Non-European reinforcement for the Congo, victory for the British vision?
(B2) It was the preferred solution of many European States: the reinforcement of the UN force in Congo was recorded on Thursday at the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council has indeed authorized "the temporary increase in the staff of MONUC" : + 2785 for military personnel; +300 for the font. With "immediate deployment authorization". This brings the workforce to 20.000 men (MONUC already has 17.000 men for a vast territory).
The authorization is given "until December 31, 2008" (end date of MONUC's mandate). But the Security Council has - indeed - already indicated that it "intends to renew this authorization on the occasion of the extension of the mandate of the UNOC"; the duration of the stay of the additional forces "will depend on the security conditions in the Kivus".
Better rules of engagement?
The 15 Council members requested that "MONUC fulfills its mandate in full, including through robust rules of engagement". They also want MONUC to be able to "reinforce its capacity to protect civilians, reconfigure its structure and its forces and deploy them as best they can". A thinly veiled criticism of the problem that MONUC soldiers encounter on a daily basis, caught between two fires (rebels and permanent forces) and two sets of contradictory orders (the UN mission and the orders from their capital).
To download the UN resolution.
Favorite British position?
The British Minister in charge of Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown, had clearly expressed his preference during his visit to Kinshasa on the airwaves of Radio Okapi (Congolese radio supported by Monuc - to go fast):The first priority is first of all MONUC, the second priority is regional troops that would support MONUC, and we believe that the least effective of all these options would be the deployment of European troops".
He also clarified:We can automatically accept the deployment of European troops in eastern DRC, if all other avenues fail. We haven't ruled out that possibility, it's an option. But the difference between a possible deployment of European troops and the old “Artemis” operation is that this time, no such operation has been prepared beforehand. It takes a lot of preparation time.".
Has the Franco-Belgian option failed?
The option advocated by some Europeans - rather isolated, France and Belgium, Sweden to a lesser extent - of sending a European force has therefore failed. At least for now. It is necessary to recognize it.
However, the French have stepped up to the plate twice at EU level. But they failed to convince as Bernard Kouchner said (1). Despite repeated requests from NGOs (2). Very quickly, first to recommend sending a Battlegroup (3), an option quickly discarded due to the German veto on the one hand (one of the permanent battlegroups is Franco-German) and the British operational reluctance of the another (the 2nd duty battlegroup is British, but the men who compose it must return to Afghanistan and sending them risked compromising this schedule). The possibility of taking part of a battlegroup (and possibly part of the other) is not technically possible (each battlegroup was intended to operate as a unit). Second attempt (at Cops on Friday), the idea of an Entebbe-Goma airlift (4). Another failure, at least for the time being.
Coordinated bilateral action ?
The last option on the table is thus "bilateral action": each country makes a proposal of what it can offer to the UN. In fact, as usual, it is customary in generations of force in UN operations. In other words, there is no European action! For lack of anything better, however, some countries seek to have a coordinated response (to have a semblance of common action and also for reasons of efficiency). To be continued...
(NGV)
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Given MONUC's "bad reputation" on both sides (see the DRC presidency website) and the "lack of efficiency of the thousands of men already deployed on the spot (another massacre of civilians denounced this morning which happened in front of blue helmets who did not react), the fate of the local population is really not to be envied. 🙂