The Congo (merged)

[GAP]

DR.Congo army retake control of airport after UN deaths
Article Link
Mon Apr 5, 8:13 am ET

KINSHASA (AFP) – The Congolese army has retaken control of the airport in a major city in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo, a day after two UN personnel died in clashes, officials said Monday.

The DR Congo military retook control of the airport in Mbandaka, the main town in Equateur province, where fighting took place Sunday afternoon, an advisor to the provincial governor Guy Inenge said.

On Sunday government forces had exchanged fire with several dozen tribal insurgents in Mbandaka and a UN soldier from Ghana was killed in the clash.

Communications Minister Lambert Mende, who is also government spokesman, said that a local civilian member of the UN mission in the DR Congo, MONUC, "died of a heart attack" during the violence.

The gun battle erupted after security personnel found the rebels in a boat from the capital Kinshasa, and insurgents attacked the airport.

The fighting pitted the DR Congolese army (FARDC) against about 100 members of the Enyele tribe, according to Inenge.

"I think there were more casualties on their side, apart from the MONUC soldier who died at the airport and the Congolese employee of MONUC who died of a heart attack," Mende said.

"The situation is under control (of the FARDC)," he added. "The governor is reassuring people that they can return home safely."

A member of a local rights group, who asked not to be named, said that "the situation calmed down during the night. The FARDC have regained the airport and soldiers are circulating everywhere in the town."

No source contacted by AFP was able to give a casualty toll from the past 24 hours.

Tens of thousands of people left Equateur province after tribal fighting broke out in October and the UN and Congolese army sent reinforcements to the densely forested area, eventually restoring state control in December.

The tribal violence mainly pitted the Enyele, led by a witch doctor, against the Munzaya people, and erupted as a dispute over fishing rights in ponds at a village called Dondo.

According to officials, the fighting spread to several other villages and claimed at least 270 lives, mostly those of villagers. The clashes induced about 187,000 people to flee, including 109,000 in the neighbouring Republic of Congo and 18,000 in the Central African Republic.
More on link

 

[GAP]

UN asksCanada for help in the Congo
UN official uses GG's visit to issue direct appeal to Ottawa
Article Link
Tonda MacCharles Ottawa Bureau

GOMA, CONGO—The United Nations issued a direct, public appeal to Canada Tuesday, asking for the country's help with the international peacekeeping operation in the troubled Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The challenge to Canada to step up was echoed repeatedly by residents in Goma on a day when Governor-General Michaëlle Jean arrived amid tight security as violence rose in regions of the country.

A possible UN pullout at this critical stage has soldiers, civilians, and men and women of Goma fearing a wholesale withdrawal will leave people at the mercy of vicious armed groups hiding in the jungle.

Christian Manahl, the UN deputy administrator overseeing operations in the eastern Congo, was blunt with Canadian reporters after meeting Jean at the UN compound here on the shores of Lake Kivu.

He outlined progress on the ground, but quickly added there was an important role for Canada.

“Definitely logistics, mobility, and intelligence are the key issues where we felt more would be needed,” Manahl said.

He also said the UN mission in Congo needs more money to boost its peace-building efforts. He said another $5 million to add to the $4 million available.

Some of that support may well be on the way.

It is widely expected here Canadian Gen. Andrew Leslie will get the nod from Ottawa and members of the Security Council to take over command of the UN mission in Congo, and will bring with him up to 100 top-level officers to support the mission.
More on link

 

[MP 811]

I was just in the Congo on tasking.  Quite the place.  Amongst some of the things that happened;

- Police tried to extort money out of me twice.
- had an assault rifle cocked and pointed at us.
- witnessed a female beaten and presumeably raped afterwards.

If we end up there in any capacity, its going to be a difficult go.  The UN troops there have no respect from the locals, and in fact, Kabila wants all UN forces out by 2011.  I do believe Canadians have a good reputation amongst the local populace.  I was in a street market and once they found out we were Canadian, they're whole demeanor changed with comments like "Canada and Congo, brothers"...stuff like that.  Of course, thats when the first attempt to extort money out of me by the police happened. 

