Three days after gun battles between warring ethnic militias brought this town to a terrified standstill, the newly arrived commander of the multinational force dispatched by the UN pledged on Tuesday "to reassure and to protect" its people. But he made clear he did not intend to disarm the fighters, many of them children.
Speaking to reporters on the airport tarmac here, the commander of the French-led force, Brigadier General Jean Paul Thonier, said he would not strip the militias of their guns, venture outside the city or get in the middle of protracted gun battles.
"Separating the factions is not part of my mission," Thonier said. "Don't tie me down to a course of action."
His spokesman, Gerard DuBois, described the mission as threefold: to protect the population, help aid agencies carry out their work and provide security within Bunia city limits.
At the moment, the Hema ethnic militia controls the town; its rivals, the Lendu ethnic militias, are positioned somewhere on the outskirts. Lendu civilians have deserted the city.
Aid groups, unable to deliver food and medical relief, except to those taking shelter in two heavily guarded UN compounds, have been pressing for the militias to be disarmed.
"We need a demilitarized city," said Nigel Pearson, the medical coordinator of Medair, a relief agency. He added that the planned deployment of 1,400 troops -- half of them French -- was nothing more than "gesture politics."
Thonier pointed to the need for cooperation from neighboring countries.
"In this province of Ituri, there's a responsibility on all the international actors here," the commander said minutes after his arrival. "I remind you: The two major countries in the region, Rwanda and Uganda, have responded favorably to the deployment of this force."
Both countries have played a major role in Congo's five-year war, sending troops and supporting local militias. But under a peace deal reached last fall, they agreed to withdraw their troops. They have also welcomed the multinational force.
Ald Ajello, the EU's representative for this area, called the Great Lakes region, said he had spoken to the Rwandan and Ugandan presidents and received guarantees that they would refrain from supplying weapons and providing assistance of any kind to armed groups operating in eastern Congo.
So far, however, the killing continues. Last month, a massacre in Bunia left at least 430 people dead, and the Ituri region has been scarred by massacres and burned villages.
The UN peacekeepers in Bunia -- who were here before the EU force arrived, and who have been hampered by a mandate that allows them to use their weapons only when fired upon -- have been unwilling to risk investigating these occurrences, let alone stop them.
Nor is that likely to change with the new multinational force. The operations of the force are restricted by a Security Council mandate to Bunia's city limits.
The mandate itself expires on Sept. 1.
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