DRC polls 'don't need troops'
2006-02-28 14:56
Pretoria - South Africa on Tuesday said the European Union's plans to send a security force to back UN peacekeepers during upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were unwarranted as troops from the region could provide the necessary support.
"The EU might of course like to send a small contingent of observers. But those elections can be held without bringing troops from the rest of the world," South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told reporters in Pretoria.
Brussels is mulling various options for deploying hundreds of European soldiers to help Monuc, the UN peacekeeping mission in war-ravaged DRC, provide security during the country's first free polls in four decades.
"It is improbable that it will be necessary to get troops from other parts of the world to secure the election. If necessary, the SADC (Southern African Development Community) brigade could provide the necessary backup," Lekota added.
He was speaking after signing a military agreement with his Belgian counterpart Andre Flahaut, who said he believed the DRC had "the maturity to make a success of the election".
The DRC is slowly making a UN-supervised transition towards democracy after a war in which about four million people have died since 1998 and 1.6 million others have been left homeless.
After the country's election timetable was put back, the first round of the presidential poll is scheduled for June 18.