Peace Negotiations

In the radio interview, Mr. Hague acknowledged that Islamists were playing an increasingly influential role in the war.

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has said that "factors are not yet in place" for peace talks despite efforts by world powers to convene a meeting next month.

Talks to end a two-year insurgency in eastern Congo stalled on Monday after the government rejected a call for amnesty for M23 rebel leaders as the United Nations expressed concern at a military buildup by the group around the provincial capital Goma.

During the summer I was in Beni, North Kivu researching armed groups and local instability and training Congolese journalists. I was the only foreign reporter in the region and I interviewed the Imam of the local mosque on several occasions. He told me that I was the only person from outside the community who had ever bothered to come and speak to him. Any communication that he had with the authorities was initiated by him. No-one, neither MONUSCO (the UN mission in the Congo), Congolese military nor police, foreign NGOs or journalists, not even local peace-builders, had made any attempt to contact him despite the long term presence of an allegedly Islamic rebel group – ADF-NALU – in the area. This rebel group has forged alliances with other militias and has been responsible for endless killing, abductions and illegal trade and yet the local (peaceful) Muslim community were invisible to everyone. As I reported at the time, they were very afraid of being targeted in a backlash provoked by the increasingly shrill cries of al-Shabaab being responsible for the recent resurgence of ADF attacks.