17 November 2008
ZAMBIA will not send its troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because the defence forces are currently over-stretched with matters of internal security, Defence Minister, George Mpombo, has said.
Mr Mpombo said in Lusaka yesterday that although the United Nations had not made an official request for Zambia to send peacekeepers to the DRC, the Government would have to thoroughly analyse the request before sending any troops there.
Currently, there are more than 300 Zambian peacekeepers in Sudan, while a good number are in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Eritrea, a scenario Mr Mpombo said would require serious consideration before allowing the peacekeepers to move to the DRC.
"We will make Zambia's official position known if an official request is made, but what should be realised is that we are over-stretched with our internal security matters and so we cannot send our soldiers to the DRC," Mr Mpombo said in an interview.
He said Zambia also had a good number of troops serving on the Southern African Development Community standby brigade.
He said the nation was left with few troops to look at the internal security situation.
Mr Mpombo, however, emphasised that security in the DRC was cardinal for Zambia to trade with that country.
"We need to man our borders, the security of Congo is important but we are over-stretched and so we need to look at our own security first," the minister said.
Mr Mpombo emphasised that the security of Zambians was important and the Government would, therefore, ensure the safety of the citizenry.
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True,Tim. The attitude of Congo-Brazza people towards DRC people has changed tremendously after the civil war in Brazzaville. As usually, we showed hospitality by welcoming all in need of refuge. DRC will rise again despite current difficult times and we'll be very careful as to who we deal with in the future.
That's good. But I wonder, and God forbides, when the day all will be well in DRC and it burns in Zambia. It will be interesting to see how the good neigbours of old would behave.
I remember Congo-Brazzaville keeping a similar attitude towards DRC. But then unespectedly, in burned right in the heart of their capital city. They all run into DRC and were very werlcome both by government and the people on the street. They must have learned a great lesson: you dont see your neigbour dying and say I'm over-streched. At least say something encouraging