 

[GAP]

If Canada’s military is itching for a fight, it won’t be in the Congo
Article Link
Campbell Clark

Ottawa — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Apr. 22, 2010 3:00AM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Apr. 22, 2010 7:38AM EDT

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is not Canada’s next big military mission.

The UN has asked for a Canadian commander, Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, to lead its peacekeeping mission in the African nation. But the debate inside Ottawa is about whether a Canadian general would go with a handful of troops, or a few handfuls, perhaps 50. If he goes.

Ottawa has not yet given Gen. Leslie the go-ahead because of concerns about costs and the potential for Canadian responsibility for a large and difficult mission to eventually creep into something bigger.

Even with small numbers, however, it is part of a major decision: Canada will have to decide what its post-Afghanistan military will do. Accepting command in the DRC would mean returning to UN-led peacekeeping operations, which Canada has largely left behind since the mid-1990s.

There are calls in some quarters for Canada to do just that: the Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan is ending, and they argue that the UN has improved the oversight of peacekeeping. But while many Canadians see UN-led peacekeeping operations as part of their identity, many Canadian soldiers view them as a past they’d rather not revisit.

This week’s visit to Kinshasa by Governor-General Michaëlle Jean fuelled speculation that large numbers of Canadian troops will soon be deployed to the DRC under Gen. Leslie’s command. But the debate in Ottawa over smaller numbers probably says more about the wary attitude toward such missions.
More on link

 

[pbi]

Given the way these things can go in Africa, I'd bet that any Canadian government, regardless of party affiliation, would have big scary nightmares about a repeat of Rwanda, this time with another Canadian general in charge.  Still, if it can be managed properly, it might be a way to quiet some of the UN parrots such as the reporter, who keep playing the same broken record that Canada has "abandoned" UN peace support ops.

Cheers

 

[Sprinting Thistle]

Its also an opportunity to demonstrate the utility of the renewed Joint Deployable HQ being established in Kingston. 

 

[Journeyman]

DR.Congo army retake control of airport after UN deaths
Article Link
Mon Apr 5, 8:13 am ET

The article goes on to state

.....[retired MGen Lewis Mackenzie] “The UN has extreme difficulty commanding and controlling those types of operations.”

“My only recommendation would be, ‘don’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.’ ”

...which I agree with whole-heartedly.

It also states

But some argue that’s out of date. A recent paper published by the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute argues the UN’s peacekeeping-mission control has improved, and Canada should consider a return to peacekeeping

Although the article doesn't specify the CDFAI paper, I commented on it in this earlier thread. Suffice to say, I disagree with the author's views on the UN's magnificence.

 

[SupersonicMax]

I was just in the Congo on tasking.  Quite the place.  Amongst some of the things that happened;

- Police tried to extort money out of me twice.
- had an assault rifle cocked and pointed at us.
- witnessed a female beaten and presumeably raped afterwards.

If we end up there in any capacity, its going to be a difficult go.  The UN troops there have no respect from the locals, and in fact, Kabila wants all UN forces out by 2011.  I do believe Canadians have a good reputation amongst the local populace.  I was in a street market and once they found out we were Canadian, they're whole demeanor changed with comments like "Canada and Congo, brothers"...stuff like that.  Of course, thats when the first attempt to extort money out of me by the police happened.

My wife spends 6 months out of every year living in Kinshasa and flying all around the DRC (working for the UN as a pilot).  She does go out of the UN compound (even in night clubs!) and never got into trouble whatsoever.  Yes, she has seen things we do not see in the Western World but understand it is not a Western Country.  She has nothing but positive things to say about the Congo.

