Another Rwanda is Building

[Spiffor]

Yes, his power base lied in the East of the country, but since Mobutu is gone, most of his easter supporters have split and have become the toys of the warring countries (including Kinshasa's DRC). I think the splinter groups now hate each other very much.

However, I've read about it a month ago or so, and those were two-years old articles. So I might have some wrong info

If you are interested, I've read about it in Le Monde Diplomatique. I think they publish in languages other than French too. Here's the thread which had me getting informed, and in which I posted directly after reading these articles. You can bump it if you want, toherwise the thread will plunge into the archive oblivion

[lord of the mark]

we cant allow another Rwanda - France wants others in with them - well lets go in side by side with the French.


Never again!!!

[Az]

There are Diamonds for grabs, people, fire up your engines.

[GePap]

Rwanda is a bad analogy. That was a two sided affair, not a multiple sided one, and in rwanda the slaughter was government organized and coordinated. DRC is an anarchich mess, full of all sorts of lunatics, robbers, fundies, and God knows what else. Plus Rwanda was small and in good shape infrastrcuture wise, so in theory a relatively small force could have done something. DRC is immense and the infrastructure gone, meaning that real porgress will mean significant resources spread coutnry wide. sadly this won;t happen. a few thousand troops might keep a few cities near the border with the other Congo safe, but they don;t seem willing to invest resources in the North, west, and South of the country.

[Cruddy]

The trouble with Western intervention in Africa is that it sparks cries of "Imperialism" from the other African countries. Never mind that their armies are heavily involved in raping DRC for everything they can lay their hands on.

My own feeling is that a better approach is say "yes, we're Imperialist because we don't like to see you chopping each other up".

If we're going to do this, let's not do it by halves, eh?

[VetLegion]

African Union led by Gadaffi is the only solution

[Jack_www]

Are you so sure peacekeeping troops can stop this? Usually peacekeeping troops are useless and often cant stop the gencide or what ever else is going on.

Africa is really messed up, big time. Sending in a few tousand peacekeepers want solve the problems, and I dont even know what will. Maybe the rest of world should just go in and take Africa over and rebuild it.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by GePap
Rwanda is a bad analogy. That was a two sided affair, not a multiple sided one, and in rwanda the slaughter was government organized and coordinated. DRC is an anarchich mess, full of all sorts of lunatics, robbers, fundies, and God knows what else. Plus Rwanda was small and in good shape infrastrcuture wise, so in theory a relatively small force could have done something. DRC is immense and the infrastructure gone, meaning that real porgress will mean significant resources spread coutnry wide. sadly this won;t happen. a few thousand troops might keep a few cities near the border with the other Congo safe, but they don;t seem willing to invest resources in the North, west, and South of the country.

im thinking in terms of stopping the local genocide, not taking over the country and solving all its problems.

The rwanda genocide happned very fast - before citizens in the west could organize and act - in that context "realist" govts in both France and the US could check effective action. I am personally haunted that I did nothing then - it went by while i was busy with other things.

Granted rwandan style genocide has not taken place yet - but this is something the world community must be on the alert for, and begin to take steps to prevent.

And this is, perhaps, something where France and the US could join together, healing some of the wounds of the Iraqi crisis.

We have here an international forum - it is worthwhile that all of us speak of it here, and monitor the situation, and begin to spread pressure on our various govts.

[GePap]

the DR Congo is so large, and there are so many groups involved that ti would take huge resources to affect things there. I am all for the international community to do something in the Congo. But sadly i am also knowlegable enough on current politics to know that that people in the west are utterly unwilling to bear the actual costs of such operations.

[Jack_www]

One question I think about is why do Africans do this to each other? First they ignore AIDS and pretend it does not exist, along with several other problems they have down there. Most of those countries would rather send all there money on arms that they use in civil wars and gencide which end up destroying their countries in the end. Why do they do this?

[GePap]

Greed? Local 'patriotism' (tribalism)? Regular 'patriotism'
(pertaining to the current war in the congo, not AIDS)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by GePap
the DR Congo is so large, and there are so many groups involved that ti would take huge resources to affect things there. I am all for the international community to do something in the Congo. But sadly i am also knowlegable enough on current politics to know that that people in the west are utterly unwilling to bear the actual costs of such operations.

the area is in the northeast, right across the lake from Uganda.

The Ugandans managed to keep the lid on with 9000 troops, and they managed to supply their troops.

9,000 international troops should be able to do almost as well. There are now 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers, and their not enough. France has offered 1,000 but wants others to go along. That means scraping together another 7,300 troops.

This should be doeable, folks. Perhaps a first effort for the EU defence force?

[lord of the mark]

from the BBC

"British officials say what is being talked about is a short-term operation to fill the gap until South African and Bangladeshi troops arrive in July or August to reinforce the existing UN contingent. "

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jack_www
One question I think about is why do Africans do this to each other? First they ignore AIDS and pretend it does not exist, along with several other problems they have down there. Most of those countries would rather send all there money on arms that they use in civil wars and gencide which end up destroying their countries in the end. Why do they do this?

for hundreds of years Europeans did this. Short answer is that they havent made the economic and political transition that happened in Europe.

[Sandman]

A UN force is desperately needed, but given Congo's large size and population, the force needed would be enormous. Peacekeepers would probably need to be able to use heavy armour and aircraft, to make up for the lack of numbers.

A permanent peacekeeper force would be ideal for this sort of task, since it wouldn't be dependent on public opinion at home.