Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed again on Monday for another 2,580 peacekeepers in Congo's southern Katanga region, beset by armed groups with no government, militia or U.N. troops in control. Annan had asked the 15-nation U.N. Security Council for the additional soldiers in August to help Katanga, rich in gold and copper, prepare for elections, beginning with a referendum on a new constitution by the end of the year.

But the United States, which pays for over 25 percent of the operation, has made clear its opposition to adding peacekeepers to a mission now costing some $1 billion a year for nearly 17,000 troops in the vast central African country. Still, Annan said in his report to the council, "An enhancement of (U.N.) military capacity will be required to address the threats posed by armed groups in Katanga and contribute to establishing the necessary security conditions for elections in this volatile province."

Some 11 million people have registered to vote nationwide to date among the 30 million eligible, a record in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country still beset by violence, poverty and hunger. A transitional coalition government is in office until elections to be held by mid-2006, the first in the country in 45 years. Congo is slowly building an army but the report said a preliminary survey by South Africa could identify less than half of the 350,000 combatants the government said it had. The U.N. Mission in the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, has also used some funds for prisons in key cities and the capital Kinshasa, where malnutrition is widespread and aid groups are reluctant to go.

Sexual Assault

Congolese police and soldiers are often perpetrators in several provinces of sexual violence against women and young girls, with little action from judicial authorities, Annan said. "Many challenges remain in combating impunity, particularly due to the limited capacity of civilian and military judicial authorities to carry out independent and thorough investigations and to provide protection to victims and witnesses," Annan wrote. For example, after a human rights activist was murdered in eastern Congo in July, a military commander ordered the release of the suspects, which the report said, "highlighted the lack of judicial independence." "The transitional government needs to take urgent action to increase judicial capacity and to ensure humane condition of detention," the report said.

The U.N. peacekeepers themselves last year were accused of rape and other sex crimes. Some 100 separate investigations were conducted. Twenty-five soldiers and a unit of 120 international police were repatriated. Ten civilian staff have been charged. The U.N. Congo mission is helping to implement a 2003 peace agreement that ended large-scale fighting in a five-year civil war. An estimated 4 million people have died from fighting, disease and hunger during the conflict, which is still simmering in the east.

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