Indians, Pakistanis join hands in Congo battle

[A1Kaid]

Indians, Pakistanis join hands in Congo battle

DHARAM SHOURIE Posted: Mar 05, 2005 at 0000 hrs IST

[Yes it is a few years old, but it is a very interesting and worth reading]


UNITED NATIONS, MARCH 4 After nine Bangladeshi soldiers on a peace-keeping mission in restive Congo were surrounded and killed by rebels last week, their colleagues in the United Nations decided to come up with a ‘‘robust response’’.These colleagues happened to be soldiers from India and Pakistan. What followed was a classic operation in which an Indian helicopter supported Pakistani ground troops and ended up killing at least 50 militiamen in Congo’s troubled Ituri region.

The operation has been praised and staunchly defended by UN officials. Margaret Carey, an officer in the Africa division of the UN peacekeeping department, said that the Indians and Pakistanis acted in self-defence and were protecting civilians.

And, in what must now rank as a rare example of South Asian cooperation, the soldiers from the two countries also protected each other after their colleagues from Bangladesh had been killed a few days earlier.

It began when Pakistani soldiers received information that Loga village in the volatile Ituri province was being used as a weapons centre. The peacekeepers decided to conduct a ‘‘cordon and search’’ mission.

This proved harder than planned. The area is a hotbed of militant activity and within no time the Pakistanis found themselves under fire from some hills overlooking the area. They asked for air support.

This came in the form of an Indian attack helicopter, which zeroed in on the Congo militia positions and protected the Pakistani peacekeepers.

Some 50 militiamen died in the battle that followed. There have not been any reports of civilian casualties so far.

Carey said that the peacekeepers did not engage in war and their basic mission was to bring about peace. She also rejected suggestions that the operation was conducted by the Indians and Pakistanis to avenge the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers by the militia last week.

‘‘When you are confronted with people who are fighting you, you have to exercise self-defence and take them out, basically,” British UN ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said.

Currently, the United Nations has 15,000 peacekeepers from 100 countries in Congo where it is trying to disarm the militia, which belongs to Nationalist and Integration Front, an ethnic Lendu political party.

Carey said that after the lesson learnt from Srebrenica in Bosnia and Rwanda, the nature of peacekeeping operations had changed. The operation in Loga was an example of “robust peacekeeping,” she said.

Source: Indians, Pakistanis join hands in Congo battle


Quite a remarkable story. The article uses names, references, and official statements which does give it accuracy.


This is something you don't hear or read everyday...

[A1Kaid]

The NY Times has also reported this story, focusing more on the situation for the Bangladeshi UN Soldiers and militancy in Ituri village, D.R. Congo.


U.N. Forces Using Tougher Tactics to Secure Peace




Published: May 23, 2005

(Page 2 of 2)


In March, after an ambush that killed nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers, the United Nations forces raided a crowded market near Loga to root out fighters preying on the local population. The peacekeepers also conduct what they call "cordon and search" operations, which are essentially hunts for weaponry in remote villages.

Their opponents are tribal fighters who ignored the United Nations deadline of April 1 for disarming. A last opportunity to comply is approaching; after that, the peacekeepers say they will get even tougher. As the United Nations has become more aggressive, many tribal warriors have disarmed. Of the 15,000 fighters that the United Nations estimates once operated in Ituri, nearly 14,000 have turned in their weapons. The holdouts are fierce, and show no signs of surrendering.

In February, militia fighters ambushed a group of Bangladeshi soldiers on a foot patrol around a camp of displaced people. Nine peacekeepers were killed, then mutilated.

On May 12, another Bangladeshi patrol was ambushed. This time, six were wounded and one was killed. At a memorial service, Dominique Aitouyahia-McAdams, the top civilian in the United Nations operation in Bunia, said the death would only embolden the operation in its quest for peace. She called those who killed the peacekeepers "remnant militia bandits still marauding in the district."

General Gaye was in Bunia the other day to attend a lavish ceremony for the first anniversary of a peace deal that the militias signed, agreeing to give up their guns. Since that declaration, one of the half dozen militias in Ituri has disbanded, and others have shrunk to small bands. Various militia leaders have been arrested by the Congolese, with help from peacekeepers.

But the ceremony occurred a day after the memorial service, demonstrating that the job was not done.

United Nations peacekeepers in Congo were not always so gung-ho. For years, they were criticized for huddling in their camps as atrocities recurred in the countryside. Now, some critics condemn them for being too aggressive. And critics also denounce the sexual abuse of girls by some peacekeepers.

