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Annan Pushes Security Force for Congo
They're doomed. EFL.Security Council diplomats said Tuesday that Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked France to provide a battalion with about 700 troops to eastern Congo, and was also talking to other governments that could provide military contingents. ``France has indicated that in principle it is prepared to participate in such a force, provided there is Warriors from the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups are battling each other following the withdrawal of Ugandan troops in the region. At least 160 people have died in the last week. Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she worried that the ethnic violence could increase. ``It could be a genocide,'' said Del Ponte, who is in charge of prosecuting perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda and those responsible for war crimes in former Yugoslavia. The latest violence in the lawless eastern Congo province of Ituri broke out May 7 after neighboring Uganda pulled out the last of its more than 6,000 soldiers in and around the main city Bunia, leaving what Uganda warned would be a security vacuum. The Ugandan withdrawal left Bunia in the hands of local Lendu tribal fighters, a 625-member U.N. contingent made up mostly of troops from Uruguay, and an even smaller Congolese police force. The contingent proved no match for an estimated 25,000 to 28,000 tribal fighters in Ituri. How do we know the UN contingent was no match? They never tried. Clashes for control of Bunia immediately broke out between warriors of the Lendu and the rival Hema ethnic group. More than 10,000 people in the embattled city took shelter under U.N. protection at the city's airport and a U.N. compound, a U.N. spokeswoman said. Pakistan's U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram, the current Security Council president, said ``there is no crystallization of positions as yet'' on what to do in Congo. Ask us next year. France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who will lead a Security Council mission to Congo and Central Africa next month, said ``there is no definite decision'' by the government on sending troops. He said France has set several conditions, including getting other countries to provide troops and authorizing the mission for a limited period of time. Authorize it for a limited time and the thugs will just wait the clock out. Annan said he talked on Tuesday to the Ugandan government and South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is also talking to the leaders in the region. ``But we have asked the Ugandan government to cooperate and to use its influence in the region to ensure that the militia and the people in the region restrain themselves and do not escalate tensions in the region,'' Annan said. Perhaps the Ugandan troops should have stayed? But that would be too sensible. Posted by: Steve White 2003-05-14 |
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