ugnet_: EU TROOPS COULD BE IN CONGO FOR A YEAR

[Mulindwa Edward]

EU troops could be in the Congo for 'at least a year' By Adrian Blomfield in Bunia (Filed: 15/06/2003) A planned three-month "lightning mission" by a European Union combat force to the Congolese town of Bunia could last at least a year, a leading French officer has warned.   French special forces on reconnaissance near Bunia "Three months is ridiculous, even six months won't be enough," said Col Daniel Vollot, who has commanded UN peacekeepers in Bunia for the last seven months. The warning will fuel fears in Britain at the decision to send a French-led EU force of up to 1,500 soldiers, including 100 British troops. Last week Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, said it would withdraw "later in the summer". French troops opened fire on hostile militia in Bunia yesterday for the first time since they were deployed nine days ago. Col Gerard Dubois, a spokesman for the force, said a patrol heading towards Dele, a suburb controlled by Lendu militias, came under attack. "The force has no casualties and we do not have information of casualties on the other side," he said. Critics say the EU force is no more than a token gesture by western leaders unwilling to confront the world's deadliest war since 1945. Between 3.1 million and 4.7 million people are believed to have died in eastern Congo as a result of a war started when Rwanda and Uganda invaded five years ago. Many of the worst atrocities have been in Equateur province's Ituri district, of which Bunia is the capital, where rival Hema and Lendu tribal militias are engaged in battle. It was only last month, however, when hundreds of people were killed in Bunia - yards from UN peacekeepers - that a combat force was dispatched to take control of the town until September 1. Aid workers say that to be effective the force must venture into the rest of Ituri, where massacres are frequent. That, it seems, has been ruled out and the force has no mandate outside Bunia. Meanwhile, Hema militiamen last week abducted at least 33 civilians in Bunia. Most were probably hacked to death outside the town, according to reports from survivors.             The Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"             Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"