UN looking into peacekeeping mission for Burundi
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Security Council on Monday gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan a green light to begin planning for an eventual U.N. peacekeeping mission in Burundi.
A statement approved unanimously by the 15-nation council called on Annan to "undertake, as soon as he deems it convenient, the appropriate preparatory work and assessment on how the United Nations might give the most efficient support to the full implementation" of a peace deal reached this year in the tiny central African nation.
Annan has said he wants to study the situation in Burundi, a tea and coffee exporter with a population of 6 million people, before preparing recommendations for the council.
After a decade of civil war that has killed 300,000 people, an African peacekeeping force of 2,656 troops was set up in Burundi in March to oversee a cease-fire, help reintegrate the former combatants into civilian life and lay the groundwork for social and economic reconstruction.
While the army is still battling the Forces for the National Liberation (FNL) rebel group, which has refused to join the peace process, the country's other rebel groups have recently joined the government as part of a three-year transition to democracy brokered in 2000.
But South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, whose government is overseeing the peace process, told the council this month that while the African-led peace process had made great gains, it would soon run short on resources and should be taken over by the United Nations.
Burundi required a far greater commitment of international assistance "to consolidate the gains already made, prepare the ground for successful democratic elections in 11 months' time, and firmly root Burundi on the road to lasting peace and stability," Zuma said.
U.N. officials last week warned of a possible crisis in getting enough peacekeepers for Africa next year, noting that major troop-contributing countries were already stretched thin to deal with crises in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Diplomats estimate another 10,000 troops, observers and police might be required in 2004 to staff U.N. missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and perhaps Burundi and Sudan.
12/22/03 18:59 ET
