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Operation Assurance / Phoenix Tusk

The possibility of an external peacekeeping intervention in the conflict gained greatest currency between the eruption of ethnic violence in late October 1996 and the dispersal of the refugee camps in north Kivu in mid-November 1996. The subsequent non-intervention crystalized the post-Cold War interventionist policy in African intra-state conflict.

Following the five years of civil war that culminated in the 1994 genocide, two million Rwandans settled in refugee camps in several central African locations. The situation was very complex. One measure of it is that there were 40 refugee camps in eastern Zaire prior to the onset of the fighting. By mid-Novembert only four, at the most, still contained refugees. Their plight has worsened as fighting among militant forces has driven them from their camps. Violence began to spiral out of control, preventing relief agencies from providing food and medicine to the refugees who are now vulnerable to starvation and to disease.

Following an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in Eastern Zaire in October 1996, the central\east African community was faced with an escalating conflict with cross border connotations that was compounding and extending an already grave refugee crisis. There were seen wildly varying reports from 50,000 to 700,000 people. The total number of refugees -- Rwandan and Burundian and displaced people who are Zairian citizens -- certainly exceeds 1.5 million people. That left a huge number of people who were still at risk; people who are still in Zaire without adequate food or housing or water or medical care.

Troops from a number of countries agreed to participate. Canada's leading it, Spain, Britain and France also agreed. Other European countries, Italy, the Netherlands have also said they might participate. South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Gambia, Tunisia, Kenya, Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi and Chad have all offered themselves up as potential troop contributors.

In mid-November 1996 President Clinton agreed in principle that the US would participate in a multinational force in Zaire to assist the delivery of food, medical supplies and other humanitarian equipment. America's contribution to such a force would match special US capabilities, such as: providing security at the Goma airfield and helping to airlift Allied forces. The total operation would number over 4,000 personnel, including people outside of Zaire. About 1,000 people would be in Zaire, in the Goma area. The rest would be manning this air bridge, handling logistics and other operations, and they would be stretched basically between Europe and Africa, helping to support the troops on the ground. The deployment would have involved an enhanced battalion from the Southern European Task Force, which is based in Vicenza, Italy. These airborne infantry troops would go in with fairly robust helicopter support. A Tanker Airlift Control Element, or a TALCE, would be 100 people to 150 Air Force personnel mainly from Air Force ranks in Europe. USAFE would set up the airport operations in Goma. There would also be some civil affairs and PsyOps people who actually deal with the refugee groups and other groups in the area. There could well be some engineers doing work on the side.

The primary goal of the mission, which would have taken about four months, would be to assist in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the 1.2 million refugees. The US also wanted to encourage the voluntary repatriation of refugees to their countries to try to alleviate the continuing refugee problem in Eastern Zaire. Part of it would involve trying to work out political agreements among the parties that would increase the safety to the refugees returning home. Part of it would involve the ways in which, or the places from which food is distributed and services were provided.

Events in Zaire ensured that the essential mandate of the intervention force - the voluntary repatriation of the refugees - had already been substantially addressed before it could be deployed. A sustained attack by Laurent-Désiré Kabila's Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Kinshasa (AFDL) on Mugunga camp forced a retreat by the FAR and Interahamwe militias. This military intervention by Rwanda and Uganda in support of the AFDL did not end the refugee crisis, but it did effectively end the possibility of a large-scale peace enforcement mission. A huge movement of refugees began which brought over 600,000 back to Rwanda in the last two weeks of November. Rwandan officials stated that that because of this mass influx of refugees, the Rwandan Government no longer believed there's a necessity for an intervention force. This massive repatriation was followed at the end of December 1996 by the return of another 500,000 from Tanzania, again in a huge, spontaneous wave. The mandate of the MNF came to an end with the voluntary repatriation of most of the refugees from eastern Zaire to Rwanda. Local authorities in eastern Zaire had given their assurances that relief agencies would be allowed to conduct relief operations in a non-threatening environment.

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