By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 2004 (IPS)

The United Nations is trying to transform one of the most politically unstable countries in Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), into a multi-party democracy, with legislative and presidential elections scheduled for 2005.

But to do so, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants the 15-member Security Council to endorse a proposal to more than double the number of U.N. peacekeepers in that strife-torn country: from the current 10,800 to about 23,900 troops.

If the U.N. Mission in DRC (MONUC) is eventually boosted to meet that request, it is expected to be the world body’s biggest and costliest peacekeeping mission around the globe.

”Given the size of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its population of over 50 million and the absence of infrastructure, the holding of national elections will pose a number of challenges,” Annan told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The Independent Electoral Commission has already begun preparing to register an estimated 28 million potential voters in DRC, compared with 10 million registered voters for the upcoming U.N.-supervised presidential elections in another major trouble spot: Afghanistan.

”Given the fact that the U.N. peacekeeping troop deployment in Congo (mainly from South Africa, Uruguay and Bangladesh) was recruited with difficulty, one can expect similar foot dragging in any attempts to doubling the current size,” says Kwame Akonor, executive director of the New York-based African Development Institute, a non-partisan public policy research organisation.

”But why must Africa always look for salvation outside its borders?” asks Akonor. ”The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the security situation in DRC and the tepid response by the international community to both emergencies, underscores the need for African leaders themselves to take charge of conflict resolution and peace enforcement on the continent,” he told IPS.

Responding to Annan’s request for more troops, Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, was quoted as saying: ”We have many questions for the United Nations, and we would like to understand the basis for their substantial request.”

The United States pays about 27 percent of the U.N.’s total peacekeeping bill.

Created in November 1999, MONUC has a budget of about 667 million dollars for 2003-2004. If the number of its troops is doubled, the budget could rise correspondingly.

In a 39-page report to the Security Council, which is expected to be discussed again Thursday, Annan says the prevailing mistrust and lack of political determination that have impeded the 13-month-old transitional government headed by President Joseph Kabila from moving forward can be traced to several factors.

”It should be recalled that the DRC has never enjoyed democracy and, as the first government that has committed itself to the use of transparent and democratic means to unify and govern the country, the transitional government must overcome decades of entrenched bad governance,” he adds.

In 1997, Laurent Kabila, father of the current president, ousted long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to take over the reins of government in the then Zaire (later renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo). But a civil war broke out in 1998 destabilising the country. The long drawn-out conflict involved five neighbouring countries – Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.

In a report released Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that unless the international community acts swiftly to strengthen the peace process in DRC, full-scale war will return.

Since the formation of the transitional government in July 2003, the report said, the international community has not provided adequate political or military support to the effort to establish peace and security in the Congo.

”The Security Council has authorised only 10,800 troops in a country the size of Western Europe,” ICG said. ”In contrast, the three other U.N. peacekeeping missions in West Africa, covering an area about a quarter of the size of the Congo, have a total of 30,000 troops.”

The ICG report added that most of the troops sent to the Congo ”are poorly trained and ill-equipped, and they have often demonstrated insufficient will to carry out their current mandate robustly.”

The study also said the effort to establish a national army that can ensure stability in the Congo ”is faltering, and various armed groups continue to threaten the stability of the country.”

Moreover, the nation’s neighbours continue to perceive the situation as a threat to their interests and have taken actions that further destabilise the fragile process of transition, ICG warned. ”The Security Council should reiterate its demand that Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, abstain from belligerent involvement in the Congo,” it added.

“The long-term resolution of the Congo’s security needs lies in an enduring political solution within the country and good relationships with its neigbours,” the study declared.

Akonor said the argument that Annan’s proposal would make the Congo mission the largest, and probably the most costly, current U.N. peacekeeping force ”is a fact but an irrelevant issue.”

After all, he said, the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) that was deployed to the former Yugoslavia from February 1992 through March 1995 numbered some 39,922 personnel, nearly 16,000 more than the number under consideration for DRC.

”The real issue is that the image held by world actors about Africa, as a hopeless and conflict ridden continent, continues to influence world action, or inaction,” Akonor said.

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