The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government on Friday demanded a stronger mandate for the peacekeeping force in the country after the United Nations Security Council voted to send 3 000 extra international troops.
The UN Mission in DRC (Monuc) said, however, that even the promised reinforcements would not end the ”very volatile” conflict as rebel fighters pressure government forces in the east of the country.
The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to temporarily send the reinforcements.
”It is a decision that we all wanted,” DRC government spokesperson Lamert Mende Omalanga, the Communications Minister, said.
But he added: ”The conception of the Monuc mandate must also be reviewed because each time there is an emergency, it [Monuc] has always raised legal questions about its mandate.”
There are currently 17 000 troops in the UN Mission in DRC, which is the largest UN force in the world.
”It needs a mandate that is a lot more appropriate to the circumstances on the ground,” said the minister, who said the force did not have the means to carry out its mission.
Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesperson for Laurent Nkunda, the renegade general whose forces have surrounded the main city in eastern DRC, said the Security Council decision ”is proof of the engagement of the international community to the Congolese people”.
”But rather than an over-militarisation of the region, the UN should do more to make the belligerents negotiate as quickly as possible,” he said in a telephone interview.
Tensions between Nkunda and President Joseph Kabila spilled over into a new conflict in August with the rebels accusing the government of discriminating against the Tutsi minority.
The peacekeeping force has been criticised for failing to protect 250 000 people displaced by the fighting, amid atrocities by the rebels and government forces.
Monuc military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich cautioned that the new troops had to be of the right calibre to handle a crisis that he said remains ”very volatile”.
”Monuc needs mobile and well-equipped, well-trained forces,” he said.
”We want infantry troops. We want troops who are mobile. We have also requested engineers. It will be up to the contributing countries to send troops regarding the requirements” on the ground, he said.
The force has been stretched to the limit across huge swathes of eastern Nord-Kivu province, but also has to police long-standing conflicts between ethnic groups and government forces further north, mainly over control of vast mineral resources.
”The means we have are fine for patrolling, but to do more than that we are already stretched. What we do not have is a mobile reserve — to act quickly when an event happens.”
”The 3 000 troops won’t change our main duty here, which is to protect the civilian population.”
He described the situation faced by UN forces in Nord-Kivu as ”very confusing on the ground” after government soldiers fled an offensive by Nkunda’s smaller but more disciplined National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
UN troops from 18 nations, including 4 000 from India, have found the collapse of government forces ”frustrating”.
The rebels have withdrawn from two front lines in Nord-Kivu, ostensibly to boost a peace mission by UN special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo,.
Monuc won a small victory on Thursday when Indian UN troops blocked dozens of pro-government Mai-Mai militia trying to enter Rwindi, recently vacated by the rebels. Monuc has 120 soldiers in Rwindi. — Sapa-AFP