Europe heard growing appeals on Thursday to rush a military force to east Congo until the arrival of UN reinforcements, from which diplomats said Kinshasa wants to exclude Indian troops. Congolese President Joseph Kabila's government told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week it did not want Indian soldiers to be part of the 3,000 extra UN peacekeeping troops and police destined for east Congo, diplomats in Kinshasa said.
In a letter and verbal messages to Ban and UN officials, Democratic Republic of Congo's government said it was unhappy with Indian UN troops in North Kivu province, where they have been criticised for failing to stop rebel attacks and killings.
In an embarrassment for the UN mission in Congo (MONUC), the Indians have also been investigated for sexual misconduct and illicit gold and arms trading, and have faced accusations of showing support for Tutsi anti-government rebels led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda.
Congo's objections to Indian troops emerged as prominent world figures appealed to the European Union to help provide security for east Congo, where rebel advances since August have driven around a quarter of a million civilians from their homes. The dignitaries, including former presidents of the Czech Republic, Ireland and South Africa, said an EU rapid reaction force should be deployed immediately.
"While the UN has authorised an additional 3,000 troops it will likely take between three and six months to deploy them. The Congolese people cannot wait," they said in a letter.
It said the EU could send one of its standing battle groups to help protect civilians which the UN says have suffered massacres, executions, rapes and torture by both sides. Evoking previous massacres in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, the figures, among them Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and billionaire investor George Soros, said world leaders had vowed never to let such atrocities happen again. "It needs your personal political leadership to make sure this happens and ensure 'never again' really means never again," the letter addressed to European leaders said.
Belgium said on Wednesday it could contribute to a possible European force in its former colony, where there are fears the latest conflict could escalate into a repeat of a devastating 1998-2003 war that sucked in neighbouring states.
But there have been doubts about the idea of a European force for Congo among some EU members, a number of whom already have military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Nothing is off the table, but our main priority is to strengthen MONUC," said Nick Kay, British ambassador to Congo.
The UN force in Congo, at 17,000-strong the largest peacekeeping mission in the world, has said it cannot provide total security in North Kivu, stretched as it already is over a country the size of Western Europe, where armed groups abound. In their objections to the Indian peacekeepers, Congolese officials described them as "an instrument of destabilisation" but have sought to minimise the diplomatic sensitivity of their move by trying not to mention India in public statements. "They mean the Indians, it's well known," another western diplomat told Reuters. Humanitarian agencies say they cannot work without more protection.
Rebel chief Nkunda has pledged to respect a cease-fire, but hundreds of Congolese civilians fled east into Uganda on Wednesday to escape Tutsi rebel operations against their traditional Rwandan Hutu militia enemies in the province. MONUC said these actions violated the cease-fire.
Nkunda cites the presence of the Rwandan Hutu FDLR militia as the justification for a rebellion he says aims to defend Tutsis. The FDLR includes perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. A UN special envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, is due to return to Congo on Friday on a mission to try to set up peace talks between Nkunda and the government.
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