Annan Disturbed over Abduction of UN Peacekeepers in Eastern DRC

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 21, 2003

Annan Disturbed over Abduction of UN Peacekeepers in Eastern DRC

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that he was "deeply disturbed" by the overnight abduction of two UN military observers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that he was "deeply disturbed" by the overnight abduction of two UN military observers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a statement issued through his spokesman, Annan urged all warring parties in eastern DRC and beyond to cooperate "unconditionally" in the release of the missing UN peacekeepers.

He also called on the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement and its rival, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, to cease hostilities in the eastern DRC in line with a truce accord they signed Thursday in Burundi.

UN spokesperson Hua Jiang told reporters earlier that the two military observers were taken away Thursday evening by a group of unidentified armed men who attacked their residence in the town of Beni.

She did not release the nationalities of the two kidnapped members of the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Media reports said the kidnappers could be members of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement.

The United Nations began deploying peacekeepers to the DRC in November 1999 to monitor a truce aimed to end the country's civil war, which has entered the fifth year in 2003.

Currently, the MONUC has more than 5,000 military and civilian personnel, of which 13 are stationed in Beni.

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