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Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade debate -
Thursday, 13 Dec 2012

Democratic Republic of Congo: Motion

I do not want to delay members. No. 3 on our agenda is the motion regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is signed by Senator Norris and has been circulated with the agenda. I call the Senator to move and to speak on the motion.

I move:

Bearing in mind -

the death of 5.2 million people over a ten-year period from war-related causes, the largest in any conflict since the Second World War,

the illegal occupation of the city of Goma by the militia known as M23,

the displacement of some 2.2 million people in the DRC,

the forced movement of thousands of people to neighbouring countries,

the 17-fold increase in the number of rapes on civilians between 2004 and 2008,

the on-going recruitment of child soldiers, some as young as 8 years of age,

the increasing humanitarian crisis,

the absence of essential infrastructure like roads, schools and health centres,

the pillage by militias, mercenaries and traders of the country's enormous mineral wealth, and

the collapse of the kind of norms that are required for a functioning society,

the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade calls for –

an immediate end to the conflict and the disarmament of all militias, most particularly that of the M23 group,

prioritisation of and re-engagement with existing political agreements,

protection of all civilians and the implementation of stabilization mechanisms,

a new political process to address the drivers of the conflict, one that will involve the European Union (EU), the United Nations Security Council UNSC), the African Union (AU), and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR),

neighbouring countries, most notably Rwanda and Uganda, to comply with international law, respect human rights and to disengage from any destabilisation activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

the government of the DRC to end corruption and respect human rights,

a renewed and strengthened mandate for MONUSCO, the UN force in the DRC,

those alleged to have committed war crimes should not be given refuge and should be turned over to the International Criminal Court,

a commitment to the full implementation of the EU Transparency Directive and Accounting Directives,

and

calls upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure that –

the resolution of the current conflict in the DRC remains a key objective of its six-month presidency of the European Union, and

that on-going violations of human rights within the DRC will be raised by the Minister and his officials at the UN Human Rights Council to which Ireland has just been elected,

and given the scale and intensity of the conflict regrets the absence of any significant reporting by Irish and international media of the conflict and calls for greater political and media engagement with the conflict.

I am grateful to the Chairman and the staff for putting this motion on today’s agenda. I have been asked to do this and the committee has received presentations, in particular a recent presentation on sexual violence in conflict. At that session, there was a considerable concentration on the tragedy in the Congo. It is almost unnecessary for me to rehearse the situation. We all know of the extraordinary contrast between the mineral and natural resource wealth of that region and the poor conditions in which people in the Congo live. They are classified as the poorest citizens on Earth despite that vast wealth.

In the past few weeks, there has been an illegal occupation of Goma, although forces have since withdrawn from it. Some 2.2 million are displaced and approximately 5 million have died, almost as many as died during the Holocaust in Europe. Just as today when no one from the media was present at our meeting, there is a regrettable lack of media interest in this situation.

There is an increasing humanitarian crisis. The central authorities are unable to look after their citizens in terms of medical welfare, protection from tape and so on. They are also unable to invest in infrastructure, for example, roads and rail networks. Electronic communications are at a minimal level. There is a range of militias and mercenaries and neighbouring countries are greedily fastening onto the wealth.

It is appropriate that we as a committee should call for an immediate end to the conflict, the disarmament of the militias and the prioritisation of and re-engagement with existing political agreements. I do not want to go on ad nauseam, as people can read the resolution. It is lengthy. If I was to speak on every aspect, we would be here for a long time, but that would not advance the cause. People would be rather put off by the monotonous sound of my voice.

Increasingly, we are receiving requests from international agencies and groups outside of Ireland to try to make use of the six-month window of opportunity presented by our Presidency of Europe as well as of the fact that, with the committee’s strong support, we have achieved a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.

If possible, I ask the committee to pass the motion. I have also placed an almost identical motion on Seanad Éireann’s Order Paper. I hope that we will have an opportunity to pass it with little discussion.

I support this excellent motion, which serves to bring into the public arena the media, political, national and international attention that it requires. Senator Norris is correct, in that the region has fallen off the screen in terms of public and international attention. It has become acceptable that a certain level of violence is ongoing in such places. I am not just referring to the Democratic Republic of Congo in this regard. It is endemic across the globe.

