Zambia to send troops to Sierra Leone, eyes Congo

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Fri Mar 3 20:52:10 PST 2000


2 March 2000

Zambia to send troops to Sierra Leone, eyes Congo LUSAKA: Zambian President Frederick Chiluba has committed 800 peacekeepers to Sierra Leone and said his country would welcome a role in policing the ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Returning from a regional conference in Egypt late on Tuesday, Chiluba told reporters that Zambia had been formally asked to contribute 800 soldiers to the peacekeeping effort in Sierra Leone and they would head there in the coming weeks. Chiluba said Zambia anticipated a call-up for its troops for service in President Laurent Kabila's Congo, where he brokered a peace pact last year. Ceasefire protocols within that agreement, however, have been repeatedly violated in recent months. "We will contribute 800 troops to the peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone at the request of the United Nations," Chiluba said. "We will also be contributing troops to the Congo. Basically, we are a peacekeeping nation." The United Nations has a 6,000-strong peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone where a ceasefire agreed between government and rebel forces is frequently violated. Last week, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution to send an initial observer force of 5,500 to monitor the ceasefire in the Congo. Zambia was not in the initial list of countries expected to contribute troops to the force. The U.N. has sought and received security guarantees for its personnel in the Congo, but African leaders say if they could actually guarantee peace in Africa's third largest nation, then there would be no need for U.N. officials in the first place. Senior regional military analysts also say the figure of 5,500 is just too small, and envisage the United Nations agreeing to the deployment of more troops once it was evident that those already serving were making some progress. Congo's civil war has drawn troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe in support of Kabila against splintered rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The governments involved in the war signed an accord brokered by Chiluba last July and rebel leaders endorsed it in August. But fighting has nevertheless continued, and the war has cost thousands of life and uprooted a million people. A summit on the Congo in Zambia last week endorsed a revised calendar for the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord, and made March 1 the date for the commencement of activities under the pact. (Reuters) For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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