Violence in Congo worsens as international reinforcements fail to show up

International promises to beef up the peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following fighting last year have yet to produce any additional troops on the ground despite a rising tide of renewed violence, rape, looting and further mass displacements of local people, UN and aid agency officials say. Fighting involving Congolese government troops, Congolese Tutsi rebels and a mainly Rwandan Hutu militia known as the FDLR led to the uprooting of 250,000 people last autumn in North and South Kivu provinces. The crisis provoked an international outcry and calls for European military intervention. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, travelled to the region with his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, to express concern. But British and EU reluctance to send troops resulted in a UN security council decision to reinforce the existing 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping forces, known as Monuc. Alan Doss, special UN envoy to the DRC, told the security council that none of the promised 3,000 reinforcements had yet arrived and he gave no timetable for their eventual deployment. So far only Egypt and Bangladesh have offered to send troops while Monuc's biggest contingent, a 4,400-strong Indian force, is said to be considering withdrawal. "The package that the council approved last year, none of it has shown up on the ground yet," Doss said. In addition to the missing troops, pledges of new military equipment and supplies had not been redeemed. "Regrettably ... other critically important capacities are not yet in sight ... Without the additional 18 helicopters required for rapid deployment and reaction, Monuc's capacity to respond rapidly to emerging threats and to protect civilian populations will be curtailed," Doss said. Oxfam said this week that it was significantly scaling up its emergency operations in eastern Congo and appealed for urgent international action to address the shortfall in troops and resources. "About 250,000 people in North and South Kivu have been displaced since mid-January following a military operation targeting the FDLR rebel group. This is the equivalent to the numbers displaced last autumn," Oxfam said in a statement. Marcel Stoessel, head of Oxfam's Congo operations, said the latest upsurge in fighting and displacement showed the crisis was far from over, despite improved co-operation between the Congolese and Rwandan governments and a peace pact signed last month between the DRC and the CNDP, a Congolese Tutsi rebel militia. "Homes and shops are being looted and ransacked, women and girls are being raped, and civilians are being forced to flee, many for the third or fourth time," Stoessel said. "We are helping them pick up the pieces by increasing our emergency work. It is tragic to see Congo's civilians caught up in this awful violence yet again." The Congolese and Rwandan armies launched a joint operation in January against the FDLR Hutu forces and succeeded in curbing their attacks on local people. The UN says as many as 300,000 people have been able to return to their villages in North Kivu as a result. But aid officials and local people said the violence had simply moved elsewhere. They also warned that the FDLR rebels, some of whom took part on the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed 800,000 people, were returning to their former positions following the Rwandan army's withdrawal from Congo in February. Fears are also growing that an expected Congolese military push this month against FDLR forces in South Kivu will further exacerbate the crisis. Meanwhile gunmen believed to be Burundian Hutu rebels blasted their way into a prison in Uvira in eastern Congo this week, freeing 222 prisoners and killing five people. In northern Ituri district, the UN says an additional 30,000 people have fled fighting between other rival militias. UN figures also show that fighting between government forces and Ugandan rebels belonging to the Lord's Resistance Army has killed 700 civilians and displaced 190,000 since December. "What good did it do to provoke the FDLR if you were not able to finish them off once and for all?" a resident of Lubero told aid workers. "It has only made them more aggressive. Now, these criminals have started to kill and rape women, to mistreat the population, to steal their cows." A farmer in Lubero said the joint Congolese-Rwanda army operations against the FDLR were targeting the wrong people. "We are the wretched of the earth, they are killing us in the name of peace. Those who should be keeping us safe think that we are the FDLR and rob us of the little we have left. Who will save us?"