UN extends Congo peace force mandate to year-end

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (Reuters) The UN Security Council voted today to keep its 17,000 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at least until the end of the year.

The 15-nation council unanimously approved a resolution that also called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to submit by mid-November a timetable for the gradual reduction of the force, the largest the United Nations maintains anywhere. The new mandate expires on December 31, 2007.

President Joseph Kabila won elections last October aimed at restoring peace to Africa's third largest country following a devastating 1998-2003 war that cost the lives of almost 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

But violence has continued in the turbulent east, while in the west, up to 600 people were killed in fighting in Kinshasa in March between the army and forces loyal to defeated presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba.

The UN force, known by its French acronym MONUC, first deployed in mineral-rich Congo in 1999. Since then, 98 peace-keepers have been killed.

The eight-page French-drafted resolution deplored the continued clashes, human rights violations and illegal arms trafficking in Congo and called for the disarming, demobilizing and resettlement of Congolese and foreign armed groups.

It also spells out in greater detail than before the UN role in achieving those goals and provides for the force to train Congolese armed forces and police in observation of human rights.

It sets a cap on the U.N. force of 17,030 military personnel plus some 1,900 military observers, police and police trainers.

''This resolution is important because it adapts MONUC to the new needs of the DRC, and because it is oriented towards the future,'' said French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere in a statement.

The resolution requested Ban to report periodically on developments in Congo and to submit by November 15 ''a report containing benchmarks and an indicative timetable for the gradual drawdown of MONUC.'' ''We would like MONUC to remain at full strength until the end of the year,'' Congolese envoy Atoki Ileka told reporters. ''In the short term it's good to have it but in the long run it's good to have an exit strategy.'' A Security Council mission will go to Congo next month to supervise the implementation of the new mandate, de la Sabliere said.

Reuters TB DB2344