Oxfam calls for European troops for DRC as ceasefire breaks
10/11/2008 17:42
International agency, Oxfam, today called on the EU foreign ministers
meeting in Brussels to provide clear commitments to send European troops to
support the UN in eastern DRC.
The agency said in a statement issued in
Nairobi that the fragile ceasefire is now broken, forcing thousands of people to
flee again in fear and seriously jeopardizing the ability of aid agencies to
help them.
Oxfam said the UN's peacekeeping force, MONUC, has struggled to
ensure the peace and keep the people safe, with an estimated quarter of a
million people forced from their homes due to recent fighting.
"The French
and British Foreign Ministers flew from Kinshasa to Goma to Kigali to Dar Es
Salaam last weekend and made clear calls for urgent military reinforcement of
the UN troops, but absolutely nothing has changed on the ground. Instead of
'air-miles' diplomacy we need action. Leaders cannot make this call, then fail
to follow through with action to protect civilians," said Juliette Prodhan, head
of Oxfam in the DRC.
Sporadic fighting between rebel Tutsi General Laurent
Nkunda's men and Congolese government soldiers and their allies erupted in
various parts of North Kivu despite new calls by African leaders for a
ceasefire.
Oxfam said tens of thousands of more people have fled as fighting
has surged again in Kiwanja and Rutshuru since the ministers visited the
region.
According to Oxfam last Friday's shelling around Kibati camp, five
kilometres north of Goma – where Oxfam is working – caused thousands of
civilians to flee towards Goma town.
After a night of hiding in host families
and in schools and churches, most appeared to have returned to the camp, but
remain scared and vulnerable, it said.
The UK charity said the situation is
still tense with just 200 metres between the Congolese government and rebel
positions and in Kanyabayonga – where Oxfam is also working - thousands more
fled on Saturday as the Congolese army retreated from positions around
Rutshuru.
"We hear excuse after excuse from European countries about why they
can't help and they pass the buck to another country, another continent. Their
inaction has very human consequences, as the thousands that fled Kibati and
Kanyabayonga could tell them. 5.4 million people have died over the last 10
years," said Prodhan.
"How many more must suffer before Europe will take
effective action? The international community is failing in its Responsibility
to Protect civilians in eastern Congo."
Oxfam said the deployment of European
troops must be combined with sustained diplomatic pressure to achieve a
political solution and address the underlying causes of the conflict.
It said
European Union is well placed to rapidly provide the additional troops. It has a
history of successful peacekeeping in Congo and through its mission in Chad,
Europe has shown it can play a vital role in protecting civilians. European
countries currently contribute just 100 of the 17,000 UN troops in
Congo.
MONUC is the largest peacekeeping force in the world but in a country
the size of Western Europe, was already stretched before the recent round of
intense fighting began. UN peacekeeping chief, Alain le Roy, first appealed for
more troops in September – and has appealed again in recent days.
According
to Oxfam, redeploying troops from elsewhere in the Kivu provinces and eastern
Congo is not the solution as other parts of the region are also insecure and in
danger of all-out conflict.
To do so, it said, would leave civilians
elsewhere vulnerable to attack. In Ituri and Dungu in the northwest Orientale
Province thousands have been forced to flee an upsurge in fighting, including
57,000 in recent attacks on 1 and 2 November.
Oxfam is also calling for
practical steps to be taken to improve the current performance of MONUC. Without
better leadership and a genuine commitment to address both the immediate crisis
and the factors that have created it, even with additional troops MONUC risks
achieving very little.
"European Ministers must seize the opportunity,
working with colleagues from the United Nations and African Union, to push for a
political solution, commit to military support to protect the people and ensure
that the world does not look away from Congo as it has done so many times
before," said Prodhan
Oxfam said there is not a military solution to this
conflict nor can it be solved simply by providing more troops or military
hardware.
However, if done properly, additional military support could help
improve security, protect civilians and allow aid agencies to provide help to
all those that desperately need it, the charity said.
Xinhua
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