The Times
Jerome Starkey in Bunagana
A rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo has accused the United Nations of jeopardising international peace efforts by deploying 3,000 combat troops at a time when negotiations appear to have stalled.
Bertrand Bisimwa, the president of the M23 movement, said the UN’s recently arrived “Intervention Brigade” had lulled the Government in Kinshasa into thinking they no longer needed to talk.
“They think they have power now and they want to use the UN to start a war,” he said from the rebels’ headquarters in Bunagana, a small border town adjacent to Uganda.
It is still not clear if the new UN brigade, made up of troops from Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi, plans to fight M23 or any of the other armed groups that have been battling the Government and each other for almost 20 years.
A senior officer in the UN mission said the brigade had raised the expectations of the Government but it was unlikely to make any material difference because only half the soldiers could fight — the rest were in support roles — and they did not have enough back-up from President Kabila’s army to risk fighting in unfamiliar terrain. Documents seen by The Times suggest that the soldiers may focus on a smaller militia accused of attacking a UN base last year. Mr Bisimwa, who wore a cowboy hat and silver pistol strapped to his belt, said talks with Kinshasa were the only hope of peace. It was up to the UN brigade to protect his men, he said. (Read more...)
