Zimbabwe cautions UN against

The session - which is being attended by members of the Lusaka accord's political committee - was also addressed by Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stanislaus Mudenge, the current chairman of the political committee. He said a "radically transformed situation" in the DRC yielded renewed hope and optimism for the peace process. The Lusaka signatories wanted to take advantage of the "current propitious turn of events" to move the process forward and "in more tangible ways". But he expressed concern over the UN's "new step-by-step gradualist and minimalist concept of operations" regarding deployment of military observers which, he said, conveyed "an impression of hesitancy and doubt". He stressed the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) must be allowed to deploy 5,537 men as stipulated in UN resolution 1291, rather than 3,000 now being proposed as part of new terms of deployment. "The parties have spoken in a very clear and unambiguous manner," he said. "They want peace, and they want it now...They eagerly invite and await a commensurate response from this Council."