Actualités

Lettre Mary Robinson

25/04/2013

The European Network for Central Africa (EurAc) and its members have welcomed with enthusiasm your nomination as UN Special Representative for the Great Lakes region. EurAc hopes that your political experience will have a high and positive impact on the peace process in the region.

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L’Union Européenne doit exercer une pression forte sur le Rwanda et l’Ouganda pour qu’ils cessent leur soutien au M23

21/11/2012

Le Réseau Européen pour l’Afrique Centrale (EurAc) et ses organisations membres saluent la condamnation par l’Union Européenne, à l’issue de la réunion du Conseil des Affaires Extérieures du 19 novembre 2012, du groupe rebelle M23 et des autres groupes rebelles responsables de la grave détérioration de la situation sécuritaire au Nord-Kivu. EurAc salue également la volonté de l’UE de soutenir la création tant d’un poste d’ Envoyé Spécial de l’Union Africaine que d’un représentant spécial des Nations Unies, ce dernier devant faciliter le dialogue régional. Néanmoins, EurAc continue de plaider en faveur d’un envoyé spécial unique sous l’égide de l’UA et des Nations unies.

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Addressing the Conflict in Eastern Congo: Urgent appointment of a UN/AU Special Envoy

21/11/2012

Addressing the Conflict in Eastern Congo: Urgent appointment of a UN/AU Special Envoy

 

The conflict in eastern Congo is now at a critical juncture with M23’s recent capturing of the city of Goma in Congo’s North Kivu Province.    Recent reports suggest that, despite its continuing denials, Rwanda has continued to provide military, logistical, and political support to M23, emboldened by the failure of the international community to hold it fully accountable for its aggression. The government of Congo has continued to demonstrate an inability to deal with the threat on its eastern borders, as a consequence of its failure to initiate necessary reforms of its weak and undisciplined army as well as other critical institutions.  The UN peace-keeping mission, known as MONUSCO, despite its repeated assurances that Goma would not fall, has once again failed to protect the population of a large urban center rom falling in the hands of notorious human rights abusers.  Meanwhile, since the onset of the M23 mutiny in April 2012, more than 650,000 people have been displaced in eastern Congo due to the ongoing conflict.  

 

We believe that it is imperative to initiate a credible internationally-facilitated political process that is focused during a first phase on an immediate cessation of hostilities, but in the longer-term also on addressing the systematic drivers of conflict in the region. The aim of such a process must be a sustainable departure from the cycle of violence and regional interference that has defined the conflict for much of the last decade.

 

Efforts to achieve a durable peace in the region must be led, not by those that continue to perpetuate the conflict, but rather by a credible facilitation process with the commensurate experience, legitimacy and stature to elevate the process above the current regional mistrust, and bring the necessary parties into a constructive dialogue.  This should be done under the joint auspices of the United Nations and the African Union, as recommended at the recent high-level meeting on the DRC held at the United Nations on September 27, 2012. We call on the Security Council to request the Secretary-General to reach out immediately to the African Union with a view to appointing an Envoy or Panel in a matter of days.

 

We also call on the Security Council and the African Union to condemn in unequivocal terms Rwanda and the M23 for their actions and to immediately apply sanctions against all the individuals identified in the most recent Group of Experts report as having violated the U.N. arms embargo on Congo, including the Rwandan military and political officers who have been supporting and directing the M23. We also call on bilateral donors to Rwanda to continue and expand the suspension of all aid programs that are not explicitly directed to the humanitarian needs of the Rwandan civilian population.   

 

We the undersigned groups strongly reiterate the attached brief and recommendations, which we widely distributed among senior policy-makers in governments and international institutions in October 2012. We believe now as we believed then that military solutions alone will not resolve this crisis and that a new political process is needed to prevent further violence in the region.

 

Signed:

Eastern Congo Initiative

Enough

EurAc

Humanity United

Open Society Foundations

 

 

*****************************************

Donatella Rostagno

Executive Secretary Eurac

 

www.eurac-network.org

 

165, rue des Tanneurs

1000 Bruxelles - Belgique

 

Tel. +32 2 213 04 00

Fax +32 2 502 21 42

e-mail: donatella.rostagno@eurac-network.org

 

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Appel à l’Union Européenne pour plus de fermeté vis-à-vis du Rwanda

16/07/2012

(...) l’UE a publié un communiqué dans le quel elle nous donne l’impression de ne pas être assez ferme vis-à-vis du Rwanda. Le manque d’un signal fort de la part de l’UE ne ferait que la décrédibiliser et confirmer, une fois de plus, la politique de «deux poids deux mesures ». Condamner le Rwanda pour son soutien à la rébellion à l’Est de la RDC impliquerait effectivement un changement de stratégie politique par rapport à la question de la stabilisation de la région des Grands Lacs (...)

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Burundi et Rwanda: 50 ans d’indépendance. Quel bilan ?

18/06/2012

Face à ces situations, nous observons que, pour le Rwanda, l’Union Européenne (UE) et ses Etats membres pratiquent une acceptation presque aveugle du «statu quo » au nom d’un développement économique qui, en réalité, profite à une infime minorité de la population. En ce qui concerne le Burundi, l’UE et ses Etats membres osent une critique plus ouverte de l’action du gouvernement et nous assistons en même temps à l’abandon de ce pays comme partenaire de développement.  Il nous semble que cette attitude de «deux poids deux mesures» décrédibilise l’action de l’UE. Nous sommes plutôt convaincus que les partenaires internationaux des deux pays devraient continuer à exercer sur ceux-ci la même pression pour éviter qu’ils ne retombent 50 ans en arrière.

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