The European Union is likely to put forces on standby to help UN peacekeepers in Congo in an emergency during forthcoming elections rather than sending troops to the central African state, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana
The United Nations asked the EU last month to provide a support force as soon as possible to help stabilise the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of the first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961.
Mr Solana said an EU fact-finding mission that visited Kinshasa last week had found a fully deployed force might not be needed.
"It may be necessary to have a sort of reserve in case of need, that is not an actual operation on the ground," he said.
A UN spokesman said the world body would prefer an EU deterrent force to be deployed in Congo but would accept other choices.
The elections, under a constitution drafted with EU mediation last year, are meant to draw a line under five years of civil war from 1998 to 2003 during which an estimated four million people died of hunger, disease and violence.
UN officials have said they want the EU to provide a rapid reaction force of 800 soldiers to help beef up security. The United Nations has nearly 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo.
An EU official said only a small advance party of EU soldiers might actually be sent to Congo as "enablers" to prepare the ground in case the reserve force had to intervene.
A spokesman for the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations said the most important thing was that the forces need to be rapidly deployable in case a problem arises.
"We do no expect the election to be violent but we'd like to be prepared," he said.
He declined to say whether a possible over-the-horizon force should be in a neighbouring country or could remain in Europe.
The EU official said the most difficult area was eastern Congo near the Rwandan and Ugandan borders, where there has been sporadic fighting since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
EU ambassadors are due to consider a range of options at a meeting on Friday, a diplomat said. A formal decision would be taken by the end of the month.