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DR Congo

Top UN peacekeeping official en route to Democratic Republic of the Congo

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, was today en route to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to explain in detail UN plans to deploy a force in the country.
Mr. Miyet is travelling as part of a mission dispatched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. According to a UN spokeswoman in New York, Mr. Miyet will "seek the full support essential to deploy the more than 5,500-strong military observer mission."

In its resolution authorizing the expansion of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council had asked Mr. Annan to assess whether "deployment conditions existed or not," she recalled.

Mr. Miyet is expected to arrive in Kinshasa tomorrow and stay in the DRC until 12 March, travelling on to Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda. He is also due to visit Sierra Leone.