DRC: UN force 'stretched to the limit'
29 October 2008, 10:03
United Nations - The UN peacekeeping force in Congo is stretched to the limit with an upsurge in fighting in the volatile east and needs more troops quickly from wherever it can get them, the top UN envoy to Congo said on Tuesday.
Alan Doss said ideally a temporary troop increase through the United Nations is needed "tomorrow, but I don't think that's likely to happen" because an increase would require budget approval and pledges of additional soldiers.
That leaves the possibility of an outside force coming in to help for specific purposes for a limited period, he said.
Doss said this has been done before not only in Congo but in Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. He pointed to Operation Artemis, when a French-led European Union force helped stabilise security in Bunia, the capital of violence-wracked Ituri province in eastern Congo for three months in 2003, saying it was "one of the ideas that's surfaced."
According to a UN official, Congo's President Laurent Kabila held talks with Doss and other UN officials on Tuesday and will be asking the international community for a temporary troop increase. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was private.
Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, told reporters late on Tuesday after briefing the UN Security Council that diplomats shared "a sense of urgency" and seemed receptive to sending additional battalions and other reinforcements to shore up the UN force.
France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said his government doesn't have troops ready to deploy immediately, stressing instead the need for "concerted international action" to reinforce the UN peacekeeping force.
"This is obvious," he told reporters. "It will go fast. I just called my minister a few minutes ago and I can tell you it's on the mind of ministers all over the planet, especially throughout Africa and the Europeans."
The UN force has come under intense pressure in the recent upsurge in fighting in eastern Congo. It has been led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda and fuelled by festering hatreds left over from the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the country's unrelenting civil wars.
The Security Council late on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of a disengagement plan in eastern Congo.
It "strongly condemned the offensive operations" battling UN peacekeepers and expressed "grave concern" about the resurgence in violence and the dangers it poses to meeting humanitarian needs.
The 17 000-strong UN force has less than 6 000 troops deployed in North Kivu, where Nkunda is threatening not only to take the capital, Goma, but to "liberate" all of Congo, Doss told reporters at UN headquarters in New York in a video conference from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
That's because the UN also needs to keep troops in three other restive provinces: neighbouring South Kivu, Ituri where there have been flare-ups in fighting, and in north-east Orientale where rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army, a group originally from neighbouring Uganda, are active, he said.
Doss told the Security Council on October 3 that he wanted a "modest" increase in the UN force to help implement a disengagement plan, which includes a cease-fire, separation of forces, demobilisation, disarmament and the reintegration of militia fighters.
"I did say to the council ... we were stretched to the limit, and that, I think, is proving to be now very much the case," he said.
"So I obviously hope we can get some additional support as quickly as possible so that we can move this (peace) process back on the right track and get the parties into the disengagement plan."
He said the additional troops should come through the UN, or on a bilateral basis - and it's up to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council to decide.
"I have to say I'm ecumenical on these things - whatever works," Doss said.
"We definitely do need those resources because then we can make it clear that we need to get back to the peace process ... (and) move this forward."
Vowing that UN forces will remain in eastern Congo, Doss said: "We are going to act against any effort to take over a city or major population centre by force."
"The UN has a clear mandate, I think a robust mandate, and I think we've tried to make sure we keep the whole process together," he said.
"But temporary help of some kind which would give us additional resources for specific purposes - I think it's been done before and I wouldn't rule it out this time either." - Sapa-AP
Alan Doss said ideally a temporary troop increase through the United Nations is needed "tomorrow, but I don't think that's likely to happen" because an increase would require budget approval and pledges of additional soldiers.
That leaves the possibility of an outside force coming in to help for specific purposes for a limited period, he said.
Doss said this has been done before not only in Congo but in Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. He pointed to Operation Artemis, when a French-led European Union force helped stabilise security in Bunia, the capital of violence-wracked Ituri province in eastern Congo for three months in 2003, saying it was "one of the ideas that's surfaced."
According to a UN official, Congo's President Laurent Kabila held talks with Doss and other UN officials on Tuesday and will be asking the international community for a temporary troop increase. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was private.
Alain Le Roy, the UN peacekeeping chief, told reporters late on Tuesday after briefing the UN Security Council that diplomats shared "a sense of urgency" and seemed receptive to sending additional battalions and other reinforcements to shore up the UN force.
France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said his government doesn't have troops ready to deploy immediately, stressing instead the need for "concerted international action" to reinforce the UN peacekeeping force.
"This is obvious," he told reporters. "It will go fast. I just called my minister a few minutes ago and I can tell you it's on the mind of ministers all over the planet, especially throughout Africa and the Europeans."
The UN force has come under intense pressure in the recent upsurge in fighting in eastern Congo. It has been led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda and fuelled by festering hatreds left over from the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the country's unrelenting civil wars.
The Security Council late on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of a disengagement plan in eastern Congo.
It "strongly condemned the offensive operations" battling UN peacekeepers and expressed "grave concern" about the resurgence in violence and the dangers it poses to meeting humanitarian needs.
The 17 000-strong UN force has less than 6 000 troops deployed in North Kivu, where Nkunda is threatening not only to take the capital, Goma, but to "liberate" all of Congo, Doss told reporters at UN headquarters in New York in a video conference from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
That's because the UN also needs to keep troops in three other restive provinces: neighbouring South Kivu, Ituri where there have been flare-ups in fighting, and in north-east Orientale where rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army, a group originally from neighbouring Uganda, are active, he said.
Doss told the Security Council on October 3 that he wanted a "modest" increase in the UN force to help implement a disengagement plan, which includes a cease-fire, separation of forces, demobilisation, disarmament and the reintegration of militia fighters.
"I did say to the council ... we were stretched to the limit, and that, I think, is proving to be now very much the case," he said.
"So I obviously hope we can get some additional support as quickly as possible so that we can move this (peace) process back on the right track and get the parties into the disengagement plan."
He said the additional troops should come through the UN, or on a bilateral basis - and it's up to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council to decide.
"I have to say I'm ecumenical on these things - whatever works," Doss said.
"We definitely do need those resources because then we can make it clear that we need to get back to the peace process ... (and) move this forward."
Vowing that UN forces will remain in eastern Congo, Doss said: "We are going to act against any effort to take over a city or major population centre by force."
"The UN has a clear mandate, I think a robust mandate, and I think we've tried to make sure we keep the whole process together," he said.
"But temporary help of some kind which would give us additional resources for specific purposes - I think it's been done before and I wouldn't rule it out this time either." - Sapa-AP
Pretoria
