Ban Ki Moon gives the roadmap for Eufor Goma: the letter!

(B2) It is by an official letter of 3 pages (download here), duly argued, that Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary, very officially requested EU intervention. Some European diplomats, anxious to deflate the request, had suggested to me that there was not much in this letter. She deserves to be read. After informal contacts with the French, and especially the Belgians, which did not produce their effect (see "interim mission checkmate?") and after a conversation with Louis Michel (the European commissioner for development), Ban Ki Moon takes up his pen - where one can detect some nervousness in front of the constant procrastination of the Europeans - to draw up (in their place?), a real sheet of route of the mission that could be called "Eufor Goma"...

What's he saying ? :

1) MONUC has undertaken a reconfiguration of its forces to increase its presence in Goma and in key towns in North Kivu.

2) The reinforcements authorized by resolution 1843 will take 4 months to be deployed

3) After the total disintegration of the Congolese national army, MONUC remains the only organized force in the region

4) The EU must intervene: "At this stage, I am convinced that the immediate deployment of a multinational force (MNF), led by the EU or by EU Member States, could provide the necessary complement to the efforts of MONUC"

5) And to specify: "this multinational force could concentrate on two objectives: securing the supply of humanitarian needs in North Kivu, where 250 people have been displaced since the conflict at the end of August, and protecting threatened civilians in the province".

6) this force would operate "under chapter 7" (of the UN charter - therefore with the possibility of using coercion) and would constitute "de facto a mobile reserve to reinforce MONUC when necessary".

7) the "deployment model would be Operation Eufor Artemis", with an "initial deployment of 4 months, under European command".

8) This force would have the "specific tasks of protecting Goma airport and other strategic communication and government installations in the city, securing the other major population centers of North Kivu and securing the key axes and roads of service around Goma. The interim mission should have its own air assets and intelligence capability and be able to intervene simultaneously in several cities for actions of a mainly humanitarian and defensive nature".

In conclusion, the UN Secretary General calls on the EU to engage in "detailed consultations" with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). And, beyond the immediate impact on the lives of the most vulnerable of the Congolese people", a rapid deployment would send a political message to both parties to the conflict that the international community is determined not to allow a complete deterioration in the east. du Congo"... It couldn't be clearer

(NGV)