UN Peacekeeper Killed In Eastern Congo Fighting
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — United Nations forces and the Congolese
army attacked rebel positions with helicopter gunships, armored
personnel carriers and a phalanx of ground troops Wednesday, ramping up
the U.N.'s engagement in the latest rebellion to roil this country's
tormented east.
The fighting was some of the fiercest in the
week since the newly created U.N. intervention brigade went on the
offensive, and one Tanzanian peacekeeper was killed after the rebels
aimed artillery fire at their position, the U.N. said in a statement.
Seven other troops were also wounded, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said.
"I
am outraged by today's killing of a United Nations peacekeeper from
Tanzania by the M23," said Martin Kobler, the special representative of
the secretary-general in Congo, who heads the peacekeeping mission. "He
sacrificed his life to protect civilians in Goma."
The fighting
is taking place nine miles (15 kilometers) from the provincial capital
of Goma, a city home to nearly 1 million people that was briefly
captured by the M23 rebels late last year.
The U.N. involvement
in the latest flare-up of violence is in sharp contrast to November,
when the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, stood by as the
rebels overtook Goma because their mandate was only to protect
civilians.
The stepped-up U.N. intervention brigade, created by
the Security Council in March, is authorized to take the offensive
against the rebels.
"It's already changing the equation. For
now, I would shy away from calling it a game changer. It's certainly
unprecedented not only for Congo, but for peacekeeping itself and the
U.N. at large," said Timo Mueller, a Goma-based researcher with the
Enough Project, an advocacy group active in eastern Congo.
Martin
Nesirky, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in a
statement that Ban condemned the killing of the Tanzanian and violence
against U.N. peacekeepers generally.
"The Secretary-General deplores in the strongest terms the killing and wounding of UN peacekeepers," the statement reads.
Even
as forces pounded the rebels, U.N. officials continued to send mixed
messages about the extent of their involvement, repeatedly saying they
were merely "backing" or "supporting" the Congolese military, rather
than leading the offensive themselves.
"The main engagement is
by the (Congolese) forces," said Siphiwe Dlamini, a spokesman for the
South African military, which contributed troops to the brigade. "We are
retaliating and going on the offensive."
Lt. Col. Felix Basse,
the military spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, also
emphasized that U.N. forces were fighting alongside the Congolese army.
However,
the president of the M23 rebel movement, Bertrand Bisimwa, who spoke by
telephone, said the U.N.'s intervention brigade was on the frontline of
Wednesday's fighting.
"It was the U.N. that was shooting
directly at us, from their helicopters. It's the Tanzanian and South
African (United Nations) troops that are on the frontline. It's them
that we see first," he said.
As the U.N. mission takes its
strongest steps yet to protect Congolese civilians, observers note the
intervention brigade faces high expectations. It is already facing
backlash from residents who say their heightened efforts still aren't
enough to protect civilians from an onslaught of mortar fire.
Last
weekend, scores of Goma residents took to the streets in anger after a
barrage of mortar shells rained down on residential neighborhoods and
killed several civilians. A U.N. car was set ablaze, and in the melee
two protesters were killed.
"Given this outburst of frustration
during these demonstrations, MONUSCO might feel pressured to take on
M23 and be sucked into an active conflict, into active warfare," Mueller
said. "There might be a momentum building up where MONUSCO has to prove
its legitimacy and its effectiveness and has to show the population
that it's actually doing something."
In a recent open letter,
the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, also
expressed concern about the mission's simultaneous mandate to "aid,
protect and fight" in Congo. The U.N. vigorously defended its mandate,
saying it could not "fold our arms and allow armed groups to kill the
population."
In addition to seven U.N. troops wounded
Wednesday, three others already have sustained injuries since the U.N.
brigade began directly engaging rebels last week. One South African and
two Tanzanians were hit by shrapnel Saturday, South Africa's military
said in a statement Wednesday.
Angelo Izama, a Uganda-based
analyst who runs a regional security think tank called Fanaka Kwawote,
cautions though that failure to unseat the M23 from their current
strongholds overlooking Goma would be a psychological blow to the
Congolese military and its U.N. allies.
He said it was highly
unlikely that the U.N. brigade would sustain the offensive if more and
more of its troops were killed or wounded in combat.
"If they come under sustained attack, the U.N. will have no appetite for war," he said. "They will call time out."
___
Krista
Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Rukmini
Callimachi in Dakar; Rodney Muhumuza in Johannesburg and Peter J.
Spielmann in New York contributed to this report.
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