MONUC to develop new deployment strategy

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUC, has designed a new "proactive deployment strategy" to move troops into various provinces in the Congo to provide security for civilians and intensify the disarmament of combatants, the UN special envoy to the Congo, William Swing, said on Friday.

"We are implementing an entirely new redeployment plan," Swing said in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he held talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on peace in the Great Lakes region.

He added, "We were deployed along the ceasefire line that came out of the Lusaka accord. It no longer makes much sense to keep our forces along these lines because there's no more fighting there."

He told reporters that MONUC troops would now concentrate in the war-torn district of Ituri and the city of Kisangani, both in Orientale Province; Maniema Province; and parts of the Kivus such as the lakeside city of Uvira.

"This will allow us to pursue the DDRR [Demobilisation, Disarmament, Reintegration and Rehabilitation] aspects much more seriously. It will also allow us to protect the civilian population as well as help with local conflict resolution," Swing said.

He said that almost half of the authorised 10,800 MONUC troops would be deployed in the volatile Ituri District. MONUC would also maintain a 1,000-strong intervention reserve force in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

"A couple of sector headquarters will close and move into Kinshasa because they are no longer needed in those areas," he added.

The new deployment strategy would to be completed in mid-December, he said. He added that MONUC wanted to intensify the DDRR process in eastern Congo.

"We will be looking at ways of taking a much more concerted multidimensional approach to try to resolve this issue in shortest time possible," he said.