U.N. troops destroy Rwandan rebel camps in Congo
By Marlene Rabaud
REUTERS
9:52 a.m. July 21, 2005
MIRANDA, Congo U.N. peacekeepers and government soldiers destroyed a remote rebel base in eastern Congo in their latest operation to pressure Rwandan gunmen to lay down their guns and return home peacefully.
More than 1,000 Guatemalan special forces soldiers, Pakistani commandos and Congolese government troops were airlifted to a hill-top rebel headquarters, which they searched for weapons and then torched to the ground on Wednesday.
The raid was launched days after about 1,000 rebels had fled into the nearby forests. There were no reports of casualties.
'The general strategy is to put them under a lot of pressure to take them away from the population and to isolate them,' Gen. Ali Khan Shujaat, commander of the U.N. Pakistani forces in South Kivu, said as 100 huts were being torched in the rebel camp, 45 km (28 miles) west of the city of Bukavu.
'They will have to leave we left them no options. We'll keep pushing them deep into the forests making heir lives more miserable,' he added, referring to the 10,000 rebels that are based in eastern Congo.
Rwandan Hutu rebels, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), have operated in the region since many took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
After a decade of preying on civilians and following massacres in eastern Congo this year, they are under increasing pressure to keep a March promise to disarm and go home.
Rwanda has invaded eastern Democratic Republic of Congo twice saying it wanted to neutralise the rebels, fuelling a conflict compounded by conflicts over power and resources.
Joseph Mutaboba, secretary-general of Rwanda's internal security ministry, welcomed the operation by the U.N. mission, known as MONUC.
'If indeed this is happening, then that's good news though it comes long overdue. The U.N must keep pressure on these genocide forces to make sure they put down their arms,' he said.
'We hope it is not another public relations story for MONUC but indeed a commitment that will eventually show results.'
NO MANDATE TO DISARM
The U.N. force does not have a mandate to disarm the rebels, but peacekeepers say Wednesday's operation is the latest in a series aimed at disrupting rebel control of farming areas, gold mines and extortion rackets used to maintain the FDLR.
So far, the FDLR have complied with U.N. ultimatums to vacate their camps, there have been no gun battles and the villagers have been happy to see peacekeepers, long accused of standing by while civilians bore the brunt of Congo's wars.
'They stole my clothes ... they even killed my father,' said Muendwa Kahegesha, a Congolese boy told U.N. peacekeepers, wearing his one remaining tattered T-shirt.
Peacekeepers and diplomats in Kinshasa are concerned that the Rwandan rebels may react to the U.N. and Congolese army by stepping up operations against them by targeting civilians.
Earlier this month 39 villagers were burned alive in an attack blamed on the Rwandan rebels.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/...ratic-raid.html
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Congo's peacekeepers tackle rebels and red tape
08 Aug 2005 01:04:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Lewis
KINSHASA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Battle-hardened from hunting al Qaeda militants in the mountains at home, Pakistani commandos are finding that donning blue helmets to tackle rebels in the jungles of Congo can pose unexpected dilemmas.
Part of the most expensive U.N. peacekeeping operation ever, the Pakistanis are backed by Guatemalan special forces and attack helicopters but face challenges from red tape to a lack of logistical muscle and reliable intelligence.
Charged with tackling Rwandan rebels causing havoc in lawless eastern Congo and shoring up a peace agreement, they are again facing a foe who knows the terrain intimately and who is practised at killing.
"We have the experience of fighting against al Qaeda in our own country but this is another challenge," says a Pakistani peacekeeper who has taken part in crackdowns against militants in Pakistan's mountain passes and is now based in Congo's lush South Kivu province.
"In Pakistan, we had a lot of liberty to operate as we wanted and we had access to money, technology and intelligence. And the Western nations are interested in what is happening there, which helps," he said.
There are 2,700 Pakistani peacekeepers based in South Kivu, alongside Guatemalan commandos and Uruguayan troops, in an area where thousands of Rwandan gunmen continue to terrorise villagers two years after Congo's latest war ended.
Many of the gunmen fled to Congo after participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Kigali used the rebels' presence as justification for invading Democratic Republic of Congo twice during the 1990s, sparking two large-scale conflicts.
The rebels promised earlier this year to lay down their weapons but instead have stepped up attacks on civilians and, with the fledgling Congolese army still fragmented, the United Nations has been pressured into taking action.
U.N. troops have no mandate to disarm the rebels by force but they have launched a wave of operations, issuing deadlines to the rebels before destroying camps and scattering the gunmen into the bush.
For the soldiers, it is a slow, dangerous task -- illustrated by the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers in an ambush in February.
"Elsewhere peacekeepers can travel in armoured personnel carriers but in South Kivu we have to be dropped in by helicopters and walk in by foot for several hours. This is very dangerous as they (the rebels) know the terrain and have selected their positions intelligently," the peacekeeper said.
Pakistanis participated in an operation in which an estimated 50 people were killed at a militia base in March with a new get-tough approach that won praise in some quarters but angered many Congolese, who saw the attack as misplaced revenge.
The dilemma did not end there. Rwandan rebels have killed dozens of civilians since then in attacks that survivors have described as shows of force to counter growing pressure by U.N. troops.
BATTLING THE BUREAUCRATS
Peacekeepers are supposed to be conducting joint operations with the Congolese Army. However, regional analysts question whether the army's leaders are really prepared to take on the Rwandan gunmen, with whom they fought against separate Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda during an invasion in 1998.
"We are two forces and we should be coordinating our actions. But we have seen that army units have been collaborating with the rebels. A number of commanders are in business with them," Major-General Patrick Cammaert, the head of the U.N.'s Eastern Division, told Reuters.
Accused of not doing enough to protect civilians, particularly in the northeastern town of Bunia in 2003 when hundreds of people were massacred, peacekeepers are finding their more robust approach is getting caught up in red tape.
Soldiers and U.N. administrators have clashed on issues such as whether helicopters could be flown at night, or whether local interpreters and Congolese soldiers are insured to travel in helicopters on supposedly joint operations.
"Are the rules and the regulations ready to support the mandate that we are trying to fulfil?" asks the cigar-smoking general. "Can they keep up with the tempo of the operations that we are carrying out? In order to keep the peace, sometimes we have to enforce it."
The United Nations says the operations are moving the gunmen away from civilians on whom they have preyed for years, but the complexities of eastern Congo could yet pose problems.
With national army integration faltering -- and the 3,000 U.N.-trained government soldiers in South Kivu lacking pay, uniforms and logistics -- some analysts fear that the peacekeepers' efforts may push the rebels into more attacks on civilians, rather than towards disarmament.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LEW946957.htm
