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UN In Denial as Congolese Army
Works With Paramilitaries, Angolans, Let Them Eat Soap
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 7 -- As the presidents of
both Congo and Rwanda blame the UN for deaths in Eastern Congo, in New
York UN
Peacekeeping's Deputy Edmond Mulet acknowledged reports of the
Congolese Army,
which the UN backs, is working with the formerly genocidal Hutu rebels
of the
FDLR. "It is up to Kinshasa to solve it," Mullet said. But is that an
adequate answer?
When the UN
sends 17,000 troops into a country, and supports an army made up of
former rebels
accused of killing civilians, the UN bears some duty to either clean up
the
local army or stop supporting it. In this case, the UN has admitted
that the
Congolese Army, the FARDC, not only fled in the face of rebel General
Laurent
Nkunda's forces, but looted and raped and killed civilians as they fled.
Inner
City Press on Friday asked Mulet about reports that at least two
peacekeepers
were shot, allegedly by their ostensible partners or beneficiaries, the
Congolese Army. Mullet down played the injured list to one, and said it
couldn't be determined who had shot the peacekeeper. Video here,
from Minute 11:30. Convenient, said one wag.
DPKO's Le Roy and Doss tour Goma, FDLR and
jerry cans not shown
Likewise,
when asked about reports of Angolan troops assisting Kabila's FARDC,
Mulet
answered that some Congolese troops had been trained in Angola, and so
might
have done back speaking Portuguese. But a story from the field quotes
both a UN
official and a Uruguayan peacekeepers about seeing the Angolans. If the
UN saw
something, would the UN say something?
Earlier in
the week, Inner City Press asked about reports of UN trucks arriving in
starving village and throwing into the crowd not food, but soup and
plastic jerry
cans. "It was just an assessment mission," the Spokesperson
responded. But why then the plastic jugs and soap? After spending $2
billion a
year in the Congo, the UN should be able to do better than this.
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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