'Send more troops to DRC'
2008-11-11 14:20
Goma - The UN should urgently increase the number of peacekeepers in eastern Congo to protect civilians amid new fighting and mounting deaths, a rights group said on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said the Security Council should bolster the 17 000-strong UN force in Congo, the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, by 3 000 soldiers and police.
"Progress on the political front has not been matched by progress to meet the urgent need to protect civilians now at risk," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher on the Congo for Human Rights Watch. "Negotiations offer promise of a solution in the Congo in the long run, but civilians need protection now from the killing and raping."
The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has exploded since rebel leader Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive August 28, stopping his forces at the outskirts of Goma, the provincial capital, before declaring a cease-fire. Retreating Congolese troops and rebels sent the population fleeing for their lives, and sporadic clashes have broken out since then.
The UN force did little to prevent the rebels' advance, enraging the population.
HRW, citing local sources and civilians who fled nearby Kiwanja, said at least 50 civilians were killed there, the majority by Nkunda's forces in reprisal against those deemed to be enemy collaborators. The figure is at least 30 more than an earlier estimate.
The group said the death toll is likely higher.
Thousands of refugees are packed into camps or sleeping out in the open, scrambling for washing and cooking water. About 50 000 refugees have crowded around Kibati, some taken into log cabins by villagers, others living in tents or hastily built huts.
Relief officials say they have recorded at least 90 cholera cases since Friday.
Weekend clashes between rebels and soldiers ignited concern that patients could scatter and launch an epidemic. But it appears unlikely that an EU force will come to help stem the fighting. France failed to secure support Monday from other EU nations for sending a 1 500-member battlegroup to eastern Congo to bolster UN peacekeepers.
The fighting in eastern Congo is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of at least 500 000 Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu militants who participated in the genocide before fleeing to Congo.
A summit of southern African leaders said Sunday that members could, if necessary, send peacekeepers to bolster the UN force. A rebel spokesperson said on Monday that insurgents will battle any soldiers that fight along with the Congolese army.
"I don't know if they will come and engage us," Nkunda's spokesperson Babu Amani said on Monday. "We won't keep silent while they kill us. We will defend ourselves."
- AP