MONUC's mandate extended for 12 months

The United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) until June 2003, UN News reported.

The Council also called on UN member states to contribute personnel so that the mission, known as MONUC, could attain its authorised strength of 5,537, including observers. Currently it has just over 3,800 personnel.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his Special Representative for the DRC, Amos Ngongi, had warned Council that, at current troop levels, MONUC would not be able to intervene rapidly to protect civilians, the UN reported. Under its mandate, MONUC is obliged to protect "civilians under imminent threat of physical violence". In a report to the Council, Annan said that UN troops in the DRC were not "equipped, trained or configured" to intervene rapidly to help the needy. "It will be necessary for the Council to consider adjusting the strength of MONUC in that regard," he said.

Last week DRC President Joseph Kabila qualified his backing for the renewal of MONUC's mandate; saying if the UN could not deploy more troops then the current deployment was "a waste of time, a waste of money - money that's needed to feed the people", AFP reported.

In a separate development, the UN Human Rights envoy, Asma Jahangir, arrived in the DRC on Sunday to investigate the killings that took place in the northeastern city of Kisangani on 14 May and afterwards. In his report to the Council, Annan said that MONUC and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights would continue to gather information on the events in Kisangani, which had included ethnically based calls for violence, as well as reprisals against unarmed civilians, the military and the police.