UNITED NATIONS (FinalCall.com)�A transitional government is set to take control June 15 of the political process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a UN Security Council report released on May 14.

Fifteen representatives from the Security Council toured nations in Africa�s Great Lakes region from April 27 to May 7. Presenting the report of the Council�s third mission to the region, French UN ambassador Jean-David Levitte said the groundwork for establishing a transitional government in the DRC has been put in place.

Among the mission�s recommendations was the absolute need to respect the ceasefire and the need to include all concerned parties in the peace process. �The inter-Congolese dialogue has made remarkable progress in its recent meeting in Sun City, South Africa, including the adoption of texts which describe the basis for the transition period that leads to democratic elections,� Ambassador Levitte told the Council.

Mr. Levitte recalled that between two to three million people in the DRC had been killed since the latest war started in 1998. In August 1998, the armies of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi entered the DRC saying that they were concerned with their security. The armies of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola aided then DRC President Laurent Kabila in defending his nation. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright called the conflict �Africa�s first world war.�

Mr. Levitte said what struck members of the Council who traveled to the region was the feeling among the Congolese people that all foreign troops must withdraw and the plundering of natural resources must stop.

But the Council is recommending the establishment of a �curtain of troops� that would be placed on the eastern border of the DRC, the border shared with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

The representative of Rwanda, Anastase Gasana, said his country�s concerns for its own security had captured the Security Council�s attention. �The Rwandan government recognizes the importance of the work of the inter-Congolese dialogue in assuring lasting peace in the region,� Mr. Gasana said. However, he added that his government had concerns about the presence in the DRC of the �planners and authors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.�

�We want to be assured that these people no longer have any political, military, material or financial support in the DRC,� he said.

DRC UN ambassador Aoki Ilka told the Council that President Joseph Kabila had stated that his government did not support, would not support, armed groups in destabilizing Rwanda. �President Kabila is determined to consolidate the peace process in the Great Lakes region,� the ambassador said.

The Burundian representative said his country supports the proposal for the creation of a buffer zone. �We also hope that the inter-Congolese dialogue continues and becomes as inclusive as possible,� Marc Nteturuye said, adding that he is interested in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups, including Burundian rebels.

However, activists charge the Security Council has once again applied the double standard where Africa is concerned.

�The Congolese people are being asked to sit down and form a government with those responsible for killing our people,� Professor Yaa-lengi M. Ngemi, head of the Congo Coalition said, referring to the Sun City agreement, that rebel leader John-Pierre Bemba of the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC), serve in the transition government as prime minister.

Elombe Brath, head of the Harlem-based Patrice Lumumba Coalition, said Africans must decide the future of the DRC, not the UN. �The Security Council is simply buying time while the rape of the Congo�s resources continues. The UN works in the interest of the mining conglomerates and men such as Mr. Bemba are complicit in the robbery of the Congolese people�s natural resources,� he added.

On May 13, the website www.allafrica.com reported that the six-member Ugandan commission ordered to investigate allegations of the illegal exploitation of Congolese timber, diamonds and gold told a Ugandan general that he faced jail if he did not appear before the committee later this month.

Ugandan People�s Defense Force commander Major-General James Kazini, according to the report, had failed on several occasions to appear, and if he does not appear on May 20, he will be arrested, committee officials said.

�The UN should have sanctioned Uganda and Rwanda last year after the report surfaced that officials from those countries made huge profits stealing our resources, and it continues,� Prof. Ngemi said angrily.

Mr. Brath and Prof. Ngemi suggested that the African Union give Uganda and Rwanda an ultimatum: �Get out of the DRC now or face all of our armies.�

However, the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution think-tank, said what is needed in the Great Lakes Region now is a regional conference, so that a final pact of non-aggression may be established. The think-tank report also said that at the conference mutual economic, trade and legal agreements could be hammered out.