Kabila causes UN to put peacekeepers on hold

The UN on Monday announced that it had postponed the first scheduled deployment of peacekeepers in the DRC as a result of the government declaring at the weekend that the UN could not deploy any armed peacekeepers in government-controlled territory. President Laurent-Desire Kabila said on Congolese television that the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was not free to deploy in Kinshasa or Mbandaka (Equateur province). UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York on Monday that the deployment of a Tunisian headquarters support unit that was to have arrived in Kinshasa later this week had been postponed, and could not take place “unless the DRC Government provides necessary guarantees of cooperation.” The UN Security Council resolution of 24 February, which authorised the deployment of 500 military observers and 5,000 UN troops to protect them, insisted that the parties to the conflict provide “firm and credible assurances” on security and freedom of movement of UN personnel, prior to their deployment. The Tunisian unit would have been the first armed unit to deploy. Kabila considers that the deployment of UN peacekeepers in government-held areas would compromise the country’s sovereignty, but it is also presumed that access to Mbandaka is being denied because of its importance to the continued Forces armees congolaises (FAC) campaign against the rebel Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) in Equateur, diplomatic and military sources told IRIN.