Global Policy Forum

By Steven Edwards

Following French complaints that Anglo-Saxon members of the United Nations Security Council are more interested in helping English-speaking Africa than the continent's francophone countries, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, yesterday recommended sending more peacekeeping observers to the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo, a French-speaking former Belgian colony.

Two Canadians are among the 224 UN military observers serving in the central African country, where half a dozen nations and a cocktail of rebel armies have taken sides in a civil war. Up to 500 observers should be sprinkled across the giant country, Mr. Annan recommends in a report to the Security Council, whose 15 members include Canada.

They would be sent, at least initially, without the backing of a 5,000-strong military force the Security Council authorized at the beginning of the year. The larger force was never dispatched partly because the warring parties kept violating a ceasefire agreement contained in peace accords negotiated in Lusaka, Zambia, last July.

Although the fighting has subsided following intensified diplomatic initiatives, the Congo remains a dangerous place for MONUC, the French acronym for the UN mission. "The most serious threat ... is the highly volatile confrontations between the belligerent parties," Mr. Annan says. "MONUC flights are also vulnerable."

The report tells how rebels fired on a MONUC helicopter on Oct. 30, inflicting light damage but no casualties. It adds that "the inflammatory propaganda campaign conducted in some pro-government media against MONUC has abated."

The Congolese government had resented the UN's insistence its observers monitor government army operations as well as the anti-government armies. Mr. Annan recommended security for the additional military observers be provided by armed forces on both sides of the conflict. A UN official explained that the authorized 5,000-soldier deployment had never been considered a protection force, but one that would establish four central command posts to enable the UN to implement the Lusaka accords, which established a ceasefire in the country.

As months went by without deployment of the force, a split emerged among the veto-wielding members of the Security Council, with France suggesting the United States and Britain didn't have their heart in helping the Congo. Rather, these countries were more interested in helping the troubled former British colony of Sierra Leone, France felt. Diplomats said hints had been dropped that Pakistan, Senegal and Morocco -- three countries that have pledged troops for the Congo force -- instead send their soldiers to Sierra Leone, where a peacekeeping force is undermanned. That idea has since died down, but the mere suggestion enraged the French, who called for greater effort to be made in finding a way to get the UN more involved in the Congo.

The UN General Assembly has authorized a budget of US$200-million for the mission's immediate requirements and planning costs for deployment of the full force. Mr. Annan's report calls for the mission's mandate, which expires on Dec. 15, to be extended for another six months.