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MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is typically -- and accurately -- described as, at over 17,000 uniformed personnel, the largest such mission currently deployed. What is less frequently considered, however, is the sheer size of the ground that these 17,000 peacekeepers have to cover. Just take a look at a map.
DR Congo is about the size of Western Europe. With that perspective, it's easy to understand why the Secretary-General, in his most recent report on the mission, worries that it risks becoming "stretched to the limit" as it transitions almost entirely to the eastern part of the country. Indeed, at a press conference in New York yesterday, the Secretary-General's Special Representative to MONUC, Alan Doss, confirmed that 92% of the mission's forces were now deployed in eastern Congo -- a crucial repositioning that will help the mission build on January's ceasefire in the volatile region.
Even in just two of Congo's smallest provinces, though, UN peacekeepers still have to patrol an area the size of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg combined. Speaking today at the Wilson Center, Mr. Doss made the telling analogy that MONUC's task of patrolling one of these provinces, South Kivu, is equivalent to having one police officer cover all of Manhattan, plus a sizable chunk of Brooklyn.
We often don't appreciate how tall of a task UN peacekeepers in remote, expansive , violent locations face. Give that statistic to a police officer in New York City, though, and I imagine s/he'll appreciate it a whole lot more.
Comments
I appreciate your comments and interest in trying to help eleviate poverty in the Congo.
My viewpoint is not the size of the country or the amount of security personel whom have in the past caused serious harm and continue to do the same directly or indirectly to the people they are supposed to protect.
The problem lies in the achitectural system of governace. The so called leaders and their corporate connections.
This is the twenty first century.You commit a crime you pay the consequence.Yet the obvious is being observed and transcribed differently to suit the spirit of our time.
But history remains the same so why dont every body strives to leave pleasant prints,memories and history behind because somehow they do come back to haunt the perpetrators.Like how Federick Douglas and Martin Luther King set the pace for the mankind that is bieng cherished in the United States today.
My apologies if my viewpoints make you think twice about yours.Yet that is the purpose, the calling for you to do it differently.Like instead of increasing the size of the so called security from donors hard earned wealth, just increase the size of your assitance to the most innocent and vulnerables while scrutinizing every step of the natural mistake who is in power.That way we can all cherish the joy that is derived from having an ethical person of and in power.
Posted by: Chrispin miles at July 2, 2008 3:35 AM