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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Thursday 19 February 2004

SOUTH AFRICA: More funds for peacekeeping efforts

JOHANNESBURG, 19 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - South Africa's Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Wednesday allocated R1.1 billion (around US $165 million) for the country's peacekeeping missions on the continent over the next three years.

Defence analyst Henry Boschof of the Institute for Security Studies pointed out that almost the entire amount would go towards South Africa's deployment in Burundi, which had yet to find foreign donors.

In his budget speech to parliament, Manuel described the allocation as part of the country's commitment to the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's development programme.

According to defence ministry spokesman Sam Makhwanazi, the South African Defence Force (SANDF) has more than 2,000 troops deployed in peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi, and the entire allocation would be spent on maintaining the troops in these countries over the next three years.

Boschof explained that South Africa was reimbursed for the cost of troop deployment in DRC by the UN, but had been shouldering the expense of the Burundi mission since 2001.

The South African peacekeeping effort in Burundi became an African Union (AU) mission only at the end of 2002. "But the AU does not have the financial resources to maintain the mission," Boschof said.

Towards the end of last year the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to fund the deployment of Mozambican and Ethiopian troops to Burundi for a period of 60 days. "But that period is now over. As of now, the cost of the entire mission is US $121 million a year, where is the money going to come from?" he commented.

South Africa's Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, had appealed to the UN to take over the AU mission last year. "A UN mission is currently in Burundi investigating the possibility ... but I am not very optimistic because they are also considering the deployment of peacekeepers to the Ivory Coast, Sudan and Somalia," commented Boschof.

Makhwanazi said the SANDF had also placed observers in Comoros, while four military observers had been sent to Liberia and four more were deployed along the Ethiopian-Eriterean border.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004