UN chief arrives in DRC to show support to Kabila, UN troops
In remarks prepared for delivery in French, Ban was to urge the lawmakers to agree a "good governance pact" with their people and their international partners. He was to impress upon them that "restoring state authority and ensuring the primacy of the rule of law across the country are indispensable for consolidating peace and democracy."
Ban was also to underscore the need to re-establish security throughout the country to foster lasting stability," singling out the creation of "a professional, well-paid and well-equipped army and police as a priority". He was also to emphasize the need "to deal resolutely with the issue of foreign armed groups which continue to operate in the country and to commit crimes against the population."
The UN peacekeeping mission "stands ready to assist the government in finding a solution to this urgent question," Ban was to tell the Assembly.
Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) are still operating in eastern DRC.
Many members of the group are believed to have taken part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left some 800,000 people dead, most from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, according to UN figures.
The UN secretary general flew into the DRC early Saturday from Paris, where he attended an aid conference for Lebanon, on the third leg of a nine-day, seven-nation tour that will later take him to Addis Ababa for an African Union (AU) summit, then to Kenya and finally to the Netherlands.
During a refueling stop in Cairo, where he held a brief meeting with Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials, Ban told reporters that there had been "very encouraging developments" in DRC, a huge central African country of 58 million people where the world body fields its largest peacekeeping mission.
He was referring to last year's successful UN-supervised presidential and national assembly elections, the country's first democratic polls in 40 years. "But much more needs to be done. The international community needs to nurture this young democracy," said Ban, who took over as UN chief on January 1. "This why I chose DRC as the first African country (to visit). I regard (DRC) as a good success (story)."
Ban also said he also came to show support to the UN peacekeeping mission's nearly 20,000 military and civilian personnel that continue to play a critical role in building DRC's national institutions, particularly its nascent security forces.
Stressing the vital contribution of MONUC, as the UN mission is known, to DRC's still fragile democracy, the secretary general ruled out any downsizing of the force at a time when the UN is looking for extra troops for a planned joint peacekeeping operation with the AU in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. "It may be premature to downsize or withdraw the peacekeeping mission (MONUC) at this time," he told reporters. "As the situation develops, the Security Council may decide on this matter, but at this time I would encourage to maintain the current size."
MONUC has since 1999 helped maintain peace in the vast mineral-rich country -- the size of Western Europe -- following a devastating war that drew in half a dozen neighboring countries.
Before addressing the National Assembly, the UN chief was due to confer with Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga.
He was later to tour a pediatric hospital, meet with representatives of the parliamentary opposition, hold a press conference, lunch with UN peacekeepers and attend a town hall meeting with UN staff.
Saturday afternoon, Ban was to hop across the Congo river by helicopter for a lightning visit to neighboring Congo and talks with its president Denis Sassou Nguesso, the current chairman of the AU.
He was to return to Kinshasa in the evening.
On Sunday, Ban was to fly to DRC's third largest city, Kisangani to meet with Kabila and visit MONUC installations before heading to Addis Ababa to attend the AU summit on Monday.