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UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (AFP) - The Security Council Friday moved toward sending an international force to monitor a ceasefire in war-torn Rwanda.
In resolution approved unanimously, the 15-member council called on U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to consider creating such a force in consultation with the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
The force would be charged with protecting the civilian population, ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid and monitoring a ceasefire that went into effect Tuesday.
The landlocked former Belgian colony in southern Africa has been wracked by civil war for more than two years and more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes.
With major U.N. peacekeeping commitments in Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia and Somalia, Boutros-Ghali was asked to determine what role the United Nations could afford to play in an international force for Rwanda.
If approved, the force would be stationed in a buffer zone between government and rebel forces, diplomats say.
The council called on the Kigali government, of the majority Hutu tribe, and the mainly Tutsi rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) to abide by the ceasefire and allow the distribution of relief supplies and the return of all refugees.
Both parties signed a ceasefire agreement Sunday that calls for replacing foreign toops in Rwanda with an international force under a U.N.-OAU mandate.
France stepped up its military presence in Rwanda after the FPR launched an offensive on February 8. Some 700 French troops have been deployed to protect 400 French nationals living in Rwanda.
The council called on Kigali and the FPR to resume peace talks Monday as planned and sign a peace agreement by early April at the latest.
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AFP AFP SEQN-0009
