They'llstarve to death eating those little skinny guys...
UNITED NATIONS - France and many African nations are backing Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for a larger U.N. peacekeeping force with a more robust mandate in war-torn eastern Congo, but the United States appears reluctant to agree.
| Something about a quagmire... |
Many Congolese are hoping the United Nations will intervene to stop fighting in the region. On Thursday, attackers abducted two U.N. observers, reportedly to demand that the U.N. mission in Congo be given a stronger mandate.
| Lemme get this straight: "We'll kidnap your guys and torture them and eat them unless you send more troops to get this place under control..." Yeah. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense... |
At present, U.N. troops in Congo are deployed under a mandate that only allows them to fire in self-defense. They have not attempted to stem the violence between rival factions of the Hema and Lendu tribes that has killed more than 500 people in and around the eastern town of Bunia since the beginning of May.
| "We're observers. Go ahead and do something. We'll observe it." |
Hamadoun Toure, spokesman of the U.N. mission in Congo, said Friday that the two unarmed U.N. military observers were abducted Thursday from their residence in Beni, 96 miles southwest of Bunia. Toure declined to identify the observers. A rebel faction that has allied itself to the Congolese government said they had identified the attackers and claimed captors were holding the observers to demand that the U.N. mission in Congo be given a stronger mandate.
| A rebel faction allied with the government... That makes sense, too. |
"The captors said they are holding them to press demands that (the U.N. mission) be given a stronger mandate, like the one given to the international force in Bunia," said Mbusa Nyamwisi, leader of RCD-ML. The rebel faction, RCD-ML, was supposed to guarantee the security of the observers, who are monitoring cease-fire agreements meant to end the 5-year civil war in Congo. |