French Forces come Under Fire In the Congo

Associated Press ^ | Sat Jun 14, 4:01 PM ET | ANDREW ENGLAND

[cyberjet31]

BUNIA, Congo - French troops leading an emergency force in Congo came under fire for the first time Saturday in their mission to stabilize this northeastern town ravaged by tribal turf wars

[cyberjet31]

I wonder if we will end up going there ourselves.... lets just hope the french don't give up this one or we might...

[Az Joe]

My God the French have invaded a soverign country?

[cake_crumb]

Good luck and Godspeed men. We pray for your safety, because we knew from the first announcement this was going to be a puppet show by the Axis of Weasles and their satellites, and that the troops the dumped into the Congo for cosmetic reasons were going to have to pay the price. We know THEY don't care, but WE do.

[pgobrien]

Another example of France's imperialism......No Blood for Oil!

[Jackson Brown]

From the body of the article:

""Later, French troops scoured the hilly area from where the fire had come but found nothing — "no corpses, nothing," Pons said.""

Someone needs to tell the French that they HAVE to load and shoot those guns to effect any damage on the people who are attacking them. Dropping them just leaves dents in the ground.

JB

[nravoter]

I don't make a secret about the fact that I'm far from a fan of French policy, but I sure hope these guys pull through and make it home in one piece. Godspeed, soldats, et bonchance.

[KS Flyover]

French Troops Come Under Fire in Congo
Sat Jun 14, 4:01 PM ET

By ANDREW ENGLAND, Associated Press Writer

BUNIA, Congo - French troops leading an emergency force in Congo came under fire for the first time Saturday in their mission to stabilize this northeastern town ravaged by tribal turf wars.

The firefight on the outskirts of Bunia, from which the French special forces emerged unscathed, occurred amid growing concern that the force's mandate is too limited and does not include the demilitarization of the town that six weeks ago boasted a university, a brand-new mobile phone network and a thriving trade in gold.

"I don't know why they are here," said Jan Mol, a Dutch priest who has lived in Bunia for 15 years. "It's just show."

The French patrol — among the first 400 members of a force expected to number 1,400 — returned small arms, heavy machine gun and light tank fire after being fired at by attackers about 4 miles south of Bunia, spokesman Maj. Xavier Pons said.

Pons said it was impossible to know who provoked the 20-minute gun battle and whether the 70 French troops and 20 vehicles were the target or had been caught in the cross fire between the Lendu and Hema tribal militia.

The Hema Union of Congolese Patriots, or UPC, which currently controls the town, blamed the Lendu for the attack on the French patrol. The Lendu could not be reached for comment.

Later, French troops scoured the hilly area from where the fire had come but found nothing — "no corpses, nothing," Pons said.

The Hema and Lendu militias began intense fighting for control of Bunia, the capital of unstable Ituri province, in early May after some 6,000 troops from neighboring Uganda pulled out in accordance with an agreement to end a five-year civil war in Africa's third-largest nation.

More than 400 people were killed in a week of fighting between the factions, which were armed with bows and arrows, machetes, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Corpses lay abandoned on the streets for days as a handful of U.N. aid workers and thousands of Congolese seeking refuge huddled in U.N. compounds in the town center and at the airport.

About 700 U.N. troops, who could only fire in self-defense, guarded their compounds and looked on.

The high number of civilian deaths led the U.N. Security Council to authorize the deployment in Bunia of the international force, which began arriving on June 6.

The force, which is authorized to shoot to kill if necessary, has a three-month mission to secure the town and its airport and provide security for displaced people and aid agencies. But the troops won't be deployed outside Bunia where fighting continues and they don't have a mandate to disarm fighters.

The French-led troops will be replaced by a U.N. contingent from Bangladesh in September.

Congolese and analysts say that troubles will continue unless the thousands of tribal fighters — some as young as 10 — can be disarmed.

The International Crisis Group, a respected Brussels, Belgium-based think tank, on Friday called for a much larger intervention force operating over a much larger area for a longer period of time.

Calling the present emergency force "a stopgap," ICG Africa director Francois Grignon said if Bunia were not urgently demilitarized, the French-led force "is likely to be caught in competing accusations from all the militias that almost certainly will lead to conflict."

Spokesman Col. Gerard Dubois said he was confident the force would succeed in stabilizing the area.

"We have the mandate and orders to respond to aggression and to use our weapons to protect those we have to protect," he said.

The province of Ituri, which is about twice the size of Maryland, is a vast, fertile, mineral-rich region of forests, lush, green hills and rivers running with grains of gold.

But it's also the scene of some of the worst atrocities committed during the civil war in Congo ranging from massacres in churches and hospitals to cannibalism and rape.

Tribal disputes over power, land and other resources date back to the 19th century, but the outbreak of civil war in August 1998 brought a deadly new dimension to their differences as Rwanda, Uganda and the Congolese government armed and supported rival factions. An estimated 50,000 civilians have been killed in Ituri since 1999.

The civil war erupted when neighboring Uganda and Rwanda sent troops into Congo to support rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, whom they accused of supporting insurgents threatening regional security.

