UN mission faces daunting problems in eastern Congo (Roundup)

Oct 15, 2010, 19:15 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 region following the mass rapes of women and girls by rebel groups, a UN official said Friday.

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

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

'The scale of the problem is enormous,' he 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 mission currently has about 18,000 military and civilian personnel. But it is drawing down at Kinshasa's request to terminate UN peacekeeping operations in the sprawling country, except for some international forces to remain to train Congolese police.

Meece said MONUSCO's future status will be determined in cooperation with the Kinshasa government.

The UN has recently documented close to 400 rapes in an area in eastern Congo, and a rebel commander of the Mayi-Mayi Cheka group, 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.

In September, the UN redeployed 750 troops to Pinga, Kibua and Walikale, the areas where the mass rape took place in late July. Some Mayi-Mayi and FDLR armed rebels surrendered to the joint UN-Congolese operations.

Margot Wallstrom, UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, met Thursday with council members to report on her recent visit and 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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