Clarification regarding Report by a Group of Experts on the DRC!

UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon.

Dar es Salaam, 1st December 2009 – The media has recently carried stories about a report on arms flows in the Great Lakes Region, referred to as a “UN report”. Without having full access to the yet unpublished report, the UN in Tanzania would like to clarify who has written the report and what its purpose is.

The Report has been issued by an independent “Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”. This group was created by the Security Council in 2004 to support the Sanctions Committee on the DRC, which monitors the implementation of an arms embargo and of targeted travel and financial sanctions on foreign and Congolese armed groups operating in the DRC. It is to this end that the Group of Experts has been mandated to regularly survey the situation and summarize their findings and recommendations in a report, which is then discussed in the Sanctions Committee and the UN Security Council.

The Experts Group reports directly to the Security Council and yesterday, 30 November, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1896, renewing the sanctions regime and extending the mandate of the Group of Experts for a further year (until 30 November 2010) to continue their work. The Experts Group has regularly issued reports on their findings in relation to the arms embargo on the DRC. This latest report, mentioned in the media, is not yet officially published, but is expected to be so in the near future.

While the UN is, ultimately, one family, it comprises a very diverse array of departments, funds, agencies, programmes and mechanisms. In particular, it is important to note the difference between the executive bodies of the United Nations, such as the Security Council, and those that implement policy, such as the UN Secretariat and the agencies, funds and programmes that make up the UN Country Team in Tanzania – working to assist the government address development and humanitarian challenges.

The Security Council is the body charged with matters of international peace and security. It is from the Council that the Group of Experts draws their mandate, and to which it directly reports. Any matters arising from the work of the Group of Experts should therefore be addressed to the Group of Experts, as well as to the Chairman of the Sanctions Committee on the DRC (Turkey, which is presently an elected Security Council member). Further information regarding the sanctions regime and the Sanctions Committee can be found at http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1533/index.shtml