Global Policy Forum

By Irwin Arieff

The United Nations will overhaul its troubled peacekeeping operation in Congo after repeated attacks on civilians in the country's east, U.N. officials and diplomats said on Tuesday. Increasing the number of peacekeepers in the vast central African country and creating a rapid reaction force to contain violent flare-ups are among the top options under consideration in the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, diplomats said.

The current mandate of the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo expires on Saturday. To accommodate the review, the 15-nation council is expected to adopt a resolution this week extending the existing mandate for another two months, until Oct. 1, the diplomats said.

The U.N. mission is capped at 10,800 soldiers in Congo, where mutinous army units and vestiges of rebel forces have repeatedly attacked towns and civilians in recent months. Thousands rioted in several Congolese cities in June after U.N. peacekeepers and government forces failed to protect residents of the key town of Bukavu from a renegade attack. U.N. officials are considering adding up to 17,000 additional peacekeepers but say budget constraints and a worldwide shortage of peacekeepers mean that between 5,000 and 6,000 is more likely, diplomats said. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will offer his recommendations on changes to the mission by mid-August, after he reviews a report by a U.N. team assessing needs across Congo.

DEADLY CIVIL WAR

In the meantime, the council on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend for a second year an arms embargo first imposed on eastern Congo in July 2003. "I think we need deep discussion of the issues in Congo," French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said in an interview. "We will need some weeks to study the report of the secretary-general and see if there is a need to update the mission mandate and also to look at a rapid reaction force and other ideas on the table."

Some 3 million people were killed during Congo's five-year civil war, most of them from disease and hunger. A cease-fire took effect in 1999. But a transitional administration teaming former rebels with officials of the previous government has had a hard time asserting its authority and creating a unified national army, especially in the resource-rich east, where diplomats say some militia groups serve as proxies for Rwanda and Uganda.

The new government would like another 30,000 U.N. soldiers as it tries to steer toward democratic elections by June 2005, said Congo's U.N. ambassador, Atoki Ileka. Though that figure is far higher than what the country is likely to get, a U.N. rapid reaction force would help cope with any fresh outbreaks of violence in eastern Congo. The U.N. review is expected to scrutinize the current political situation in Congo as well as the peacekeeping mission's overall goals and the strategy for achieving them, with an eye to how U.N. involvement might change over time once those goals were reached, diplomats said.

Once a new mandate is in place, council members plan to visit Congo to discuss the changes, de la Sabliere said.

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