UNITED NATIONS: After nine Bangladeshi soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in Congo were surrounded and killed by rebels last week, their Indian and Pakistani colleagues in the UN decided to come up with a "robust" response. | "Let's go kill us some "rebels". |
What followed was a classic operation in which an Indian helicopter supported Pakistani ground troops and ended up killing at least 50 militiamen in Congo's troubled Ituri region. The operation has been praised and staunchly defended by UN officials. Margaret Carey, an officer in the Africa division of the UN peacekeeping department, said the Indians and Pakistanis acted in self-defence and were protecting civilians. And, in what must now rank as a rare example of South Asian cooperation, the soldiers from the two countries also protected each other after their colleagues from Bangladesh had been killed a few days earlier. It began when Pakistani soldiers received information that Loga village in the volatile Ituri province was being used as a weapons centre. The peacekeepers decided to conduct a "cordon and search" mission.| Formerly known as "Search and Destroy". |
This proved harder than planned. The area is a hotbed of militant activity and within no time the Pakistanis found themselves under fire from some hills overlooking the area. | That was the whole idea, I'm thinking. They were the bait..... |
They asked for air support. | Which was on standby, guns hot..... |
This came in the form of an Indian attack helicopter, which zeroed in on militia positions and protected the Pakistani peacekeepers. | ......and closed the trap. |
Some 50 militiamen died in the battle that followed. There have not been any reports of civilian casualties so far.| Well, yes, there were. Supposedly the "rebels" were using "villagers" as human shields. I guess the UN has decided they were not innocent villagers. |
Carey said the peacekeepers did not engage in war and their basic mission was to bring about peace. She also rejected suggestions that the operation was conducted by the Indians and Pakistanis to avenge the killing of the nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers. | "Why, no. I mean, just because Bangladesh is our neighbor and might as well be family. Who do you think we are, Americans?" |
"When you are confronted with people who are fighting you, you have to exercise self-defence and take them out, basically," British UN ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said. | Damm, a UN statement I agree with. |
Currently, the United Nations has 15,000 peacekeepers from 100 countries in Congo where it is trying to disarm the militia, which belongs to Nationalist and Integration Front, an ethnic Lendu political party. Carey said that after the lesson learnt from Srebrenica in Bosnia and Rwanda, the nature of peacekeeping operations had changed. The operation in Loga was an example of "robust peacekeeping", she said. | Ever think about trying it in the Sudan? Hello? |
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