UN report won’t deter regional peace efforts – Ugandan minister

Uganda’s State Minister for International relations, Henry Oryem Okello, has reiterated his country’s commitment to continue pursuing efforts aimed at finding a regional solution to the eastern DRC conflict.Early this week, a UN Group of Experts leaked a report to the media with allegations that Rwanda and Uganda are supporting the M23, a military rebellion in the neighbouring DRC.Uganda is the current chair of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which has championed regional efforts to ressolve the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.“Uganda as the chair of ICGLR and neighbour remains fully committed to spearhead the regional efforts to ensure security and stability in eastern DRC as mandated by the ICGLR Heads of State and Government under the 2006 Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Region,” he told reporters.He said that the leaking of the report by the “Group of Experts” can only be in bad faith and intended to cause mischief and undermine the regional efforts to find a durable solution to the conflict in Eastern DRC.Referring to the expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM) which all the eleven ICGLR member states contributed officers, Okello said efforts were already on to verify and monitor accusations and counter accusations.“It is disheartening for any DRC government official to undermine the spirit and efforts of the regional leaders to realise the objective of security and stability in the region,” he added.The Military Assessment Team (MAT), led by an officer at the rank of Brigadier General from Tanzania, has been meeting as per the terms of reference agreed on by the regional heads of state to operationalise the establishment of a proposed neutral international force.At the last ICGLR summit in Kampala earlier this month, the team was given two weeks to come up with a report on the strength of negative forces operating in the eastern part of DRC which include FDLR, the militia group largely responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

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UN report won’t deter regional peace efforts – Ugandan minister