Steve Hege Former Coordinator of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member Bass, and Members of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights: Thank you for this invitation to testify at this hearing on the current crisis in the eastern DR Congo. I have been working on the Eastern Congo for over eight years, including the past three as a member of the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC. Previously, I worked with humanitarian organizations, research institutes and foundations as well as the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC. The Group of Experts 2012 mandate recently expired on 30 November, during which I served as the as the Coordinator of our six-member team under Security Council resolution 2021. As such, I am no longer affiliated with the United Nations and the views I share today do not reflect those of the organization or that of the Group of Experts but rather strictly my personal perspectives, currently, as an independent observer.
The Group of Experts is a Security Council-mandated body which reports to the Council's Sanctions Committee. Its role is to investigate, document, and inform the Sanctions Committee of violations of the United Nations arms embargo on non-state actors in the DRC as well as related issues such as the illegal trade in natural resources and serious violations of international law, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The Group also provides the Sanctions Committee with a confidential list of names and entities to be considered for targeted sanctions on the basis of specific criteria flowing from the arms embargo. The Group is also responsible for monitoring the implementation of the measures imposed by targeted sanctions, notably an assets freeze and a travel ban for designated individuals and entities.
As a purely apolitical, independent, fact-finding mechanism of the United Nations, the Group of Experts seeks to avoid analyzing motivations or causes of the arms embargo violations and armed group financing which it documents. However, today, having stepped away from the UN, in addition to summarizing our key findings this year, in my personal capacity, I would like to share my understanding of the likely drivers of the Government of Rwanda’s involvement in this conflict and subsequently examine several implications for the current quest for a political solution to the crisis.