A CEASEFIRE in eastern Zaire is essential for the mounting of a humanitarian operation for refugees, the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, said yesterday. Only then can the wider problem of over one million Rwandan refugees be addressed, Mr Spring added.
Mr Spring and the Minister for State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, issued a joint statement in the name of the Irish Presidency of the EU. They said they are engaged in active consultations with other EU colleagues, the UN and African leaders in the Great Lakes region on possible ways to end at conflict which had the potential to lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.
They said the Irish presidency is in close touch with the EU special envoy, Mr Aldo Ajello, who has been seeking a summit meeting of regional leaders. Mr Ajello is attempting to convene a summit in Nairobi to include the rulers of Rwanda and Zaire as well as their immediate neighbours.
Mr Ajello is now in Uganda for consultations with President Museveni. He plans to meet other regional leaders over the coming days and is in constant contact with the Organisation of African Unity, the statement said.
Ms Burton is to chair a special meeting in Brussels next Thursday of EU development ministers.
"The EU is already the major donor of assistance of the Great Lakes Region", Ms Burton said yesterday, "and will have a key role to play in ensuring in the coming days and weeks that a humanitarian disaster is averted".
Ms Burton also said she was in active contact with the Irish aid organisations in the region with a view to having a co ordinated Irish response to the crisis. An inter Departmental meeting with aid agencies is being convened, Ms Burton added.
The statement from Mr Spring and Ms Burton concluded: "In the context of the need for a comprehensive approach to the complex and inter connected problems in the region, [we] reiterate the EU's commitment to the holding of a major Regional Conference on Peace, Security and Stability under the aegis of the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity".