Word: congo
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...continued across North Kivu, but hundreds of soldiers had been pulled back to the city from 43 bases across the region, and patrols were largely limited to Goma and its immediate environs. The U.N. Security Council also granted MONUC 3,000 extra troops. Still, the force remained chronically overstretched. "Congo is the size of Western Europe, without roads," Doss says. Before he received his reinforcements, Doss had 10,000 soldiers in North and South Kivu protecting a combined population of 10 million from 40,000 to 50,000 armed men. In all of Congo, he had the same number...
...after entering Congo, I headed north toward the fighting. By 7 a.m., Goma's streets were jammed with blue helmets and white armored vehicles. The traffic ended abruptly on the edge of town. In the next four days, I did not see a single peacekeeping operation or, aside from two supply convoys, even a U.N. vehicle more than 500 yards (450 m) from a MONUC base...
...them to the ranks of the same Congolese army that lives by looting and commits war crimes on a daily basis. Crippling its ability to rise above this behavior, a small number of MONUC soldiers have engaged in the same kinds of sexual assaults practiced by the nastiest of Congo's armed groups, resulting in 40 being sent home, nine civilian staff members being charged and one more being sacked. MONUC is also investigating possible arms- and gold-trafficking by Pakistani soldiers. Tatiana Carayannis, a Congo expert at New York City's Social Science Research Council, concludes...
...also about what MONUC is. In addition to 3,000 extra troops, Doss persuaded the U.N. Security Council to expand MONUC's mandate to allow it to target the commercial drivers of the war: the trade in Congo's minerals, like gold, and the world's largest reserves of coltan, which is needed to make components for cell phones. He continues to argue for an even more muscular approach to enforcing peace. "When we make these statements, when we claim the responsibility to protect, we have to be careful that we have the means to match our mandate," he says...
...site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis--or in totalitarian states like Burma? Doss insists there are limits to what he proposes. "We assist the national process. We do not replace it," he says. "We're not an army of occupation." But introducing a foreign combat force into Congo would cast doubt on whether such declarations are sincere...