Global Policy Forum

By Barbara Crossette

United Nations - After a series of high-level meetings last month about how to end a widening war in Congo, the United States introduced a Security Council resolution today to create a peacekeeping force of 5,500 troops for the country, but said they should not be deployed until the warring factions had stopped fighting. No action is expected on the resolution for at least two weeks because the Clinton administration has acquiesced to a Congressional demand for 15 days' notice of all United Nations peacekeeping missions. That notice went to Congress on Monday night.

Other council members said they found the restriction irritating. But, if Congress is not notified, there is a danger that no money will be allocated in Washington to pay the American share. Officials have not made a long-term cost estimate.

The weeks ahead are quite likely to see draft revisions as other council members try to add or remove provisions. The American representative, Richard C. Holbrooke, plans to make trips to Washington to consult Congress during that time, aides said. American officials said no American soldiers would serve in the Congo force. A European envoy said today that he did not expect European soldiers to be sent, either.

Some African diplomats assessed the proposed force as too little to do the job. Opponents and allies President Laurent Kabila of Congo wanted a substantial force that could separate the warring sides. Western diplomats and United Nations officials said that would take tens of thousands of soldiers in a country one-third the size of the United States, and there is no chance of that level of involvement.

Rwanda's United Nations envoy, Joseph W. Mutaboba, said in an interview on Monday that 5,000 troops was "a meaningless number" for a country the size of Congo. Rwanda and Uganda are Mr. Kabila's main foes. But the Tutsi-led Rwandan government says it has a unique fear. At least 20,000 exiled fighters from the Hutu-dominated former Rwandan army and militias are in Congo and available for recruitment by Mr. Kabila to bolster his army.

At a lunch with reporters today, France's representative, Alain Dejammet, suggested that the United Nations should have considered establishing a protected border zone between Rwanda and Congo. The French also pressed for a provision against exploiting eastern Congo's diamonds, other minerals and wildlife. In a speech here last month, Mr. Kabila said Rwanda and Uganda were looting those resources.

The Congo resolution, introduced by Nancy Soderberg, the African expert at the United States mission to the United Nations, would let the peacekeepers use force to protect themselves and 500 monitors and officials from relief, human rights and medical operations. But it would prohibit "peace-enforcement or forcible disarmament."