Kevin J Kelley
The US should help initiate multilateral military action against rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo if a UN force fails to stabilise areas now rocked by turmoil, an influential US-based think tank said last week.
Such an intervention would be justified under the UN's doctrine of "responsibility to protect," argued a report by the Council on Foreign Relations.
According to this standard, outside nations have a responsibility to save the lives of imperilled civilians should a turbulent country's government prove unable to do so.
In those circumstances, Washington must take the lead at the UN in organising "more aggressive action" in eastern Congo, says the report.
It also calls for the US to "at least provide logistical and intelligence support" to such a military undertaking.
Jendayi Frazer, the State Department's top Africa official, hinted at the possibility of a tougher US stance when she spoke to reporters last week in Nairobi.
Referring to the rebel fighters, Ms Frazer warned, "They will be held accountable for actions taking place" in eastern Congo.
The Council on Foreign Relations cites a UN-approved, European-led intervention in Congo's Ituri region four years ago, along with the British intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000, as precedents for such a move.
The envisioned UN-backed and US-supported force should seek to "neutralise the abilities of various armed groups to control large areas and terrorise hundreds of thousands of Congolese," the report adds.
Washington must act on the fact that "important US strategic interests are at stake" in Congo, the council says.
In addition to playing a potentially decisive role in ensuring stability in Central Africa, Congo "is endowed with vast lodes of important minerals," the report notes. "Large-scale international investors are re-investing in the Congo, including US-based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc, one of the largest copper and gold mining companies in the world."
Prior to organising a new intervention force, the US should seek to bolster the existing UN peacekeeping force in the Congo known as Monuc, says the report.
"The most important [short-term] action the United States can take is to use its full diplomatic power at the UN Security Council to ensure that Monuc has the necessary personnel and mandate to fulfil its central role," says the report written by Anthony Gambino, a former Congo mission chief for the US Agency for International Development.
With 17,000 troops deployed in eastern Congo, Monuc ranks as the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world. But its size and capabilities are being proved inadequate as rebel forces close in on Goma, the region's biggest city.
At present, however, the US appears unwilling to support an expansion of Monuc, the report observes. In fact, it says, there are "regular rumblings, particularly within the US executive branch and Congress, that Monuc, because of its cost and the Bush administration's focus in Africa on ensuring funding for peacekeeping in Sudan, should move rapidly toward closure."
In addition, a US law enacted two years ago threatens withdrawal of American assistance to Congo should the country's government fail to make progress toward a lengthy set of goals, such as respect for human rights.
Withdrawal of US assistance "would ultimately damage the United States' significant interests in the DRC, including regional stability, natural resources and humanitarian concerns," the report warns.
Washington has provided more than $2 billion during the past 10 years to assist the Congo government and to help sustain Monuc's operations.
Current US annual funding amounts to about $125 million in bilateral aid and $300 million in contributions to the Monuc mission.
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