United Nations

SG/SM/8732

    AFR/629

    3 June 2003

SECRETARY-GENERAL ‘HEARTENED’ BY SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVAL OF MULTINATIONAL FORCE FOR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

NEW YORK, 2 June (UN Headquarters) -- The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General was heartened by the Security Council’s approval on Friday of a robust multinational force to work alongside the United Nations Mission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to restore stability to the town of Bunia and help improve the humanitarian situation there.

The Secretary-General is grateful to France for having assumed the role of lead nation and for contributing roughly half the troops for the force, on which the people of Bunia, and indeed of all of the north-eastern region, count to help them restore normalcy to their lives.

With advance elements scheduled to be deployed in a matter of days, and full deployment to begin in two weeks, the multinational force offers the parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a chance to rebuild the peace process in that country, which is essential to the stability of central Africa. The Secretary-General urges them to cooperate fully with the force, as well as with United Nations peacekeepers in pursuit of that goal.

* *** *