NORTH KIVU: NEW INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC INITIATIVES.

MISNA
3 November 2008

The president of the African Union Commission (AU) Jean Ping has decided to nominate an ‘emissary’ for the ongoing crisis in North Kivu. He is expected to arrive in Kinshasa on Wednesday. In a note issued tonight in Addis Abeba, it is noted that Ibrahima Fall, former minister of foreign affairs for Senegal and former special representative for the UN secretary general for the Great Lakes, after visiting Congo, shall go to Rwanda and Tanzania, which currently detains the presidency of the African Union (AU). The goal of Fall’s mission will be to “consult the local leaders to promote a global approach to the current crisis” says the communiqué.

The UN has also designated its own special envoy for Congo, the ex-president of Nigeria Olusegun Obansajo; the nomination was announced by sec. gen. Ban Ki-moon, who expressed his own willingness to visit the region to meet the presidents of RD Congo and Rwanda. After the resignation of the Spanish general Vicente Diaz de Villegas, Ban Ki-moon has chosen, for the second time, the Senegalese general Babacar Gaye as chef de mission of the peacekeepers in the country (MONUC) for a six month mandate; therefore, Gaye shall resume the role that he had already occupied since March 2005 until just a few weeks ago. Gen. Diaz de Villegas, who had served as chef of mission since just two months ago, claimed "personal reasons" for his choice, several sources had indicated that the likelier explanation is to be found in MONUC’s difficulty in fulfilling its mandate in North Kivu.

WNJ Editor's Note: Sources in Kinshasa claim that General Diaz de Villegas requested permission to arrest General Nkunda and his deputies. Special Representative Alan Doss reportedly asked the Security Council to grant MONUC the mandate to carry out the operation when he went to New York to plead his case for reinforcements following the unilateral attack by the CNDP and 2 battalions of Rwandan Army forces. According to the sources, the United States objected to the plan. Realizing his proverbial hands were tied and he would be unable to address the problem, General Diaz chose to resign. A Senegalese national, General Babacar Gaye, who claimed at a press conference in the past that certain contingents of MONUC soldiers would not obey his orders, will reclaim his position as Force Commander. General Gaye was indicted by French officials at the end of September over the Joola ferry incident. Senegalese officials have strenuously denounced the arrest warrant as 'baseless.'