The UN in Congo: worth the effort?

[Modbert]

The UN in Congo: worth the effort? | The Multilateralist

Without a great deal of attention, one of the world's largest peacekeeping missions is starting to unwind. Since early 2000, U.N. peacekeepers have labored in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, attempting to end one of the world's bloodiest recent conflicts. At its height, the U.N. mission involved more than 20,000 troops and hundreds of civilians and police from dozens of countries. By U.N. standards, it was an expensive undertaking, with a price tag of more than a billion dollars a year (by the standards of U.S. or NATO operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, of course, it was dirt cheap). It has also been bloody. Three peacekeepers were killed recently and more than 100 have died in the course of the operation.

Congolese president Joseph Kabila recently demanded that the U.N. force withdraw entirely by 2011, and the Security Council has authorized a smaller and renamed follow-on force. Some U.N. forces have already withdrawn. It has not been a smooth transition. With recent reports of a mass rapes in eastern Congo still reverberating, the U.N. is once again being charged with fecklessness and worse. "Hapless UN fails another test," one typical headline read.

First, she insisted that, for all its evident shortcomings, the U.N. force helped keep the country in one piece. What was a riven country is now for the most part unified, although the government clearly does not control swathes of eastern Congo. She credits international peacekeepers and diplomats with facilitating that unification process and restraining some of the worst violence. "The situation in the country would have been much worse without the peacekeepers," she says. Even in still violent eastern Congo, the peacekeepers have at times and in places been able to protect civilian populations from rampaging militias.

Thoughts USMB? Due to copyright, couldn't post the whole thing so I recommend reading the other side of the negative aspects of what had occurred in Congo.

At the end of the day however, I do believe that the U.N did more good than bad and their being there at the end of the day ended up being better than it could of ended.

 

[Oddball]

The UN isn't worth the effort in New York City.

 

[hjmick]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p9CxJazR_U]YouTube - Warren Zevon's last Letterman appearance part 4[/ame]

 

[ConHog]

The UN isn't worth the effort in New York City.

ModBert isnt woth the effort of responding to

 

[Modbert]

ModBert isnt woth the effort of responding to

Try to keep your petty obsessions out of a thread that is trying to have a intelligent discussion, thanks!

 

[Ragnar]

 

[hjmick]

Try to keep your petty obsessions out of a thread that is trying to have a intelligent discussion, thanks!

My bad... Anytime someone mentions the Congo I think of Warren Zevon and Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner...

 

[Modbert]

my bad... Anytime someone mentions the congo i think of warren zevon and roland the headless thompson gunner...

 

[ConHog]

ModBert isnt woth the effort of responding to

Try to keep your petty obsessions out of a thread that is trying to have a intelligent discussion, thanks!

petty obsession. I haven't said anything to or about you in quite some time you thin skinned pussy.

I just find it amusing that you post an article ask for thoughts without giving one of your own and then bash anyone who posts something you disagree with .

 

[Modbert]

petty obsession. I haven't said anything to or about you in quite some time you thin skinned pussy.

I just find it amusing that you post an article ask for thoughts without giving one of your own and then bash anyone who posts something you disagree with .

Thoughts USMB? Due to copyright, couldn't post the whole thing so I recommend reading the other side of the negative aspects of what had occurred in Congo.

At the end of the day however, I do believe that the U.N did more good than bad and their being there at the end of the day ended up being better than it could of ended.

Herp derp on your part there.

#2: You didn't post a opinion about the article, you continued your obsession with me. ConHog, I say this from the bottom of my heart, find another hobby to occupy some of your free time. All of this time on USMB isn't very healthy for you.

 

[hjmick]

Shit, now I feel guilty about not giving my opinion...

Okay... Here goes...

While I think that the U.N. does what it thinks is right, the end result of their efforts generally turn out to be ineffective and outright failures. Nothing in the Congo has really changed, any thinking person could have predicted the uselessness of the U.N. mission there.

Makes you wonder...

 

[ConHog]

petty obsession. I haven't said anything to or about you in quite some time you thin skinned pussy.

I just find it amusing that you post an article ask for thoughts without giving one of your own and then bash anyone who posts something you disagree with .

Thoughts USMB? Due to copyright, couldn't post the whole thing so I recommend reading the other side of the negative aspects of what had occurred in Congo.

At the end of the day however, I do believe that the U.N did more good than bad and their being there at the end of the day ended up being better than it could of ended.

Herp derp on your part there.

#2: You didn't post a opinion about the article, you continued your obsession with me. ConHog, I say this from the bottom of my heart, find another hobby to occupy some of your free time. All of this time on USMB isn't very healthy for you.

Where did I say that I DID post an opinion on the article ModTurd? Oh that's right I didn't . Poor little bastard can't read. I only posted to make fun of you for once again posting some shit and not posting your opinion until you can look around and see what other people are writing.

