Secretary of State John Kerry arrived at the United Nations on Thursday morning in a multi-car caravan. The primary purpose of his daylong visit was to preside over an open UN Security Council meeting on “The Situation in the Great Lakes Region: Supporting the Great Lakes Framework.”
This is the region of Africa that includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Kerry also met later in the day for closed door discussions at the United States UN Mission with members of the Syrian political opposition, including Ahmad al-Jarba, President of the Syrian Coalition.
In brief remarks to the press before the Security Council meeting, Kerry referred to the work he has been doing to bring the Palestinians and Israel back to the negotiating table and resolve what he called “the granddaddy” of world challenges. He let his guard down when he referred to both Israel and the Palestinians as “countries” preparing to put into place procedures for resumed talks. That’s news, considering that the Obama administration’s stated public position has been not to support the Palestinians’ bid for recognition as a state at the United Nations. But the New York Times failed to mention Kerry’s reference to two “countries” in its article reporting on Kerry’s day at the UN including his remarks to the press.
In his own statement he delivered, in his national capacity, to the Security Council regarding the African Great Lakes region, Secretary of State Kerry praised the Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region, but said that it must be fully implemented. He noted that “the progress the region has made since February is extremely fragile, and the key question before all of us today is whether the commitments prescribed in the framework can be kept, will be kept. Will they come to life, or are they only going to be destined to live on paper?”
Kerry deplored the continuing “targeted, grotesque violence” still plaguing the Congo and the broader Great Lakes region. The people have been subjected to “human rights abuses and the region has been disrupted by dangerous instability.” He called for all parties to “immediately end their support for armed rebel groups. All governments must hold human rights violators and abusers accountable,” he added. “We must end the era of impunity and that, unfortunately, has been rampant.”
Kerry singled out specifically for concern “resumed external support to M23,” in an oblique reference to more direct allegations made earlier in the week by the State Department spokesperson in Washington against Rwanda’s purported involvement with this particular rebel group. Kerry failed to acknowledge steps that Rwanda has taken to disarm M23 rebels crossing over its border and to assist in transferring an M23 leader to the Hague for prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
To his credit, Kerry also expressed concerns about “collaboration” with the armed rebel group known as the FDLR. I had asked Kerry as he was walking into the Security Council chamber whether he would make reference to the FDLR as well as M23 and he appeared to have nodded his head. In any case, he did mention the FDLR, but failed to mention why it was so important to do so. The FDLR is the Hutu rebel group whose formal name is the Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda and includes former genocidaires (people who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda) who fled Rwanda in 1994 to avoid prosecution for the horrific crimes they committed against Rwanda’s Tutsi population. The FDLR has been operating in eastern Congo, under various names, since 1994 and continues to commit a variety of grave human rights abuses.
Kerry also failed to mention whom the FDLR is reported to be collaborating with. It would have been too embarrassing perhaps to acknowledge that the Congolese army, whose units the United States has helped to train, is in bed with the monsters responsible for the genocide in Rwanda nearly two decades ago and continue to commit deplorable acts of violence against innocent men, women and children in the Congo.
The United States is serving as president of the 15-member Security Council this month. Thus, Kerry took the occasion in presiding over the Security Council meeting in the presidential capacity to announce the issuance of a Presidential Statement on the Great Lakes region. The statement expressed support for the implementation of the commitments under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. It called on the Democratic Republic of Congo “to continue and expand security sector reform, consolidate state authority, make progress on decentralization, and further the agenda of reconciliation, tolerance, and democratization.”
The Presidential Statement also called on “all countries of the region neither to tolerate nor provide assistance or support of any kind to armed groups.” In this regard, it condemned renewed attacks in May and July by the M23 rebel group and demanded that “the M23 fully disband and disarm.” While Kerry said nothing in the speech he delivered in his national capacity about Rwanda’s positive efforts in dealing with M23 members who fled into Rwanda, the Security Council Presidential Statement expressed appreciation for “the initial steps swiftly taken by the government of Rwanda to handle this situation.” The Presidential Statement was also more explicit than Kerry had been in his speech about the “increased activity” of the FDLR, including making reference to “reports of attacks by the FDLR on Rwandan territory.” Both Kerry and the State Department spokesperson earlier in the week failed to mention such attacks against Rwanda, focusing instead on criticizing Rwanda’s reported ties with M23.
Kerry spent part of the afternoon in private discussions with the visiting delegation of the Syrian opposition coalition. After the discussions were concluded, Kerry remarked that he thought the talks were “constructive” and that the opposition was committed to participating in peace talks referred to as Geneva II if certain unnamed “conditions” could be worked out. The opposition’s leader al Jarba said “we need American direct support.” Could that be one of the conditions? In any case, the opposition coalition is hopelessly divided. It is also increasingly irrelevant as the Islamist jihadists assume a leading role in the insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Assad continues to roll back rebel forces.
John Kerry concluded his day at the United Nations and is presumably preparing to resume his encouragement of Israel and the Palestinians – the two “countries” as he called them – to return to the negotiating table.
