DR CONGO POLICE RECEIVE UN TRAINING AHEAD OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

DR CONGO POLICE RECEIVE UN TRAINING AHEAD OF LOCAL ELECTIONS
New York, Jun 3 2009 11:00AM
The United Nations has begun training the first of some 75,000 policemen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in preparation for local elections, the world body's peacekeeping mission there said.

The mission, known as MONUC, said much of the training is an update of a course already received by members of the Congolese National Police (PNC) in previous years.

The instruction includes the management of queues in front of polling stations, the escort and transport of the material to the local centres of compilation and the evacuation of currently illegally occupied buildings, MONUC said.

The aim of the first stage of the programme is to train 2,578 agents from the various police stations of Kinshasa, who will be deployed in 143 registration centres in the capital for a revision of the electoral rolls. The training will continue at a national level in the coming weeks starting with the PNC of Bas-Congo.

The revision of the electoral roll, regarded as the first step towards the next local elections, begins on 7 June in Kinshasa and in Bas-Congo, and on 3 August in the nine other provinces.
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TOP UN ENVOY CALLS FOR NATIONAL REFORMS IN DR CONGO

TOP UN ENVOY CALLS FOR NATIONAL REFORMS IN DR CONGO
New York, May 26 2009 4:00PM
The top United Nations official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has called for swift implementation of "reforms of the state services" to fight poverty and corruption.

In a keynote address to a major civil society gathering yesterday in the capital, Kinshasa, Alan Doss offered UN support for the reforms, without which, he said, the fight against poverty would be hampered.

Mr. Doss, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (<"http://monuc.unmissions.org/">MONUC), asked the participants to come up with a workable strategy.

"Your ideas to consolidate peace, to end impunity, ensure the democratic electoral processes, and support reforms in institutions and governance practices will be critical," he said.

In a related development, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York that MONUC peacekeepers had deployed over the weekend to a village near the north-eastern town of Dungu where the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) killed one person, wounded 20 others, and burned some 20 huts.

Last Friday in the Bukavu area, a peacekeeping patrol exchanged fire with a group of Rwandan rebels after the rebels attacked a bus at a roadblock, she said.

Meanwhile, MONUC also reported that it is providing logistical assistance to Congolese judicial authorities in the trial of Mai Mai militiamen charged with mass rapes and torture.

The trial opened two days ago in a regional court in Province Orientale. The mission says it provided helicopters to help get judicial personnel to the remote area, some 290 miles from the provincial hub of Kisangani. UN human rights experts will also be monitoring the proceedings, MONUC said.

Thirty-four Mai Mai fighters are on trial for a spree of sexual violence, including the alleged rape of more than 135 women and children in July 2007.
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