THE UNENDING PEACE KEEPING MISSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations are in Congo (DRC), to journey with the country on the way of building peace, democracy and development, their focus point is on different areas including security, economic, health, development (rural and urban).

The UN mission in Congo started with the birth of the country as an independent nation in 1960s, to maintain the independence, unity and democracy was among the first mission, this will change with the situation which has never been stable in the country.

The mission of the UN can be discussed into three phases: the first is the ONUC (1960-1964), the second was MONUC created in 1999 and the third one is MONUSCO in 2010. MONUSCO was a modification of the MONUC after the election of 2006 and the report which outline the importance of supporting the Country in his new path of democracy. This subdivision of the discussion into 3 periods was also function of the three different events in the history of the country: the ONUC enter into action at the dawn of independence, the MONUC to support the Lusaka agreement while the discussion about MONUSCO will look at his mission to support the Addis-Abeba agreement.

While the peace keeping mission of the UN in Congo can be located in different period; for example after the withdrawal in 1964 of the ONUC another mission will be initiated 35 years later however the other institutions of the UN were always present in the country that is why the title of this paper is the unending mission of the UN. The focus will however be on the peace keeping mission, as we consider peace to be the backbone of democracy, development and law.

 UN MISSIONS IN DRC

July, 11, 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo join the United Nations as a member while the country was already facing a political crisis which started just few days after the declaration of the independence of the country; the secession of the Katanga province by Tshombe, more importantly, the country was a ground of operation of external military’ troupes (mercenaries), who were there to protect individual and foreign nations’ interest in the country.

The result is that, one day after its admission as a member of The United Nations, DRC will appeal to the UN to stabilize the country, guarantir territorial integrity of the country and protect the country against external aggression. This presents us a clear picture that the country was facing internal and external problems, to which it could not give any solution due to political division ( United Nations, 1995).

The appeal of the D. R. Congo to the UN, will lead the Security Council of the UN to create ONUC (Operation de Nations Unies au Congo): United Nations Operation in the Congo with the following objectives:

-          To help the government restore and maintain the country’s independence and territorial integrity.

-          To help the government maintain law and order.

-          To put into effect a wide program of technical assistance to the country; this include health and sanitation, administration, education, economy…

Following the assassination of Prime minister, Patrice Lumumba in 1961, the mission of the ONUC was strengthened to include the following:

-          Protect the country from outside interferences, more importantly by evacuating foreign mercenaries and advisers from the Katanga province.

-          To prevent clashes and civil strife

We have to note that, the ONUC was allowed by the mandate to use force as a last resort in their operation of peace keeping; this was witnessed in the two missions in which the ONUC was involved in a fight in order to maintain peace and order in 1961 and in 1962: they fought against the Gendarmes secessionists of Katanga led by foreign mercenaries (MONUSCO, 2016).

The first UN mission in Congo will last 4 Years from 1960 to 1964, and according to the UN records, the mission was made of 20 000 officers and civilians (MONUSCO, 2016).

February 1963, Katanga was reintegrated to the national territory and the ONUC started a slow withdrawal from the country, which will be completed on June 30^th 1964. After this first intervention, the country will wait a long period before seeing another UN peace keeping mission on its soil.

After the Rwandese genocide, 1994, nearly 1,2 million of Hutus fled  to Congo, under the French Operation, however the French did not care to disarm the people entering Congo as refugees so that those refugee camps were used as recruitment ground and training ground for armed groups. These were seen as threat by Kigali and Uganda as well, who wanted to evacuate them back or to carry out an operation by fear that a rebel group would one day come out of those camps and threaten the power in Kigali.

That fear was expressed by their readiness to help Kabila ( Laurent Desire ), to invade Congo in 1996 with the idea of once to power, Kabila will be their collaborator who will bring back those people among the refugees who are consider to be dangerous, or to bring back to Rwanda all the refugee so that Kigali will sort out and solve the problem or as the last resort let the Rwandese army to carry an operation in those camps as was the case in Kisangani during the first Congolese war of the 1996. The fall of Kinshasa in 1997, marked the end of Mobutu reign and the beginning of Kabila reign.

Instead of responding favorably to the agreement with Kigali, Kabila will use his popularity to turn the public against the Rwandese soldiers; accusing them of looting minerals, more importantly they will be accused of wanting to colonize Congo by taking military and political powers. With the public behind him, Kabila was able to take the Rwandese soldiers back to their country.

The deception of Kigali will eventually led to the outbreak of the second war of Congo in 1998, in which Rwanda and Uganda took a decision to back up the RCD movement. This will lead to the destabilization of the region; with the absence of the government in the region other armed groups will be formed. According the UN at least 30 armed groups were identified, all these will result in chaos and killing of population and other many atrocity related to war.

In July, 1999, a cease-fire agreement was signed in Lusaka, Zambia between Congo and the other 5 countries involve in the war: Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia which were supporting the Congolese government and Rwanda and Uganda which were supporting the rebel group. The agreement was supposed to result in disengagement of all groups by surrendering their weapons and the withdrawal of all foreign troops.

