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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Wednesday 24 November 2004

DRC: More UN troops deployed

KINSHASA, 24 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - Fresh batches of UN peacekeepers have started arriving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of some 6,000 international soldiers on a mission to strengthen the world body's military presence in the war-affected country, UN and national military officials announced on Tuesday.

"In total, it is 5,900 additional soldiers who are being deployed - made up of 5,559 blue-helmet soldiers and 341 police officers," Mamadou Bah, the spokesman of the UN Mission in the Congo, better known by its French acronym MONUC, told IRIN.

The troop reinforcement comes after a UN Security Council resolution was passed to increase the number of soldiers in the country. It also comes amid a regional tour by the 15 members of the Council.

France's ambassador at the UN, Jean Marc De la Sabliere, who is the head of the Council delegation, said the mission's objectives in the country included "taking stock of the situation and of the modalities of enacting the UN's decision [to send additional troops]".

"DRC, by the number of soldiers deployed, is today the largest UN mission in the world," De la Sabliere said during a news conference. "It shows the Council's consideration for this country and the bulk of the new troops will be deployed in the east of the county - in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces."

The troops have already begun deploying in South Kivu.

"For some days now, we've noticed movement in men and equipment," Brig-Gen Mbuza Mabe, who heads the Congolese 10th Military Regional command in the area, said.

It is in South Kivu that the Congolese army and MONUC are trying to disarm the Interahamwe militia, former soldiers of Rwanda's army who are accused of conducting the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and other Rwandan armed combatants.

Some 10,000 of these fighters are still roaming eastern Congo while more than 8,000 have been sent back under a disarmament, demobilisation and repatriation programme that MONUC has been conducting over the last two years.

In neighbouring Rwanda, President Paul Kagame recently declared that the voluntary repatriation programme had failed.

The Congolese government has recently deployed more than 3,500 soldiers in Walungu, in South Kivu, as the authorities conduct a two-month information-gathering period on voluntary repatriation.

However, Mbuza said if after the two-month period some were still reluctant to return, they would be disarmed.

"It is not excluded that, if there's still some reluctance at the end of the two months, we use force to repatriate them," he said.

[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