If you speak French, you will get around much more easily.  The "police" that was trying to get money out of you was probably not a police officer but someone pretending to be one.  People there are starving.  They will do everything they can to get money including lying.  The rent in Kinshasa is normally about 80% of what someone makes, leaving little for other essentials.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Reprinted under the usual caveats. A write-up by General (ret'd) Roméo A. Dallaire and Paul Dewar on why we (Canada and the CF in particular) should be getting involoved in the Congo.

Article Link

Canada must intervene

We have too long ceded our position of leadership in fighting crimes against humanity; Canada has a responsibility to act in Congo

By Citizen Special April 29, 2010

This year, April 23 marked an important first in Canada. In recognition of our country's historic leadership in peace, international co-operation, and ending violence in conflict, former prime minister Lester Pearson's birthday has been recognized by Parliament as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Mass Atrocities.

It is our hope that this recognition will also serve as a reminder that Canada's leadership on these issues must not remain in the past. We hope it will mobilize the Canadian will to intervene to make the prevention of mass atrocities a vital national interest.

Canada has ceded its position of leadership in fighting crimes against humanity. As a country, we now rank 57th in contributions to UN peacekeeping missions. Nowhere is this absence more acute than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a place where we have repeatedly been asked to send peacekeepers. The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been one of the bloodiest conflicts since the end of the Second World War. From the time when the fighting broke out 10 years ago, some three million to five million people have been killed. Over 1.4 million people are currently displaced. Human rights violations are rampant. In one province alone, every day more than 40 women are raped by militias. Sexual violence has become a weapon of war to disrupt communities and displace populations. The flow of conflict minerals into our markets fuels and exacerbates the violence.

Canada has a unique history in the DRC. In 1960, under the leadership of John Diefenbaker, Canada sent 421 troops to support the UN's peacekeeping mission tasked with ensuring the withdrawal of Belgian forces and assisting the new Congolese government in maintaining law and order. That mission ended in 1964, but decades of political strife and regional violence took more victims in the Congo.

The current conflict in the Congo is, in part, a spill-over of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, where the international community, including Canada, sent too few reinforcements as 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. Following the end of the genocide, some two million ethnic Hutus fled Rwanda, fearing retaliation. Among the fleeing refugees were militants and genocidaires responsible for the Rwandan massacre. These militants have since formed the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and are one of the main perpetrators of the fighting and the violence against civilians that continues to this day.

Our failure to end impunity against sexual violence has made it the weapon of choice for the militias. Our insatiable appetite for Congolese minerals has financially sustained the atrocities. We have the responsibility to intervene.

MONUC, the current UN peacekeeping force in the Congo, has not succeeded in halting the atrocities. In the decade since its inception, MONUC has grown to the largest peacekeeping mission in the UN's history. Despite its size, MONUC is still woefully under-resourced for the enormous task of dismantling rebel groups and protecting communities from violence.

MONUC's resources are further stretched as the conflict has outgrown its initial geographic limits. Neighbouring Uganda's notoriously brutal Lord's Resistance Army has set up bases in the north-east region of the Congo. Just recently the evidence of yet another massacre was discovered by Human Rights Watch.

In 2003 and later in 2008, Canada was asked by the UN to join the peacekeeping mission in the Congo. Our expertise, professionalism, logistic and strategic capabilities, as well as linguistic proficiencies would have advanced the cause of peace.

Canada's contribution to peace in the Congo will require a multi-faceted approach to support the peacekeeping mission, to end violence against women and involve them in peace building, and to stem the trade of conflict minerals that sustain these atrocities.

Pearson contended that "we need action not only to end the fighting but to make the peace." Canadian action for peace in the Congo is long overdue.

Lt.-Gen. Roméo A. Dallaire, (Ret'd) is a Liberal Senator and co-founder of the All-Party Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity. Paul Dewar is an NDP member of Parliament and foreign affairs critic, and chair of the All-Party Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity.


© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

 

[The Bread Guy]

Globe & Mail - Uh, no thanks:

Canada has turned down the command of a major UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, giving the general touted for the post another job at home.

