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Source App: [100000 Troops Needed In Congo, Says Study - Netscape]
100000 Troops Needed In Congo, Says Study
March 26, 1999
By Stephen Laufer
Johannesburg - A credible peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of
Congo would require 100000 well-equipped troops costing millions of dollars a
month, a United Nations peacekeeping operations department study says.
The troop numbers were essential if any peace plan was to "be serious and capable of separating the combatants", France's deputy chief of staff for international affairs, Gen Jean-Paul Raffenne, said yesterday.
Raffenne said the situation had reached stalemate and he could not imagine a military solution. "So they need to go back to the negotiating table for President Laurent Kabila to negotiate with the rebels. Why not?"
At a conference in Johannesburg, Raffenne voiced scepticism as to whether the UN could muster the finances or the political will for an operation of the required magnitude in Africa. His view was echoed by Zimbabwean Gen Philip Sibanda, former UN commander in Angola.
He said there had been "a deliberate programme to shift UN peacekeeping efforts from Africa to Europe". Peacekeeping in Angola had been "disadvantaged from the beginning, continuing a trend started in Somalia", while resources had flown into conflict resolution and prevention in the Balkans.
The SA foreign affairs chief director for southern Africa, Magan Phologane, said SA would join the UN peacekeeping standby mechanisms "following an audit of our capabilities". SA had deployed four observers in Bosnia and nine army engineers in Angola, and 600 soldiers, 15 diplomats and six policemen had received peacekeeping training.
SA did not believe African peacekeepers should be limited to operations on the continent. Conversely, "it would be a betrayal of Africa to say only Africa can reach solutions here. Europe cannot abdicate when it is our turn to call for assistance."
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