6 000 UN troops for I Coast
2004-02-18 09:50
New York - The United States agreed to send more than six thousand UN peacekeepers to war-divided Ivory Coast and has asked US Congress for approval, Ambassador John Negroponte said on Tuesday.
Negroponte said the request for congressional authorisation was submitted late last week.
Last month, France circulated a draft resolution calling for a 6 240-strong UN force and 150 civilian police to replace the 1 000 West African troops and 150 West African gendarmes now in the war-divided nation.
More than 4 000 French troops currently trying to help keep the peace in the West African nation will remain in the country, but will not be part of a UN force.
Examine the justification
The United States, which pays 27% of the UN peacekeeping budget, initially expressed reservations about the size of the proposed UN force, and said it wanted to examine the justification for sending UN troops there.
But the US government now has agreed to the deployment of 6 240 UN peacekeepers and 150 civilian police officers - the force size recommended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Negroponte said.
Paris initially pressed for a UN decision by February 4, the date authorisation for the small UN military liaison mission in Ivory Coast and the West African and French troops expired. When Washington said it wanted more time, the Security Council extended the authorisations until February 27.
China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, the current council president, said he now expects the UN force to be approved by February 27.
Prepare for elections
The French want the UN force to monitor a cease-fire and assist the transitional power-sharing government in Ivory Coast in disarming and repatriating the former combatants. They also want UN peacekeepers to help the government extend its authority throughout the country and prepare for elections in 2005.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony, for decades stood as West Africa's most stable and prosperous country. It remains the world's largest cocoa producer, but a 1999 coup has ushered in political, regional, ethnic and religious tensions and violence.
The country has been split between rebel north and government south since rebellion broke out in September 2002 after a failed coup. The Security Council has called on the parties to implement the peace agreement brokered in France a year ago which ended major fighting.
In a report last month recommending a UN force, Annan said the West African peacekeepers were over-stretched and that requests for more money from donor nations hadn't been answered.
- AP