UN Security Council supports military action against Congo militias
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The Security Council expressed its support for military action by UN peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) (DRC) in response to a deadly ambush by local militias.
In a statement, the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council "condemns with the utmost firmness the attack against a patrol" of UN peacekeepers on February 25 that resulted "in the assassination of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers."
The world body also offered its condolences to the victims' families and to the Bangladesh authorities.
The Security Council "considers this aggression, by its intentional and planned nature, to be an unacceptable outrage."
The statement blamed a group called the Nationalist Integrationist Front (FNI) for the attack, and called upon the DRC's Government of National Unity and Transition "immediately to take all necessary measures to bring to justice the perpetrators, sponsors and authors of this attack."
The declaration was read by Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg of Brazil, who holds the council's rotating presidency for March.
The council also expressed support for the robust reaction by peacekeepers with the UN mission in DRC (MONUC) to the ambush.
In Kinshasa the MONUC chief of staff, General Jean-Francois Collot d'Escury, said that military operations were under way in the Ituri region, where almost 250 Pakistani and South African troops on Tuesday killed at least 50 militiamen and destroyed two of their camps.
The UN mission in the DRC is the world body's biggest.
MONUC officers have accused Ituri-based militias of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Several armed militias operate in the region and the UN says their actions affect and destabilize the whole region.
Asked about the tough UN response, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "It is part of the mission's more robust mandate."
"The UN was attacked, they (peacekeepers) didn't open fire first".
The Security Council is likely to debate a resolution seeking to toughen an existing arms embargo on the DRC and council observers believe a vote on the matter could occur this month.
The UN statement added that it "is considering additional measures it might take to reinforce implementation and monitoring of the (existing) embargo."
| |||||||||||
Celebrate Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday!
Yahoo! Netrospective: 100 Moments of the Web
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
