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Military - in brief (17)

01 March 2006

EU: Congo mission planned: The EU is planning to send military and police missions to assist during elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The EU council on 22 March approved the concept of sending troops to support the 17,000 strong UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) for the 18 June elections. The military planning will be conducted by the German Armed Forces Operations Command in Potsdam: one of five operation headquarters available for EU operations. According to Jane's Defence Weekly the concept foresees the deployment to Kinshasa of a forward element of 400-500 military personnel led by a French force commander. It will be backed up by a battalion-sized force on call just outside the country (probably in Gabon). The EU has a wider involvement in the DRC: EUR 800 million in economic and financial aid, helping draft the constitution and European Security and Defence police and security sector reform missions. Armed forces reform is led by France and police training by Portugal. The EU force in the DRC will be smaller than originally conceived. In January, the United Nations (UN) asked the EU to send a battle group of up to 1,200 soldiers. The decision to send troops was postponed several times. The background is that the EU wants to appear as a global security player, while several of its bigger armies are over-stretched due to other international obligations and military interventions. The elections are boycotted by the main opposition party UDPS. www.euractiv.com; Reuters 21.2.2006 (Mark John); Jane's Defence Weekly 5.4.2006 (Nicolas Fiorenza)