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14 September 2006 - Programme Number 117

PROVISIONAL RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ARE FINALLY ANNOUNCED IN THE DRC;
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO STOP SUFFERING IN DARFUR, SUDAN;
THE UN TRIBUNAL ACQUITS FORMER RWANDAN MAYOR

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the main rivals have met for the first since their supporters clashed last month. The meeting follows the announcement of the provisional results of parliamentary elections held in July. The head of the UN Mission William Swing is encouraged by the developments in the country despite some difficulties.

"It looks like the possibilities - people having both a clear cut majority and a strong opposition, both those possibilities seem to exist in the figures as we know them now. That's a good thing, which would provide for both a stable government and an opposition which could exercise its role of control and checks and balances."

As the Sudanese government continues to refuse to accept deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls on the Security Council to take urgent action to put an end to the suffering of the Sudanese people in the region.

"Can the international community, having not done enough for the people of Rwanda in their time of need, just watch as this tragedy deepens. Having finally agreed just one year ago that there is responsibility to protect, can we contemplate failing yet another test?"

A former mayor of a Commune in Rwanda is acquitted of charges of instigating and supporting the massacre of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Mandiaye Niange of the UN tribunal says the acquittal shows that the court is impartial.

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