Plans for mission to Congo take shape despite unease

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 13/04/06

The commander in charge of the EU's mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo will present his operational plan in the next two weeks in an attempt to soothe concerns about poor preparation of the mission.

The decision to send EU troops to the central African republic has been blighted by questions about the exact role of the EU and doubts about preparedness. Some officials this week were declaring that a corner will soon be turned, while others warned that problems remain.

According to one official, preparations for the German-led mission, which is expected to feature 450 troops in the capital Kinshasa with a further 1,000 to be based in neighbouring Gabon, were "pretty good" despite unease in some quarters.

General Karlheinz Viereck will present his plan to the political and security committee of the EU's Council of Ministers on 25 April.

The UN has called for EU troops to be deployed as a deterrent force in case its 17,000-strong peacekeeping force runs into trouble during the elections, which are scheduled for the end of June.

But analysts this week warned that the EU's ability to deter violence may yet be hampered by political wrangling and unease over the operation, particularly in Germany.

German politicians only agreed to lead the mission three months after the first request from the UN in late 2005. German opposition politicians and some in the armed forces have said that the country is ill-prepared politically and militarily for the mission.

"There is unease because Germany does not have a lot of experience with Africa in military terms," said Denis Tull, an expert on sub-Saharan Africa at the Berlin-based Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. He said it was not yet clear what the soldiers would be allowed to do and whether they would move beyond Kinshasa. Sources said this week that the German contingent may well remain in Kinshasa regardless of what is going on in the surrounding regions, although EU officials would not confirm this.

The eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, Ituri and Katanga are all thought to be potential trouble-spots as well as Kasai, home to the main opposition group, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress whose leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, has said he will boycott the polls.

Some observers have criticised the German government's initial failure to consult its own ministry of defence.

The UN has also been in the firing line for apparently failing to set out a detailed plan for the EU and for failing to discuss the issue with the DR Congo government first.

Adolphe Onusumba, the country's defence minister, recently called for troops from the Southern African Development Community to monitor the EU's activities.

But the unease over the way the mission has been prepared is not limited to Kinshasa.

"The UN has to take some of the blame for not spelling out in exact terms what they wanted," said Tull. But one EU diplomat this week said that the UN plan was deliberately vague as New York did not want to "dictate terms to the EU" and that it was up to member states to flesh out the proposals.

An Irish diplomat summed up the difficulties in mustering enough troops, with the UK, France and others heavily involved in peacekeeping around the globe.

"It is not that we are not interested in Africa, [Ireland] already has 400 troops in Liberia as well as a presence in Kosovo and Bosnia," said the diplomat. Ireland is expected to contribute fewer than ten personnel.

But according to Pierre-Antoine Braud, a research fellow at the EU's Institute for Security Studies and former diplomat with

the UN's department of peacekeeping operations, the EU force is still likely to be effective.

"No Congolese leader can imagine coming to power without international backing," he said.

Article reports that General Karlheinz Viereck, the commander in charge of the EU's mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo was to present his operational plan to the political and security committee of the EU's Council of Ministers on 25 April 2006. The German-led mission was expected to feature 450 troops in the capital Kinshasa with a further 1,000 to be based in neighbouring Gabon.