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Thread: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

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  1. #1
    Farnan's Avatar Saviors of the Japanese
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    Default France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    France said Friday it wants U.N. peacekeepers in Congo to be empowered with more robust rules of engagement to better protect civilians.

    French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said France is not alone in wanting to change the peacekeepers' rules of engagement, which govern the circumstances in which they can use force.

    Currently, the peacekeepers can fire only when fired upon, and only to defend civilians when they are under imminent threat. They also cannot fire on armed troops without warning them or firing warning shoots, U.N. mission spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai said.

    "The problem is when they can use force," Mounoubai said. "They are very restricted as to how they can use their weapons."

    France wants the peacekeepers to have more robust rules of engagement, Chevallier said. It also wants the troops with the strongest rules of engagement to be deployed in Congo's riskiest regions, notably in the east, he said.


    "It needs to be stated more clearly that the use of force can very clearly be envisaged ... to protect populations, including in a proactive fashion," Chevallier said in Paris.

    The U.N. Security Council agreed Thursday to send 3,100 more peacekeepers to Congo, and U.N. military spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said he hopes they will arrive within weeks.

    The current force of 17,000 peacekeeping soldiers and police is spread thin throughout the vast African country, and has been unable to protect civilians or stop a rebel advance that has forced a quarter-million people from their homes in eastern Congo in recent weeks.

    Chevallier did not say if France or the EU would contribute to the reinforcement. He said it was up to individual nations whether they would send troops or contribute money, equipment, logistical support or intelligence.

    Officials from the European Union's 27 nations discussed Congo's crisis at a meeting Thursday in Brussels, Belgium, and have agreed to provide €45.6 million ($57.5 million) in extra humanitarian and development aid, he said.
    http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...ance-Congo.php

    I agree completely here.

    Too long have Blue Helmets sat back and watched people die while they are forced to do nothing due to overly restrictive mandates. If you want peace, allow them to make the peace.

    If not what worth are they?
    “The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.”

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  2. #2

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    They are supposed to keep peace. If they go around attacking people, then its war or invasion, not peacekeeping.

  3. #3
    Farnan's Avatar Saviors of the Japanese
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Quote Originally Posted by Vequor View Post
    They are supposed to keep peace. If they go around attacking people, then its war or invasion, not peacekeeping.
    There already is a war, hence them being there.

    And an invasion implies wanting to overthrow the government, which they don't want to do. And is an invasion to save millions of lives a bad thing?

    Anyways they won't be peacekeeping, they would be peacemaking. You can't keep the peace where there is none.
    “The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.”

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  4. #4

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    http://exiledonline.com/nkunda-is-nkool/

    If you ever want to find a real hero, here’s one way to recognize him: the TV news will be making him into a monster 24/7. Today’s monster hero is the Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the “rebel” forces that are supposedly “closing in” on Goma in Eastern Congo.

    The BBC, the only news agency that even pretends to take Africa seriously, has its number-one ghoul reporter, Orla Guerin, on Nkunda’s case every day.

    You may not know Guerin’s name but if you like war news you’ll recognize her, because you’ve probably seen her reporting from some African death zone. She fits right in in those places, really comes into her own. She’s got the face of a skull, except skulls smile, and some creepy accent that makes you think of cold porridge and leftover damnation. Wherever she’s from, they must have had a party when she left.

    In this BBC video you’ll see Orla talking about what a shame it is that the “refugees” at Kibati Refugee Camp have to stampede for food, worried as they are about being overrun by Nkunda’s “rebels.” The way Orla and the other networks are telling it, everything was just fine in Eastern Congo until the bad “rebel” leader Nkunda ordered his troops to advance. When the innocent “refugees” heard Nkunda was coming, they started running, creating a “human rights crisis.”

    The print media is getting in on it too, with the Brit rag The Guardian saying that Nkunda’s troops may have actually “killed civilians,” as if that was anything unusual in Central Africa.

    The Guardian’s account barely mentions that the “civilians” killed were in a “stronghold of Hutu militias”—the same militias that killed most of the Tutsi population in Rwanda back in ‘94. It’s like if the Jews had formed an army to push back the Nazis, and when the poor Nazis fled next door, the Jews did an occasional incursion to discourage the Nazi “refugees” from returning to their genocidal ways. And that’s an atrocity. Except the Nazis, give them their due, were brave as Hell and fought to the last man; the Hutu “militias” were only good a hacking babies and raping little girls, and fled at the first rumor that the enemy was approaching. That’s why they’re still around.

