UN council votes to redefine Congo mission, withdraw up to 2,000 troops

UN votes to withdraw up to 2,000 troops from Congo

UNITED NATIONS — Bowing to pressure from Congo’s President Joseph Kabila, the United Nations will withdraw up to 2,000 peacekeeping troops and redefine the remaining force as a “stabilization” mission in his nation to coincide with its 50th anniversary of independence.

The operational and cosmetic changes agreed to by the U.N. Security Council in a unanimous vote Friday result from Kabila’s push to assert himself ahead of elections next year and his government’s argument that the U.N. mission has failed to protect civilians.

As such, the U.N.’s biggest peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC, is set to shed up to 2,000 peacekeepers before Congo celebrates its independence on June 30.

Technically speaking, the council reauthorized MONUC’s mission only until that date.

The next day, it is to become known as the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission, or MONUSCO, allowing both the United Nations and Kabila’s government to emphasize that both have entered a new phase of operations.

“He wanted the international community to acknowledge they have entered a new phase,” the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, told reporters Friday. “We acknowledge that the situation has improved,” he added, though it remains extremely fragile and unsettled in eastern Congo and “we are not able to protect every single citizen.”

The new mission’s mandate is authorized until June 30, 2011, with up to 19,815 military personnel, 760 military observers, 391 police personnel and 1,050 personnel of formed police units.

But the 15-nation Security Council put off a harder decision — what to do about Kabila’s request that all 20,000 peacekeepers depart before his re-election vote next year. That will be done as part of a joint assessment by U.N. and Congolese officials, Le Roy said.

“We remain at a very high level (of numbers of peacekeeping forces) in the East,” he said. “The mission has still the mandate to protect civilians.”

Congo’s Information Minister Lambert Mande said Friday his government had no objection to the council’s compromise action.

“The date for total withdrawal of all U.N. peacekeepers doesn’t matter at the moment, because there are still discussions going on between our government and U.N. officials over a clear calendar,” he said in Kinshasa, Congo. “People should stay calm about the issue until the government and U.N. reach an agreement.”

Advocacy and humanitarian groups say every peacekeeper is needed, though the U.N. force has been unable to protect all civilians from rebel groups raping women, kidnapping children and decapitating others — and some peacekeepers are accused of sexual abuse and corruption.

“Many parts of Congo are still extremely insecure and violence is a daily threat. Any reduction in peacekeepers could be bad news for ordinary Congolese, women and men,” said Marcel Stoessel, who heads Oxfam in Congo. “Congo needs each peacekeeper that it has, every pair of boots counts.”

Oxfam noted almost 2 million people still cannot go home because of Congo’s violence, and along with reports of massacres by the hundreds in some areas the U.N. estimates 160 women a week are raped in the Kivu provinces.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes also has warned that violence may spiral out of control if the peacekeepers all leave.

Associated Press writer Patrice Citera in Kinshasa contributed to this report.