here - Center on International Cooperation - New York University

62 | Mission Reviewsaccountability of the intelligence services. However,some projects stumbled due to basic oversights – inone case, the distribution of new police uniformsfailed to boost morale as the clothing was very poor.Regional ApproachesWhile both BINUB and BINUCA are engaged in thespecific problems of strengthening unstable politicalsystems, the UN and other international organizationscontinue to explore regional approaches tostabilizing Central Africa. From 2002 to 2006, IbrahimaFall of Senegal acted as the Secretary-General’sSpecial Representative for the Great Lakes Region.As such, he was involved in the creation of the InternationalConference for the Great Lakes Region.This grouping, developed under the auspices of theUN and AU, was meant to create a legal frameworkfor regional diplomacy, in some ways comparableto the Conference on Security and Cooperation inEurope (forerunner of the OSCE).Ban Ki-moon did not replace Fall as SpecialRepresentative for the Great Lakes, but in December2008 he appointed Olesegun Obasanjo SpecialEnvoy for the Great Lakes Region, albeit with avery different brief. The eastern DRC had beenshaken by a successful offensive by the CongrèsNational Pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) ledby Laurent Nkunda. The UN peacekeeping force(MONUC) had been involved in Congolese armyoperations against the CNDP and was now at amilitary disadvantage. A range of powers, includingthe US, France and Britain, became involved inmediation efforts.It was widely recognized that Rwanda was keyto any settlement in the eastern DRC. Obasanjoand his co-facilitator Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzaniaopened up communications between theCongolese government, General Nkunda andRwanda. Obasanjo initially conducted shuttlediplomacy in the field, but an office staffed by officialsfrom the UN Department of Political Affairs(DPA) was set up to support his efforts withMkapa. Nkunda was arrested in a joint DRC-Rwandan operation, and on 23 March 2009 theCongolese government and new CNDP leadershipsigned a peace agreement. The Nairobi officecontinued to function until June 2010, and theSpecial Envoy on the Great Lakes RegionAuthorization Date 29 October 2008(S/PRST/2008/40)Start Date 1 January 2010Special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria)Co-facilitator Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania)Budget$3.0 million(1 January 2010-31 December 2010)Strength as of International Civilian: 51 January 2010mediators devised a range of agreements aimed atreducing violence and assisting the vulnerable ineastern DRC.The European Union has also had a SpecialRepresentative (EUSR) for the Great Lakes Regionsince 1996. This post was held from its inceptionto 2007 by Aldo Ajello, a former senior UN official,and since then by Roland van de Geer. Whilethe post’s mandate was initially very broad – tohelp mediate the regional wars of the late 1990s– it gradually became more focused on the peacebuildingprocess in the DRC. This was reinforcedwhen the EU sent a series of military, police andSSR missions to the DRC – although the EUSRdoes not have command responsibility for these, heis meant to provide political guidance. Additionally,the EUSR is mandated to support stability inBurundi, Rwanda and Uganda and interact withthe International Conference for the Great LakesRegion. The mandate was updated in 2007 toinclude, among other tasks, contributing to theefforts to deal with the LRA. While a numberof EUSRs’ mandates will end shortly, Europeangovernments decided to extend that for the GreatLakes.The UN Department of Political Affairs hasargued that it should maintain a regional approachto central Africa by setting up an office in the regioncomparable to UNOWA in Dakar (see p. 207).UN officials suggest that this should be a relativelyfocused set-up, with a strong envoy backed by asmall political team. This proposal has been debatedat length in New York in 2010, and althoughit encountered some skepticism from SecurityCouncil members, has finally been approved.