South African specialist teams prepare for MONUC duties

One hundred and sixty five South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers expected to join MONUC as technical and support staff are due to start a week’s training on Friday to prepare them for deployment, but are still awaiting news from the UN on when that will be. The South Africans would offer logistical support and be deployed on a six-month rotational basis, said Cedric de Coning, a representative of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), which will be involved in training. De Coning told IRIN that the team might leave for the DRC in July. Major Louis Kirstein of the SANDF said there was no specific date set for the team’s departure for the DRC. “The members will go back to their home bases after their training. They will be deployed only after the UN has satisfied itself that the necessary conditions for peacekeeping have been created,” he added. The specialised troops South Africa intends to send include teams for air operations, air crash and fire fighting, air cargo handling, emergency medical situations, water processing and administration. These elements would not be expected to deploy simultaneously but in different phases according to MONUC requirements, a SANDF press release stated earlier this month.