By David Lewis
KAMINA, Congo, Nov 8 (Reuters)
- The international community should help feed and supply Democratic Republic of Congo's ill-equipped army so it can do the job of pacifying the country's lawless east, a top U.N. peacekeeper said.
Gen. Babacar Gaye, commander of the U.N. mission in Congo, made the appeal late on Monday to U.N. Security Council ambassadors at Kamina military base in Katanga province. The envoys have been visiting Congo, where the United Nations has nearly 17,000 troops in its largest peacekeeping mission.
A five-year war in Congo ended in 2003, but armed groups roam around the mineral-rich east, and soldiers from the fledgling national army are badly equipped and paid. From northern Ituri to Katanga in the south, they often plunder from civilians rather than protect them.
Gaye said the government's failure to provide food, water, fuel and medicines to thousands of its soldiers fighting in the east meant donors should provide around $2 million a month for this purpose.
"The government is not providing the funds for the soldiers on the ground, so we need the international community to help support them," the general told the U.N. ambassadors.
"Pressure has been applied at all levels, but it has not worked, so if we want the Congolese army to act in the east, we will have to help them out on the ground," he added, saying it should only be a temporary measure.
Gaye's plea highlighted the difficulties of rebuilding a Congolese army from tens of thousands of gunmen who fought in numerous rebel groups and militias across the vast country during the five-year war.
Forging a national army is an essential part of a U.N.-backed transition process leading to elections next year.
The U.N. commander said each of the nine Congolese brigades who were due to serve in eastern Congo every month would require $219,000 in essential supplies for that period. The government would be expected to arm them.
SHARING RATIONS
U.N. peacekeepers carry out joint operations with the army against Ugandan and Rwandan rebels, as well as Congolese militias. But the troops often struggle in the difficult terrain of thick forests and steep hills.
"We know U.N. peacekeepers have to share rations with the Congolese soldiers they fight with," said one of the delegates who visited the Kamina base in the bush, where Belgian officers are overseeing the training of Congolese soldiers.
"But stepping in and paying this money seems counter-productive to the work we are trying to do in reforming the army and controlling corruption," the official added.
The U.N. mission and diplomats in Kinshasa have repeatedly called on the army to ensure that the $8 million withdrawn from the central bank every month is really used to pay and supply soldiers on the ground.
After the war, initial estimates put at 340,000 the number of combatants from various armed groups that needed to be paid. But an internal census of the army completed in October put the figure at 244,000, while a separate, ongoing South African review of the army estimates the number of soldiers at 150,000.