US reviewing increase in size, change of MONUC mandate

The US is reviewing the situation of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and is undecided about whether to support its expansion when its mandate is reviewed at the end of June, the country's ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, has said. The US State Department reported on Wednesday that Negroponte, who had just returned from a weeklong UN mission to the Great Lakes region, said that increasing the number of MONUC troops would not resolve DRC's problems if all the parties failed to muster the political will to foster peace. "Increasing the size or changing the mandate of MONUC is something we are still looking at and want to look at very, very carefully," he told reporters in New York. The 15-member Security Council mission, headed by the French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, visited the Ituri District of northeastern DRC, where recent inter-militia fighting has resulted in hundreds of deaths. The team also visited Angola, Burundi, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The council authorised on 30 May the deployment of a French-led emergency multinational force in Bunia, the main town in Ituri. The force's mission is to secure the town and to protect UN staff, humanitarian workers and displaced civilians. Negroponte said he was "hopeful about the prospects for peace in the Congo and success on the political front". "One of the things they [armed Congolese groups] are going to have to do is pull back from positions taken in recent days, violating the ceasefire lines that had been earlier established," he said. "A key element will be for the parties to press ahead and form a new transitional government by the end of the month." De la Sabliere reported that the mission contacted heads of rebel movements and passed on very strong messages that there would be no impunity for human rights violations. He also said that the council should look into how MONUC could be more effective in the peace process and consider a more robust mandate for the peacekeepers.