16 February 2000
Holbrooke Asks Legislative Support for Congo Peacekeepers
(Assures Congress no U.S. troops will be used) (740) By Jim Fisher-Thompson Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Declaring "we need your support because Africa matters," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke asked Congress February 15 to back a new three-phased plan under discussion for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DROC). Holbrooke, who focused attention on Africa's problems and concerns as president of the Security Council (UNSC) throughout January, told the House Africa Subcommittee that the central African nation's 18-month civil war has resulted in "a contagion of crisis." Congo's conflict has involved up to nine African nations and various rebel groups battling the government of President Laurent Kabila. After a peace accord was signed in Lusaka last July, implementation of the U.N. peacekeeping plan languished when some of the 90 military liaison officers who were to oversee the cease-fire were hindered in deploying. Now, explained Holbrooke, the U.N. Secretary General has recommended adoption of a three-part implementation plan, which "reflects what the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, has advocated as the best approach for bringing peace to the region. "After months of resisting unrealistic peacekeeping proposals for the Congo," Holbrooke told the lawmakers that "we have succeeded in getting the U.N. to adopt this three-phase approach concept designed in part by U.S. military planners. This approach ties U.N. deployments to concrete progress on the ground toward the Lusaka Agreement's political and military objectives." Observers in Phase 1 of the plan, he said, would monitor the cease-fire and verify the redeployment of the parties' forces to defensive positions as agreed in the Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement. Phase II of this plan would add a force of 5,500 armed peacekeepers to the 90 military liaison officers already in place. He assured the lawmakers that "no U.S. troops would be used" in the effort aimed at ending the ethnically-fueled conflict. In Phase III, Holbrooke said, the Congo peacekeeping force might be expanded. But he told the lawmakers "we have stated repeatedly, though, that the U.N. would not take on enforcement responsibilities, including any potential forcible disarmament of non-state actors." In addition, "any movement to implement Phase III would require further action in the Security Council and would be subject to a new Congressional notification." Holbrooke said the UNSC has not asked the U.S. Defense Department to fly peacekeepers to Congo and that no resolution on the peacekeeping force has been adopted as yet. He said a UNSC vote on the plan should occur sometime before February 23. The ambassador said if the conflict is allowed to fester, then "efforts to resolve conflicts and promote stability throughout the region -- in Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan -- will be even more difficult." He said that former South African President Nelson Mandela would be opening a second round of peace talks in the Burundi crisis in Arusha, Tanzania, on February 21, and that President Clinton would address participants via a "two-way teleconference." The chairman of the House International Relations Committee Ben Gilman voiced skepticism about funding the proposed peacekeeping plan. He told Holbrooke that he was not impressed by past U.N. peacekeeping operations mounted in Africa. Holbrooke said he realized selling Congress on the new plan would be difficult, especially when America had other peacekeeping commitments such as in the Balkans. But he explained that "without the means to finance our assessed contributions to peacekeeping activities, the U.N. will be unable to fulfill the mandates of these missions." He also added that "no money will be reprogrammed from Kosovo for this [Congo] program." House Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce appeared to support Holbrooke when he said "while the Congo peacekeeping operation will not involve American troops, it must be bolstered by the active diplomatic engagement of the world's superpower." He also stressed that if the peace accord is to be successful, "the [African] parties to the conflict will have to make good on their Lusaka obligations." Reemphasizing that "nothing we do in the Congo will in any way diminish the resources we have to support our men and women on the line" in the Balkans, Holbrooke told the lawmakers "I simply don't understand how you could follow a policy that says don't do it [peacekeeping] in the Congo until you've solved the Kosovo" crisis. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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