Despite a series of peace deals leading to the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, tribal militia and rebel factions backed by Uganda, Rwanda and the Congolese government continue to fight each other in eastern and northeastern Congo.

The best the international force can hope to achieve is a "dampening effect," said Jonathan Stevenson, a senior analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"These (armed) groups maintain an interest in instability rather than stability because they are able to do better for themselves at the end of the barrel of a gun than by entrusting their future politically to the (Congolese) government," he said.

[cake_crumb]

"My God the French have invaded a soverign country?"

AHHH, but they had UN sanction, which was billed as a 'DECISIVE MOVE' on the part of the UN, which is supposedly still stinging from the Rawanda massacre which it observed but failed to prevent....

See? THE FRENCH have the SPIN.

[wunderkind54]

We followed the French into Viet Nam, but that was then...and this is now.

I doubt mightily that the U.S. is going to care a wit about this area of the world, even if the French get their noses bloodied.

The only concern of the U.S. at this time in Africa is: al Quaida.

[Consort]

The Congoleons will overwhelm them.

[Arpege92]

How many French military personel dropped their weapons while re-treating?

[kcar]

No way should we send our troops into the heart of darkness. This is a socialist continent that is largely beyond hope - we have no American objectives there.

[LibKill]

Except for raids to rescue American citizens or kill terrorists we should stay the hell out of Africa.

Africa is a hellhole. There is nothing there but disease, tribal hatreds and death (sudden and slow).

If Africa's problems are ever to be solved, it will be by Africans.

Maybe about 10,000 years from now.

[Porterville]

[watchin]

hahahahahah hahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahaha etc.

[Wolverine]

Where is the UN resolution...and Kofi's approval?

[Sub-Driver]

French Troops Arrive in Congo, Surrender Imminent
GarlicNews.com ^


Posted on 06/12/2003 1:10 PM EDT by Sub-Driver


French Troops Arrive in Congo, Surrender Imminent

BUNIA, Congo — Two planeloads of French troops have arrived in Congo in preparation of a larger EU-led force to stabilize the area. The French troops have been ordered to "assess the tactical situation on the ground and the state of the airstrip," according to French Colonel, Daniel Vollet.

The French troops, about 100 in number, met heavy resistance from at least 12 Congo civilians, who surrounded the French planes immediately after its landing at the remote field. Shouting, "Frenchy, go home!" in Congolese, the dozen or so men took turns stabbing at the planes with sticks, forcing the terrified French soldiers to remain on board for several hours.

Sometime around 6 p.m., the civilians unexpectedly left the airstrip. After 60 minutes of situational assessment, Col. Vollet ordered the plane doors opened, and a French soldier tentatively poked his head out for visual reconnaissance. The soldier then moved carefully down the plane's steps, followed closely by infantrymen armed with automatic rifles loaded with self-deploying flags of surrender.

"At that point, we were operating on pure adrenaline," said Col. Vollet. "The troops were like coiled springs. I calculated that the militia horde we encountered had gone home for dinner, but they could be back at any moment. My boys had to be ready to fire their white flags without hesitation. This is where all the hard training pays off."

A number of French scouts took up perimeter positions as far as 15 feet from the airplanes, and special force technicians prepared an emergency radio bunker in anticipation of enemy harassment. The bunker's equipment includes a 300,000 decibel loudspeaker system and state-of-the-art high frequency broadcast equipment, with the capacity to transmit surrender signals in up to 23 different languages, simultaneously.

However, no Congo forces returned. After a sleepless night, the apprehensive soldiers settled into a more comfortable routine of organizing their equipment and performing drills. A number of squads could be seen practicing retreating, dropping their weapons and wetting themselves. Several days later, the anxious French commander seemed puzzled about the quiet situation.

"I can't really believe that they've been scared off. It's possible that they think we came here to fight, and are mounting a counter-offensive at this very moment. Far-fetched, but possible. It's the unknown that gets to you. We'll all feel better once we're able to do some real surrendering."

Intelligence sources within the country reported that the Congo civilians and militia, in fact, want no more encounters with the French Army. "It was terrible," said one of the airstrip veterans. "They all stink, very badly."

[schaketo]

A long time ago, Britain and France were at war.

During one battle, the French captured an English Major. Taking the Major to their headquarters, the French General began to question him.

The French General asked, "Why do you English officers all wear red coats? Don't you know the red material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?"

In his bland English way, the Major informed the general that the reason English officers wear red coats is so that if they are shot, the blood won't show and the men they are leading won't panic.

And that is why, from that day until now, all French Army Officers wear brown pants.

[schaketo]

Once upon a time (allegedly) in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth. One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down.
This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit. "Oh, my," said the bunny, "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going. In fact, since I'm also an orphan, I don't even know what I am."


"It's quite OK," replied the snake. "Actually, my story is much the same as yours. I, too, have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother. Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and figure out what you are, so at least you'll have that going for you."

"Oh, that would be wonderful" replied the bunny. So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, "Well, you're covered with soft fur; you have really long ears; your nose twitches; and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny rabbit."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you," cried the bunny, in obvious excitement. The bunny suggested to the snake, "Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you've helped me."

So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, "Well, you're smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I'd say you must be French".