South African president to consider proposal to send troops to Bunia, DRCongo.
President Thabo Mbeki would consider this weekend a proposal by the Defence Ministry that South African troops be sent to the strife-torn town of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, his office said on Saturday [21 June].
The ministry's submission was received on Friday [20 June], and the president was expected to announce his decision early next week, his spokesman Bheki Khumalo told SAPA. No details of the ministry's submission were immediately available.
On Friday, Mbeki informed parliament he had officially approved the deployment of South African National Defence Force personnel in DRCongo to the tune of about 819.6m rand. The SANDF contingent would fulfil South Africa's international obligations in eastern DRCongo as part of the disarmament, demobilization, re-integration, repatriation and resettlement programme of the UN.
In a memorandum to National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala and parliament, the president said a total of 1,268 personnel would be deployed for a year, rotating after six months. The deployment would involve an infantry battalion group of 950 soldiers, a support group of 100, an engineer company of 175, a ferry unit of 15, a water well drilling unit of 12, and 16 military [sentence as published]. The proposed Bunia deployment was in addition to these figures, Khumalo said.
Inter-ethnic clashes and massacres in Bunia have reportedly claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks and prompted the deployment of a French-led multinational emergency force. Fighting in the area has continued in spite of a peace deal signed by warring DRCongo factions in South Africa in April.
-
21 Juin 2003 à 10:33 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
