Posted on 06/06/2003 5:08:30 PM PDT by blam
Congolese cheer French troops arriving in Bunia
By Declan Walsh in Bunia
07 June 2003
French special forces led a rapid reaction force that deployed in north-eastern Congo yesterday to halt the spate of ethnic massacres that led to 430 deaths last month. Hundreds of joyous Congolese cried "Liberated!" as officers from the advance force, which will eventually number 1,400, sped up Bunia's main street.
Surly fighters from the Hema militia controlling Bunia looked on. Five British officers also arrived to prepare for British deployment. The final UK troop numbers remain unconfirmed.
Hundreds of refugees poured out of the UN compound, where the terrified townspeople have been living under plastic shelters since last month's killing spree. In a week of fierce fighting Hema and Lendu militia left hundreds of bodies littering the streets, many in pieces.
"We are so relieved," said Floribert Kanda, a former gold mine manager who had been sheltering behind the UN razor-wire fence. "For once it seems the West is thinking of us after 10 years of abandonment."
Shortly after the dawn landing, a French special forces officer, who declined to be named, said: "It is quite a complicated situation. There are several factions but we have robust rules of engagement." In the overcrowded airport terminal behind him, hundreds of refugees were desperately awaiting a flight out of Bunia. They pressed against the windows to witness the long-awaited arrival.
"A three-month [deployment] is not enough," said Johanes Jalwiny, who had been camping in the building with his family for a month. "And they should not just stay in Bunia. Worse things are happening in the countryside."
The UN mission to Congo has been sharply criticised because 700 Uruguayan troops already stationed in Bunia failed to halt last month's massacres.
Their French commander, Colonel Daniel Vollot, who punched a cameraman who failed to obey an order to move back yesterday morning, defended their record "The conditions were extreme," he said. "We were not prepared to fight."
In contrast, the new force will have orders to open fire if needed to halt any fresh wave of violence. France is contributing half of 1,400 troops, and the remainder will come from Britain, Germany, Belgium and other European nations. Canada and South Africa are also contributing troops. The mission will end on 1 September. The UN Security Council approved the deployment, which will be backed by fighter jets based in the region.
The wider conflict in the DRC, now slowly subsiding, began in 1998, sucking in five other African nations when Rwanda and Uganda invaded to help rebels fight the government. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia intervened on the government's side.
An estimated 3 million people have died since 1998, mostly through disease and starvation caused by the conflict. With Bunia surrounded by warring ethnic militias, the UN mission will be a perilous one. But the film showing at the local video theatre did not bode well. Hundreds of youngsters sat transfixed before Terminal Mission, a violent Vietnam-era movie.
Loud cheers burst out as a soldier torched a straw hut and a burning man ran out. "We are definitely welcoming the French," shouted the theatre owner. "But this, I can't explain."
What else is new?
By Adrian Blomfield in Bunia
(Filed: 07/06/2003)
The Telegraph (UK)
French special forces embarked on one of the West's riskiest African missions in years yesterday, deploying in the Congo with orders authorising the use of force against warring tribal militias ravaging one of the world's bloodiest regions.
About 100 of France's elite troops and a small contingent from the RAF, the advanced party of a UN-approved European combat force, flew into the ramshackle airport at the small town of Bunia, receiving a tumultuous welcome from war-weary residents.
As the French commanders drove into the UN compound in the town, hundreds of Lendus, members of Bunia's majority tribe, jubilantly poured out of an overcrowded, makeshift shelter in the grounds.
Thousands had fled there since the minority Hema tribe seized the town on May 12 during a battle in which at least 430 people, mainly civilians, were killed.
Pressed against the razor wire surrounding the compound, they chanted "liberé! [freed] liberé!", clapping and cheering as the French drove past. "We were suffering but now we are free," said Robert Asiya. "My past is gone. My parents, my wife, all my children were killed. But now the French are here perhaps I have a future."
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been wracked by a civil war for the past five years. Aid agencies estimate at least three million people have died in the fighting and from hunger and disease. The UN mandate is unclear on the geographical boundaries of the operation but does specify the mission must end in three months.
Disarming the militiamen and pacifying the region in so short a time could turn an operation fraught with problems into a mission impossible.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been wracked by a civil war for the past five years. Aid agencies estimate at least three million people have died in the fighting and from hunger and disease. The UN mandate is unclear on the geographical boundaries of the operation but does specify the mission must end in three months.
Blam, this doesn't add up, unless one could cynically guess that France has manipulated the U.N. in a three month little PR trip. God help the Congolese.
It'll be extended.
The Bunions don't seem to pose a threat to anyone that I know of, and surely not to a mighty nation such as France or the EU.
As far as I know, they don't possess any weapons of mass destruction, and wouldn't know how to use them if they did.
Why is it necessary to invade now? Can't we just send Hans Blix in to look around for a decade or so?
Why weren't we consulted in this matter? This smacks of unilateralism of the worst sort.
In my opinion, this Chirac fellow is a jingoistic war-mongering cowboy, and it's our duty to thwart his dreams of Pax Franca.
Oh, and by the way --- when it's over we want a piece of the spoils or we'll scream until we turn blue!
< /sarcasm >
Their problem in Africa, same as our problem would be in Africa, is this: how do you know who to shoot?
And then, as sure as a white guy shoots a black guy, it's "Why you racist bastards!", all over the left-leaning, peacenicking, race-baiting world.
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