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POLITICS: U.N. Helpless as Congo Threatened by Genocidal War

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 27 2003 (IPS) - The United Nations remains in limbo waiting for member states to answer its call to assist one of the largest countries in Africa, the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which continues to be threatened by a genocidal war.

Clashes between Lendu and Hema tribal factions in the embattled DRC are threatening to escalate what began years ago as a regional struggle for gold, diamonds, timber and other resources into a major civil war of genocidal proportions.

”The international community just doesn’t care,” says Bill Fletcher of Washington-based TransAfrica Forum. ”Over two million people dead. So what?”

Africa is of secondary or tertiary importance to the administration of President George W. Bush, Fletcher added in an interview with IPS.

”The U.S. interest in Africa is in direct relationship to oil in the ground. Angola, yes. Equatorial Guinea, yes. But DRC, no.”

There was renewed fighting Monday in Bunia, one of the towns most affected, according to U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard.

On Saturday, the town’s hospital was attacked and a number of refrigerators storing vaccines and medicines were removed, Eckhard said, seriously hampering the vaccination efforts of humanitarian agencies.

A request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a rapid deployment force (RDF) in DRC has elicited a poor response so far, both from the international community and the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

A Council delegation led by Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere of France is due to visit Central Africa, including the DRC, on Jun. 6. A second Security Council delegation is scheduled to leave for West Africa on Jun. 28.

The United States has refused to provide troops or participate in any proposed peacekeeping operations in Africa. Only France, Britain, Canada and Pakistan have offered support for the proposed RDF in the Congo.

Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has proposed a contingent of EU troops to DRC, but operating within a U.N. mandate and under a EU flag.

At a meeting of the U.N.’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last week, the 54-member African Group complained that the world body was not providing ”adequate funds” for both the U.N. Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) and the U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

Speaking on behalf of the Group, Jean Christian Obame of Gabon told the committee that MONUC had played a key role in political settlements, improved living conditions, increasing respect for human rights and facilitating a voluntary disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration, repatriation and resettlement process in DRC.

”But given the vastness of the territory, the volatility of the situation and the wide range of critical tasks before the mission, MONUC needed to be provided with adequate resources to facilitate timely contingent troop deployments, and to ensure full and successful implementation of its mandate,” he said.

The proposed budget for MONUC in 2003/2004 is about 582 million dollars: down from 608 million dollars in 2002/2003. The U.N.’s total spending on 14 peacekeeping missions last year was about 2.6 billion dollars.

The total MONUC troop strength is about 4,684 compared with 14,715 personnel serving with UNAMSIL.

Two major human rights organisations, Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), warned last week that the situation in DRC would be a "critical test” of the Security Council’s commitment to prevent mass killings. But MONUC is unable to adequately protect civilians, they said in a letter to the Council.

”Thousands of civilians have already died in this conflict,” said Kenneth Roth, HRW’s executive director. ”Only rapid U.N. action can head off continued killings.”

According to HRW, at least 5,000 people have died from direct violence in the town of Ituri between July 2002 and March 2003. These are in addition to the 50,000 civilians who have died there since 1999, according to U.N. estimates.

An estimated 2.5 million to 4.7 million civilians have died in the DRC since the civil war began in 1998, triggered by a mad scramble among neighbouring countries for rich mineral resources.

A panel of U.N. experts concluded in 2001 that the DRC’s resources-including gold, copper, coltan (used in mobile telephones and video games) diamonds, timber and cobalt-were being ruthlessly exploited by warring parties.

Pierre Okongo Lumbi, head of the ‘Commission on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources’ and a senior DRC official, accused Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi of "pillaging" and "exploiting" his country’s natural and mineral resources.

Between 1998 and 2001, over 1.5 billion dollars worth of resources were taken by the three African states, he said. The three nations denied the charges.

U.N. Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno has already told the Security Council the DRC urgently needs a peacekeeping force with a stronger mandate than MONUC.

”The peacekeeping troops we have there are neither trained nor equipped to deal with the kind of violence that erupts from time to time,” he said. ”They’re there to help implement a peace agreement, not to deal with militia that are at war.”

Leaders of the world’s major industrial nations, the Group of Eight, are expected to meet next week with heads of state from South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Senegal to discuss an ”action plan” for Africa.

The proposal calls for Western military and logistical support for a new regional peacekeeping force in Africa, with a troop strength of about 3,500 to 5,000.

Fletcher said that ideally the civil wars in Africa would be addressed by the 54-member regional group, the African Union (AU), the successor to the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

”This goes way beyond what one individual country can handle,” he said. Difficulties in Zimbabwe, for instance, are being addressed by several countries in southern Africa, he added.

”The AU needs a conflict resolution mechanism to address these sort of matters,” Fletcher said. ”And it should be more pro-active on the issue of African peacekeeping.”

U.N. peacekeepers in DRC, on the other hand, are completely overwhelmed, he said, recommending that the troops be provided by the Africa Union with logistical support from the United Nations.