Shameful. The worlds largest peace keeping mission, and it is a total failure. I actually think those in the U.N. who were responsible for managing such a cluster, should face a war crimes tribunal for allowing such a thing.
Now if the U.N. were to pull their collective head out of their ass, and realize that if there is no peace to keep, then you do not send in peace keepers. What needs to happen, is the conflict(s) must end, and the only way that happens is the two sides fight it out and to the victor go the spoils. Or, the U.N. picks a side, and completely supports that side of the war by sending in war fighters with the mission of defeating the other side. All out warfare, and no half measures.
You either contract it out to an Executive Outcomes type company, or assemble a coalition of actual war fighters from donor countries, or don’t do anything at all. But all of that would take a mandate from the U.N. Security Council, and it would also take resolve and the will to fight a war like that. Companies like EO are proof positive that a professional PMC could definitely do what has to be done, and I would say, for a reasonable price. Much more reasonable that what the U.N. is paying for now, which is only doing more harm to the Congo. Shameful. –Matt
Edit: Here are some excerpts from the report, to include the summary, here at a blog called Congo Siasa.
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UN peace mission fueling violence in Congo, report says
Security force costing $1bn a year has not defeated Rwandan Hutu rebels or halted plunder of lucrative minerals, experts find
Wednesday 25 November 2009
The world’s biggest UN peacekeeping mission has been branded a failure by experts who say it is fueling a surge of murders and rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The UN security force of 25,000, estimated to cost more than $1bn a year, has proved unable to defeat Rwandan Hutu rebels or to halt the plunder of lucrative minerals in the east of the country, according to a scathing report.
Among the most damning findings of the UN-mandated Group of Experts is the free rein given to a military commander and war crimes suspect known as “The Terminator”, which the UN mission has previously denied.
The mission in North and South Kivu agreed to back Congo’s army in an offensive this year against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), some of whose leaders helped to orchestrate Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The experts found: “Military operations have … not succeeded in neutralising the FDLR, have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus and have resulted in an expansion of CNDP [the Congolese Tutsi militia National Congress for the Defence of the People] military influence in the region.”