The Congo Trap: MONUSCO Islands of Stability in the Sea of Instability Alberto Barrera*
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Barrera, A 2015 The Congo Trap: MONUSCO Islands of Stability in stability the Sea of Instability. Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, 4(1): 52, pp. 1–16, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/sta.gn RESEARCH ARTICLE The Congo Trap: MONUSCO Islands of Stability in the Sea of Instability Alberto Barrera* 2014 was a hopeful year for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The M23 movement had been defeated in military operations in which one of the last peacekeeping experiments, the UN Force Intervention Brigade, had played a deci- sive role. A third UN stabilization plan, the ‘islands of stability’ was proposed to continue the stabilization of a country considered in a post-conflict phase. However, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has almost tripled in the country since 2007. This article will argue that DRC is still immersed into an old social conflict that existed before the Congo Wars and the roots of which are not being addressed. It will argue that the United Nations Organization Sta- bilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the ‘islands of stability’ strategy can address some of the secondary causes of the Congo conflict, such as its internationalization, the presence in DRC of foreign armed groups or the ‘blood minerals’, but cannot address its primary causes: land struggles, an old cycle of violence and the fragmentation of the Congolese soci- ety and political elite that is jeopardizing the restoration of the state authority. The huge dimensions of each of these factors make the Congo conflict ‘one of the most complex and intricate environments ever faced by a peacekeeping mis- sion’, for which MONUSCO’s mandate, resources and stabilization strategy do not seem powerful enough. When the UN organized the 2006 elections legitimized a ‘spoiler state’, the bottleneck of all the reforms needed to stabilize the country. The UN fell thus into a trap and became part of the conflict. Lessons learned should be taken for future UN operations. Introduction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has (MONUSCO), the largest UN peace operation been, during the last decade, a vast laboratory and one of the first to receive a Chapter VII of humanitarian relief, protection of civil- mandate, has deployed, for the first time in ians and statebuilding strategies. The United UN history, unarmed surveillance drones and Nations Organization Stabilization Mission a UN intervention brigade, tasked to carry out offensive operations to neutralize armed groups. The decisive role played by the brigade * ES in the defeat of the M23 rebellion has raised [email protected] new hopes about the stabilization of the Art. 52, page 2 of 16 Barrera: The Congo Trap country, for which the UN has prepared, after fuelling the Congo conflict and any of its pri- the UN Security and Stabilization Support mary causes. The article will try to contribute Strategy (UNSSSS) and the later version, ISSSS, to the debates about UN peacebuilding and a third strategy: the ‘islands of stability’. This stabilization strategies in complex environ- optimistic perspective bases its hopes in the ments having transformed into a ‘No War, No defeat of the most recent Tutsi rebellion, Peace’ situation (Swart 2011). the weakening of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the From the Congo Wars to MONUC decreasing involvement of armed groups in At the end of the Cold War, the African Great the mines of eastern DRC. According to this Lakes were destabilizing: Zaire was a failing vision, DRC is progressively moving toward state which had suffered a decrease in its stabilization, finding, step by step, answers GDP of about 65 per cent since its independ- to the alleged root causes of the Congo wars: ence in 1960. Museveni’s Popular Resistance foreign intervention, proliferation of armed Army (PRA) had taken the power in Uganda groups and ‘blood minerals’. This perspective, in 1986. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), however, does not take into consideration a composed of Tutsi refugees in Southern reliable barometer of the crisis: the number Uganda, was rearming and preparing to of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The invade Rwanda, controlled by a Hutu elite number of IDPs almost tripled from the start since the independence of the country. The of the M23 rebellion to 2014. Rwandan Civil War triggered the genocide of The point of departure of this article is the about 800,000 Tutsi and displaced about one idea that DRC has been destabilizing since million and a half Hutu Rwandese to Eastern 2007, when there were around one million Zaire. Many of the génocidaires Interahamwe IDPs in the country, to 2015, when the IDPs fled to Zaire and took control of the Hutu are almost three million. According to this refugee camps, launching attacks against perspective, DRC is not in a post-conflict Congolese Tutsi in Zaire and the new Tutsi situation, but in the middle of a social con- regime in Rwanda. The arrival of the Hutu flict whose roots could be traced