Left Flank

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) proves why a vast nation hosting the largest United Nations peacekeeping force is a boon to all but its own people.

The war that raged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly in the east of the country, between 1998 and 2003, claimed millions of lives and sucked in plundering armies from Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia. The scale of the misery caused by that conflict—and the importance of Congo's massive mineral wealth—explains the anxiety among ordinary Congolese, diplomats, aid workers and others, following the advance this week of a Tutsi rebel army towards the town of Goma in eastern Congo. If Congo falls apart again, the humanitarian cost would be enormous.

The United States and the European Union have sent senior diplomats to the region. The UN Security Council has held a special session to discuss the situation. That show of concern has seemed enough to halt, perhaps only briefly, the advance of the Tutsi rebels. Their commander, Laurent Nkunda, has declared a ceasefire and promised a «humanitarian corridor» to allow the passage of food and other aid to displaced people.

That offers some comfort to the tens of thousands of Congolese on the run, thirsty and hungry, caught between Mr Nkunda's forces and the demoralised and ill-disciplined Congolese government troops. Some were heading for Goma, others for the Virunga National Park. By some estimates, there are now 1m people displaced in the green hills and diminishing forests of North Kivu, a region in the east.

So, who profits by this situation:

1. Hutus, or Tutsis, depending upon who wins;
2. DRC president, Joseph Kabila, whom, so says Nkunda, supports the Hutu-led Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), or Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, whom everyone says could conquer DRC with Nkunda's and his Rwandan army;
3. France, which wants to use the crisis, to send 1,000 soldiers, and thereby prove the value of an EU defense force, or Germany, which opposes both;
4. MONUC, the 17,000-strong, yet overworked UN peacekeeping force which needs to demonstrate it has a purpose.

How about breaking the failed vortex of DRC into manageable sovereignties upon which its peoples can actually depend?

Powered by ScribeFire.