UN calls for immediate support to sustain
peace
The UNDP and UNOCHA are scheduled to
co-host an international meeting in Switzerland on Thursday to review development
in the Republic of Congo since a ceasefire agreement took hold in January,
and to call for immediate support for the transition process. An initial
UN funding appeal for US $17 million for the Republic of Congo for the
year 2000, had brought a donor response of just US $1.8 million to date,
which represents the lowest level of emergency assistance per capita, an
OCHA press release stated on Tuesday. The main objective of the Geneva
meeting would be to encourage dialogue between the international community,
the government in Brazzaville and a representative of the opposition National
Resistance Movement of Congo on an integrated set of issues: peace-building,
macroeconomic plans and assistance to the population, OCHA said. But the
meeting would present the UN Transition Appeal for US $28 million for this
year. The amount requested had been revised upwards by US $11 million to
take account of changing requirements, which have shifted from purely relief
to a mixture of relief and rehabilitation as the transition process has
taken hold in the last six months, OCHA added. Donors now had "a unique
opportunity" to support the transition towards durable stability,
renewed democracy and development in the country, the statement concluded.
[for full statement, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Congo]
Transition offers opportunity and challenge
The situation in RoC had improved dramatically in the first half of the year, with a ceasefire agreement holding, civilian populations returning to their homes and humanitarian access having expanded rapidly. Some 630,000 of 810,000 internally-displaced people (IDPs) and refugees had returned to their places of origin, and malnutrition and death rates had been significantly reduced, OCHA reported. Thousands of militia members had also been disarmed and disbanded, but the country needed significant assistance - and quickly, the next few months being crucial - in order to build on these achievements and avoid a return to war.
A separate report by OCHA "Steps for Peace: Preventing The Gap in Congo" identified the prevention of a gap between emergency relief and rehabilitation/development assistance as "a special challenge", given the exceptional speed and momentum of events in the country. While many militia members were disarming, several thousand more were still negotiating in some areas and, "above all, they are concerned about what the future will hold for them once they give up life under arms", the report stated. "Missing the opportunity to consolidate this fragile transition could enhance the danger of relapse," OCHA warned.
Sectoral spending needs spelled out in Transition Appeal
"Overall, most serious humanitarian needs are decreasing, while some needs - especially in the areas of malnutrition and basic health structures - are still quite critical," a UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Transition Appeal stated in June. "Beyond providing emergency relief, there is a new emergency - to support communities and their returning members in their efforts to restore stability and security", it added. The revised requirements of UN agencies, set out in the Transition Appeal document, were: Health and nutrition - US $11.8 million; food security and agriculture - US $3.3 million; human rights, peace, reconciliation and reintegration - US $7.4 million; protection of children and primary education - US $4.1 million; shelter - US $350,000; and, coordination - 916,000. [for full Transition Appeal document, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vID/2F1B1152D106CE4BC1256906005078A3]
Humanitarian priorities established for 2000
The UN strategy in RoC is centred on reintegrating youths and militia members, reestablishing essential services, restarting productive activities and promoting the rule of law. Multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental aid agencies have together agreed on a common approach, according to OCHA's report, 'Steps for Peace.' The following priorities have been established for this year: continuing emergency relief, while moving towards an emphasis on reintegration and rehabilitation; increasing humanitarian access and delivery into the interior of the country; concentrating on the most affected southern regions of Pool, Niari, Lekouma and Bouenza; assisting the reintegration into society of ex-combatants, with a view to preventing a return to arms; supporting the peace process and return to civilian authority; and ensuring contingency planning for the possibility of renewed hostilities and populations displacement. [see 'Steps for Peace' document at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/603e798c 7a093b18c1256904004587a7?OpenDocument]
DRC refugees arrive in their thousands
Up to 10,000 refugees have newly arrived in Liranga and Njoundou areas to escape renewed fighting in Equateur Province, DRC, the UNHCR stated on Tuesday. UNHCR staff worked by the light of hurricane lamps until Monday morning along the remote border between the two Congos to distribute relief supplies to 5,000 refugees in Njoundou, where the Congo and Ubangui rivers meet, about 500 km north of Brazzaville, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told a press briefing in Geneva.
The team made two, 12-hour boat journeys upstream to Njoundou from the nearest airstrip at Loukolela - past continuing fighting on the DRC riverbank - and was due to airlift additional supplies into Loukolela from the DRC capital Kinshasa on Tuesday, he said. Another aid delivery was scheduled for Thursday, 6 July, in the town of Liranga, where 1,400 refugees had sought shelter, Janowski said. Medical staff from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) had treated 336 of the refugees, mostly for diarrhoea, he added. The number of refugees in the Republic of Congo was now estimated at 30,000 to 40,000, including Congolese who have moved out of Equateur Province during the past year to escape fighting between government forces and rebels of the Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC).
Kibuende situation causes concern
A recent humanitarian mission in the areas of Pool, Kinkala, Boko, Mindouli and Kibuende found the nutritional situation to be generally under control, but the need for shelter and health services to be acute - especially in Kibuende, to which between 4,000 and 5,000 displaced people had returned. The latter was worst hit, with virtually everyone affected and almost total destruction of housing and education facilities, humanitarian sources told IRIN. There were no health or sanitation activities in the area and the health centre, still occupied by armed troops and militias, was in urgent need of rehabilitation once agreement could be reached with the authorities to have the soldiers redeployed, they added. The mission recommended combined donor and humanitarian agency efforts to mobilise resources and address immediate needs, and a particular focus on educational needs of children in the wake of the havoc caused to the system by the war.
New business charter aimed at wooing investors
The authorities in RoC have devised a new national investment charter intended to guarantee the legal security of foreign investors and their right to repatriate profits, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported last week. Some 100 Congolese ministry experts and employers' representatives had drafted the charter, to replace the former investment code, at a meeting in Brazzaville from 27 to 29 June, it said. The new charter aims at making the country "a more attractive place to foreign investors" by assuring them of the freedom to repatriate their profits, legal security for their investments and the right to define their own employment policies, AFP quoted the drafting committee as saying. The initiative, yet to be approved by the National Transition Council [or provisional government], was developed within the framework of an effort by the Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale (CEMAC) to harmonise legal provisions for investment, AFP reported. CEMAC groups together Chad, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Central African Republic, who are working towards establishing a Central African customs union.
Diplomat reports to UN rights committee
The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Congo to the UN, Julian Menga, has told the UNHCHR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that, in terms of legislation, women were on equal footing with men but that some inequalities persisted, such as the custom of polygamy. This was "a cultural phenomenon that went back several centuries" but the government was working on proposals to prohibit the practice, he said. There was also a problem with women's inheritance when a husband died, but this was often down to the fact that women were not aware of their legal right to [at least] 30 percent of their late husband's estate. With respect to the situation of pygmies (indigenous forest people), Menga said the basic law respected the rights of all citizens. There was a national office for minorities, including the pygmies, but "on the basis of their own culture, they "sometimes rejected efforts of integration," a UN press release quoted him as saying.
Menga also complained to the committee that international aid to his country was low, "especially when compared to the amount of aid that was provided to other regions." Asked about citizens' right to adequate food, he said Congo relied almost entirely on imports. Ensuring the right to food was extremely difficult, as it was for most countries emerging from war, he added.
[ENDS]
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]
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