Kofi Annan

Secretary-General Kofi Annan had urged the council to bolster the mission by 2,580 troops to help secure some of the most troubled pockets of the country ahead of elections set for next year. But some council members, led by the United States, contend the peacekeeping force is already the largest in the U.N. system and shouldn't get any bigger.

The troops he called for would have gone to the volatile Katanga region, which is one of several where instability has slowed the country's path toward peace after ruinous back-to-back wars that began in 1996 and ended in 2002. Millions died, most from hunger and disease.

A massive registration operation is under way to register voters in time for the presidential elections due before June 2006. The vote will be Congo's first in 45 years.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 5, 2005
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