson would speak firmly with Rwanda, which denies supporting the rebels.
He said: “When it comes to Rwanda and what they’re doing in Congo, it’s been total silence.”
Tanks were seen leaving the Rwandan capital and heading toward the Congo-Rwanda border at the weekend.
GOMA / MARY ROBINSON
By Thomas Hubert
The UN special envoy for the African Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson, has arrived in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She and other high-level international diplomats are visiting the region after the last week of August saw the heaviest fighting in months between the M23 rebel movement and Congolese government forces backed by a new, more offensive brigade of UN peacekeepers. The rebels retreated by several kilometres at the weekend and diplomatic efforts are due to culminate in a summit of regional leaders on Thursday. RFI talked to Timo Mueller, an analyst with a US-based conflict resolution lobby group, who is based in Goma.