EU Strike Force in the Congo - A Quagmire Report?

Congo

"Welcome to sheer folly "

The bloodbath continues unrestrained in the district of Ituri even though French soldiers have now arrived. Instead of ending the orgies of terror, the strike force cruises the patrol beat.

The United Nations offers up images of misery again. For hours already, manic kid soldiers with Kalashnikovs, mortars and 82 millimeter cannons in Bunia's town center have delivered a rowdy battle. And the Uruguayans from the UN? They're crawling around on the floor of their headquarters like turtles, blue helmeted and in bullet proofed vests, saying Hail Marys.

They cart in exactly ten men as reinforcements in the course of this eerie morning, although 700 armed UN soldiers are camped at the airport. The Hema reinforcements, attacked by almost 400 Lendu children, owe the fact that no more than 12 combatants have fallen victim to the gunfire to its better weapons. The representatives of the world organization remain practically inactive.

Colonel Daniel Vollot, French boss of the UN mission, to his sorrow, though, without much authority, has already fled, in view of the nearly continual excesses of force in the east of Congo, into cynicism quite a while ago. Like tennis, the battle surges back and forth, he explains in the garden of the UN headquarters: "Sometimes from left to right, then, and then back again. How boring!" And then, the paratrooper laughs, while salvos of rapid fire weapons whip through the neighboring streets.

He's enjoying the sun, now, Vollot says; the crack of the exploding shells, the rat-a-tat of machine guns is like music to him. You can't change much, anyway: "Whoever wants war, he'll get it, too." One of the "Uru-Batt", the UN battalion from South America, who has entrenched himself behind a little wall, stares over at him incredulously.

Johannes Wedenig of the child relief organization UNICEF can only bear the monstrosities of the daily grind of the war with difficulty, also. "Welcome to sheer folly", He moans. Wedenig has set youth work as his goal, but the man can be thankful that none of the Congolese children, who are unscrupulously exploited by African war lords, has murdered him yet. For the bloodbath continues undiminished - in spite of all good intended resolutions and all additional European soldiers, who are now deployed in Bunia under French command.

Their mission is named after the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and she is able to, according to mythology, bring harmony and a long life besides plague and death. But, in harmlessness, the EU mandate can be hardly be outdone. The French shall safeguard the airfield and the town, including its two refugee camps. No more. Bunia has long been under control of the Hema, only a few Lendu are still staying in the place. Meanwhile, in the Ituris Mountains, inconceivable horror is taking place outside the small radius of the peace-keeping forces.

So, ten thousand have already escaped to the south: 150 kilometers by foot through the jungle to the city of Beni, which is controlled by soldiers loyal to the government. They have escaped the horror of their native country, Ituri, and soon, could actually fall into the trap once again. Because Rwandan soldiers are moving forward from the south and are attacking Beni. They are allies of the Hema militia and endeavor to exploit the mineral resources of Congo for their government in Kigali.

"If cholera breaks out in the huge refugee camps, we could experience a catastrophe fast", fears Pascal Vignier, of Doctors without Borders: "These are too many people in too small a space and we have too little water." The danger of epidemic increases with every new-comer. The first six suspected cases of cholera have already been reported.

In a tent on the edge of the camp, Vignier and his colleagues document what the exiles from Ituri report. They are protocols which remind one of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The people tell of "systematic murder", of whole families carved up with machetes ("Pangas"), of ritual cannibalism and of genitalia cut off. "They eat the hearts of their enemies to acquire strength ", the Frenchman says. Recognizably, he has trouble finding words for this insanity.

55 275 refugees had been registered in the camp at Eringeti by the end of last week. Michelle Brown of the relief organization, Merlin, estimates the total number in the region at 130 000. The aide worker Eugene Kasongo of World Vision, active in the area for years, thinks: "The people are in safety only temporarily. This is only the beginning, here."

Father of a family, Jean-Pierre Lubondo, for example, had been attacked twice by Hema militias on the flight. He survived a massacre in a village 15 kilometers from Bunia. He saw the dismembered corpses of his neighbors. Now at the camp, he is trying to feed himself and his family, and, at the same time, two children who lost their parents and were wandering aimlessly in the woods. "The Hema said that they want to kill all of us. Nobody is going back soon."

