As Congo collapses, France steps in
Outside the Nyakasanza Catholic church, child soldiers with rifles roam streets littered with spent casings, the remnants of fierce fighting the day before.
Inside the crowded church, the local priest wants his flock to ask why.
"It is not the foreign people who must make us understand that we must live together," says Father Donné Uringi, his voice booming over the church's crackling loudspeaker. "It is not them who we must ask why Bunia is destroyed today."
After years of ethnic strife in this mineral-rich Ituri province of Congo, the United Nations is stepping up its effort to stop the bloodshed with a French-led 1,400-strong multinational force, which began arriving Friday. But it is unclear whether the additional foreign peacekeepers, currently set to stay only until Sept. 1, will have a strong enough mandate to bring security to this region.
Among the most pivotal issues: Can or will they disarm the ethnic militias who have clashed here since the war in Congo broke out in 1998?
Calming this northeastern cauldron, where many of Congo's various ethnic groups live, is seen as key to securing peace in the country as a whole.
"The next two weeks are crucial for the Congo," says Nigel Pearson, an aid worker with the Swiss group Medair who has lived in Ituri Province for more than a decade, "Will there be enough troops? Will they have the power to intervene? Or will this be just another vague gesture from the West?"
At war since August 1998,the Democratic Republic of Congo now has a peace treaty and, at least on paper, a transitional government. But without security, those agreements mean little.
The new French-led contingent, expected to trickle in over the next few weeks, is a reinforcement of the existing UN force in Congo, called MONUC, which numbers 8,700 and is tasked with keeping the peace in a country one-fourth the size of the United States.
Until now, most of these peacekeepers have been poorly equipped soldiers from developing countries like Uruguay and Morocco who see participation in the UN missions as a way of keeping their armies paid.
"MONUC is only as good as we make it, and that means the P-5 countries have to commit," says Mr. Pearson, referring to the five countries with permanent seats on the Security Council. "That's something they've never yet done."
Although existing MONUC peacekeepers do have the authority to protect civilians, that mandate has been thus far interpreted very narrowly. The new multilateral force has more direct power to protect civilians and is authorized to use force if necessary to restore security in Bunia.
But there are problems with their mandate as well. They have no power to forcibly disarm combatants, and the rebel group that now controls the city, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), has made it plain that they have no intention of disarming voluntarily.
Nor does the new force's authority currently extend beyond the city limits to the surrounding villages where ethnic massacres have reportedly taken place.
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