'Pay DRC soldiers before polls'
2005-11-01 08:14
Kinshasa - The British secretary of state for international development on Monday urged the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government to ensure that soldiers are paid regularly, saying they would be a key to the success of general elections next June.
"If the soldiers are not paid, that's bad for security and for the electoral process," said Hilary Benn during a two-day visit here to check on the spending of $40m that Britain is contributing to the cost of the election.
Following a meeting with vice-president Azarias Ruberwa, who is in charge of security and defence, Benn deplored the slow pace of reform in the Central African country's armed forces.
He said this would be the main topic during his planned meeting on Tuesday with President Joseph Kabila in the southern city of Lubumbashi.
Phantom soldiers eliminated from pay rolls
The army, which is being overhauled under a 2003 peace accord, was originally said to include 300 000 men, but a census indicated that half of them did not exist, Benn said.
He asked what was happening to the surplus cash now that the phantom soldiers had been eliminated from the army rolls, and suggested that the $8m released by the DRC central bank every month to pay the troops was not reaching its destination.
"If the money doesn't reach the soldiers, the question is: where is the money?" he asked.
Analysts said in the absence of pay, soldiers regularly rob civilians or extort money from them.
Despite his criticism, Benn praised as a "remarkable success" the fact that the government has now registered more than 19 million voters, and he confirmed the British government's intention to give long-term assistance in reducing poverty in the country.