UNITED NATIONS — UN peacekeepers will be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo starting next week, the French UN ambassador announced.
France's ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, said after a closed-door Security Council session on violence in the Central African country that it was still too early to say which countries would participate alongside France.
"Diplomatic contacts indicate several countries want to participate and not only European countries," he said.
US Ambassador Richard Williamson, Alternate representative for Special Political Affairs, said troops could end the ongoing atrocities in the region.
"We hope resolution will be passed in 24 or 48 hours and we hope to have boots on the grounds in a matter of days after."
"Pakistan, South Africa and Nigeria said they would participate," and perhaps others would, too.
According to diplomatic sources, the United States would vote in favor of a resolution forming a peacekeeping force and would support it but would not participate.
The international force should "help stabilize the security and humanitarian situation in Bunia," Ituri's capital, de La Sabliere said during the closed-door Council session in a statement obtained by AFP.
Fighting between rival ethnic groups in the Ituri region, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, has worsened in recent weeks. Since 1999 50,000 people have been killed in the region and 500,000 forced out of their homes.
The United Nations already has a military mission in DRC, known as MONUC. But while there are 700 MONUC troops in Bunia, the mission's mandate and manpower is not up to containing the violence in Ituri.
Earlier this month, the Security Council backed Secretary General Kofi Annan's appeal for member states to contribute troops to a much more robust mission for Ituri.
France had already said it was prepared to send troops as long as other countries did likewise.
"The multinational force will disband September 1 and that date will be part of the resolution," de La Sabliere said earlier.
"The last soldier will have left Bunia by that date."
He added that the force was created at the request of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan so as to allow MONUC the necessary time to deploy within Bunia the Bangladesh contingent of the "second task force."
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