Searching for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Report of the workshop held 18-19 November 2002, Pretoria, South Africa

On 18 and 19 November 2002 the Arms Management and African Security Analysis Programmes of the Institute for Security Studies hosted a closed workshop on the prospects for achieving a lasting peaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The workshop was attended by a group of people who have been analyzing the situation in the DR Congo and the wider Great Lakes region for many years. The purpose of the workshop was to analyze the political, military and logistical challenges facing the government of the DR Congo and the international community in moving the peace process for the country forward. Each session of the workshop addressed a specific issue, with speakers asked to provide short introductory remarks that led to a lively and informative discussion on each theme. This workshop report is a summary of those presentations and discussions. Each thematic area is briefly presented and the final section of the report presented some of the key findings and conclusions of the workshop. These are not 'recommendations' to certain groups. Rather they are areas where the workshop participants strongly felt more attention and better analysis was needed to understand and respond to the evolving situation in the Great Lakes region. The workshop was held in mid-November and since that time three signification events have occurred: a peace agreement was signed in Burundi, the United Nations Security Council significantly strengthened there UN Mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) to prepare it for implementing the disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration (DDRRR) process and, most recently, a peace accord was signed in Pretoria, South Africa by the key parties to the conflict in the DR Congo. These events signal a positive step forward for peace in the DR Congo, although large challenges still remain.