With the objective of monitoring the observation of the Lusaka agreement by the signatories, the resolution 1279 of the Security Council of the UN, created the MONUC (Mission de l’Organization des Nations Unies au Congo), United Nations’ Mission in the Congo on 30^th of November 1999; this is the second UN peace keeping mission in the Congo (MONUSCO, 2016).

The overall mission of the MONUC was to monitor and enforce the Lusaka agreement; the MONUC was therefore supposed to do the following:

Elaborate a plan which will enable different troops to observe the agreed cease-fire

Enforce the disengagement and the surrendering of arms by the local armed groups

Supervise the withdrawal of the foreign troops

The overall mission of the MONUC can be said in this case to be the implementation of the Lusaka agreement.

The assassination of Kabila in 2001 will see Joseph Kabila (Kabila’s son) to be appointed as the new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With the support of the UN, an agreement was signed in South Africa in 2002, which opened a door to a transition and a sharing of power between Kabila and the former rebel leaders. This will result to the organization of the election in 2006, making an end to the sharing of power and the transition. This can be considered as the second success of the UN peace keeping mission after the unification of the Katanga province during secession.

The MONUC however did not withdraw from the country, they did remain to assist the government in different areas such as military, police, political, health, economic and help the government to restore a state of law and peace in the country (MONUSCO, 2016).

July 1^st  2010, the Security Council of the UN by its resolution 1925, baptized the MONUC to MONUSCO (Mission de l’Organisation des Nations pour la Stabilisation au Congo),  United Nations’ mission for the stabilization in Congo. This change according to the UN was the result of the country entering a new phase in its history.

This new resolution allowed the MONUC to use all the necessary means to achieve its mandate. The mandate includes the following:

Ensure the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human right defenders exposed to imminent threat of physical violence.

To help the government stabilize and strengthen peace

(United Nations, Unis dans L'action: Les Nations Unies Partenaires de la Republique Democratique du Congo, 2013).

The reconfiguration of this mission, declared the Security Council will be done in function of the evolution of the situation on the ground.

Two Years later, the course of history will change with the outbreak of violence, war in Northern Kivu province in April 2012, leading to the destabilization of peace in the region, displacement of population and insecurity.

With the desire of finding a solution to the recent problem and with the ideas that this destabilization in Congo can be solved by inviting all the countries within the great lake region on February, 24^th 2013, in Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia, the UN General Secretary, the president of the African Union and the 11 countries of the Great Lake region, signed an agreement: “L’accord cadre pour la paix, la securite et la cooperation pour la RDC et dans la region”.

In support to the agreement signed by countries in Addis-Abeba, and in response to the call by the countries of the great lake region, the Security Council of the UN adopted the resolution 2098 of March, 28^th 2014, by this resolution; the mandate of the MONUSCO was extended to 31^st March 2014.

The resolution (2098), an intervention brigade was created to reinforce the operation of peace keeping.

This special brigade was to be put in place for a period of one year, and will be working with the government forces to fulfill the following:

Neutralize the armed group and reduce the threat presented by them to the authority of the government.

Prepare the ground for the activities of stabilization of the country

Based on the reports concerning the evolution of the situation on the ground, the Security Council of the UN decided to extend the mandate of the MONUSCO including the Special Forces (brigade) to March 2015 (MONUSCO, 2016).

The situation on the ground is showing that the renewal of the UN mandate is far from ending, meaning that the UN making a permanent mission in the country.

CONCLUSION 

The UN is in Congo to protect the population living in the conflict zone, assist the weak, reinforce the government capacity to consolidate peace and contribute to the economic development of the country. By focusing on this statement, the UN mission in Congo can be said to be a success as well as a failure. The UN in Congo has contributed greatly to education, sanitation in those conflict areas, in protecting civilians, in reforming the police and the army more importantly the special Brigade has been able to pacify several part of the country. They have contributed to the disarmament of several troops and also educate the people about laws.

However to protect the weak can also be said to be a problem, as far as mass killing continue in the country, violation of human right is common in the country and this in presence of the UN. This led us to ask the question if what the UN is doing is enough, because they have to think of making something happen. The UN has been great observers in Africa, they were observing the genocide in Rwanda, observing the atrocity in Uganda during Idi Amin and they are observing the evolution of the situation in Congo. There is no an armed group capable of resisting the force of the UN when holding few Kalashnikov, machete, spears or arrow, when we know the power force which can be generated by the UN.

Mourning does not bring a dead person to life; instead of wait it to happen and then condemn it, act to prevent it from happening. As long as the UN will not walk in this order of idea, the impact of their mission will be as little as nothing compare to the number of people killed in their presence, the displaced people, the number of girl rapped, the number of child enrolled in the army, the number of villages destroyed, the number of family broken.  

United Nations. (1995). Basic Facts About the United Nations. New York: UN.

MONUSCO. (2016). History of MONUSCO. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from monusco. un missions: http://www.monusco.unmissions.org

United Nations. (2013). Unis dans L'action: Les Nations Unies Partenaires de la Republique Democratique du Congo. (N. R. Ngangoue, & F. Renoux, Eds.) Kinshasa: ONU.