An African Solution to the Congo conflict?

A regional UN/African Union summit is taking place today, in Nairobi, Kenya. Before the summit, AU chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, said that the AU was ready to take a leading role in the restoration of peace in North Kivu. He stressed that swift action was necessary to prevent escalation of the humanitarian crisis, calling for a ceasefire, in addition to building up the UN force. To this end, Kikwete called for support from regional leaders, and the international community. In attendance at the Nairobi meeting, besides Kikwete, were the Presidents of the D.R.C., Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, and South Africa, in addition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom Ban has named special envoy for the North Kivu conflict.An extraordinary summit of the Southern Africa Development Conference (SADC) set for Nov. 9 in South Africa, has also been called to discuss the D.R.C. crisis, as well as the situation in Zimbabwe.

The AU hopes to avoid foreign intervention by reinforcing the UN peacekeeping force in the D.R.C. Well aware of this, London financial forces had Malloch-Brown attend the summit in Nairobi today. Discussion of the D.R.C. situation in the House of Commons yesterday, expressed a great concern about violence toward civilians, and fully endorsed Malloch-Brown's trip.After renegade Gen. Laurent Nkundabatware (usually referred to as Nkunda in the Western press) surrounded the city of Goma, Malloch-Brown said that EU military action in the D.R.C. cannot be ruled out, and reiterated, that, from the British standpoint, the military option is on the table. He said that plans for British intervention have been drawn up, and that British troops are on standby (using the pretext of providing security for aid convoys). African leaders, on the other hand, want to beef up the UN peacekeeping force from the present 17,000—of whom 6,000 are in eastern D.R.C. The peacekeepers' task is not easy since Nkunda's well-armed forces use hit-and-run tactics, and intermingle with the civilian population, making it very difficult for the UN forces to intervene to prevent harm to civilians.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in Kinshasa, on Oct. 31. British UN Ambassador John Sawyers said Miliband intended to push D.R.C. President Joseph Kabila to engage in direct talks with Nkunda, as Nkunda was demanding: "It's good for President Kabila to talk to Laurent Nkunda," said Sawyer, which is precisely what Nkunda has been saying. In sharp distinction to the British position of advocating talks with the rebel grouping, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is "fully backing" Kabila in the crisis. Kabila set up a transitional unity government in 2003, and Nkunda deserted some months later, in 2004.Before Miliband traveled to Kinshasa, the London Guardian attacked the UN peacekeeping force, with the outrageous statement that the UN stood in the way of solving the problem, because it is picking sides in the conflict, by supporting the government.
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2008/3545soros_genocide_congo.html