In Goma, UN Council Lands Next to the Lava, Talks Justice in Mobutu's Villa by the Lake

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa
www.innercitypress.com/unsc2goma060808.html

GOMA, June 8 -- As part of the UN Security Council jetted to Goma and its lava-covered airstrip, the head of the UN Mission in the Congo Alan Doss told the press he needs drones and other surveillance equipment to deal with violence in Eastern Congo. When Inner City Press asked about reports that the UN peacekeepers from India got orders from New Delhi to stand down, while the CNDP militia of renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda routed the Congolese Army in December, Doss acknowledged that some have criticized the UN for not getting more involved. In fact, the resounding defeat of the Congolese Army emboldened not only Nkunda's but also other militias. Most recently the Hutu FDLR killed nine people in the Rutshuru internally displaced persons camp. Malu Malu of the Amani disarmament process, also on the special UN plane, told the press that he understands that the FDLR were in retreat that day, and began shooting and killing in the IDP camp as a form of revenge.

As it turns out, Nkunda's CNDP captured many weapons from the Congolese army in December. The FDLR, Doss says, may be getting weapons in connection with the transportation and illegal trade of minerals, from the airports in Goma, Bukavu and Walicali. Doss mentioned the cell phone components coltan and casiterite, but gold is what these hills are known for. That this is what makes the acknowledged involvement of UN peacekeepers in illegal gold trading all the more outrageous was not mentioned by Mr. Doss.

Doss' plan, it seems, is to pay to buy back guns. There are safeguards: no group can get money for demobilization unless it can show that it has at least one gun per purported combatant, and that these know how to use the guns. How this test is administered was not said. Then they get a rebel I.D. card, which they can use to get their benefits. Groups have been recruiting more fighter, just to raise their payments and their leverage. Still it is more credible that in Nepal, where the Maoists claimed they had seven times as many fighters as guns.

Another part of the plan is to offer FDLR dead-enders the option of being relocated elsewhere in the Congo. It's hard to imagine a community, at least in Congo, that would welcome an influx of FDLR fighters, in a sort of witness protection program. But apparently money can solve their problems.

The UN plane to Goma was barely half full. The reason, Doss said, was that with the runway shortened by the volcanic lava that still covers a third of it, if full of people a plane cannot be full of fuel. Inner City Press asked him how much it would cost to clear the runway of lava. "Fifteen million dollars," Doss answered.

When the plane came down through the clouds, over the lake with the volcano in the distance, journalists and ambassadors marveled. "It's like Switzerland," one said. Busses whisked them through streets of wooden houses to a lakeside villa once used by Mobutu. There they met with the Governor of North Kivu Julien Paluku. Blue uniformed soldiers patrolled the lawn, one with a rocket propelled grenade launcher. At a stakeout on the lawn after the meeting, Inner City Press asked Governor Paluku if he thought the International Criminal Court could be helpful to the disarmament process. Yes, he said, impunity must end. The busses continued to the Sylvia Lodge, where soldiers stood with tear gas canisters by the lakeside. Only in the Congo...

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