 

[Modbert]

Where did I say that I DID post an opinion on the article ModTurd? Oh that's right I didn't . Poor little bastard can't read. I only posted to make fun of you for once again posting some shit and not posting your opinion until you can look around and see what other people are writing.

Again, what do you call this?

At the end of the day however, I do believe that the U.N did more good than bad and their being there at the end of the day ended up being better than it could of ended.

Your participation in this thread continues to be a epic fail.

 

[waltky]

Bosco to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity...

DRC Warlord Ntaganda Faces ICC Judges Tuesday
March 25, 2013 - The spokesman for the International Criminal Court (ICC) says the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) warlord Bosco Ntaganda will make his first appearance in court on Tuesday, March 26.

“The judges will check his identity and will inform him of his rights of a defense and also the charges that are alleged against him,” said ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah. The Hague-based court has charged Ntaganda with 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court says that as leader of an armed group in Ituri, eastern DRC, Ntaganda was criminally responsible for the use of child soldiers and acts of murder, rape and sexual slavery. The ICC has tried and convicted Ntaganda’s alleged co-conspirator, Thomas Lubanga, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison. “At the end of the hearing [Tuesday] the judges will set the date for the confirmation of charges in another pretrial hearing. That will allow the judges to check whether or not the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to commit the case for a trial, or whether the case should stop at this primary stage, if there is not sufficient evidence,” said el-Abdallah.

The ICC, el-Abdallah says, will provide Ntaganda with a defense attorney for his initial court appearance. “For the time being, there is a lawyer that has been appointed by the court for the purpose of the hearing. After that, Mr. Bosco Ntaganda will have the possibility to appoint a lawyer of his own choice from the list of counsel that are authorized to present the defense interest before the ICC,” said el-Abdallah. “Whether the court or Mr. Ntaganda,” continued el-Abdallah, “who will bear the cost that is a matter that would be decided after conducting a financial investigation. But, in the meantime, before the investigation is conducted, it will be the court that would ensure that Mr. Ntaganda is represented.”

El-Abdallah says the ICC has launched an inquiry into whether the Congolese warlord is capable of paying for his own defense attorney. Ntaganda walked into the U.S. embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, last week after his faction of the Congolese rebel group M23 was routed by fighters under a rival commander. DRC Information Minister Lambert Mende told VOA Ntaganda’s trial is a boost to the peace process in the restive parts of the country. “When people like Ntaganda and others will disappear in that region, we think that this will be a chance to [establish] the peace to that region. We think that there are others, but when you remove one, there is hope that this will teach a lesson to others,” said Mende.

DRC Warlord Ntaganda Faces ICC Judges Tuesday

 

[waltky]

Bosco goin' on trial at The Hague...

Former Congolese Warlord Going on Trial in The Hague
September 01, 2015 — Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda goes on trial at the International Criminal Court Wednesday to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ntaganda is accused of being responsible for atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo more than a decade ago.

Nicknamed “The Terminator,” Bosco Ntaganda spent years as a rebel leader in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But, the 18 charges against him narrowly relate to fighting in DRC’s Ituri region between 2002 and 2003. They include murder, attempted murder, attacks against civilians and sexual slavery. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the trial’s opening, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Ntaganda’s behavior has raised alarms far beyond DRC and the surrounding Great Lakes region.

Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda appears at the International Criminal Court charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in a hearing in The Hague

“We believe he ordered his troops to attack, pillage, rape, persecute and kill civilians belonging to Lendu, Ngiti and other ethnic groups. And we believe he recruited hundreds of children into the UCP [Union of Congolese Patriots rebel group] and used them to kill and to die in the fighting and girl soldiers to be routinely raped,” she said. Ntaganda has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Stephane Bourgon, described the case as complex. He said the context in which the events took place was key and warned against the temptation of jumping to conclusions.

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda looks on during the case against Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda [not shown] at the International Criminal Court in The Hague

Following a peace deal with the government in 2009, Ntaganda was made a general in the army; but, in 2012, he formed a new rebel group called the M23. A year later, he surrendered to the U.S. embassy in neighboring Rwanda and was transferred to ICC custody at The Hague. Human Rights Watch has called Ntaganda’s trial a victory for victims and their families - and for rights activists across the eastern DRC.

Former Congolese Warlord Going on Trial in The Hague

 

[blastoff]

UNnecessary...

 

[WinterBorn]

Try to keep your petty obsessions out of a thread that is trying to have a intelligent discussion, thanks!

My bad... Anytime someone mentions the Congo I think of Warren Zevon and Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner...

Great song! "...but of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best"

 

[B. Kidd]

U.S. arms sales to the Congo (of course, through intermediaries) would take a hit. Knowing it's an old thread, looks like Ukraine has picked up the slack.