Senator Coons: “The resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council calling on the M23 to disarm, disband and return control of Goma to the Congolese government, as well as calling for additional sanctions on M23’s leaders, reflects the global understanding that the campaign of violence perpetrated by the M23 against the Congolese people must come to an immediate end."
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[Global News]
A
U.S. Senator has called for the disarming and disbanding of M23 and
sanctions while separately Secretary of State Clinton called for the
militia’s withdrawal in an escalation of U.S.
pressure.
The UN in a report last week says M23 is commanded by Rwanda’s minister of defense and also gets support from Uganda.
Appearing on Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC this afternoon
U.S. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware condemned M23’s attack on Goma and
called for the UN sanctions to be carried out. Coons noted that five
million Congolese died from the earlier war whose most critical period
was between 1998 and 2005, with flareups ever since.
Coons who
is chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa,
in a separate statement, called M23’s actions of “deep concern.” Coons
said, “I join the U.N. Security Council in strongly condemning the M23
for their deplorable attacks on women, children, peacekeepers and
humanitarian workers and in calling on the M23 to immediately stop all
hostilities and withdraw from Goma.”
He called on M23 to permit
“immediate humanitarian access and to facilitate the peaceful
evacuation of civilians and humanitarian workers.”
Senator
Coons’s statement shows that he clearly sees M23 as a proxy army that
had invaded Congo. He called M23’s actions “a clear violation of
international law and an affront to the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
The United
Nations in a report by a Group of Experts said Rwanda’s minister of
defense Gen. James Kabahere commands M23 and that Uganda also supports
the militia which seized Goma last week and has been accused of war
crimes by Human Rights Watch. The UN report says M23 has two safe houses in Kampala, the Ugandan capital and that its leaders consult with Uganda’s police commander Gen. Kale Kayihura and Gen. Salim Saleh, advisor on military affairs to the president, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, who is also his brother.
“The resolution passed by the
U.N. Security Council calling on the M23 to disarm, disband and return
control of Goma to the Congolese government, as well as calling for
additional sanctions on M23’s leaders, reflects the global understanding
that the campaign of violence perpetrated by the M23 against the
Congolese people must come to an immediate end,” Senator Coons added.
“It
is now up to Council and U.N. member states to impose those sanctions
swiftly and comprehensively in order to increase pressure on the M23 to
restore government control of Goma and stabilize the region. It is my
hope that regional and international leaders will engage in multilateral
efforts to encourage a sustainable resolution to this crisis as soon as
possible.”
Separately Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
after a meeting with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma the African Union (AU)
chairwoman at the State Department yesterday, said “We call on leaders
and governments from throughout the region to halt and prevent any
support to the M23 from their territory.”
“The humanitarian impact of this conflict in the eastern part of the country is devastating,” she added.
More
than 285, 000 Congolese have been driven from their homes in the wake
of the M23 invasion which was accompanied by artillery fire and
indiscriminate killings.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
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