Lubondo could soon be thrown back into the deadly whirlpool, though. Clashes are already reported in Butembo. That's only 40 kilometers away. If the Rwandan soldiers and their Congolese allies should take Beni, then the masses of refugees would be driven to the north again, directly to the Kalashnikovs of the Ituri killers.

Such worries don't yet seem to bother the special representative of the European Union for the area of the Central African Great Lakes, Italian Aldo Ajello. He landed at the airport in Bunia for a quick visit, protected by the cannons of the 3rd French marines regiment; he threatened the Congolese militiamen with an international war crimes tribunal.

How soon the 1400 man strong EU peace-keeping force can end the murdering, when they will just secure Bunia's streets and airport, he doesn't want to say.

Ajello prefers to say how proud he is that, "this deployment under the flag of the European Union", has taken place. Europe now supports, with the first military appearance on another continent, a peace process in which the neighboring countries and war-mongers Uganda and Rwanda also want to participate.

Much more can't be elicited from the monosyllabic commander of the international strike force, General Jean-Paul Thonier, either. It is only certain that one won't leave Bunia, and one doesn't think of disarming the militia. In addition, the troops will only be fully-manned in several weeks, and within three months the mandate expires again. UN soldiers from Bangladesh, so it is planned, shall pacify the Congolese civil war regions.

These are gloomy prospects, despite the war-like upswing at the Bunia airport, over which the ostentatious "Mirage" fighters thunder. "The Hema are in the process of wiping out the Lendu, and nothing will be done about it", says Rüdiger Sterz of German World Hunger Assistance. Namely, if the Lendu should make attempts once more to get the town under their control again, the French, if in doubt, would have to support the Hema militia of leader Thomas Lubanga and so maintain such a terrible status quo.

80 civilians shall have been massacred in a village only 20 kilometers from Bunia today. At the same time, the French were setting up their accommodations and cruising patrols in the city. An order to take action against the murdering, they didn't have.

I was reminded of the "Quagmire" when The US forces in Iraq had their supply lines ambushed.

Looks like the EU strike force is surrounded by kids with kalishnikovs.

longjack

They need more troops. They can't fight in this weather. The natives know the terrain better. The troops are not combat tested. The natives are will fight American occupation to the death...er....EU occupation to the death..

Actually, I think the EU troops are in for an old fashioned whoopin'. I want to hear the media scream and hold the EU troops to the SAME IMPOSSIBLE STANDARDS of WARFARE, i.e., no civilian casualties, no infrastructure damage (not that they have much), no looting, rapes, or anarchy, that the US was held to in our battles.

hold the EU troops to the SAME IMPOSSIBLE STANDARDS

kAcknor Sez:

Oh, but they are. Unfortunately, to live up to the standards in warfare as set, they are forced to do nothing but:

"[crawl] around on the floor of their headquarters like turtles, blue helmeted and in bullet proofed vests, saying Hail Marys."

...and nothing much else. This is why of course, they wish us to do the same.

"batIhHa' vanglu'taHvIS quv chavbe'lu'" (One does not achieve honor while acting dishonorably.)

Have you checked the *bang_list today?

From easy chairs in EU and US, those unfamiliar with the nastiness of life in the pits of Africa

(and other parts of Chaostan; see, e.g.,
http://wws.editthispage.com/2000/06/28
http://www.webcom.com/beacon/Chaostan.html )
will probably shake their heads in disgust and turn away. What will get their attention? Perhaps, "Coming to a neighborhood near you, and soon" ?

Especially places like France, Italy, England,and Germany, with aging 'native' populations and growing numbers of Middle Eastern and North African immigrants who are young, fecund, and drenched in Islamic jihad ideology, which pronounces Allah's blessing on Viking-like Vandal-like lifestyles.

Welcome to the 21st century!

"For the bloodbath continues undiminished - in spite of all good intended resolutions and all additional European soldiers, who are now deployed in Bunia under French command."

Good intended resolutions and French command are about as useful as taking more sand to the Sahara.

"Such worries don't yet seem to bother the special representative of the European Union ... he threatened the Congolese militiamen with an international war crimes tribunal."

LOL. Yeah, that will do it.

"The Hema are in the process of wiping out the Lendu, and nothing will be done about it"

But we should put our faith in the UN to protect us, isn't that what some on the left have told us?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.