United Nations - The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mr Laurent Kabila, repeated a call yesterday for the UN to send a peacekeeping force to his country. "I hope this peacekeeping force will be despatched in March," he told reporters. The UN force, he said, should be "an interposition force which would allow the aggressors to return to their own countries".
The UN Security Council is considering a recommendation from the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, that it send 500 ceasefire observers to the DRC with another 5,000 troops to support them. In a report to the council last week, Mr Annan said these units would not serve as "an interposition force, nor would they be expected to extract military observers or civilian personnel by force".
A peacekeeping force, Mr Annan said, "would require the deployment of thousands of international troops and civilian personnel. It would face tremendous difficulties".