The United Nations Security Council told Congo's leaders on Monday they must hold the country's first postwar elections next year as planned and speed up preparations to make sure they happen on time. The delegation, on a visit to Africa's turbulent Great Lakes region, said President Joseph Kabila's transitional government had expressed resolve to stick to the timetable for elections by the end of June 2005. "We have heard the determination of the Congolese leaders to hold elections, but our message is the need to accelerate the work so that we can have good elections on the date they are due," said France's U.N. ambassador, Jean Marc de la Sabliere. He highlighted the need for the creation of a unified army and police force to replace the many armed factions still roaming much of the country, the drawing up of a new constitution and the adoption of laws to govern the election. The Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to recover from a five-year war that sucked in six neighbouring countries and killed 3 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.