We cease to be shocked by the level of daily violence against vulnerable people - women and children - in addition to famine, ethic cleansing and so on. The sad part of it is that it no longer shocks anybody. Perhaps the international media might be otherwise engaged as there are many areas of conflict now but that does not excuse us from allowing ourselves to become conditioned to accepting what goes on.

I support the motion. It behoves us all to so do, particularly at the present time and notwithstanding the difficulties we may have of an economic nature and across Europe also. Everything is relative but the appalling levels of violence and the ignoring of human rights in so many locations throughout the world is truly shocking.

I support the motion and thank Senator Norris for bringing it before the committee.

I support the motion also. The first line which refers to in excess of 5 million people having lost their lives speaks volumes for all of us. The motion is well structured with very good content and I support it.

I strongly support the motion and commend Senator Norris for bringing it forward. The statistics speak for themselves. The 17-fold increase in rapes of civilians in a four-year period between 2004 and 2008, which is continuing, is a frightening statistic. That all of this is happening in a wealthy country with such natural resources is a major international crisis and we must have something done about. I agree that our six-month window is an opportunity for us to do something. I support the motion. I commend the Senator and look forward to having further discussion on the motion in Seanad Éireann.

I, too, support the motion. It a comprehensive motion covering almost all the points I would like to make except to say that we had a meeting this morning with the director of the European Union External Action Force who has responsibility for Africa and we touched on this subject matter.

I have visited this region and I know it reasonably well. In terms of this conflict, millions of people having been murdered, raped, displaced and so on yet of all the areas of international conflict, and we have just dealt with Syria which is a relatively recent one, this conflict has been ongoing but the international organisations specified in the motion do not appear to have acted either in collaboration with one another or taken the issue seriously enough to the extent that there is a resolution on the horizon.

It may be premature of me to condemn some of the African countries but it is rumoured that Rwanda is playing a very important role in arming the rebels in that area. It is astounding that the M23 rebels could move into Goma, which was protected by the United Nations force, and then threaten to march on to Kisangani, although one would not march from Kisangani to Kinshasa; they probably took boats down the river. They threatened Kinshasa, the capital, which is thousands of miles away. Somebody is pulling strings in the region and I suspect the finger is being pointed at Rwanda. These troops have now withdrawn from Goma, which means someone is applying pressure somewhere, and talks have restarted among Kinshasa, Uganda and Rwanda. Given the number of countries immediately adjoining that wealthy Congolese eastern region, which is the minining region, we should ask the African Union what it is doing about that. It is in the African continent. The African Union is becoming more powerful and more engaged in conflicts within the continent of Africa.

This motion, having been passed, should be forwarded to the Department. We should try to use our international linkages, and certainly the Presidency of the European Union, to make an impression on this region.

I want to add my voice of support for Senator Norris's motion. Senator Norris has a close affiliation with Congo. I assure Senator Norris that in the past 48 hours we raised the issue of the situation in Congo in Switzerland when we met with the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and also with the International Red Cross.

The foreign affairs and trade committee has been quite vocal on this issue. We had the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government before us some time ago and the secretary general of the opposition party in Congo appeared two weeks ago. It is an issue we will continue to raise at every level. I suggest after this meeting the committee might do a press release on what we have agreed regarding Senator Norris's motion.

I was going to suggest that. I thank the Chairman for that proposal.

Should we forward it to our MEPs as well?

Yes, to ensure it is raised in the foreign affairs committee as well.

It might be worth mentioning in the press release, Chairman, that it was passed unanimously.

Yes. It is an issue that we raised also with the Irish ambassador in Geneva who will be representing us on the Human Rights Council in terms of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We will keep in touch with him on that given that we are now a full member of the Human Rights Council.

Question put and agreed to.

I propose that the resolution of the committee is that the motion be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, communicated to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and communicated to the ambassadors of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank Senator Norris for being very active in this area and showing a great interest in this conflict. It is the first resolution from the foreign affairs committee and I hope we will have more of these motions.

The joint committee went into private session and adjourned at 4.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 19 December 2012.
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