The UN Security Council president, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, on Wednesday briefed the Council on last weekend’s meeting of the Kinshasa-based ambassadors of France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US in the northeastern town of Beni with leader of the rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), Jean-Pierre Bemba. Greenstock told journalists after the consultations that the Council had also discussed a possible mission to the DRC region next month. According to a UN spokesman, Bemba had asked for UN deployment in areas the MLC vacates as a precondition for the movement’s withdrawal. The spokesman, however, noted that MONUC was not mandated by the Council to provide protection to civilians.
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