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In
Congo, UN's Doss Calls for the Return of Artemis, As
Nkunda Draws Closer
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 28 -- As in the Eastern
Congo the forces of renegade general Laurent Nkunda take over villages
around
Goma, the head of the UN Mission in the Congo, Alan Doss, spoke Tuesday
with
the Press by video link from Kinshasa. He chided Congolese locals for
protesting against MONUC inaction or retreat, urging them to understand
the
Mission's mandate. But Inner City Press has been told that even Troop
Contributing Countries like India disagree with Doss about the scope of
the
mandate, under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, and have at times
refused to
fight after calling in to New Delhi.
Inner City
Press asked Doss if he has spoken with New Delhi, or Montevideo in
light of
reports of Uraguayan peacekeepers retreating around Kibati. Doss said
that UN
Headquarters makes those calls. Doss expressed frustration at Spanish
general
Diaz, who left the top military post in MONUC after barely three weeks
on the
job. Another high point in Spanish military history, one wag snarked.
Inner City
Press asked Doss to respond to comments by North Kivu governor Julian
Paluku
that a non-UN force, like the French-led Artemis team sent in 2003 to
Bunia in
Ituri, is now needed. Doss said that was possible, but would be up to
the
Security Council. But outside the Council Tuesday afternoon, Western
diplomats
said there's no talk yet of such a force.
It's worth
noting that in the wake of Artemis' time in Bunia, reports of torture
of
Congolese, corroborated by Swedish observers, have surfaced. Special
forces
have a tattered history in Eastern Congo. Given the Council's now
lackadaisical
oversight of MONUC, bigger guns with less control may not be a good
idea.
UN copter and Congo combattants: fly, fly away
When asked
if the town of Kibumba had fallen to Nkunda, Doss turned off camera to
his
operations chief, who apparently said no. Doss then referred to
misinformation,
a "war of SMS" text messages meant to create fear. But
who knows more about Kibumba, wire service
reporters on the scene or a bureaucrat in a bunker in Kinshasa?
Doss
described some South African peacekeepers discovering 13 abducted
children
among a unit controlled with Nkunda. Doss went out of his way to say
Nkunda
might not be responsible. They were about to become child soldiers,
Doss said.
Will UN expert Radhika Coomarswamy, or ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno
Ocampo, get
involved? Will
the UN Security
Council's Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict?
Update of 6:30
p.m. -- Inner City Press asked
French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, who heads the Council's Working
Group on
Children and Armed Conflict, about Doss' disclosure of the 13 child
abductees
among Nkunda's forces. We are looking at this very seriously, Ripert
said,
adding that recruit may be taking place "on all sides." Ripert said
that while some are considering an Artemis-like force, there is no
serious and
concrete proposal as of yet. We have all been surprised by how quickly
things
have moved, he said.
Update of 7:20
p.m. -- New UN Peacekeeping chief
Alain Le Roy took questions from the Press, stressing how well the
Indian, Uruguayan,
Senegalese and South African peacekeepers are doing.
Inner City Press asked about his
communications with troop contributing countries -- since sources say
that the
Indians, in particular, have differed about the scope of MONUC's
mandate. Le
Roy was upbeat, praising performance, blaming the locals for not
understanding
MONUC's mandate. Then he was swept off, for separate TV interviews.
What about
the civilian(s) shot by peacekeepers? That will be for another day. So
too with
the President of the Council, who read out a non-official press
statement and
then left, as Inner City Press asked if there had been discussion of a
non-UN
force being sent.
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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