Justice Plus, a rights group based in Bunia, lamented that when the peacekeepers raided the market near Loga some civilians "paid with their life while the mandate of the United Nations was to protect them."

The get-tough approach wins praise from those in Bunia who remember when, just two years ago, it was a battlefield between rival Hema and Lendu militias.

As Lendu militias chased Hemas out of Bunia in May 2003, Lea Assamba, 17, was confronted by armed Lendu men and threatened with death. She said she explained to them frantically that she was not a Hema but someone from another tribe, one not involved in Ituri's madness.

The militiamen made her suffer nonetheless. They killed a Hema girl standing by, and her body fell on Lea. They made her balance on her head the decapitated head of a Hema man, she said. The stranger's blood dripped down on her.

Lea escaped but was confronted by more marauding militias down the road. They shot some people standing next to her, and she dropped to the ground as they did. They died. She, covered with blood, was left for dead.

"Things would not be good if Monuc went away," Lea said, using the French acronym for the United Nations mission in Congo.

But not far from Bunia, awful things continue. Villagers are on the run. Men with guns and machetes chase them. In the midst of it, heavily armed United Nations soldiers are trying to extend their reach. They engage in something shy of war but also a long way from peace.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/in...1&pagewanted=2

[A1Kaid]

Here is a Pakistani article from Dawn News that reported the event.

Pakistani & Indian troops come together in solidarity

By Jawed Naqvi


NEW DELHI, March 5: Indian and Pakistani soldiers of the UN contingent in Congo came together in exemplary solidarity earlier this month to hunt militants who had killed their Bangladeshi colleagues, it was reported on Saturday.

There were fears though that the soldiers may have violated regulations linked with human rights norms in such deployments as they are believed to have given a "robust response" to the alleged militants.

"After nine Bangladeshi soldiers on a peace-keeping mission in restive Congo were surrounded and killed by rebels last week, their colleagues in the United Nations decided to come up with a robust response," The Indian Express reported from the United Nations headquarters in New York.

"These colleagues happened to be soldiers from India and Pakistan. What followed was a classic operation in which an Indian helicopter supported Pakistani ground troops and ended up killing at least 50 militiamen in Congo's troubled Ituri region."

According to the report the operation has been praised and defended by UN officials. Margaret Carey, an officer in the Africa division of the UN peacekeeping department, said that the Indians and Pakistanis acted in self-defence and were protecting civilians. "And, in what must now rank as a rare example of South Asian cooperation, the soldiers from the two countries also protected each other after their colleagues from Bangladesh had been killed a few days earlier.

It seems that Pakistani soldiers received information about Loga village in the volatile Ituri province, that it was being used as a weapons centre. The peacekeepers decided to conduct a "cordon and search" mission.

This proved harder than planned. The area is a hotbed of militant activity and within no time the Pakistanis found themselves under fire from some hills overlooking the area. They asked for air support.

This came in the form of an Indian attack helicopter, which zeroed in on the Congo militia positions and protected the Pakistani peacekeepers.

Some 50 militiamen died in the battle that followed. There have not been any reports of civilian casualties so far.

Ms Carey said that the peacekeepers did not engage in war and their basic mission was to bring about peace. She also rejected suggestions that the operation was conducted by the Indians and Pakistanis to avenge the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers by the militia last week.

Source: Pakistani & Indian troops come together in solidarity -DAWN - Top Stories; 06 March, 2005

[A1Kaid]

Indians, Pakistanis Partners in U.N. Peacekeeping Effort in Congo

06 June 2006

Ground forces disarmed rebels, and are helping to prepare for elections

By Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File Correspondent
Washington File Staff Writer

Bunia, Ituri District, Democratic Republic of Congo -- Bloodshed and suffering are ending in this war-torn section of eastern Congo due in large part to cooperation between two traditional rivals -- India and Pakistan -- whose troops are now risking their lives to protect Congolese as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force called MONUC.

Being a Pakistani, "I could never image such cooperation between my countrymen and Indians as I've seen here," MONUC public information officer Mohammad Abdul Wahab told the Washington File June 5.

Abdul Wahab discussed the ongoing security situation in Ituri district along with MONUC chief information officer Jennifer Bakody. Bunia, the administrative center for Ituri district, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Orientale Province, also oversees sub-offices in the towns of Aru, Kasenyi and Mahagi.