    Every word, every disgusting damn word, of these BBC and Guardian stories is . actually makes me sick, listening to these stupid lies over and over. The reason Nkunda’s little army (estimates range from 5000 to 10000 men) advanced into Eastern Congo this week is that the Hutu gangs were getting a little too aggressive about jumping ethnic-Tutsi villages in eastern Congo, killing the men and kidnapping women and girls as sex slaves. Nkunda knows very well nobody else will protect the Tutsi, for the simple reason nobody ever has. So he went in to do it himself.

    Nkunda is a great man, a brilliant man, a hero, a military genius who speaks four languages and has beaten the biggest armies around with a force of less than 10,000 men. He’s the only decent leader that part of Africa’s ever seen. It’s worth looking at the way they’ve been slandering him, because you’ll see the same techniques used to slam any real hero.

    Let’s start with the oldest trick in the book, calling somebody you don’t like a “rebel.” How did the BBC decide that Nkunda is a “rebel”? Doesn’t there have to be a government, law and order, before you can rebel against it? Who is Nkunda supposed to be rebelling against? There’s no law in the forests of Eastern Congo. The UN has a pitiful token force of blue helmets wandering around slapping mosquitoes and bargaining for blow jobs with the local girls, but the real power there before Nkunda’s forces marched in was held by the leaders of the Hutu “refugees.”
    “Refugee”; now there’s another wonderful word, a good match for “rebel.” It makes the Hutu the innocent victims, shivering in fright at the approach of the bad ol’ Tutsi. Well, of course that’s another do-gooder lie. These “refugees” are gangs run by the worst people in the world: the leaders of the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambe, the Hutu “militias” who massacred 800,000 Tutsi men, women, children and babies in Rwanda in 1994.

    In fact, “militia” is way too good a name for these overgrown death squads. You’ll find the BBC and the other networks have a whole range of names for kill groups: “terrorist” if they hate you, “paramilitary” if they’re not sure but wouldn’t invite you to their kids’ birthday parties, and “militia” if they like you. Calling the Hutu genocide squads a “militia” is like calling Columbine a kids’ prank.

    The reason these Hutu are out in the jungle is simple: they massacred almost a million fellow Rwandans in less than four months, back in those happy Clinton years, and then ran when the Tutsi, who’ve always been braver than the Hutu, formed a small army, the RPF, and chased the much bigger “militias” out. The truth is that the Tutsi behaved so well through the whole thing that the world ought to be cheering them. I tell you, if I’d been in command of the RPF when it marched back into Rwanda stepping over piles of stinking corpses chopped up with machetes, I would have taken my cue from Foday Sankoh’s name for his nutcase army’s advance on Freetown up in Sierra Leone: “Operation Kill Every Living Thing.” But the Tutsi didn’t do that. They took no revenge, let the Hutu live and even tried to set up a decent government from both tribes. They’re ing saints, and they’re supposed to be the bad guys here?
    I am a fan of Breacher's articles, but i don't agree with what he has to say. What he wrote in the article is not my words.

    Anyway, Guess who the UN is going to help?
    Last edited by communist; November 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM.

  5. #5

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    I must have let my subscription to full blown uneducated halfwit angst weekly lapse, because I never read that 'article'.

  6. #6

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Is this another thread about something bad happening in Africa?

  7. #7

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Now you see the point with America's position in the world. Either you do something about a problem and risk a bad image if it goes wrong, or you do nothing (which is essentially what the UN does in these circumstances) guess what, nothing changes. The US usually opts for the first going under the idea that you can never succeed if you never even try.

    And yes, I strongly believe that the UN get a backbone and do something. They need to display that they can do something for themselves for once. In previous conflicts in Africa it has already been seen that the oppressed locals can defend themselves, they currently lack unity, leadership, and arms. All of which the UN can help build. Though it will be ruthless, bloody, and likely take a long time, that is simply the cost of removing oppression. If you back down at the first sign of difficulties, you will be doomed to always fail against those who are willing to risk their lives for their cause.

  8. #8
    hellheaven1987's Avatar Comes Domesticorum
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    We would see...

    The funny thing is that Euorpe is not the biggest contributer of Peacekeeping force in Congo... So I don't see the any effect about their call (obviously, AU would do nothing currently and China, the biggest peacekeeping contributor in Congo would not agree this)...

