“We don’t need this kind of hockey!”
At the end of July, mass demonstrations erupted in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and turned into clashes with law enforcement forces. These events are now commonplace; similar incidents occur daily in different parts of the world and are not in the media’s focus. What happened in the DRC, however, goes far beyond the usual riots.
On 25-26 July, mass protests against the UN mission took place in the towns of Goma and Butembo. Some 30 locals were killed and more than 70 injured, most by gunfire from police and UN peacekeepers. The Blue Helmets also suffered casualties: four were killed and over a dozen injured. The regional headquarters of the UN mission was evacuated under heavy guard of a military contingent of peacekeepers, after which the premises were looted.
In the east of the country, militants from the M23 rebel group, as well as terrorists from local cells of IS*, banned in Russia, are periodically on the rise. Attacks on populated areas have caused waves of refugees and displaced persons, as tens of thousands of civilians, most of them women, children and the elderly, have sought refuge in the jungle. At the same time, the large UN force with its air force and armoured vehicles, according to the inhabitants, condones lawlessness by its inaction and, by so doing, encourages the bandits. This led to unrest: the youth wing of the ruling party (!) demanded the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers from the DRC, accusing it of inefficiency.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on the issue, but it was held behind closed doors – the reputation of “the most authoritative and influential international organisation” was again at risk and another blow had to be parried. That is, to put a lid on it and leave everything as it is. Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said that Jean-Pierre Lacroix, head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, would be there as soon as his work schedule permitted. Haq also stressed that “any attack on UN peacekeepers could be considered a war crime. We have been doing our utmost to bring stability to Eastern Congo, not even for years, but decades.
If one reads official information on UN peacekeeping posted on its website, one gets the impression, indeed, that the best of humanity, gathered under the blue flag, are tirelessly doing good, displaying endless successes and achievements. In fact the situation is somewhat different.
Let us turn to the history of peacekeeping (or is it myth-making?) and start with the DRC. UN troops first appeared on the territory of this country in 1960 (then called the Republic of the Congo), based on Security Council resolution No. 143. The mission was called the ONUC with the task of ensuring the withdrawal of Belgian colonial units and assisting the government in Leopoldville to combat separatism. In 1961 the mandate of the ONUC was changed to read: ‘Preservation of the territorial integrity and political independence of the Congo and prevention of civil war’. As a result of the change of mandate, the ONUC forces became in effect a party to the conflict. The UN contingent numbered some 20,000 troops, who conducted four large-scale operations. In January 1963, the province of Katanga was returned to the Congo and the mission was, in the official assessment of the Security Council, “a landmark in the history of the United Nations in terms of responsibilities assumed, the size of the area of operations and the manpower involved”. Naturally, no mention was made of the deaths of UN Secretary-General Hammerskjöld and former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba or Belgium’s role in these crimes.
The current UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC was established in 1999 by SC Resolution 1279 “for the purpose of stabilising and monitoring the peace process”. This was preceded by Resolution No. 1258 “for monitoring and reporting” and Resolution No. 1291 “for monitoring compliance” adopted in 2000. Over the next ten years, some $8.74 billion was spent to fund these peacebuilding efforts. The question is, what was this amount spent on and what was the effectiveness? The answer is ingeniously simple: an ingenious scheme was invented in the depths of the UN bureaucracy to declare the mission successful and immediately organize a new one. And this trick is still actively used today.
On 28 May 2010, the SB approved Resolution No. 1925 “to reflect the new phase of development of the DRC”, and on 1 July the peacekeeping mission was renamed MONUSCO. The change of name was followed by a formal change of mandate: it was charged with using all necessary means to, inter alia, protect civilians, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence and to support the DRC government in its stabilisation and peace consolidation efforts.
As of October 2017, the total strength of MONUSCO’s peacekeeping force was around 18,300. By November 2021, they had been reduced, leaving more than 12,000 troops and 1,600 international police officers, but costs were increased by another neat combination: the mission was funded under a special separate account whose budget is approved by the General Assembly on an annual basis. For reference: for the period July 2021 to June 2022, MONUSCO has been allocated $1,123,346,000. (A/RES/75/300).
The civil war in Somalia began in 1988 and by early 1992 the population of 10 million had been reduced by a third: three million had been forced to flee as refugees, three hundred thousand had been killed and one and a half million faced real risk of death from starvation and disease – over 300,000 had died by the summer of 1992. The UN reacted with SC Resolutions Nos. 733, 746, 751… In early July 1992, 50 unarmed UN military observers came to Mogadishu as part of the UNOSOM-I peacekeeping mission. Their tasks were to “monitor the ceasefire” and to “ensure the safe delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance”.
The decision was not an adequate assessment of the situation: humanitarian organisations attempting to deliver food had to pay tribute for passage through territory controlled by one faction or another, and often humanitarian aid was simply looted. The UN then decided to send a peacekeeping force to protect humanitarian operations but the battalion that arrived from Pakistan was immediately blocked by local groups who made no secret of their hostility. On 3 December 1992, the Security Council adopted Resolution 794, which established the UN Task Force (UNITAF), consisting of 37,000 troops from 24 countries, authorized to use ‘all necessary means’ to ensure unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The operation was called “Renewed Hope” and started on December 9, 1992, with the landing of the US Marines in Mogadishu. In March 1993, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared the operation a success, and immediately established the mission UNOSOM II with the task “to participate in the restoration of central authority and the revival of Somalia through democratic governance. Operation Hope Continues, involving some 28,000 troops from more than 22 countries, was launched.
This soon turned into violent clashes in which the UN openly intervened on one side of the conflict, in an unusual form – a bounty was put on General Mohammed Aydid’s head and he was outlawed.
Aidid, who had significant popular support, responded by declaring the UN forces “occupation” and demanding their withdrawal. This ‘peacekeeping’ policy of the UN had very unfortunate consequences, especially after the US military attempted to seize the recalcitrant general by force, using special units of the 75th Green Beret Regiment and the Delta Force. Tanks and attack helicopters were used to suppress the resistance of Aydid’s supporters, the death toll was rapidly increasing: on June 5, the Pakistani UNOSOM II unit lost 23 servicemen killed and 54 wounded; while on October 3-4, 18 US Special Forces, 35 servicemen of other countries as well as over 300 Somalis were killed in Mogadishu. In addition, the abuse and deliberate killing of civilians by soldiers from several contingents came to light. The UN concluded a ceasefire with Aidid and the ‘peacekeepers’ left the country in March 1995 without completing any of their tasks.
Somalia dropped out of the news headlines for a long time, it seemed that everyone had forgotten about the territory. But not in the UN, where the peacekeeping budget is still being actively absorbed. Few people know that today there are three missions – UNSOM, UNSOS and AMISOM, in which 1,970 civilian staff tirelessly work under the protection of nearly 20,000 UN troops. It remains to be said that the majority of the population has been forcibly displaced over the years and that a mere million people now live in Somalia.
(End of story)
Anton Veselov, FSK
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