Originally issued as a CGS press release on March 3, 2005.
WASHINGTON, DC – Recent incidents between UN peacekeepers and local militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) once again display the need for UN missions to be robust, equipped and ready to defend themselves and the civilians they protect. Strong, effective and efficient UN peace operations are essential in building permanent peace and security, nowhere more so than in the DRC.
Don Kraus, Executive Vice-President of Citizens for Global Solutions offered the following assessment. “The situation in the Congo is very turbulent and tough, there are many spoilers to the peace who make the UN’s job difficult. It is vital for the UN in the DRC to be robust and use force as required to curb violence, protect civilians and help maintain stability.”
The UN Peacekeeping mission in the DRC has been tasked with the difficult job of shepherding the country towards peace and stability. The mission operates under a UN Security Council Chapter VII mandate which authorizes peacekeepers to protect “civilians and humanitarian personnel,” and ensure the “protection of United Nations personnel and facilities.” In addition, the UN is tasked with disarming the thousands of ex-combatants who continue to cause violence in the country.
“The UN mission needs to respond in an even-handed fashion to all incidents when they occur, not only when peacekeepers are attacked,” said Kraus. “It is the job of UN member states to ensure that the UN peacekeeping mission is willing and able to react appropriately to prevent any group of spoilers from derailing the peace.”
The DRC is the most extensive peacekeeping mission for the UN, with a current force of over 16,700 soldiers in a country larger than Western Europe. In August 2004, Secretary-General Kofi Annan requested an expansion of the force from 10,800 troops to 23,900 troops and 507 civilian police. The request came as tensions flared throughout the country, following the seizure of the eastern town of Bukavu, South Kivu Province, by renegade military officers Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebutsi. However, Annan’s call for a larger force was not fully met by Security Council member states, with the U.S. leading the opposition to such an expansion. The mission was only increased by 5,900 troops to 16,700 in October 2004.
Teetering on the verge of self-destruction, the DRC is symbolically and geographically the nexus of failing African states. At the height of the Congo’s last war, launched in 1996, nine African countries were either directly or indirectly involved in the fighting. The subsequent transitional peace agreement did little to lesson the influence of proxy militias, corrupt business and ethnic enmity throughout the DRC. In fact, as the Eastern Congo grew more and more instable, so too did the countries that surrounded it: Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