  9. #9
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    I am torn on this. Although I think the Peacekeepers should most definitley get more involved in keeping peace, I cannot trust Frances [or any other outside nations] motives in Africa. Too dodgy.

  10. #10

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Nkunda is a great man, a brilliant man, a hero, a military genius who speaks four languages and has beaten the biggest armies around with a force of less than 10,000 men. He’s the only decent leader that part of Africa’s ever seen. It’s worth looking at the way they’ve been slandering him, because you’ll see the same techniques used to slam any real hero.

    Stopped reading after the second 'hero'.
    'When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything. '

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  11. #11
    Manco's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Nkunda is a great man, a brilliant man, a hero, a military genius who speaks four languages and has beaten the biggest armies around with a force of less than 10,000 men. He’s the only decent leader that part of Africa’s ever seen. It’s worth looking at the way they’ve been slandering him, because you’ll see the same techniques used to slam any real hero.
    Yeah, 'the butcher of Kisangani' is a really heroic nom de guerre.
    Some day I'll actually write all the reviews I keep promising...

  12. #12
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    There are only 2 'heroes' in that paragraph....you mean first 'hero'?

  13. #13
    hellheaven1987's Avatar Comes Domesticorum
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    He is quite a handsome guy... Does not look uneducated too... Besides, some of his words are true (like the Tusi people got harrass by rebels)...

  14. #14

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Quote Originally Posted by ЯoMe kb8 View Post
    There are only 2 'heroes' in that paragraph....you mean first 'hero'?
    If I meant the first 'hero' I wouldn't have gotten to the second 'hero'.

    I know what I mean.
    'When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything. '

    -Emile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophets (1937)

    Under the patronage of Nihil. So there.

  15. #15

    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    The fact that it's the largest Peace keeping force in the world and it's been in place for 8 years and there hasn't hardly been a scrap of peace is just another clear view that the UN does nothing useful. How many regions do they send 'Peacekeepers' around the world which in reality just turn out to be 'Slaughter house viewers' instead. Nothing against the boots on the ground, I'm sure it's horribly frustrating (not discounting the abuses that have happened), but UN, come on? What a farce.

  16. #16
    Lord Consul's Avatar Armchair intellectual
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    I highly doubt that the UNSC will approve a resolution altering the statutes of the MONUC, allowing it to become a Peacemaking force.

    Uruguayan, South African, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Pakistani and Indian make up the bulk of the Peacekeeping force and these countries have never - EVER - engaged their militaries in peacemaking operations.

    If they truly want to make peace in Congo, they'll have to bring NATO in.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rome kb8
    I am torn on this. Although I think the Peacekeepers should most definitley get more involved in keeping peace, I cannot trust Frances [or any other outside nations] motives in Africa. Too dodgy.
    The French are clear on this one. They have no troops on the ground, so they would not be involved in a potential peacemaking operation.
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  17. #17
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Consul View Post
    The French are clear on this one. They have no troops on the ground, so they would not be involved in a potential peacemaking operation.
    So what do they do? Just fly around checking the scenery?

  18. #18
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    I'd be in favour of an expanded mandate for MONUC as well as it is obviously far from sufficient to have troops in the area just to sit down and watch when the peace which they should keep is broken. This however is not a problem of the UN itself but rather of those nations which are unwilling to give the UN the authority to actually keep and restore peace.
    So what do they do? Just fly around checking the scenery?
    No idea. Even though I don't trust Sarkorzy's motives either his proposal remains a reasonable one and I would not reject it just because I dislike the man. It would also be an excellent oportunity for the German government to prove that it has some balls. Afghanistan is a touchy matter but we have pretty clear cut responsibilities within MONUC and withdrawing if MONUC's tasks and responsibilities are going to be expanded is not an option.
    Last edited by SorelusImperion; November 23, 2008 at 02:54 PM.
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  19. #19
    Lord Consul's Avatar Armchair intellectual
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Quote Originally Posted by ЯoMe kb8 View Post
    So what do they do? Just fly around checking the scenery?
    They would do precisely nothing. They would just be the political sponsors of the whole operation.
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    Default Re: France calls on UN to allow Congo Peacekeepers to become Peacemakers

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Consul View Post
    If they truly want to make peace in Congo, they'll have to bring NATO in.
    Because Nato did so good in the Balkans.
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