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EU could send troops for DR Congo humanitarian mission: Paris
Paris (AFP) Oct 30, 2008 The European Union will consider Thursday or Friday the option of sending troops on a humanitarian mission to Democratic Republic of Congo, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. Kouchner, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, suggested Wednesday sending up to 1,500 troops to back up MONUC, the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in the strife-hit country. Asked to spell out his proposal, Kouchner said ambassadors from the member states would meet "this afternoon or tomorrow morning and we can decide on an assistance which could take that form." Kouchner said a possible deployment, drawn from military battle groups that the European Union keeps on permanent standby, would be examined at a meeting of the EU's Political and Security Committee. "The name battle group should not give the impression that we are going to send troops to fight alongside the troops in MONUC," he said. "What we want to work on is assistance that could be provided in Goma," the strategic eastern Congolese city targeted in the rebel offensive, he said. "From our point of view, this response must be humanitarian and bring assistance to civilian populations who have been recently displaced and to the population of Goma." Kouchner's call to send EU forces to DR Congo was echoed Thursday by former colonial power Belgium, which said it backed sending 2,000 to 3,000 troops. Since January last year, the EU has had two multinational battle groups permanently available for deployment, their composition rotating between 25 of the bloc's 27 member states. One of the groups currently on standby is made up of British troops, while the other includes troops from Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg and Belgium, under Franco-German command. EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana said Thursday the bloc was considering all options to tackle unrest in the country. His spokeswoman had said Wednesday there had been no formal discussion of military action. "All options, all possibilities of helping, politically, from a humanitarian point of view, we are considering them. I cannot be any more precise right now," he told reporters in Paris. Forces supporting rebel leader Laurent Nkunda advanced on Goma Wednesday, causing as many as 45,000 refugees to flee the city, the provincial capital of the Nord-Kivu region. The renegade Tutsi general said Thursday that the UN would be unable to stop him entering Goma. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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