Military

DATE=6/2/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=CONGO'S CIVIL WAR

NUMBER=6-12952

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: An increasing number of United States newspapers are editorializing about the failure of this country, many other major powers and the United Nations to intervene in Congo's long civil war. As reports of new fighting emerge, papers are appealing for stronger intervention in what they complain is a long-neglected but bloody conflict. Now, here with a sampling is V-O-A's ______________ and today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The week begins with grim news from the Democratic Republic of Congo. A militia spokesman says there has been another massacre, reportedly in Ituri province near the Ugandan border. He says over the weekend 300 civilians of the Hema tribe were killed by fighters of the majority Lendu tribe, with help from government troops. The reports cannot be confirmed.

Increasingly, American papers complain, that despite the recent flare-up, most of the world is still ignoring the bloodbath. As The Sun in Baltimore puts it: "Congo killing must end."

VOICE: Less than a year after peace seemed reachable in Africa's biggest war, the Democratic Republic of Congo is sliding back into an orgy of senseless carnage. The worst of it is that [U-N] observers are present but standing by helplessly. The reason: member nations have been unwilling to send enough troops to end the chaos. France must take the lead role in an intervention in Congo. Africans are right in contending that the international community would not tolerate a bloodbath on this scale on any other continent; Africa should be no exception.

TEXT: Outrage from The Sun in Baltimore.

In California, an outraged San Francisco Chronicle asks: "what about a Congo war that has killed more people than any conflict since World War Two? And continues:

VOICE: High on the list of the world's shamefully ignored problems is the Congo civil war, going on five years. Faraway battlegrounds, intractable feuds and a diamonds-and-black market collude to kill hopes of finding peace. Europe and the United States may be dazzled by the high-tech walkover that was the Iraq war, but the conflict of Congo is more typical of modern warfare: Throwaway land mines, gun-wielding children and massacres of families are accepted tactics of warlords who answer to no one.

TEXT: Excerpt's from a San Francisco Chronicle editorial, with which Missouri's Kansas City Star couldn't agree more.

VOICE: United Nations action to curb renewed violence in Congo is overdue. The Security Council should approve a French proposal to send a larger multinational force of peacekeepers to the central African nation. But that should be just the start of an international effort to bring lasting peace.

The civil war claimed more than three-million victims before an agreement was signed by rebel factions and the government [last] December. However, the withdrawal of six-thousand Ugandan troops from northeastern Congo on May 7th, as part of the cease-fire agreement, set off renewed fighting between two ethnic militias.

TEXT: Comments from The Kansas City Star.

Boston's Christian Science Monitor is greatly relieved to see that the United Nations has finally decided to do more to help.

VOICE: Despite a deep split before the Iraq war, the U-N Security Council voted last Friday [5-30] to authorize an international fighting force -- not just passive peacekeepers -- in Congo. And to top it off, the U-N force will be led by France, not the U-S. The U-N is back in business, and none too soon to prevent more killings in one of Africa's biggest and potentially richest nations.

TEXT: Jacksonville's Florida-Times Union makes a historical reference to another African bloodletting, the genocide between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda a decade ago, as it complains:

VOICE: Sadly, history may be on the verge of repeating itself -- this time in the Congo, where bloody clashes between Lendu and Hema factions appear on the verge of escalating into a genocidal war. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan, himself an African, is trying to raise a peacekeeping force but isn't getting much response. The sad truth is that the continent is awash in blood, and the United Nations hadn't been much help.

TEXT: For the last word, to Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which is pleased the U-N has finally voted to send some combat troops to the area, noting that the several hundred Uruguayan U-N forces already there are both outnumbered and outgunned.

VOICE: Unlike the Uruguayans, with their mandate to keep a peace that didn't exist, the new contingent will be prepared to use force -- to shoot people, to put it bluntly -- to cool things down.

TEXT: On that assessment of what needs to be done from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, we conclude this editorial sampling on the latest news from The Congo.

NEB/ANG/RH