Kabila, Nkunda and monuc

On Thursday, the Security Council approved to send 3,000 reinforcements for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As usual, the troops will take weeks to arrive on the ground. The reinforcements essentially make Monuc the largest peacekeeping force at 20,000 in Congo. According to the UN, the force will remain in Congo as long as the security situation warrants. Even at 20,000, Congolese President Joseph Kabila is not satisfied and he thinks the number is quite less compared to the escalating fighting on the ground. He wants the U.N. to send more peacekeepers and help him halt the advancing rebels in the east. But there is high concern in the region whether the problem in DRC can be resolved by the Monuc, a force been accused in the past of plundering mineral resources of the country. And the view of your columnist is that solving the mess in Congo has little to do with number of soldiers sent on the ground. Obviously, the U.N. Security Council will never have enough troops in Congo to guard every territory or village. This means that Kabila’s government has little choice but to open up talks with General Laurent Nkunda- chairman of National Congress for the defence of the people (CNDP). Gen. Nkunda’s fighters have in the past over-run national army in weeks of fighting in North Kivu province sparking fears of a repeat of a 1998-2003 war. President Kabila has rejected direct talks with Nkunda but instead jetted off this week to visit his allies including Angola, which sent troops to help in the 1990s. Peace talks proposed by U.N. peace envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president should be given chance since neither Kabila nor Nkunda can win military battle. Contact: Ssuuna2000@yahoo.co.uk