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French troops offer little comfort

An elderly Congolese woman passes a French special forces position on Friday on the outskirts of Bunia, the bloodstained eastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A French combat mission codenamed Artemis is attempting to secure the town and airport in Bunia, where hundreds have been slain in ethnic clashes. PHOTO: AFP

Hundreds of residents cheered when the first French troops arrived -- the vanguard of an emergency international force sent to stem tribal fighting that has ravaged this northeastern Congolese town.

A week later, there are 400 French troops in Bunia, but no one is cheering. People know that ending the violence will not be easy; they also know that the 1,400-strong force is only going to stay for three months and has no mandate to disarm the fighters or demilitarize the town that six weeks ago boasted a university, a brand-new mobile phone network and a thriving trade in gold.

"The French might restore some peace, but the French soldiers will not escort you ... or stand outside our doors," said Helena Onya, one of more than 15,000 people who have found refuge under plastic sheeting in the muddy, fly-infested grounds of two UN compounds.

"We need to be able to get to our plots outside town, and who will protect us there?"

The mission of the force is to secure the town and its airport and provide security for displaced people and aid agencies.

But residents -- as well as analysts -- say that unless the force disarms the thousands of tribal fighters -- some as young as 10 -- who have been battling for control of the town, it will do little to ease their suffering.

"I don't know why they are here," said Jan Mol, a Dutch priest and member of the Roman Catholic White Fathers mission. "It's just show."

Bunia is the capital of Ituri province, a vast, fertile, mineral-rich region of forests, lush, green hills and rivers running with grains of gold.

The region is also the scene of some of the worst atrocities committed during the five-year civil war in Congo ranging from massacres in churches and hospitals to cannibalism and rape.

An estimated 50,000 civilians have been killed in Ituri since 1999.

The main fighting has been among rival factions from the Hema and Lendu tribes. Disputes over power, land and other resources date back to the 19th century, but the outbreak of civil war in August 1998 brought a deadly new dimension to their differences.

Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda -- and the Congolese government in faraway Kinshasa -- have backed and armed rival factions, using them as a proxy fighters in the wider conflict.

The best the international force can hope to achieve is a "dampening effect," said Jonathan Stevenson, a senior analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"These [armed] groups maintain an interest in instability rather than stability because they are able to do better for themselves at the end of the barrel of a gun than by entrusting their future politically to the [Congolese] government," he said.

It is also unlikely that the international community will contribute the huge numbers of troops needed to bring order to Congo, he said. Nor can the Congolese expect much help from the cash-strapped African Union, which has said little about the killing.

The civil war erupted when Uganda and Rwanda sent troops into the country to support rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, whom they accused of supporting insurgents threatening regional security.

And despite a series of peace deals leading to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Congo, tribal militia and rebel factions backed by Uganda, Rwanda and the Congolese government continue to fight each other in eastern and northeastern Congo.

"The chief actors have won international applause by reaching peace agreements and signing treaties ... but they continue, or have at least in the past, continued the conflict through local proxies," said Alison Des Forges, Africa analyst at the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "They are consciously doing this as a matter of policy because the power dynamics in the region are inherently unstable."

All people in Bunia want is for the gunmen to leave them in peace so their shops, schools and hospitals can reopen, and they can return to their fields.

There was fleeting hope in April when 750 UN troops, part of the UN mission in Congo, known as MONUC, arrived in town. But people quickly realized that this did not mean peace.

When Ugandan troops pulled out on May 6, fighting between Hema and Lendu factions armed with bows and arrows, machetes, assault rifles and grenades erupted in Bunia. It lasted for a week; more than 400 people were killed.

The UN troops, who can only fire in self-defense, guarded their compounds and looked on.

"For one month, MONUC was in town, and there was constant looting and killing in Bunia," said Dr. Christophe Kabaseke, who works at a makeshift hospital set up in a warehouse a short distance from the razor wire coiled around UN headquarters.

Shocked by the killing, on May 30 the UN Security Council authorized the French-led emergency force to reinforce the UN troops -- and to shoot to kill, if necessary.

"It's clear that the strategy used by us will succeed," said force spokesman Colonel Gerard Dubois. "We have the mandate and orders to respond to aggression and to use our weapons to protect those we have to protect."
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