Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Whereas the United Nations has been wary of sending more peacekeepers to help avert full-scale war -- and angry Congolese accuse the U.N. of doing little to keep the peace with its current mission -- the world body is now considering what can be done to alleviate the military and humanitarian crisis there. But as David Loyn of the BBC reports, the characteristic foot-dragging has ominous shades of Rwanda:

"The call for 3,000 extra troops to be sent to join the UN peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, made by the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, comes six weeks after an urgent appeal for that number of troops came from the civilian head of the mission on the ground, Alan Doss.

During that time security became far worse. Several thousand people have been forced from their homes and from resettlement camps, and many have been killed, including at least 26 earlier this month in Kiwanja.

This incident was called a war crime by UN observers, and yet it happened virtually within sight of a UN military base.

The UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo is already the largest, most expensive and most muscular of its kind anywhere in the world, sent under the UN's strongest possible mandate, Chapter Seven, giving the soldiers in it the right to use 'all necessary means' - that is, lethal force, to impose their will.

But troops have been unable or unwilling to prevent civilians from being killed in the worsening conflict."

The current force, from 18 nations, goes from 4,000 troops provided by India to six from Serbia. International aid agency Oxfam has criticized the force, stating that both motivation to protect the citizens and cohesive, high-level U.N. leadership are lacking. "We need a major change in the world's political engagement in the conflict in Congo. In the last ten years we have had peace agreements and peacekeeping troops but none have had sufficient, consistent international support. Nearly five and a half million people have died and millions of others have been forced from their homes. The world must stop allowing suffering on this scale to continue," said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in Congo.

A roundup of more Congo news:

• Angola is mobilizing troops to send troops to Congo, likely to support the government against the Tutsi-led rebels rather than assist in peacekeeping. Understandably, their presence could be seen as a provocation by Rwanda, and spark a regional conflict.

• Some of the first U.N. food aid got through to rebel-held town of Rutshuru in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said today in Khartoum that the African Union will intervene militarily if the rebels and Congo government don't agree to a cease-fire.

• The U.N. is blaming rebel forces for the evacuation of thousands from a refugee camp. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 50 civilians have been killed at the Kiwanja base.

• The AP also reports that the road into rebel territory is blocked by the bodies of two government soldiers in a clear warning.

(Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)