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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:28
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I think the motivation behind it is slightly more subtle than what Kroptokin said, even though it is the same deep logic (getting a grab on the resources).
The French policy towards Africa has recently changed into less interventionism since the Rwanda debacle. IIRC, the French didn't intervene any significantly in Madagascar during the ruler-change, whereas in the past, we'd have backed our favorite and kill the other as well as his supporters.
Same thing in Ivory Coast. Back in the "good old days", we'd have sent some modern weaponry to massacre the rebels, and equipped the regular army to maintain order after the dirty job had been done. Today, we have put a barrier between the two factions to force them to calm down, and we have forced a compromise upon them (resulting in a loyalist+rebel union government).
This "EU" peacekeeping mission comes from the fact that France doesn't want to be the only one paying for stability in this hole of its usual African influence zone. But France (and its partners) have everything to win with the situation getting back to normal : if the situation stabilizes, the usual French-European industries will exploit the gems again, and the local government will be correctly dependant from France.
However, no matter how ill-motivated this mission is, if it can bring peace in only one city, I'm all for it 
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Lord Merciless
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They should hunt down those cannibals first.
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:28
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Just a clue about the kind of hell they're entering:
quote:
Pygmies call for UN to prosecute Congo cannibals
22/05/2003 - 09:03:30
Congo Pygmies have demanded the United Nations prosecute government and rebel fighters accused of slaughtering and eating them as fighting continues in the country’s dense north-eastern jungles.
Many army, rebel and tribal fighters believe Pygmies are sub-human and some think that eating them will give the gunmen magic powers. There have even been reports of markets selling Pygmy flesh.
“In living memory, we have seen cruelty, massacres, genocide, but we have never seen human beings hunted and eaten literally as though they were game animals, as has recently happened,” said Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of the Mbuti Pygmies in Congo.
A UN peacekeeping force is to be deployed in Congo’s north-east Ituri province, where at least 280 people have been killed in a week of tribal fighting.
Aid workers in Bunia town have found the bodies of 231 people killed since May 4, including women and children, some decapitated, others with their hearts, livers and lungs removed.
The French have been asked to lead the peacekeeping force and are considering the request. Britain and Pakistan may also send soldiers.
There are about 750 UN troops already in Bunia, but they could not stop the recent violence. There are an estimated 25,000 to 28,000 tribal fighters in the region, with thousands deployed in and around the town.
Pygmies have often suffered at the hands of the warring factions during Congo’s bloody conflicts, and the latest fighting has been no exception.
“Pygmies are being pursued in the forests. People have been eaten,” said Makelo, a delegate to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues which is meeting at UN headquarters in New York.
“This is nothing more, nothing less than a crime against humanity,” he said. “This is a certain kind of genocide.”
Njuma Ekundanayo, an expert member of the Permanent Forum, said attacks against the Pygmies “are not only coming from the army but also from other groups”.
“We don’t understand why the military practices cannibalism against the Pygmies,” she said.
The fighters also rape and sexually assault Pygmy women, and sexually transmitted diseases are spreading in Pygmy communities, the activists said.
About 600,000 Pygmies are believed to live in Congo, which is in the midst of a five-year-old civil war fuelled by deep-seated ethnic and tribal hatreds.
The original inhabitants of Congo, the Pygmies continue to live deep in the forests, eking out an existence by hunting and gathering food from small, nomadic base camps.
Earlier this year, human rights activists and UN investigators confirmed that rebels cooked and ate at least a dozen Pygmies and an undetermined number of people from other tribes during fighting with rival insurgents.
There have been no reports of Congolese army soldiers engaging in similar activity.
Most of the reported acts of cannibalism took place between November and December when the Congolese Liberation Movement launched a successful offensive to retake the town of Mambasa.
The Congolese Liberation Movement had previously lost the town to a rival rebel group. Jean-Pierre Bemba, the group’s leader, has said he was “shocked” by reports that his troops ate people.
Addressing the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Makelo told the body to ask the Security Council, the UN Committee on Human Rights and other bodies to recognise acts of cannibalism as a crime against humanity and acts of genocide.
He also asked the United Nations to set up an international tribunal to try those accused of such crimes.
Ekundanayo, the Permanent Forum member, said no figures on the number of such assaults are available.
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Ecthy
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Zhonghuà Rénmín Gònghéguó
Mar 2000
time: 06:28
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sounds like East Germany 1945-195?
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lightblue
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L'Boro, UK
Oct 2001
time: 05:28
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I think the rules of engagement for the current "peacekeepers" are of the kind that they are allowed to interfere when they see things happen, but not go and look for it if they hear rumors.
The intervention force will not have blue helmets, will be heavily armed and will have robust rules of engagement
(http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ol=968793972154 as an example which I googled up).
I'd find it hard to do anything more than control a city or so with that many troops in that kind of terrain. If you spread out too much, soldiers will end up like the two peacekeepers that were killed and had their hearts an stomachs removed the other week. The other problem is that you have to decide who the aggressor is. In one area one tribe might try to exterminate another, but that tribe might be doing the same to another tribe a couple of miles down the road. It is going to be a messy mission if they actually try to something, and completely inefficient if they keep to the current state.
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panag
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MY WORDS ARE BACKED WITH BIO-CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Oct 2000
time: 07:28
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quote:
Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
That's why I suggested three airmobile brigades to go on the offensive against the rebels.  |
hi ,
huh , the cold war is over , ......
as long as the world does not care , no-one gives a rats@@@ , ...... 
there is nothing left that posses a thread to the world economy , no vital supply lines with key strategic resources , .....
as useall no-one cares when it comes to africa , the french do , ....
a lot of articles , but no-one here seems to know that the french are allready there and some french troops aint under un command , .... ( guess why )
have a nice day
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Ecthy
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Zhonghuà Rénmín Gònghéguó
Mar 2000
time: 06:28
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the rooskies, who else
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Colon
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Antwerp, Colon's Chocolate Canard Country
Jan 1970
time: 06:28
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quote:
Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
If your safe haven is porous, and/or you don't have heavy weapons support and airmobility, 1,400 troops on the ground can't do much, even in a small area. Look at UNISOM I for a good example.
1,400 sounds like a decent number, until you factor in support troops (clerks, maintenance, mess hall, medical, signals, etc.) which don't give you nearly the combat posture as line troops will, and the fact that you can't pull 50% or 100% night alerts all the time.
Three airmobile brigades, OTOH, could rapidly take the war to the militias and rebels all over the country, and break their asses pretty quick, although it would be a while before you could train competent national forces to maintain stability. A long while. Another problem is that the resource richer areas of Congo (Katanga especially) have always been a bit secessionist, so "national" troops wouldn't be particularly welcome. |
They'll be there to support the troops that are already present. And I think well-equiped troops could handle the ragtag militias with mandate they have. IMHO of course.
I don't know how many troops or how much equipment 3 airmobile brigades is, but even if we plan on something as ambitious as stabilising the whole country I'm sceptical we could do anything outside of the medium-sized cities. Concepts such as central authorithy and infrastructure have disintigrated completely, even the rebel groups, Ruanda and Uganda have more nominal than real control over 'their' territories.
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05-06-2003 04:17
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