Security council OK with force

2005-03-02 21:41

New York - The security council on Wednesday expressed its support for military action by UN peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in response to a deadly ambush by local militias.

In a statement, the council "condemns with the utmost firmness the attack against a patrol" of UN peacekeepers on February 25 that resulted "in the assassination of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers".

The security council "considers this aggression, by its intentional and planned nature, to be an unacceptable outrage".

The statement blamed a group called the Nationalist Integrationist Front (FNI) for the attack, and called upon the DRC's government to "immediately take all necessary measures to bring to justice the perpetrators, sponsors and authors of this attack".

The council also expressed support for the robust reaction by peacekeepers with the UN mission in DRC (Monuc) to the ambush.

In Kinshasa the Monuc chief of staff, General Jean-Francois Collot d'Escury, said that military operations were under way in the Ituri region, where almost 250 South African and Pakistani troops on Tuesday killed at least 50 militiamen and destroyed two of their camps.

Monuc officers have accused Ituri-based militias of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Several armed militias operate in the region and the UN says their actions affect and destabilise the whole region.

Asked about the tough UN response, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: "It is part of the mission's more robust mandate."

"The UN was attacked, they (peacekeepers) didn't open fire first".

- AFP