Luxembourg, 12/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Council formally decided in Luxembourg on Monday 12 June to launch an operation to support MONUC in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The operation will strengthen the mission set up in the country by the United Nations forces during the DRC electoral period, ensure security at Kinshasa airport and be ready to extract observers, eminent figures or European nationals should the situation deteriorate. For this, nearly 2,000 troops are to be deployed in Kinshasa and Libreville in Gabon during a period of about four months counting from the activation order to be given shortly by the commander of the operation, German General Karlheinz Viereck. Small units are already on the spot to prepare deployment of European troops who will be under the command of General Christian Damay, of the French Army, in Kinshasa.
The German press has reported on the stormy relations between Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSP, and Franz Josef Jung, Germany's Defence Minister, explaining why the latter did not accompany the European foreign policy chief during his visit to the Potsdam headquarters, from which the operation in DRC will be commanded. According to the papers Focus and Der Spiegel in particular, the German minister reproached Javier Solana for not having prepared the operation as well as he should have done at diplomatic level. In Brussels, it is said that “this has nothing to do with reality” and it is stressed that “what is important now is to carry out the mission approved successfully”.