back to the refugees in Eastern Zaire aggravated the colonial times. To argue this, this article will fragile situation in the area, where ethnic review the dynamics of the Congo conflict, tensions existed between dozens of com- trying to differentiate its secondary factors, munities. These facts, combined with Zaire’s which are fuelling the Congo conflict but collapse, triggered the invasion of Zaire in were not at its origins, from the primary fac- 1996 by the troops of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, tors, which existed before and have not yet backed by Rwandese and Ugandan troops, been addressed. The article will review the who wanted to dismantle the Interahamwe material factors of the conflict: the struggle military bases in the country. This invasion is for minerals and land in a country so huge considered the beginning of the First Congo and wild that it deters unity. It will further Qar. Once in power, Kabila turned on his analyze the cycle of violence at the center of former Rwandese allies, firing his Rwandan the historical dynamics of the country since advisers. The Second Congo War began in its colonization. Finally, it will explore the 1997, when Kabila dismissed his Rwandan political dimensions of the crisis: the absence Chief of Staff, James Kabarebe, triggering of security due to the lack of reforms, which the invasion of DRC by the rebel group Rally are jeopardized by Government officials in for Congolese Democracy (RCD), controlled competition for the State resources. The arti- again by Rwanda and Uganda (Ndayewl 2008; cle will argue that neither MONUSCO nor Braeckman 1999; Van Reybrouck 2008). its stabilization strategy have the resources The Congolese wars were the most destruc- needed to face most of the secondary factors tive and deadliest wars since the end of Barrera: The Congo Trap Art. 52, page 3 of 16 World War II. They killed between three and One year later, the last three armed groups five million persons and destabilized most in Ituri disarmed. The number of IDPs in DRC of Central Africa, involving more than ten had decreased from more than 3 million IDPs African countries in the conflict. In 1999, in 2002 to around a million at the beginning the United Nations deployed to the country of 2007 (IDMC n.d.). Since it seemed that, what was to become its largest peacekeep- finally, peace was arriving to Congo, the UN ing mission: MONUC. The mission arrived in designed its first stabilization strategy, known a country divided into three areas: two con- as the UN Security and Stabilisation Support trolled, respectively, by the Ugandan proxy Strategy (UNSSSS) in late 2006. However, it Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) was not implemented due to the deteriora- and the Rwandan proxy RCD, and the third tion of the security in Eastern DRC and the one by the Government and its allies Angola, re-emergence of the CNDP war in North Kivu Namibia and Zimbabwe (Braeckman 1999). in 2008 (Paddon and Lacaille 2011: 11). Thanks to the international pressure over Indeed, dozens of Congolese armed the conflict parties a peace settlement was groups still remained active in the Kivus; finally reached in 2003. However, even with the Interahamwe, now Forces Démocratiques the presence of MONUC, wars continued in de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), contin- the country, such as the ethnic war in the ued to cause instability in the region and Ituri district, which killed more than 50,000 the Congolese Tutsi community defended Iturians (Oga 2009). their grievances through the parallel Army Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple MONUC (CNDP) (Andrew 2008). In 2008, despite The United Nations Organization Mission the support of MONUC troops to the in the Democratic Republic of the Congo national army, the CNDP surrounded the (MONUC), initially deployed for the obser- city of Goma, forcing peace talks. The clashes vation of the ceasefire and disengagement between the CNDP and the Forces Armées of forces, grew in number and in assigned de la République Démocratique du Congo tasks at every UN Security Council resolu- (FARDC) had increased the number of IDPs tion. In late 1999 MONUC had 500 observers in North and South Kivu, but a peace agree- and a protection force of 5,037 soldiers to ment formalized on 23 March 2009 between monitor the implementation of the ceasefire the Congolese Government and the CNDP agreement. Six years later, in 2005, MONUC, seemed to launch a new era of hopes and under Chapter VII mandate, had 16,000 stability. troops engaged in military operations of peace enforcement. The mission’s mandate MONUSCO had been enlarged at every Security Council In 2009, the UNSSSS was transformed into resolution including the support to the dis- the International Security and Stabilization armament, demobilization and reintegra- Support Strategy (ISSSS) (n.d.) ‘to reinforce tion (DDR) of combatants, the protection political progress’ and stabilize the country of civilians, the strengthening of the State following the 2006 elections and the 2009 Authority and the organization, in 2006, of peace agreements between the government the first democratic elections in the country and armed groups.