The United Nations is trying to transform one of the most politically unstable countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), into a multiparty democracy with legislative and presidential elections scheduled for 2005.
But to do so, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wants the 15-member Security Council to endorse a proposal to more than double the number of UN peacekeepers in that strife-torn country — from the current 10 800 to about 23 900 troops.
If the UN Mission in the DRC (Monuc) is eventually boosted to meet that request, it is expected to be the world body’s biggest and costliest peacekeeping mission around the globe.
“Given the size of the DRC, its population of over 50-million and the absence of infrastructure, the holding of national elections will pose a number of challenges,” Annan told the Security Council on Wednesday.
The Independent Electoral Commission has already begun preparing to register an estimated 28-million potential voters in the DRC, compared with 10-million registered voters for the upcoming, UN-supervised presidential elections in another major trouble spot: Afghanistan.
“Given the fact that the UN peacekeeping troop deployment in Congo [mainly from South Africa, Uruguay and Bangladesh] was recruited with difficulty, one can expect similar foot-dragging in any attempts to doubling the current size,” says Kwame Akonor, executive director of the New York-based African Development Institute, a non-partisan public policy research organisation.
Of the five major troop contributors to Monuc, four are non-African countries: Uruguay (1 825 troops), Bangladesh (1 326), Nepal (1 243) and Pakistan (1 092).
“But why must Africa always look for salvation outside its borders?” asks Akonor. “The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the security situation in the DRC — and the tepid response by the international community to both emergencies — underscores the need for African leaders themselves to take charge of conflict resolution and peace enforcement on the continent.”
South Africa has contributed 1 271 troops to Monuc.
US ‘has questions’
Responding to Annan’s request for more troops, Richard Grenell, a spokesperson for the United States’s Mission to the UN, was quoted as saying: “We have many questions for the UN, and we would like to understand the basis for their substantial request.”
The US pays about 27% of the UN’s total peacekeeping bill.
Created in November 1999, Monuc has a budget of about $667-million for 2003/04. If the number of its troops is doubled, the budget could rise correspondingly.
In a 39-page report to the Security Council, which was expected to be discussed again on Thursday, Annan says the prevailing mistrust and lack of political determination that have impeded the 13-month-old transitional government headed by President Joseph Kabila from moving forward can be traced to several factors.
“It should be recalled that the DRC has never enjoyed democracy and, as the first government that has committed itself to the use of transparent and democratic means to unify and govern the country, the transitional government must overcome decades of entrenched bad governance,” he adds.
In 1997, Laurent Kabila, father of the current president, ousted long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to take over the reins of government in the then Zaire (later renamed the DRC). But a civil war broke out in 1998, destabilising the country. This drawn-out conflict involved five other African states — Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.
Warning of war
In a report released on Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) warns that unless the international community acts swiftly to strengthen the peace process in the DRC, full-scale war will resume there.
Since the formation of the transitional government in July 2003, the report says, the international community has not provided adequate political or military support to the effort to establish peace and security in the DRC.
“The Security Council has authorised only 10 800 troops in a country the size of Western Europe,” the ICG says. “In contrast, the three other UN peacekeeping missions in West Africa, covering an area about a quarter of the size of the Congo, have a total of 30 000 troops.”
The ICG report adds that most of the troops sent to the Congo “are poorly trained and ill-equipped, and they have often demonstrated insufficient will to carry out their current mandate robustly”.
The study also says the effort to establish a national army that can ensure stability in the DRC “is faltering, and various armed groups continue to threaten the stability of the country”.
Moreover, the nation’s neighbours perceive the situation there as a threat to their interests and have taken actions that further destabilise the fragile process of transition, the ICG warns.
“The Security Council should reiterate its demand that Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi abstain from belligerent involvement in the Congo.”
Akonor says the argument that Annan’s proposal would make the DRC mission the largest — and probably the most costly — current UN peacekeeping force “is a fact, but an irrelevant issue”.
After all, he adds, the UN Protection Force that was deployed to the former Yugoslavia from February 1992 to March 1995 numbered 39 922 personnel — nearly 16 000 more than the number under consideration for the DRC.
“The real issue is that the image held by world actors about Africa, as a hopeless and conflict ridden continent, continues to influence world action, or inaction,” Akonor says. — IPS