New York - A key figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo peace process accused the United Nations on Wednesday of taking baby steps when boldness was required to end the many-sided conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told the security council it would be a mistake to scale back the peacekeeping force for the DRC to about 3 000 troops from the 5 537 authorised a year ago.
Mudenge is chairperson of the political committee, grouping the signers and observers of the 1999 Lusaka ceasefire accord.
"The DRC is a vast country," Mudenge told the 15-nation council, warning against a "new step-by-step, gradualist and minimalist concept of operations" for the planned UN force.
Mudenge spoke on the second day of a four-day conference convened by the council to commit the warring parties to a timetable for withdrawing their forces.
A peacekeeping plan submitted to the council by Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposes a force of 500 military observers, backed by close to 2 500 troops.
The plan was scaled back in hopes of getting the contingent to the DRC sooner.
But UN officials also clearly outlined what the force would be unable to do: stop the fighting, protect civilians or place military observers in harm's way. - Reuters