ugnet_: France Wants U.N. Troops Sent to Congo

[Matekopoko]

Netters:

WHY is it that, in all this Ituri Congo Crises, nobody is emphasizing the fact that DICTATOR YOWERI MUSEVENI HELPED INSTIGATE THE CONFLICT BETWEEN BETWEEN HEMA" AND LENDU?  (Here then is were Members of the International Community often go wrong! )

Secondly, what, if anything, are members of the International Community going to do to reprimand Dictator Yoweri Museveni for promoting.... rather, further instigating Hutu/ Lendu Conflict?


YOU refuse to condemn Dictator Yoweri Museveni for arming the Lendu and the Hema, then forget it!... You are going to deploy all the UN peace keeping troops you want in DRC...  and guess what, you will not be able to stop the violence.!
Matek
  





France Wants U.N. Troops Sent to Congo

By EDITH M. LEDERER
.c The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - France asked for U.N. approval Wednesday to deploy an international force in northeastern Congo where an upsurge in ethnic violence and atrocities has killed nearly 400 people.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, expressed confidence the Security Council would approve the resolution on Friday and said he expects the first troops to arrive in Bunia next week.

``I think we have to show that the whole international community is ready to act when there is an emergency situation,'' he said.

France will lead the battalion, which is expected to have about 1,000 troops from a number of countries in Europe as well as Pakistan, South Africa and Nigeria.

The force would be deployed only until September, when 1,500 Bangladesh-led troops are expected to be deployed to Bunia and the surrounding Ituri region as part of a the U.N. peacekeeping force for Congo.

The French-led troops will work with the 750 U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay already in Bunia to bring stability and protect the airport, refugees, and the people in town ``if the situation requires it.''

The crisis began on May 7 when Uganda withdrew over 6,000 troops from in and around Bunia as part of a U.N.-brokered peace accord. Rival Lendu and Hema tribal groups fought for control of the town in street battles that killed nearly 400 people, U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

Carolyn McAskie, the U.N. deputy emergency relief coordinator, who just returned from Bunia, said the situation ``is extremely volatile.'' She estimated that about 85 percent of the population has fled, leaving some 15,000 people sheltering in the U.N. military compound or in camps near the airport, and about 20,000 elsewhere in town. Bunia had about 250,000 people before the fighting.

``We have seen the most horrible things in Bunia - women who've lost their arms and legs, children amputees, men chopped to bits, women raped,'' McAskie told a news conference.

Now, ethnic fighters holding Bunia have threatened to attack civilians sheltering with U.N. forces, Toure said Wednesday, denouncing what he called the ``inadmissible threat.''

U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Williamson warned rebel groups they ``would be ill-advised to take any advantage of the current situation.'' He expressed hope of a return to calm once the French-led force arrives.

``The real story,'' McAskie said, is nobody knows what's happening in the rest of Ituri, which is hard to access. The district has a population of between 3 million and 4 million.

She said ``elements'' of the bloodshed in Bunia are ``reminiscent'' of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda though not comparable in scale.

``In addition to this volatile cocktail of different rebel groups fighting each other, you have a number of leaders who are inciting ethnic hatred,'' she said. ``The hate messages and the fact that the men, women and children are attacking each other brutally turns on the alarm bells and the comparisons in our minds.''

The United Nations was criticized for not doing enough to stop the slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

Congo's civil war, which began in 1998, has killed 3.3 million people, most through famine and disease, according to aid groups. Foreign forces have withdrawn from Congo under a series of peace deals. Rebels and the government signed a power-sharing deal in December, but eastern Congo still remains a battle zone.

Netters:

It is simply beyond any rational expection, that in all this  Ituri  Congo Crises, nobdoy is emphasizing the fact that DICTATOR YOWERI MUSEVENI HELPED INSTIGATE THE CONFLICT BETWEEN  BETWEEN HEMA" AND LENDU? Here then is were Members of the International Community often go wrong!

Secondly, what, if anything,  are members of the International Community going to do to reprimand Dictator Yoweri Museveni  for promoting  rather  futher instigating   Hutu/ Lendu Conflict?

Matek
  
05/28/03 20:22 EDT