The United Nations had asked Canada to send Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie as the commander of the 20,500-strong peacekeeping force in Democratic Republic of the Congo. But on Friday, the Defence Department announced Gen. Leslie will take on the job of helping redesign the post-Afghanistan Canadian Forces.

Command of the Congo mission would have been a symbolic reconnection with UN-led peacekeeping missions, which the Canadian Forces have largely eschewed since the 1990s.

But the Canadian government decided not to take a high-profile command of a troubled mission, even though it would have meant committing only a few dozen troops, while the Canadian Forces are still heavily engaged in the war in Afghanistan.

The decision to assign Gen. Leslie at home came after Canada decided not to take command, sources said, although a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon refused to confirm that Canada has told the UN it will turn down the command ....

CBC.ca says

.... sources tell CBC News the Canadian military will not deploy a large force to the Democratic Republic of Congo after its mission in Afghanistan ends next year ....

A bit of history - same thing two years ago:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/76957.0.html

.... "Finding a lieutenant-general at this time can be a challenge, especially with Afghanistan going on," said Maj. Denys Guay, deputy military attaché at Canada's permanent mission to the UN in New York ....

.... and rumblings 7 years ago:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/2710.0.html

.... The foreign affairs department has pushed hard for Canada to make some kind of significant contribution in Congo, where more than 2.5 million people have died of fighting or famine blamed on a five-year civil war.

But the cash-strapped defence department has resisted, citing the strain caused by Canada's pledge to send 1,800 troops to Afghanistan this summer to join the international stabilization force there and its roles in the war against terrorism and in Bosnia-Herzegovina ....

 

[GAP]

DiManno: Congo is beggared and corrupt as ever
Published On Sat May 29 2010
Article Link

KINSHASA, CONGO—Twinkling lights strung along Boulevard du 30 Juin merrily remind that this country will celebrate its golden anniversary of independence next month — 5-0 writ large in red, blue and green mini-bulbs, in lieu of neon.

Equally large and exclamatory letters spell out the name of the man who has set aside millions for the upcoming festivities: President Joseph Kabila.

P’tit Joe as he’s still known to most Congolese — L’ll Joe — has turned into Big Joe, and he’s flexing his muscles.

Many African nations have historically fallen under thrall, or tyranny, of “Big Man Syndrome,” a father complex with larger-than-life leaders who loom over their realms as corpulent manifestations of grand vows, grander ambitions, grandest visions, until they’re knocked out of power by force, sent packing with their looted billions or, as in the case of Kabila’s papa and immediate predecessor, Laurent-Desiré Kabila, assassinated. They seize, squeeze and then get toppled.

Or, their lands become a kind of suzerainty of the United Nations, which was invited in as a blue beret peacekeeping force in 1999, amidst brutal back-to-back Congo wars, and is now very much wanted out.

Kabila — who is not obese and eschews the tribal frou-frou and leopard skins vainly adopted by long-time (overthrown) dictator-kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seke — was globally lauded as the newest Congo saviour when he took over the reins of a transitional government following his father’s slaying and then actually held free elections as promised.

Only in his late 20s, he was solemnly civilized and Western-ish — though educated in Tanzania and militarily trained in China — and army chief-of-staff under his dad when Kabila père led the Rwanda/Uganda-backed assault that ousted Mobutu. Kabila dedicated himself, first off, to salvaging the Congo’s deranged economy, embraced by Washington, the World Bank and a legion of salivating capitalist exploiters.
More on link

 

[sean m]

It just seems to be the same old same old scenario with Africa. a totally corrupt and inept government, more than one militia seeking power, all the players just using death and destruction as a way to achieve power. You have all these other African nations who are attempting to get their countries interests  sorted out ex, Chad, Angola, Sudan etc. You just have so many militias who are fighting; Mai- Mai( who are just trying to stop the Ugandan backed rebels), then you have DFLR which is a Rwandan Hutu proxy group and etc etc. There is no way this conflict would end until all parties unanimously agree to stop fighting, who knows if that will ever happen 

 

[Kat Stevens]

Tribal warfare in Africa has gone on since the first man picked up a stick and drove the second man away from the leftover protopig killed by protolions.  There is no reason to believe it will end any time soon.

