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U.N. needs 6 months to cover Congo
BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) -- United Nations peacekeepers sent to stem ethnic bloodshed in the Congo's northeastern Ituri region will take up to six months to fully deploy, their commander in the region said Wednesday. Swedish Brigadier-General Jan-Gunnar Isberg is leading the U.N. force, which has taken over from a French-led multinational mission sent to Ituri's main town Bunia in June as a temporary measure to protect civilians from warring tribal militia. The new U.N. force has been assigned more troops and a beefed up mandate to stop the fighting between rival ethnic Hema and Lendu militia which has killed some 50,000 people since 1999 and forced half a million more to flee. Under the new mandate, the U.N. troops can deploy outside the multinational force's zone of operation, beyond Bunia to other towns in the Ituri region and use firepower to quell the militias who still roam the region killing, looting and raping. "Of course you can't be present around the clock, that would cost us too many people, but in six months we will probably have Ituri covered," Isberg, U.N. commander in Ituri, told Reuters in an interview Wednesday. "To get into the far reaches of Ituri will take time. There is no timetable yet, or deadline for the militias to comply with us," he said. "By six months we want to have presence in the bigger towns and for places where there is unrest we would like to launch operations to respond." Isberg said his troops were first focusing on securing Bunia before moving into the rest of Ituri, a mineral-rich region roughly the size of Ireland. U.N. troops have seized a number of assault rifles in the town, as well as grenades and ammunition. But the crack of gunfire in Bunia is still heard at night. "The spread of illegal weapons does not seem to be confined to one group or area of the town," Isberg said. "It seems that weapons are well spread." But the U.N. force was also awaiting reinforcements before moving out of Bunia. "We have the full contingent of Bangladeshi soldiers here, but are waiting for the Pakistani contingent and then the Nepalese troops before we move out," Isberg said. About 1,200 Bangladeshi troops have already arrived in Bunia and secured the main checkpoints. About 1,000 Nepalese and 1,168 Pakistani troops are expected to arrive later this month. An Indonesian engineering contingent and Indian attack helicopters will also back up the U.N. force, supplementing a Uruguayan contingent that failed to stop the killings that engulfed the town earlier this year. The U.N. commander for the whole country, based in the capital Kinshasa, General Mountaga Diallo, has said troops would be starting to push out of Bunia by mid-September. Small patrols have already started outside the town, with helicopter reconnaissance missions to outlying areas where attacks have taken place also being planned. The fighting in Ituri has overshadowed the formation of a transitional government in Kinshasa, comprising various participants in a civil war in the former Zaire that killed about three million people since 1998. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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