afrol News, 16 January - The UN Security Council this night gave its approval to lift the status of demilitarisation given to the eastern Congolese city Kisangani in year 2000. Without consulting with Uganda and Rwanda, the Kinshasa government was allowed to place its "unified Kisangani brigade" in Kisangani.

Acknowledging that the advent of a transitional national government had changed the situation in the Congo Kinshasa (DRC), the UN Security Council tonight "unanimously withdrew its demand for the complete demilitarisation of a key town," the UN reports.

Since the installation of a transitional national reconciliation government in Kinshasa, the major Congolese rivals that fought over Kisangani are now ruling the country together. One troop unit also combines former Kinshasa-loyal troops and former rebels.

Instead, the Security Council has now adopted a resolution welcoming "the efforts currently undertaken to set up the first integrated and unified brigade in Kisangani as a step towards the elaboration and implementation of a comprehensive programme for the formation of a Congolese integrated national army."

In 2000, the Security Council had demanded that forces from Uganda, Rwanda, the Congolese armed opposition and other armed groups immediately and completely withdraw from Kisangani and it called on all signatories of the 1999 Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement to respect the demilitarisation of the city and its surroundings.

Today's resolution decided that this demand "shall not apply to the restructured and integrated forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to the armed forces included in the comprehensive programme for the formation of an integrated and restructured national army."

Kisangani - a town on the Congo River that has been featured in world literature as Stanleyville - was the scene of major battles in the country's latest civil war, including severe battles between Ugandan and Rwandan troops. The destruction of the local infrastructure has left it cut off from commercial links, except by air.

The Security Council this night called for more international assistance to further the process of integrating and restructuring the armed forces of Congo Kinshasa.

While soldiers from the earlier Kinshasa government and ex-rebels now jointly are to be stationed in Kisangani, the real administrator of the city during the last years, the Ugandan army, has been left without any role. The Ugandan government was not consulted on the issue, which is drastically changing the regional power balance in the favour of Kinshasa.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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