DR Congo: UN-backed military action halted after army troops protest conditions

One of two operations in which hundreds of helicopter-backed United Nations peacekeepers were helping the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) dislodge militia has been called off so that the Congolese soldiers involved can receive better training and preparation, a spokesman said today.

The decision to suspend the operation, in which 300 UN ‘Blue Helmets’ were helping the army dislodge militia said to have been looting and enslaving locals in the eastern Ituri region of the vast country, was taken after an incident yesterday when some newly integrated elements of the national army protested over their conditions of service.

Both the peacekeepers from the UN’s Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Moroccan contingents and the Congolese army soldiers, who include reintegrated former rebels, have now returned to Ituri’s main town, Bunia. They had been operated in the Tchei area, some 60 kilometres to the south-east.

Another 300 ‘blue helmets,’ also backed by combat helicopters, have been helping the army further south to drive out rebels from neighbouring Rwanda, where they have been operating for the past 10 years in the heavily forested area north of Bukavu, the main city of the South Kivu region.

The operations were the latest in recent months in which the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) has played a more active role in seeking to bring stability to the eastern DRC as the vast country prepares to hold elections in June to cement its transition from a six-year civil war that cost 4 million lives through fighting and the attendant humanitarian catastrophe – the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II.

The head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno, is due to begin a 10-day working visit to the country on Monday with a full list of major issues on his agenda, ranging from the elections to reform of the security sector to the fight against impunity for rights abuses.

“The exceptional duration of stay underlines the importance of the working visit,” MONUC said in a statement. “The arrival of the Under-Secretary-General in the DRC reaffirms one again the resolute engagement of the UN is this country.”