Unrest in DR Congo

Heavy fighting has broken out in the Congolese capital Kinshasa between government troops and forces of rebel opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. The international community has called for an immediate ceasefire, urging renewed dialogue to settle the standoff. Hartwig Fischer, the Africa policy expert for the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), spoke to DW-WORLD.DE about the situation.

The German military was supposed to ensure security during the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, there are nevertheless subsequent riots. Were the troops pulled out too soon?

No. The troops had to be withdrawn at that point because there was a clear agreement and a limited UN mandate, solely for safeguarding the elections. Now, it's up to MONUC (the UN Mission in DR Congo), which is stationed there with over 17,000 soldiers.

But MONUC appears to be overwhelmed by the situation in Kinshasa at the moment.

At the moment, I assume that William Lacy Swing (the head of MONUC) is going to pull out further troops from the East for support. That area has calmed down to a large extent.

It appears that Bemba's troops have gotten out of control. He has appealed to them for a ceasefire through Radio Kapi and it appears that some leaders of his army won't accept that they should be integrated into the state army, as was agreed before the elections.

Does that mean that the international community is now out of the woods and it's enough to continue to leave the MONUC troops there and just stay quiet otherwise?

The international community is never out of the woods in such a situation. That means that under certain circumstances, it offers logistical support. But it is currently a limited conflict in the capital Kinshasa. I have the impression that MONUC has shown in the past 24 hours that it is not only in the position to ensure the evacuations with no problem, such as the one carried out into the main headquarters with 630 people. It is also in a position to stop this fighting in a limited unit.

Of course, something like this sometimes happens very surprisingly, but I think that the forces are strong enough to permanently return the situation to a more peaceful one. But it's also about influencing (President) Kabila to support more strongly the integration of the soldiers, for example Belgium, which is in charge of the integration.

What would have to happen for Congo to get its problems under control itself in the long term?

First of all, the state authority has to be established. But in a form in which the population doesn't have the impression that there is a misuse of power. So those that establish the state authority have to enjoy the confidence of the people. This is not the case in large parts of the state army, as it is absolutely under-funded. When the soldiers have to get by on $10 or $15 a month, that also leads to looting.

That's why it's good that the Belgians are helping in order to further implement a fair funding, because a functioning army accepted by the population can establish itself better than when single people attempt to bring themselves to power.