Plans by countries from the Great Lakes region to deploy neutral troops in eastern Congo failed to get the United Nations’ immediate approval at last week’s meeting in New York, with leaders being tasked to further refine the proposal.

Although UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported in principle the proposal to deploy an international neutral force, which the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations is currently studying, he is reported to have recommended that the plan needed to be “further refined, in co-ordination with key stakeholders.”

The region’s leaders were asked to clarify with whose mandate — between the UN, the African Union or the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region — the forces would work.

There was also the question of how the force will co-operate with the UN troops already in Congo.

READ: Will neutral force prove to be a hard sell for leaders at UN?

The African Union had earlier approved deployment of 4,000 neutral peacekeepers to eastern DRC.

However, the UN’s approval is important, not only to encourage other countries to join Tanzania in contributing troops, but also because it would go a long way towards unlocking funding for the mission.

The European Union, one of the key stakeholders, stressed the need to refine the plan.

“The proposal for an international neutral force deserves careful examination. The region must develop the proposal further and work on defining the mandate, the composition, the scope of the force, and also its relations with Monusco. It’s absolutely premature to ask us whether we would support it financially,” Michel Arrion, the EU head of delegation, told The EastAfrican in email exchanges.

Some participants in the closed-door talks reportedly made it clear that they blamed Rwanda for enabling M23 attacks to continue.

A summary of the meeting said Mr Ban had voiced concern about continuing reports of external support for the M23, and called on all those responsible to end this “destabilising assistance.”

The meeting followed closely on direct talks between President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Joseph Kabila of the DRC, presided over by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A State Department official said afterwards that Clinton had called for an “honest and sustained dialogue” between Rwanda and the DRC.

Rwanda responded to the thinly veiled accusations by denying culpability. “Regional initiatives are key to finding a lasting solution and anyone who wants to help should support them,” Kagame told the September 27 meeting.

While reiterating his country’s innocence at the UN meeting, President Kagame warned against blaming external actors for internal DR Congo problems, an approach that runs the risk of effectively absolving “those with primary responsibility.”

“The many armed groups in the country are the outcome of a complex, long-standing historical reality. Therefore singling out one group is running away from the actual issue,” Kagame said.

“A solution will clearly come from addressing the issues of governance and dealing with the genuine grievances of its citizens, even as efforts to end the current crisis are exerted,” he added.

In a meeting with journalists on September 24, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said the UN needed to fund the proposed neutral force to enable it to pacify eastern DR Congo.

President Museveni currently chairs the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, which has headlined efforts to resolve the crisis in eastern DRC.

“If they fund it, I believe the Tanzanian army can do the job, like we have done the job in Somalia. I don’t think the groups in DRC are more dangerous than the Al Shabaab,” President Museveni said referring to the success of the Amisom in Somalia.

The regional heads of state are scheduled to meet again over the crisis in DR Congo on October 8 in Kampala.

Reported by Gaaki Kigambo and Kevin Kelley