EU troops 'not on agenda'

2008-12-03 12:31

Brussels - Javier Solana, the European Union's top diplomat, on Wednesday confirmed that the EU was not currently discussing sending troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"For the moment, the question of deploying troops is not being discussed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels. "We will see if we need to do that."

"For now, it's logistics and intelligence, etc," being provided, he added.

"The debate is how to help the UN secretary general, who has asked for 3 000 extra soldiers, but in particular soldiers from African countries," he said.

His remarks came after Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht on Tuesday ruled out a European mission to the DRCongo in the immediate future, saying no country was prepared to take charge of it.

De Gucht said on Sunday that UN chief Ban Ki-moon favoured sending an interim European force to the DR Congo.

But Solana said Ban had not asked for this "in a precise way".

France and former colonial ruler Belgium last month proposed sending troops to Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province to support the UN deployment.

It is already the biggest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world with 17 000 troops.

But other European states, including Germany, prefer humanitarian aid and political mediation to military involvement.

There have been increasing international calls for Europe to send an "interim" security force to eastern DR Congo as thousands more fled fighting between rebels and government or Kinshasa-supporting forces at the weekend.

Since fighting resumed in August, rebels led by ex-general Laurent Nkunda have pushed back government troops in Nord-Kivu.

They have also clashed with pro-government Mai-Mai militia and Hutu rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

UN agencies say the recent fighting has forced 250 000 people to flee their homes.

- AFP