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Congo

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Chidgey has done us an important service in drawing our attention so effectively to the disastrous situation in eastern DRC. It is the first time that we have had a full-scale debate on the subject since November 2008. At that time, the Government were keen to keep Parliament fully informed and proactive on what is the largest and most expensive of all UN peacekeeping operations, which is expected to continue for at least another year after the expiry of the present mandate at the end of May. The Government should provide time for periodic debates on what the UK is doing to help formulate and act on an effective UN policy. I hope to hear that from the Minister today. The Security Council urges the DRC Government to establish sustainable peace, effectively protect the civilian population, develop security sector institutions that fully respect the rule of law, ensure respect for human rights, put an end to impunity and put an end to the depredation caused by the armed groups. However, is Kabila capable of delivering on this programme, even with massive international help? He has not stopped his own armed forces committing massacres and gross human rights violations. None the less, as we have heard, MONUC continues to operate closely with the DRC military, except where the unit is suspected of having committed grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. Even then, it withdraws support from units only if violations persist. Support for one unit was suspended only after it had killed at least 62, and possibly as many as 270, civilians over the six-month period immediately prior to the suspension of co-operation. Co-operation should be suspended immediately where there are allegations of serious misconduct and resumed only when the unit concerned has been fully exonerated. One reason for the misconduct is the integration of the CNDP militia commanded, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, said, by Bosco Ntaganda. He is wanted for war crimes but was made a general in the FARDC after he made a deal with Kinshasa a year ago. Will the Minister confirm that President Kabila has been asked repeatedly to arrest Ntaganda and other alleged war criminals? What answers do we get when we raise these matters? The deal with the CNDP was not effective because the rebels kept their own independent command structures, partly on the excuse that the Government had failed to implement the 23 March agreement. The other obvious reason identified by Global Witness, as mentioned by my noble friend and others, was that by signing the agreement the CNDP gained additional access to mining sites in the Kivus, including much of the lucrative trade in cassiterite, the primary ore of tin required in the manufacture of electronic products. What has happened to the new agreement signed at Christmas under which the CNDP would dismantle its roadblocks? Is it going to hand over the areas that it controls, such as Bisie, the location of the largest cassiterite mine in eastern DRC? All noble Lords have mentioned the control of mineral resources by the armed groups, which provides them with large sums of money to buy weapons and pay their soldiers, partly cancelling out the UN’s $1.3 billion attempt to bring peace and security to the eastern DRC. The illicit mining and export of minerals are the engine of what the Security Council describes as, ""the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation"." Its response is for MONUC to support the establishment of trading counters in the Kivus, through which minerals would be traded and taxes levied on the transactions. However, the resolution contains nothing about helping the Government to gain and retain control of the mines and to stop the flow of money to the illicit groups at source, which should be the top priority. The next phase of the UN security and stabilisation support strategy is said to foresee the eventual demilitarisation and control of mining areas. Will the UK ensure that it is dealt with in the strategic review to be presented to the Security Council by 1 April? The Secretary-General says that the new strategy will include completion of military operations against the LRA, a point eloquently raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. However, as she described, the LRA has killed many people in the past year. Even though it has only 100 members in the DRC, they are said to have murdered more than 1,200 people in 2009 and caused 270,000 to flee from their homes. Operations against the LRA were not successful, partly because of the indiscipline of the units involved. I wonder whether the new strategy might include an element that was dropped from the original plan to embed a MONUC company, if not in every FARDC unit, at least in the reintegrated units where the main problem arises. The Secretary-General says that the LRA is now a regional threat, extending into the CAR and Sudan, as the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, mentioned, but this is nothing new. Mr Ban wants the mandates of the affected countries to be harmonised, but an even better solution would be a combined operation, with UN logistical support, to arrest Kony and to eliminate the group once and for all. How can we reconcile the deterioration in the humanitarian situation reported by the UN with its action plan for 2010, which provides for a reduction in support of 14 per cent on the mid-year review of 2009? Is this not a reflection of the current global economic situation rather than the actual needs of the population? There is an appalling legacy of suffering from the brutalities committed last year by government and irregular forces alike, including more than 10,000 cases of sexual violence—again mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox—recorded in the Kivus alone. If access to North Kivu is improved, as the visit by Alan Doss presages, the demand for humanitarian services will increase steeply. Finally, there needs to be a set of end points to which MONUC aspires as part of the April strategy revision, with target dates for their achievement. The DRC will need substantial aid until it controls and is able to tax its huge mineral wealth, which should be one of the objectives. Once it has eliminated the LRA and FDLR and completed the reintegration of the CNDP, the UN military should pack up and go.