13 June 2000
Annan Wants Security Council to Force Troops from Kisangani
(Economic, diplomatic sanctions suggested) (550) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the U.N. Security Council to consider enforcement measures to compel Rwanda and Uganda to withdraw their forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In a written report to the council on the situation in the DRC released June 13, Annan "invited" the council, "acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, to demand that the governments of Rwanda and Uganda order their respective armed forces to desist forthwith from further fighting and withdraw from Kisangani immediately and from the territory of the DRC promptly thereafter." "Those two forces should be held accountable for the loss of life and the property damage they have inflicted on the civilian population of Kisangani," the secretary-general said. Annan also urged the council, again acting under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, "to demand the subsequent early withdrawal of all other foreign forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as foreseen in the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement." "The war there has already led to far too much death, destruction, hunger, human rights violations, and population displacement. It must end now," he said. The secretary-general said that given the difficulty in getting troops and equipment for the U.N. mission in the DRC and the problems U.N. peacekeepers faced recently in Sierra Leone, he has "ordered a full review and reassessment of the troop levels and other requirements." U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard pointed out that using military force is not the only option available to the council under Chapter VII. The secretary-general "has in mind" economic and/or diplomatic sanctions as "an effective instrument in this case should the parties reject or not comply with the council's call," Eckhard said. The secretary-general focused on the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan forces from the Kisangani area first "because it is a new element; it is a new war within the Congo," he said. Once those forces are moved out, "then all other foreign forces should get out as well," Eckhard said. "How [the council members] take it, whether they act, it is up to them," Eckhard said. "We have to wait to see what the council does." Council members have not commented on the report. The U.N. currently has 24 military observers in Kisangani in the areas occupied by both Rwanda and Uganda, the spokesman said. The secretary-general met privately with the council's 15 members on the DRC June 12. Less than a week ago, Annan, along with U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who headed a special Security Council Mission to Africa in May, brokered what was the third Kisangani cease-fire between the two former allies. "The secretary-general stated that the fighting was lamentable and, regardless who had initiated it, that it must cease immediately," Eckhard said June 8. And Holbrooke told journalists that "we are sick and tired of this lamentable, inexcusable fighting between two countries that are friends, that are allies, and that are fighting each other on the soil of a third country." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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