A one-time de facto ally of the UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, General Bosco Ntaganda is now wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. WSJ's Christopher Rhoads reports on the region's tangled politics. Photo: Getty Images.
Peacekeepers At War -- Wall Street Journal
In the eastern Congo, a onetime rebel leader charged with a range of war crimes lived in high style for three years, in full view of a large United Nations peacekeeping force. How did the U.N. find itself in the middle of one of the world's bloodiest and most unmanageable conflicts? And why are its troops picking sides?
The Congo has long had a knack for bringing out the worst in foreign adventurers, from King Leopold II of Belgium to Joseph Conrad's fictional Kurtz. Now it is forcing a well-intentioned visitor, the United Nations, to reconsider how it keeps the peace in time of war.
The U.N. faced harsh criticism in the mid-1990s when its peacekeepers stood aside as atrocities unfolded in Rwanda and in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war. Determined not to repeat such failures, the U.N. resolved to use force in the name of protecting civilians.
Read more ....
My Comment: A prediction .... this UN peacekeeping operation will fail .... not because they cannot defeat the rebels and militias .... but because the countries that are paying the bills and supplying the soldiers are getting tired of this conflict.