* 3,000 troops from South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi to deploy
* Tasked with combating dozens of Congolese rebel groups
* South Africa overlooked for senior command positions
By Jonny Hogg
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 28 (Reuters) –
D eployment of a unique new U.N. combat force, billed by U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a peace enforcer for eastern
Congo, is being delayed by logistical difficulties and reticence
from troop contributor South Africa.
An uneasy six-month peace in eastern Congo collapsed last
week when clashes erupted between government troops and M23
rebels near the region’s largest city Goma, days before a visit
by Ban and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.
The two men were on a mission to promote the latest
international attempt to pacify the conflict-torn region, where
armed groups, the army and neighbouring countries have for
nearly two decades battled for control of land and resources.
A $1 billion World Bank aid package aimed at bringing much
needed development is to act as carrot for the plan.
But the stick – a 3,000-strong U.N. Intervention Brigade of
Tanzanian, South African and Malawian troops with an
unprecedented mandate for offensive operations against some 30
armed groups – has only just begun to arrive.
Ban said this week it may take up to another two months
before the long-awaited force is operational.
“The troops are coming but it’s more of a trickle than
anything else,” a senior U.N. official in Goma told Reuters.
To date, only around 500 South African and Tanzanian troops
have arrived in Goma, U.N. sources say, with delays partly due
to logistical and planning problems, including where to base
South Africa’s incoming troops.
Analysts say South Africa has also been irked by a perceived
slight in the choice of both the brigade’s command, which has
gone to a Tanzanian, and the overall U.N. military leadership in
Congo, which went to a Brazilian general whose last job was
tackling criminal gangs in Haiti.
“It seems there was a lot of horse trading going on at the
United Nations, rather than choosing the appropriate person,”
South African defence analyst Helmoed Romer Heitman said.
M23 TO DEFEND ITSELF
This led to some discussion over whether South Africa – keen
to flex its regional muscles – might pull out in protest,
according to Jason Stearns, director of regional think tank the
Great Lakes Institute.
Rebels may also be using the delay to seize the intiative
before the brigade arrives, Stearns said.
“M23 wants to be able to either prevent the Intervention
Brigade from arriving altogether or to be in a very strong
military position once it arrives,” he said.
M23’s military commander Sultani Makenga told Reuters on
Monday his troops would not target the U.N. force but would
defend themselves if needed. He said reviving stalled peace
talks in neighbouring Uganda was the only way to break the
military deadlock in eastern Congo.
No one from the South African military was immediately
available for comment, though military sources there say the
force is undergoing training.
Pretoria is determined, following the death in March of 13
of its soldiers at rebel hands durign a peacekeeping mission in
neighbouring Central African Republic, to avoid a similar
debacle in Congo, Heitman said.
It was South Africa’s worst military losses since the end of
apartheid in 1994.
“The intention is to ensure they are well-trained … They
are taking on board the lessons of Bangui,” he said.
Tension is rising as Congo’s notoriously ill-disciplined
army itches to avenge humiliations at the hands of M23,
including a rout in November which saw the insurgents briefly
seize Goma.
On the northern outskirts of the lakeside town, Indian
peacekeepers have deployed tanks and set up a road-block – a
thin, blue-helmeted line separating the two sides, with rebel
positions clearly visible in the surrounding hills.
At least three civilians were killed last week after rebel
shells fell in aid camps and residential areas, according to the
United Nations. The army’s increasingly aggressive attitude
risks worsening the situation and jeapordising more civilian
lives, Goma’s mayor Naasson Kubuya Ndoole said.
“I met a soldier who told me that if M23 continues, the army
is prepared to chase them all the way to Rwanda,” he said. “This
determination is dangerous. It’s better this neutral force
arrives to play the role of arbiter or to tackle the M23
calmly.”
(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg;
Editing by Joe Bavier and Alison Williams)
