S. African troops for Congo soon

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, APRIL 1. A small contingent of South African troops will be leaving ``as soon as possible'' to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the South African Defence Minister, Mr. Mosiuoa Lekota.

The decision comes in the wake of the disengagement of foreign troops in the DRC. The process recently, though the withdrawals have been limited and symbolic.

The first complement of South African troops, comprising six persons, all members of the South African Military Health Service, is expected to leave soon for the DRC. They will be joining the U.N. Mission Organisation in the DRC (MONUC, its French abbreviation), in place in the DRC since the Lusaka Accord of July-August 1999. Initially comprising less than 80 persons, MONUC at present comprises a modest 200 persons drawn from 37 countries.

MONUC is strictly speaking not a peace-keeping force, though Article III (11-a) of the Lusaka Accord specifically called for the deployment of an ``appropriate peace-keeping force'', to be constituted and facilitated by the U.N. and in collaboration with the OAU''.

However, the U.N. Security Council in its Resolution of February 24, 2000 ,limited the role of the projected 5,537 U.N. troops to ``monitoring'' and ``verification'' of the ceasefire rather than any ``enforcement''. The reluctance to take an activist role was understandable, given the realities of the situation on the ground when the resolution was adopted. Though the situation has somewhat changed with the recent political changes in the DRC, there is no indication of the U.N. taking on an activist peace- keeping, if necessary peace- enforcing, role in the DRC. The fact is, U.N. peace-keeping operations in Africa have a history of coming unstuck so that even participating countries are wary of what holds for their troops wearing the blue berets.

Caution and minimalism are still the watchwords in so far as the role and functions of the U.N. troops are concerned. This is even more so in respect of the deployment of South African troops. That it has taken South African authorities over a year for the decision to be part of the U.N. forces in the DRC to actually send or ``about to send'' the troops tells its own story. From the beginning, South Africa has been extremely cautious in this regard, deferring any decision till every conceivable problem was sorted out. Such care and concern for the welfare of its troops was not evident when, in a matter of days and with virtually no preparation, South Africa sent in its troops to sort out a domestic crisis in Lesotho in September 1998. But then, Lesotho is ``home'' while DRC is somewhere out in the ``darkest Africa''.

This mindset, going back to the bad old days before the advent of democracy, is yet to change.

Indeed, the opposition to ``getting entangled in African problems'', is sometimes openly expressed only by the principally white Opposition parties. Thus, the announcement in June last year that the planned deployment of 165 South African troops to join MONUC could cost Rand 6 millions a month was greeted with outrage by the Opposition parties, though the costs of such deployment have always been met finally by the U.N.

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Section  : International
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