UN mission faces daunting problems in eastern Congo

Oct 15, 2010, 18:09 GMT

New York - The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is coping with difficult demands to maintain security in the country's eastern part following the mass rape of women and girls by rebel groups there, a UN official said Friday.

Roger Meece, the UN special representative for Congo, said forward bases of the UN stabilization mission in Congo (MONUSCO) have been deployed in the last year to the eastern part. There are currently 90 bases.

Meece said the level of deployment has 'exceeded our present support capacity.'

'The scale of the problem is enormous,' Meece said in briefing the UN Security Council on MONUSCO activities. 'The best data available, for example, suggests that over 15,000 rapes were committed last year in eastern Congo.'

He said armed rebel groups have been operating in widely dispersed areas in eastern Congo, a vast area larger than Afghanistan, making it difficult for MONUSCO to ensure the protection of all civilians. The UN has reported recurring waves of rape and violence against non- combatants in eastern Congo.

The UN has recently documented close to 400 rapes in an area in eastern Congo, and a rebel commander, known as Lieutenant Colonel Mayele, was captured last month in a joint UN-Congolese operation. Mayele was implicated in mass rapes that took place in late July.

Margot Wallstrom, UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, met Thursday with council members to report from a recent visit on her firsthand investigation of the mass rapes in July. She said that the arrest of Mayele showed that pressures on rebel commanders could compel them to turn over perpetrators of sexual violence.

'Ultimately, when commanding officers can no longer rest easy in the certainty of impunity, a new front is opened in the fight against sexual violence,' she said.

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