The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Get out, say Congolese to MONUSCO
Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Pressure is on to kick the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) out of the country. Matters appeared to escalate further when on Aug.3 the Congolese government in Kinshasa expelled MONUSCO’s spokesperson over unclear reasons. And on Aug.08, civil society in eastern DR Congo called for more protests in the region.
Patrick Ricky Paluku, a human rights defender and coordinator of a North Kivu-based pressure group known as “Veranda Mutsanga” called on the Congolese not to relent until MONUSCO, which is the second largest UN mission in the world, leaves the country.
“Dear Congolese, it is important to free yourselves whatever the cost there is to pay. Imagine MONUSCO came to Congo in 1999 and found only three rebel groups including MLC, RCD- Goma and RCD-KML but today the eastern part of the country has 192 negative well-armed groups,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“There is no gun factory but all these armed groups are equipped with new weapons and ammunition to withstand FARDC. Only MONUSCO has access to areas occupied by armed groups. All the evidence is now gathered to hunt down MONUSCO enemy number one of the Congolese.”
“Let’s make sure we have a day of MONUSCO protests all over the east of the country. Our wish is that the western part of the country stands in solidarity with the east which seems to be fighting alone against the enemy.”
Paluku also called on the Congolese all over the world to “lead actions and support initiatives aimed at enforcing the immediate departure of MONUSCO blue helmets that have shown notorious incompetence and complicity in the misfortune of the Congolese.”
A resurgence of clashes between the Congolese army, Forces Armées de la Republique Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), and rebel groups including M23 and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left hundreds dead and thousands running into neighbouring countries such as Uganda to seek refuge.
And in spite of President Félix Tshisekedi’s year-long state of emergency and joint FARDC-UPDF (Uganda national army) operations, attacks have continued in several parts of eastern Congo.
Angry at the perceived failure of the United Nations Organisation Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) to protect civilians, youth in the city of Goma took to the streets in protest on July 25. They attacked and looted the peace mission’s offices as they demanded the mission leave the country immediately. Demonstrations quickly spread to other towns including Butembo.
Over a dozen people were killed; including four peacekeepers while hundreds were injured. Six days later, on July 31, the peacekeepers also opened fire and killed three people during an incident at Kasindi, near the Uganda-Congo border.
Many locals say MONUSCO—which arrived in eastern Congo in 1999—never seems to come to the local people’s rescue each time the militias attack in spite of commanding a huge annual budget of about US$1billion and having close to 16,000 uniformed personnel.
The July protests were mobilized by a faction of the youth wing of President Felix Tshisekedi’s ruling party—the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) which demanded the immediate withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers over what it described as their “ineffectiveness.”
On July 15, Modeste Bahati, the senate president, called on the mission to “pack its bags” and leave the country. Bahati is reported to have said the DR Congo would defend itself.
The UN immediately went to work in order to de-escalate the tension. Senior UN officials held meetings in the capital, Kinshasa, while others appealed for calm in the mass media.
“Do not believe the manipulators, they risk achieving their objective and it is counterproductive,” said Khassim Diagne, the Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DR Congo on July 28.
“We have a dangerous and invisible enemy. It is time to pool our efforts to neutralize him and focus on the essential,” Diagne said in an answer to a question from a listener who accused MONUSCO of having a hidden agenda in the DR Congo during the programme Dialogue entre Congolais broadcast on Radio Okapi.
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, flew to Kinshasa on July 28 to meet partners of MONUSCO, including the Congolese authorities. The head of the UN Peacekeeping Department also interacted with the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes.
During this “One UN” meeting, he called for unity and solidarity. “It is important to learn from what has happened and ensure that we continue to work in the UN system in total unity,” he said.
Lacroix said the objective assigned to the UN Mission in the DR Congo is clear: the restoration of state authority throughout the national territory, which will allow MONUSCO to withdraw from the DR Congo.
