The Peacemaker

Olusegun Obasanjo has come a long way since the 1970s, when he was the military dictator of Nigeria. He went on to win two terms as president in democratic elections and is now one of Africa's elder statesmen. On Nov. 3, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named him special envoy to help end the fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has recently forced at least 250,000 people from their homes. After two weeks of shuttle diplomacy among nine countries, Obasanjo stopped in Lagos last week where NEWSWEEK's Rod Nordland caught up with him by telephone. Excerpts:

NORDLAND: You must have been very upset, after you went to [rebel leader] Laurent Nkunda's headquarters, to learn that his ceasefire pledge was broken within hours.
OBASANJO: I saw him on Sunday afternoon. That Sunday morning, the ceasefire was broken. I confronted him about that and asked him, what is the world going to think of you? The ceasefire must be respected, and we must get the Congo army involved, and MONUC [the U.N. peacekeeping force] must be the guarantor. By Tuesday he began to respect that, and now the ceasefire seems to be holding.

There have been many ceasefires. Is there any reason to believe this one will be any more enduring?
We have the Congo army on board, and with MONUC, things are looking better. We still have the problem of other militias, but for now at least [the major parties] agree on some things.

Is sending in more troops the answer?
The more zones of separation we create, the more areas we force [the militias] to leave, the better. To do more, we will need more MONUC troops. And there are a number of substantial IDP [internally displaced persons] centers that need to be looked after. Again, you need more troops to do that.

Many aid workers and observers say only a robust foreign force, preferably from the European Union, could be effective.
I don't believe at this point we should talk about EU or African Union troops. We need to deal with what we have on the ground, which is MONUC. And I won't say it has failed.

Illegal mining and exploitation of resources finance the militias. Is this going to be part of your discussions?
You have illegal mining problems because the Congolese authorities are not able to exert their authority in the area. [With] a cessation of hostilities, Congo can re-establish its authority, bring law and order and deal with the issue. And there are other problems, the ease of flow of small arms into Congo and the presence of foreign-armed troops.