28 May 2003
U.N. Security Council Agrees on Peacekeeping Force for Congo
(Multi-national force to try to end fighting and atrocities) (990)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The U.N. Security Council was expected to authorize
within 48 hours a multi-national peacekeeping force for the
northeastern section of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to
stop the fighting and provide protection for civilians, diplomats said
May 28.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Williamson said that "the United States is
deeply committed to end the atrocities in Ituri, especially where it
is most acute around Bunia. The last 16 days we have been working with
our council colleagues, particularly the French, as well as in
capitals in the region both in Kinshasa and in neighboring countries
to have the conditions met so a multi-national force can be in Ituri
as soon as possible."
Talking with journalists after a closed-door Security Council meeting
on the critical situation in the DRC, Williamson said "we now have a
draft resolution. We expect it to be passed in the next 24 to 48 hours
and within a couple days of that we hope to have boots on the ground
in Bunia and bring order to a situation where too many people are
victimized."
Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere of France said that "the situation
in Ituri is critical. It is an emergency situation."
France has agreed to lead the multi-national force and the Security
Council has accepted the conditions laid down by Paris, the ambassador
said.
The resolution will be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter
which authorizes the use of force. The mandate of the force, which is
being called the Interim Emergency Multi-national Force, is to
stabilize the security and humanitarian situation in Bunia; ensure the
protection of the airport and the refugees in the camps; and to
protect the town. Not only the DRC but Rwanda and Uganda have agreed
to accept and support the force which will remain in the region until
September 1, 2003 when a contingent from Bangladesh will be deployed
as part of the U.N. Mission in the DRC (MONUC).
Diplomats said that South Africa, Pakistan, and Nigeria have indicated
they will contribute troops to the interim force. Official
announcement on the force's make-up will be made after the resolution
is adopted.
U.S. Ambassador Williamson said that logistical difficulties, such as
potholes at the airport, will mean that the number of troops deployed
in the beginning will be small, but he warned that the message is
"once it's there it will help bring some order. I think UPC (Union des
Patriotes Congolais) and others will be ill-advised to take any
advantage of the current situation."
The United States efforts over the past weeks have been "to talk to
other countries in the region to get them comfortable with and
accepting the deployment of a multi-national force led by the French.
... That's what we've helped happen," Williamson said.
Both Rwanda and Uganda have accepted the force although both countries
have concerns, the ambassador said. "The key now is not to re-fight
the battles of four and half years of civil war and mischief by nine
different countries that had troops within the Congo at one time or
another. The goal is to end the atrocities that are going on," he
said.
U.N. Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Caroline McAskie, who was in
Bunia on May 25 to review the humanitarian situation, called the
situation "extremely volatile. ... The inter-ethnic feeling is running
high."
At a press conference May 28 at U.N. headquarters after briefing the
Security Council, McAskie described Bunia as "a ghost town" where only
about 15 percent of the population remains. The refugee camps at the
airport and the MONUC compound are overcrowded with people huddling
under plastic sheeting, she said.
U.N. and private aid organizations are managing to provide for the
refugees' basic needs, but "the people still remain under threat" with
the UPC threatening to push the refugees out of the airport compound,
she added.
"The real story is we don't know what is happening outside Bunia,"
McAskie said. "We have got a population in the district of Ituri of
three to four million people, and we can't access them.
"We have seen the most horrible atrocities in Bunia: women who have
lost their arms and legs, children amputees, men shot to death, women
raped. At least the ones who make it into Bunia we can get into
hospital, get them cared for. ... Can you imagine those out in the
bush?" she said.
McAskie said that the situation in the Kivu area under the control of
RCD-Goma is also appalling.
"One of the elements of the humanitarian situation in south Kivu is
the campaign that is being waged against women. The incidence of rape
as a tool of war and conflict seems to have hit massive proportions,"
the U.N. official said.
"In these communities women do not admit rape because they are
ostracized by their communities -- for some reason it's 'their
fault,'" she said. "But the number of women coming forward testifies
to how brutal things are.
"One, if they are only a small percentage of the ones coming forward
it means that thousands are being attacked. So the fact that we have
seen hundreds means that the real story is much bigger.
"Secondly, it is a testimony to the brutality of the attacks. We are
not just seeing women who have been raped. We are seeing women who
have been torn apart, who have been cut up, and who are on the edge of
death.
"Women from the age of babies -- 2, 3, 4, years old -- to older women
in their 70s. The oldest women registered at one of the hospitals was
80 years old. This is horrifying."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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