November 9, 2000
A senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that the world body still faces difficulties in deploying its peacekeepers across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a U.N. spokesman said. The U.N. spokesman, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, told a press conference that Hedi Annabi, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, made the statement when he was briefing a closed-door meeting of the 15-member Security Council on the current military situation in the central African country.
Annabi told the council that "there are still several difficulties standing in the way of the deployment of U.N. troops throughout the country," the spokesman said. "The main problems remain (in) the possibility of further violations of the cease-fire, the uncertainty of the Lusaka Accord and the lack of the freedom of movement for U.N. personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo," the spokesman quoted Annabi as saying.
The Security Council met behind closed doors on Thursday morning here as African states supporting the warring parties in the DRC civil war have agreed to withdraw their troops in favor of a peacekeeping force organized by the Organization of African Unity. "This agreement will restore peace and stability to the Great Lakes region" of eastern Africa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in the Libyan capital of Tripoli Wednesday after two days of talks among officials and leaders of nine African nations.
The delegates in Tripoli asked Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to arrange the assembly of the peacekeeping force, Museveni said, adding that the withdrawal of all foreign troops, which was confirmed in a statement issued at the end of the talks, would begin "as soon as possible." Besides Museveni, the leaders of Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Mali and Libya and senior officials from DRC, Angola, Namibia and South Africa attended the talks.
The pullout of all foreign troops from DRC has also been demanded by relevant Security Council resolutions, which underline the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of DRC and other countries in the region.
The war broke out in August 1998 in DRC, and fighting has intensified this year despite a peace agreement signed a year ago in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. In February, the Security Council authorized a 5,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping force that was supposed to help maintain a cease-fire and oversee the withdrawal of foreign forces. But their deployment has been delayed due to ongoing cease-fire violations by all sides in the conflict in the African country, formerly known as Zaire.
The DRC war pits the government troops against Tutsi-led rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The DRC government, headed by President Laurent Kabila, is supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