 

[sean m]

The thing is that people there must have some realization of what it is like outside and how developed it is. yet they persist in continuing this unnecessary violence. Of course it is not the entire population, and it really has to do with poverty and other problems which plague these nations, corrupt leaders etc etc. This continent has so many resources and capabilities, it is too bad how nothing is achieved there. At least in South Africa there does not seem to be any inter tribal related engagements ye there still is alot to be completed there.

Tribal warfare in Africa has gone on since the first man picked up a stick and drove the second man away from the leftover protopig killed by protolions.  There is no reason to believe it will end any time soon.

 

[George Wallace]

............... At least in South Africa there does not seem to be any inter tribal related engagements ye there still is alot to be completed there.

OK!

Time for you to step away from your computer.  You obviously have delusional problems, as the above statement indicates that you have not done enough RESEARCH to be commenting on many of the topics that you have so far attempted to enter on this site.

Please do us all a favour and finish High School, do some more reading, and then come back to this site better informed.

 

[GAP]

DiManno: Parallels between Congo and Afghanistan
Article Link
There was a time when Canadian peacekeepers in this country were pistol-whipped, kicked, robbed and force-marched in their bare feet.

On each occasion of abuse, it was, allegedly, a case of mistaken identity. The Congolese tormentors thought those clearly designated blue beret Canadians were despised Belgians, remnants of an occupying colonial power whose paratroopers had descended anew only weeks after the Congo won its independence, their swift return purportedly necessary to protect white Europeans caught up in the violence provoked by a no-time-wasted army coup.

Such was the shock and disgust of Canadians back home at the mistreatment of “our boys” that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was inundated with furious letters of protest, many of them overwhelmingly racist in content.

One read: “I used to feel sorry for these poor natives, for there is no doubt they have been abused, but it is no doubt now they are more animal than man. From now on I shall only think of them as smelly dirty n---ers . . . Tell them to shoot and not to wait until they ‘see the whites of their eyes.’ ”

That was all back in 1960 when the United Nations first stepped into the Congo mess to prevent civil war. Canada contributed more than a thousand (in rotation) non-combat troops, primarily the 57th Signal Unit (radio, communications) and despite a public souring on the mission, hung in till the end in 1964, among the last nations to pull out.

Diefenbaker did, however, repeatedly decline a UN request to leave a unit behind that would train the Congolese army and gendarmeries.

There is an echo of that ‘nuff done posture in the apparent unwillingness of the current Canadian government to continue training national security forces in Afghanistan when that nine-year mission ends next year. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to touch the subject of what next or where next for the country’s battle-hardened soldiers.

But not here — that much is evident, even if French-speaking UN troops are as desperately required now as they were 50 years.

History has taught Canada to stay out of the Congo. While there are no suicide bombers and no IEDs here, the violence is relentless — old-style, even panga-style — with the UN Mission (The Sequel), now in its 11th year, equally reviled and praised as keepers of the intermittent,regional peace.

MONUC takes the rather paternalistic view that the Congo would be doomed if they departed prematurely — a repeat of the ’60s exercise when, two years after the mission accomplished UN forces left, the country was thrust into war.
More on link

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Great article that touches on one of the fundamental conundrums of current times - how does one conduct Expeditionary COIN - and the attendant all to frequently unasked question: should we conduct expeditionary COIN.

 

[Infanteer]

A friend of mine in the SF says you cannot do that - "expeditionary COIN" is Foreign Internal Defence.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

A friend of mine in the SF says you cannot do that - "expeditionary COIN" is Foreign Internal Defence.

Agreed - but surely this is, in many ways, exactly what we have been doing in AStan?

 

[Infanteer]

COIN or FID?