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UN to return to rebel-held east of DR Congo:
visiting officialGOMA, DR Congo, Jan 22 (AFP) - UN humanitarian agencies will resume operations in the rebel-controlled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), visiting UN official Martin Griffith said Friday.
"The humanitarian situation justifies our intervention, but it is still too early to set a date," Griffith, the UN deputy secretary general in charge of humanitarian action, said in the rebels' principal headquarters.
Griffith, who had stopped first in Kinshasa, has spoken with both DRC officials and rebels about the necessary conditions for humanitarian action, including "impartiality, neutrality, independence, advocacy of human rights and openness."
"The deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the DRC, particularly in the east, as well as the growing insecurity for humanitarian staff and equipment make it necessary to find a consensus on a common approach ... to humanitarian projects," he said.
Griffith's four-member delegation, who arrived Friday, met with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the head of the rebels' political wing, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), and other rebel officials including Bizima Karaha, who handles foreign relations.
"The needs are very great in the areas where there are an especially large number of displaced people. But the security problem is still serious," Griffith said after the talks.
His delegation also includes the director of UN refugee operations in the DRC.
The United Nations, which ceased activities in the east at the start of the rebellion last August, wants the rebels to create "conditions" to assure the saftey of both local and international humanitarian staff and their equipment, Griffith said.
He said he hoped the rebels would show "their good faith in returning materials seized" from UN agencies when they launched their uprising.
Karaha told AFP he had "fully accepted the principle of restitution," adding
that the rebels had already begun to return vehicles and communication equipment
to the United Nations as well as to non-governmental organizations. He said 15
vehicles were returned in Bukavu, another rebel
stronghold south of Goma.
Wamba dia Wamba said the visit by the UN delegation was a "very positive, very encouraging juncture."
He added: "This marks a resumption in relations that existed before, but also an
indication of their commitment to resolving the humanitarian situation."
"President Kabila did not want the east of the DRC to receive aid from countries considered as belligerents (neighboring Rwanda and Uganda) and opposed any UN intervention here. But now the entire UN operation will come in," he said.
Asked when the United Nations would return, Wamba dia Wamba said "very soon, maybe in less than a month."
The RCD has pledged to "ensure the safety of UN employees," he said, while warning that "nothing can be done against Kabila's bombing."
The Tutsi-led rebels, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, now control a swathe of the east of the country.
President Laurent Kabila, for his part, has the support of troops from Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Chad.
On Monday, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia reached a ceasefire agreement at talks in Windhoek, but Kinshasa and the rebels have yet to agree a truce.
eg-jhl/gd/aln AFP
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