Absolutely, and I'm glad you raised that question. In my own work, I have emphasized the role of subregional organizations and regional organizations, and I'm glad to say that the approach I have adopted for my mandate is being well received in Africa.
I have addressed the Peace and Security Council of the AU. I have addressed the Panel of the Wise of the AU. We have developed a framework of analysis that gives us some lenses or tools for assessing the risks of genocidal conflicts in a situation. The AU is adopting them to be integrated into their early warning system.
But specifically on the Congo, when I went there, first I was warned not to talk ethnicity and not to talk genocide. When I went there, everybody was talking ethnicity. Everybody was alleging that genocide was being committed against them.
The UN forces there, no matter how reinforced they might be, have a tough job--to not only support the government and protect the civilians--with proliferating armed groups that, to be disarmed, would require, as one commander told me, expeditionary force.
But I saw that if we addressed some of the underlying causes that generate these sorts of problems, and in a regional framework, where all the interests of the countries involved, not just Rwanda and Uganda but all the regions of the country... Nyerere used to say that the problem with Rwanda and Burundi is that they're tiny, overpopulated countries surrounded by large countries with a lot of land.
So in my report from DRC, I emphasized working with the regional actors to address those underlying causes. I would say that if we range from early prevention to certain involvement that is short of military action, there's a lot that the world can do.
Some of the more powerful countries... I've just been to Washington and had very good meetings in the State Department, in the White House, and the think tanks, and all that. There's so much that can be done by the more powerful states.
For me, I think the question related to the earlier question, too, is that I cannot see the powerful countries of the world--by “powerful” I mean both economically and militarily--see certain regions of the world go into chaos and destruction and massive killing and just sit. I think there is national interest in global security, particularly in those countries that have a much deeper reach and whose interests are tied to global peace and security.