“We hope that the conditions will be met and in particular the return of state authority so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible and make way for other forms of international support”
Lacroix also had a tête-à-tête with the diplomatic corps accredited to the DR Congo. “This mission concerns us all. Some of your countries are contributors to the UN budget. I urge you to pool your efforts to combat hate speech. We count on our partners, both regional partners, but also all organizations that can support the efforts of appeasement to convey the necessary messages,” he pleaded.
Lacroix later met with the presidents of the two chambers of the Congolese Parliament: Bahati Lukwebo of the Senate and Mboso Kodia of the National Assembly. “The path of peace and mutual support must be favoured to achieve our common goal, which is the restoration of State authority.”
“It is important that we redouble our efforts in transparency, in liaison with the authorities, that everyone does their job. There is work to be done on our side; there is work to be done on the part of the Congolese authorities who recognise that we also communicate in a united and coordinated manner, that we fight with all our strength against hate messages, fake news and disinformation,” Lacroix added.
Congolese agitation
It is not the first time Congolese people have run out of patience with the UN Blue Helmets as the peacekeepers are called. And pro-democracy movements and some local politicians have been calling for MONUSCO to leave since 2019.
So why have the Congolese run out of patience with the UN peace keepers who have been based in eastern DR Congo for the last 23 years? And is their anger justified?
Dr. Solomon Asiimwe, a lecturer of governance at Uganda Martyrs University told The Independent on Aug.12 that the Congolese in eastern DR Congo are justified “to run out of patience with the MONUSCO soldiers.”
“MONUSCO is the biggest mission in the world; it is very expensive to run and yet it has been in eastern DR Congo for a long time but they seem to be there just to earn big allowances and go back home to enjoy whereas the Congolese keep suffering at the hands of the numerous militia groups,” Asiimwe told The Independent.
Asiimwe added: “Foreigners do not have as much interest to protect Congolese territory as the Congolese themselves.” He told The Independent that it is important to appreciate the fact that foreigners cannot keep protecting a country’s territorial integrity.
Bernard Sabiiti, a policy analyst based at Development Initiatives, a global non-profit, also told The Independent on Aug.12 that it is understandable for the Congolese people to be upset about MONUSCO considering that they keep getting killed under the watch of the UN peacekeepers.
“MONUSCO has been in eastern DR Congo for over two decades but if you ask the Congolese they will tell you MONUSCO have not done anything to protect them,” Sabiiti told The Independent.
Interestingly, Sabiiti says, MONUSCO despite its shortcomings is still needed even if to just have a presence. “Their presence still limits the brazenness of some militia actions; and they have been providing some humanitarian assistance. Without them, the situation would be worse.”
Going forward, Dr. Asiimwe says, the UN needs to find urgent solutions for eastern DR Congo before the situation gets out of control.
“What the UN should do is find a way to either change the mandate of MONUSCO to directly fight the negative forces destabilizing the eastern part of Congo or help the Congolese government build both its military and government institutions including the military so that it can protect its territorial integrity,” he said.
“What we repeatedly see in eastern DR Congo is a failure of the state to defend its territory; so it must be helped to defend its sovereignty. If this happened, there would be no more Ugandan and Rwandan interference in the affairs of the country.”
Sabiiti partially agrees.
He also told The Independent that it is probably time for the UN to re-assess and probably change MONUSCO’s mission so it directly gets a little more combative with some of the negative forces that keep on destabilizing Congo. However, Sabiiti said, that might require a review of the calibre of the forces the UN sends to DR Congo.
“The stakes are too high. I think they have tended to focus more on their governance mandate (trying to build Congolese institutions) at the expense of their main role which is protecting civilians.”
MONUSCO’s challenge is that they were dealt an impossible hand: to keep peace in an area where there is no peace to keep, Sabiiti says.
“So, if their mandate is not radically changed to more enforcement and combat operations, then their presence will continue to be seen by local citizens as no good because for people under daily attacks, nothing else but safety matters.”
“But, that might also bring about another complication of the UN forces clashing with the godfathers of the region considering that some of the militias in eastern DR Congo are being propped up by regional governments,” Sabiiti told The Independent.
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