Ituri, like much of eastern Congo, has been under constant turmoil since 1998, when a regional conflict with the DRC and its neighbors in the Great Lakes region set the stage for roving bands of rebels and militias to rape and pillage the countryside. As many as 3.5 million people may have died in this "Forgotten War," as it is called by some specialists in African affairs.

MONUC came on the stage after various peace accords were signed from 1999 to 2002 that called upon the United Nations to reinstitute security in the east while helping the DRC prepare for elections.

According to a U.N. document, "MONUC's multinational character (representing more than 100 member states) is a visible indication of the international community's interest in resolving the DRC crisis and accompanying the Congolese people on their historic transition to elections with stability."

Since it began active operations in Ituri in September 2003, MONUC ground forces have disarmed 17,000 rebels in the district while helping to build roads and schools and preparing the local populace for national elections scheduled for July 30.

Part of the MONUC force consists of a battalion of Pakistani troops and an aviation unit of the Indian Air Force with two ground attack helicopters -- their own machines but repainted in U.N. white.

On a number of occasions, the Indians have been called in to support Pakistani troops, as well as Nepalese, Moroccan and Bangladesh infantry units in Ituri who have come under fire.

In an operation against rebels that began May 15, a unit of Nepalese soldiers was ambushed on May 28, with one killed, three wounded and seven taken captive who have still not been released. The wounded were evacuated by elements of the air operation in Ituri that includes the Indian aviation unit.

Other soldiers represented in the MONUC/Ituri force come from Morocco, Indonesia, South Africa and Uruguay.

"That's the beauty of the U.N.," said MONUC's Abdul Wahab, "that it brings different peoples together for a common cause. Only the U.N. would provide a platform for 50-60 nationalities [in the MONUC] to interact this way to end suffering and help people build a new future."

For information on U.S. policy in the region, see Africa.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Source: Indians, Pakistanis Partners in U.N. Peacekeeping Effort in Congo


Truly a remarkable story and certainly worth reading. It is quite a interesting to read the words of Pakistani Army Officer Muhammad A. Wahab and his take on the cooperation with Indian soldiers.

[Solid Beast]

Interesting...you see why the Gorah is so much ahead of us! Humaray ga** mein danda for letting our rivalries slow us down instead of bring us up!

[A1Kaid]

Situation improved in Congo's province after Pakistan peace keepers deployed.



PPI - Pakistan Press International

| October 06, 2005 | COPYRIGHT 2005 Asia Pulse Pty Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. Copyright

BUKAVU, (D. R. Congo), October 06 (PPI): The security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo's South Kivu province has tremendously improved after the deployment of troops from Pakistan who are on a UN peacekeeping mission called MONUC. Jean Paul, the Head of Office of MONUC in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stated this. He was talking to a group of Pakistani journalists who are on a visit to the area."The security is not yet fully as it should be. But being in South Kivu for about 10 months now, I can say that the situation is tremendously improved after the deployment of the Pakistani troops," he remarked. The Head of Office of MONUC in the area further stated that a number of questions were raised when he arrived in South Kivu. The people were saying that they would be invaded by neighbouring Rwanda, Jean Paul said adding that this is no longer a question that I hear from the people in the streets. He said that the elections in the country when presently there is a transitional set up, the polls would be held and that would be very positive step forward. Elaborating, Jean Paul, a Belgian, stated that first, there would be a referendum on the constitution and then there would be presidential and national assembly elections. He said that so far there is only a transitional constitution and pointed out that fortunately, there is a draft constitution but it has not been adopted by the population at large. He said that the referendum is scheduled by the end of next month but it is very difficult to meet the deadline because a significant chunk of the population has not been registered. The Head of Office of Monuc in South Kivu pointed out that the chairperson of the Electoral Commission has cast some doubts just a few days ago about the deadline.

Replying a question about the local army, he said that there should be 18 brigades ready but so far, we have only six of them who can deal with the issue. Jean Paul again lauded the contributions of the Pakistani troops who are on a UN peace mission assignment in the area, for already imparting training to more than 3,000 soldiers and 600 officers of the local army called FARDC. He said that this has been very much appreciated by the entire population at large and it has also given the local troops and wearing uniform that they did not have before.

Replying yet another question, the Head of Office of Monuc in South Kivu said that the political solution is to unify the DRC, a big country in Central Africa, which is of the size of Western Europe. He further pointed out that the DRC is faced with so many ...

Source: Article: Situation improved in Congo' province after Pakistan peace keepers... | AccessMyLibrary - Promoting library advocacy


Pakistani Army contributing to peace, security, and stability in the D.R Congo.