EU-Military Operation in the Congo

BRUSSELS/BERLIN The European Union is preparing to follow Berlin's demands and fulfil its ,,objective global power potential". With its first military operation in Africa the EU-taskforce seeks to demonstrate that the EU is also capable of enforcing its models for the preservation of global order with military force.

The task force, under French command, is to be stationed in the Congolese province of Ituri with a clear mandate to use force of arms against the belligerent antagonists. The unanimous UN Security Council resolution stated that the stationing could begin the following week. The ambassadors of the 15 EU states have charged the EU Military Committee to submit plans for the mission. The armed operational mission of the EU-taskforce in the Democratic Republic of Congo is to be the first mission without NATO logistical and arms support. The EU had previously taken over the control of the Military Mission in Macedonia from NATO on April 1, 2003, thus establishing its exclusive command.

Initially, the EU also discussed dispatching troops as a ,,coalition of those prepared for action", an option preferred by Berlin which had questioned the competency of the EU taskforce for such an intervention. It was suggested that there would be enough other crises in the future ,,to send a considerably better prepared EU into the fire then". Supposedly, ,,currently no contingency plans"exist for deployment of German soldiers in the Congo. However, a representative of the Foreign Office stated that the German Federal Government examines ,,all options"for political and financial support.

,,Space"for ,,resettlements"

The Federal Government had championed a tightening of the present UN-mandate for some time and has demanded military intervention. For some time German foreign policy has been forging a new orientation for African policy, which is to apply the ,,new"ethnic ,,order policy", pursued in the Balkans, to the African continent. The advocates of this course openly support the encouragement of a separatist and regional organisation. This would create ,,islands of statehood"which would make it possible, through federation or very decentralised administrative entities, to ,,form a state which, once again, could become our partner".

The daily tageszeitung (taz), a newspaper close to the government, states that peace could not be an ,,end in itself"if it were to stabilise the existing order of states in Africa. A member of the German World Hunger Aid organisation (which agitates for the rapid deployment of a taskforce) argues for extensive ,,resettlements"because of the hostilities between the ,,ethnic groups": ,,Space is not an obstacle, it is readily available in the Congo."

See also earlier articles ,,Downfall or ascent to world power" and The will to world power

Sources:
Wieczorek-Zeul: Gewalt in Demokratischer Republik Kongo beenden; www.bmz.de 12.05.2003
Wieczorek-Zeul: Internationale Gemeinschaft muss sofort im Kongo handeln; www.bmz.de 14.05.2003
Umsiedlung statt Massaker; taz 27.05.2003
EU-Eingreiftruppe vor Kampfeinsatz in Kongo; Süddeutsche Zeitung 28.05.2003
Gute Nachrichten und ihre Grenzen; taz 28.05.2003
UN-Sicherheitsrat beschließt Kongo-Einsatz; Netzeitung 30.05.2003


Login