By Nicole Winfield
July 8, 1999
United Nations - With a peace agreement reached for Congo, the United Nations is gearing up for the possible deployment of a mission to monitor a cease-fire, with the operation universally acknowledged as being enormous, dangerous and very, very expensive.
The agreement signed Wednesday by regional African ministers in Lusaka, Zambia, calls for UN military observers to verify the cessation of hostilities and the subsequent deployment of a full-fledged UN peacekeeping mission. The United Nations plans to send a team to Congo in the coming days to try to determine what type of mission would be required to ensure the cease-fire holds, including its size, mandate and logistical needs, UN officials said Wednesday. The Security Council has to approve any such mission, and the head of the UN peacekeeping department, Bernard Miyet, warned council members Tuesday that there was "no doubt that any Congo operation would be large, expensive, difficult and beset by risks."
But already, several African countries have indicated a willingness to make observers available for the preliminary mission, estimated to need about 500 people, Miyet said, according to his briefing notes. The United States, which has shunned African peacekeeping initiatives since 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in Somalia in 1993, has said that if asked, it would take part in any "internationally recognized" peacekeeping effort for Congo.
The United Nations hasn't given a firm figure for the size of the peacekeeping operation required. But original estimates of a 15,000-member team have nearly doubled, diplomats said. The price tag also hasn't been assessed.
But UN officials met with potential troop contributors on Tuesday to try to boost the numbers, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that the United Nations would "spare no effort" in mobilizing more support. "The secretary-general is prepared, subject to authorization by the Security Council, to make a substantial contributionto helping the parties implement the cease-fire agreement," said a statement from Annan's spokesman, Manoel de Almeida e Silva.
De Almeida e Silva told reporters that Annan was particularly concerned that the observers be deployed as quickly as possible after the formal signing by the rebels and heads of state involved, which is expected next week. "This is an important and welcome step toward the restoration of peace," in Congo and the region, the statement said.
Rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda took up arms in August to topple Congolese President Laurent Kabila, accusing him of corruption, mismanagement and warmongering. Kabila is backed by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The United Nations has largely stayed on the sidelines of the conflict, allowing regional efforts by the Organization of African Unity, Libya and others to try to wrangle a peace agreement from the warring parties.
Nevertheless, as progress was being made in Lusaka, Annan authorized the UN peacekeeping department to step up contingency plans for the possible deployment of observers - and to alert the council that they would soon have to tackle the matter of peacekeepers. The Security Council has been reluctant in recent years to authorize peacekeeping missions in Africa, still haunted by the Somalia debacle and hemmed in by stringent U.S. conditions for UN peacekeeping operations. The council has in the past year, however, approved two UN operations in Africa with limited mandates, in the Central African Republic and an observer mission for Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone mission, however, is also expected to expand tremendously in the coming months - up to 3,000 peacekeepers - following the peace agreement signed Wednesday between rebels and President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
