Situation in the DRC (the Congo) Gets Worse

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200407110002.html

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The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become increasingly tense in recent weeks. The five-year conflict in the DRC formally ended in 2003 - this deal was the culmination of numerous peace deals, a new constitution and the arrival of over 10,000 United Nations peacekeepers (MONUC) in the county. However, conflict has continued in the east of the country for most of this time. Recent security upheavals have further threatened the fragile peace and transition process and there are concerns that the DRC could slide back into a full-scale civil war, again involving neighbouring countries in the Great Lakes region.

The Kinshasa government has positioned an additional 10,000 troops in the eastern part of the country. This move followed a week-long insurgency earlier in the month by former rebel troops, who briefly seized the eastern border town of Bukavu. Subsequent clashes between government troops and the former rebel soldiers have led to fears of a fresh conflict. The DRC has accused Rwanda of actively backing the rebels and each country has alleged that the other is massing troops on the border. This area of the country is particularly vulnerable to violence, encompassing mobile bands of fighters as well as rival ethnic militias, and weapons are easily available.

As a result of such insecurities, around 85,000 people have been displaced, many crossing the border into Rwanda and Burundi. Burundi is currently hosting over 31,000 Congolese refugees and announced on 20th June that it would be unable to cope with a new refugee crisis in the event of a full-scale war in eastern Congo .

The humanitarian situation is at risk of reaching a catastrophic level. Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, told the UN Security Council in mid June that eastern Congo was without question he world's worst long-running humanitarian disasters, with 3.3 million people out of reach of relief groups . The current instability and outbreaks of violence are compounding the inaccessibility of eastern DRC to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local traders, making it difficult for people to receive aid or buy basic supplies. A number of NGO offices have been looted in Bukavu, Kindu, Kisangani and Walikale. It has been difficult for humanitarians to operate in these conditions and a number of aid agencies have closed their offices and evacuated expatriate staff, many to the City of Goma. This has added hundreds of thousands more Congolese to the numbers of people living without food aid, basic health care, water and sanitation . Although a few international staff are now beginning to return, the situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.situation remains critical.
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[G_j]

1. so terrible

hell on earth

[Robbien]

2. I just read a story this morning where Italy turned away a boat of

refugees from the Sudan.

Millions are in danger all over the world and we are busy elsewhere spending our resources building empires.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. We prefer that people pay as litl attention as possible to Africa

it keeps the cost of their natural resources low

[AP]

10. And it provides a market for weapons.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. For the US but even more so for the rest of the world

The plight of black Africans is the money making favorite to almost everybody

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. Kick for the most undereported major war in history

Most killed since WWII

[Blue Wally]

5. 10,000 UN Peacekeepers

Maybe the UN should pony up twenty times that number. You would have less to work with in the Congo than you do in Iraq. You pretty much need the UN to declare the Congo to be a UN colony and have HONEST UN administrators down to the village level. Then you slowly start building the place up from the ground level until you get to national elections in about twenty years.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

6. Unnacceptable!

Action in Africa NOW!!!

[Blue Wally]

7. How so........

That is the necessary action. You have to build functional societies from the ground up. You really need some sort of UN "trusteeship" to run nonfunctional countries to break the endless rounds of coup and countercoup and tribal violence. Putting in more soldiers would provide a solution only until the soldiers left. How many US or UN soldiers would it take to stop all of the violence on all of the continent? Those countires need "nation building" for a long term solution.

I don't hear the African countries in the UN demanding that the UN "take action now".

Sudan
Somalia
Rwanda
Burundi
Congo
Liberia
Angola
Zimbabwe

How many troops???

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. Just 1 example - the Sudan - Colin Powell is calling for action now.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200407090028.html


That's the only example I have time for right now.

[Blue Wally]

9. and.....

What is the response of the UN?? Are they rushing troops into there??

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

11. No - why do you think they're not?

?

[Blue Wally]

13. Because

The UN as a whole is incapable of such an action. It is only when one country takes the lead and the UN decides to tag along that anything decisive happens.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. I've heard the same BS about the war in Iraq - think it was Rumsfeld

Same load of crap

[Blue Wally]

15. How effective was the UN in Bosnia??

Until President Clinton and the US got involved???

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. So what do you think the UN needs to be effective?

Or do you find them irrelevent?

I don't think Africa can handle a "gradual" approach as people die in their millions. How are you going to rationalize a gradual approach?

[Blue Wally]

17. I didn't say a gradual approach

I said:

1. Move in with massive military force to separate warring factions.

2. The UN to take over the whole country involved from top to bottom.

3. The UN adminsistration then to slowly grant independence and sovreignity from the bottom up (start at the village level and work upward through the political subdivisions toward the national government with the UN administrators withdawing "up the chain").


Just putting in troops is only a short term solution. We (that is the UN) have to build stable nations bit by bit. If the UN doesn't have the stomach for that, then the UN is irrelevant except as a debating society.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

18. I guess that I'm looking at this as more of a systemic problem throughout

Africa and the rest of developing world. If the world was more honestly engaged with countries rather than being only concerned with profitting from their turmoil and then bailing them out with troops when things get out of hand, then I think that this kind of evil could be avoided in the first place.