UN Congo force extended: 5 million dead so far (Roundup)

Dec 22, 2008, 16:48 GMT

New York - About 5 million Congolese have been killed in the past 10 years and another 1.7 million people displaced by conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's foreign minister said Monday.

The comments by Alexis Thambwe Mwamba before the UN Security Council came as the panel extended its peacekeeping operations - one of the largest such UN operations in the world - another year with the main task of protecting civilians and improving security in the eastern part of the country.

Mwamba, who called for an added rapid deployment of a smaller force to address the escalating crisis in the two provinces of Kivu, warned the council that the current crisis in eastern part of Congo could result in a 'major disaster.'

'In fact, in the past 10 years, the two provinces of Kivu have known one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II with about 5 million killed,' Mwamba said. He said most of the 1.7 million displaced people are women, children and elderly people.

The current war is led by people with total disregard of human rights, international humanitarian law and is taking place in 'total indifference' of the world's superpowers, Mwamba said.

'The deployment of the UN peacekeeping force is welcome,' he said. But Mwamba said a rapid deployment of a smaller force to the Kivus is needed if a larger deployment is hampered by logistics and technical reasons.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has planned to reconfigure the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) and transfer more troops to the Kivu provinces bordering Uganda and Rwanda.

Mwamba called for a prompt transfer of MONUC troops to the eastern part and the transfer of MONUC headquarters from Kinshasa to Goma, capital of North Kivu, in order to alleviate the suffering of the population and restore security.

Following the renewal of MONUC's mandate, the council decided also to maintain an arms embargo, a travel ban and a freeze of assets of some rebel groups and their leaders involved in the long conflict in the Congo.

MONUC is composed of more than 22,000 personnel, including 19,815 military troops, one of the largest UN peacekeeping forces in the world. But it is still dwarfed by the geographical size of Congo and the conflicts there. Its new mandate expires December 31, 2009.

The council asked MONUC to 'attach the highest priority to addressing the crisis in the Kivus, in particular the protection of civilians, and to concentrate progressively during the coming year its action in the eastern part' of Congo.

Other tasks given to MONUC include disarmament, demobilization and monitoring of resources of foreign and Congolese armed forces, and training of government forces in support of the rebuilding of Congo's security.