Citation
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5 (AFP) - The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday to send up to 2,500 peacekeepers to Rwanda to supervise an accord designed to its civil war, but reserved the right to pull out if the accord falls apart.
France, which wants to withdraw the 300 troops it has stationed in Rwanda, has been working for several weeks to organize a U.N. operation to oversee peace accords signed August 4 in Arusha, Tanzania between the Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
The U.N. peacekeeping force will be the third largest in Africa after the missions in Somalia and Mozambique. U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali estimated the cost of the Rwandan mission at 62.6 million dollars for the first six months.
The Rwanda mission also marks the first time that such full details on the conditions and length of a mission have been spelled out before a vote is taken, mainly at the insistence of the United States following its experiences in Somalia, diplomats said.
The resolution adopted unanimously Tuesday stresses that the U.N. force will be put in place only "at the request of the parties and under peaceful conditions with the full cooperation of all the parties."
It allows for an initial six-month mission but stipulates that it will be continued after the first three months only after the council reviews a report from the secretary general "as to whether or not substantive progress has been made towards the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement."
If all goes well and the mission is extended throughout the implementation of the peace accord, it will definitely end after national elections and the installation of a new government, expected by the end of 1995 at the latest.
A first contingent of U.N. troops would be deployed soon in the Rwandan capital Kigali for an initial six-month period to allow implementation of institutions involved in the transition.
more AFP AFP
