U.N. Security Council members traveled Tuesday to the hotspot that threatened to reignite central Africa's conflicts, heading to a recently embattled town near the Congo-Rwanda border. Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the French diplomat leading the top-level Security Council mission, called "strongly" on Rwanda and Congo to launch promised patrols on their border within a week. De La Sabliere spoke before leaving Congo's capital, Kinshasa, for Bukavu, on the far east side of the Western Europe-size country. The 15 Security Council members are to meet with local commanders of the U.N. military mission and regional officials in Bukavu. With central Africa's peace in the balance, De La Sabliere earlier this week called the 11,000-strong U.N. force in Congo the most important U.N. mission in the world. In Kinshasa, the French diplomat urged Rwanda and Congo to stick to October promises for joint verification teams, meant to guard against rebel incursions and any other cease-fire violation by either side.
