Global Policy Forum

By Irwin Arieff

Key Security Council members reached agreement on Wednesday on a resolution authorizing an additional 5,900 peacekeeping troops to help Democratic Republic of Congo keep a shaky peace on track. The infusion of fresh troops, which diplomats said had been endorsed by the United States, Britain and France, would be well below Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for an extra 13,100 soldiers for the vast central African nation.

The council is now expected to vote on the resolution on Friday, the day the overall U.N. mission's current mandate is set to expire, diplomats said. The measure drafted by U.S., British and French experts would extend the mandate an additional six months, giving the council another crack at fixing troop levels next March. Diplomats said there was a consensus that more troops were needed to help Congo's transitional government hold the country together after a five-year civil war that killed more than 3 million people, mostly through disease and hunger.

But with demand for peacekeepers soaring and the U.S. government budget drowning in red ink, Washington pushed hard for a targeted approach, focusing on Congo's volatile east, along its border with Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. The resource-rich area is regularly shaken by clashes between various armed factions and tribal groups despite the end of Congo's wider war, and tens of thousands have been killed there in recent years. Under the draft, virtually all of the new soldiers would reinforce the U.N. presence in eastern Congo.

A U.S. official called the agreement for an extra 5,900 soldiers "a reasonable number" that Washington had embraced in a compromise with Paris and London. Most of the fresh troops would be sent to North and South Kivu provinces. Some would be held in reserve, as a highly mobile rapid-reaction force able to speed to new trouble spots as they crop up, council diplomats said.

The draft would also grant Annan's request for an additional 340 civilian police for Congo. But at Washington's insistence, it would require that the police contingent, which would total 507 with the reinforcements in place, be counted against the new troop ceiling, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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