Canada to consider peacekeeping troops

Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour has said he will return to Canada from a fact-finding mission to the Great Lakes region this week with the recommendation that Canada send peacekeeping troops to the DRC. “We cannot let the Great Lakes problem go the way of Sierra Leone. We just can’t afford to make the same mistakes,” the independent Ugandan ‘Monitor’ newspaper on Friday quoted him as saying. If Canada were to act on such a recommendation, it would overturn the government’s previous decision to support the Lusaka peace process but not send peacekeepers, the report added.

Kilgour also warned that his country’s aid to Uganda and Rwanda, and that of the international community in general, had been put in jeopardy by their forces’ clashes in the northeastern Congolese city of Kisangani, when several hundred civilians were killed. Several donors were now taking a strong stand against Uganda’s role in the DRC conflict, the ‘Monitor’ quoted him as saying. “I’ve heard the view that the Canadians should cut aid, but we’ve opted not to do that right now. But if there is a Kisangani 4 [after three rounds of clashes already], the response will be swift, strong and unforgiving,” Kilgour said.