INTERIM CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION CONDEMNS THE MASSACRE IN THE DRC

The Interim Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union strongly condemns the massacre of more than a thousand innocent civilians perpetrated on the 3rd of April 2003 in the region of Bunia, in the north-east of the DRC. These particularly horrendous events are all the more reprehensible as they happened just after the signature on 18 March 2003, of a cease-fire agreement between the parties at the conflict in Ituri on the one hand and the conclusion of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Pretoria on 1st and 2nd April 2003 and at the eve of the launching of the pacification Commission on Ituri on 4 April 2003 on the other hand.

The Interim Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union appeals to the parties in Ituri to remain calm and to continue with the implementation of the Cease-fire Agreement signed on 18 March 2003.

The Interim Chairperson of the Commission appeals to all concerned to do everything possible for the identification of the perpetrators of those vile acts, whose aim is to undermine the peace process in the DRC and to jeopardize the dynamic of the peace process in the region of the Great Lakes, as a whole.

Addis Ababa, 9 April 2003