Political Crossfire Forums

[Kalu]

Quote: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

January 28, 2005
Posted to the web January 28, 2005

Armed militiamen have burnt down a village in the district of Ituri, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing at least 1,500 residents to flee to nearby localities, Rudi Sterz, the interim coordinator of German Agro Action in the area told IRIN on Friday. The affected village, She, is 60 km northeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri...

...The UN has some 3,500 peacekeepers in mineral-rich Ituri, where fighting has persisted despite the official end in 2002 of the country's five-year civil war, and despite an agreement seven armed militia groups signed with the government on 14 May to disarm and participate in the country's transition to democracy.



http://allafrica.com/stories/200501280342.html

Quote: UN News Service (New York)

January 26, 2005
Posted to the web January 26, 2005

United Nations peacekeepers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have demolished four camps belonging to armed rebel militias in the Ituri district and seized materials, including women's clothing used for disguises, the UN mission there said today.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200501260845.html

The Ituri region of the DRC (northeast Congo) has been suffering. Various militias have been rampaging through the region and have also been attacking civilians, raping and looting villages in North Kivu province which borders Rwanda.

With the unstable situation in the east, many Congolese in North Kivu and Ituri province care less about participating in elections this June and are instead concerned with getting enough food and staying alive.

How should Pres. Joseph Kabila of the DRC respond? How should MONUC (the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC) respond? Will sending enough peacekeepers be enough? One of the main problems is the lack of infrastructure in the east. Will anything be able to be done for the people living in the east?