/ 13 November 2008

DRC: Warring parties must find long-term political solution

Michel became a child soldier after he left his house in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to get some milk and never returned. Aged just eight, he was abducted by militia and taught to fight. Caught up in the DRC’s cycle of conflict, he shot people and remembers jumping over bodies in the battlefield.

Michel’s friend was taken prisoner by another armed group. They discovered him hanging from a tree with blood pouring from his ears and his nose. After four years with the group Michel eventually escaped and now lives at a centre that helps the children come to terms with their trauma and make the difficult transition to the world outside of the armed group.

When Oxfam staff met Michel he had been painting and flecks of vibrant green paint covered his arms and forehead. But his mood was dark, his eyes lowered, his voice quiet.

As Michel’s story shows, for years fighters have stolen children, forcing them to march and to fight. But the latest round of violence has brought an upsurge in such atrocities. The latest reports estimate 150 children have been press-ganged into the militias since heavy fighting resumed in August, with nearly 40 forced to fight in Rutshuru town last week alone.

The intense fighting is stopping aid workers doing their jobs in what was already a desperate situation. Over the weekend shelling prevented my staff from doing vital work on latrines and water supplies. They stood by helplessly as hungry people abandoned a food distribution and scattered into the bush, some for the third, fourth or quite easily the fifth time.

All this is possible because of the pervasive lack of security in eastern DRC. The United Nations peacekeeping mission here, Monuc, is the largest in the world but it is struggling to do its job properly. Keeping Londoners safe requires 31 000 police officers. The DRC is the size of Western Europe but Monuc has just 17 000 troops.

British foreign secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, have talked about the DRC, applying more diplomatic pressure than we have seen for years. But talk isn’t enough. There has to be security on the ground and the surest way that will happen in the short term is if extra troops bolster the UN’s mission.

With such a large peacekeeping force the easy option of moving the UN peacekeepers deployed elsewhere in DRC to the conflict zone sounds a good idea, but it won’t work. Other parts of the region are also insecure and moving the troops would leave more people vulnerable to attack.

In the long term extra peacekeepers won’t resolve the political causes of this conflict. Initially they can start to stabilise the situation and bring the security necessary for people to return home and for aid agencies to carry out vital humanitarian work. The warring parties must agree to a lasting ceasefire and find a long-term political solution.

The UK and France are leading the EU’s standby forces, known as battlegroups, that the EU has designed to be deployed in exactly the kind of crisis we are currently facing in the DRC. They also have the diplomatic clout to persuade other European countries to provide troops and military equipment and close ties with governments in the region.

Europe has a proven history and expertise in peacekeeping. It has created special standby battalions precisely to respond rapidly to crises like this. Those battalions are ready and waiting. What more needs to happen for Europe to provide DRC with the help it so urgently needs?

Juliette Prodhan is head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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