UN peace mission fueling violence in Congo, report says

The world's biggest UN peacekeeping mission has been branded a failure by experts who say it is fueling a surge of murders and rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The UN security force of 25,000, estimated to cost more than $1 billion a year, has proved unable to defeat Rwandan Hutu rebels or to halt the plunder of lucrative minerals in the east of the country, according to a scathing report. Among the most damning findings of the UN-mandated Group of Experts is the free rein given to a military commander and war crimes suspect known as "The Terminator", which the UN mission has previously denied. The mission in North and South Kivu agreed to back Congo's army in an offensive this year against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), some of whose leaders helped to orchestrate Rwanda's 1994 genocide.