U.N. Told Not To Join Congo Army In Operation

Congolese soldiers on patrol in South Kivu Province. The mandate for the Congo peacekeeping mission expires in a few weeks. Moises Saman for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

NAIROBI, Kenya — United Nations peacekeeping officials were explicitly warned months ago by their legal advisers not to participate in combat operations with the Congolese Army if there were a risk that Congolese soldiers might abuse human rights, internal documents show. But the mission went forward — and the abuses took place as feared.

According to United Nations documents provided to The New York Times, the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs wrote to the head of the peacekeeping department in April and said that peacekeepers “cannot participate in any form of joint operation” with the Congolese Army, “if there are substantial grounds for believing there to be a real risk of them violating international humanitarian law.”

Read more ....

My Comment: The UN knows that they have a problem when their own officials and supporters start to admit the following:

Many analysts say the country has become a sinkhole of foreign aid, with little progress despite billions of dollars poured into it. The central government based in the capital, Kinshasa — essentially on the west coast of Africa — remains dangerously weak while war continues to rage hundreds of miles away in the thickly-forested east. Congolese soldiers often do not receive their pay, decimating their loyalties, while various armed groups, motivated by ethnic, commercial and criminal interests, haunt the hills, preying upon civilians at will.

Congo is essentially an African problem .... but it is also a symbol of what is wrong with Africa. Unfortunately for them, the West does not have the resources or willpower to get involved in providing peace keeping/reconstruction duties. The manpower that would be necessary would run in the tens of thousands, and it must be coupled with a budget commitment that would probably be as big as Afghanistan or Iraq.

There are no good solutions to this conflict .... a realization that is now dawning on some in the UN and member states.