UN forces at last take the fight to Congo militiamen But tens of thousands have been slaughtered, many in full view of UN bases. And yet the policy of laissez-faire suddenly ended last week when Pakistani UN troops were ordered to dismantle a militia camp in Ituri, seize documents and arrest commanders – and to use force in the attempt.
The militia, the Nationalist and Integrationalist forces (FNI) hit back with mortar and machinegun fire. But instead of retreating, as would have been the norm in the past, the Pakistanis counter attacked, killing up to 60 militiamen in a four-hour battle.
"We have been so tired of looking the other way for all this time," said a Pakistani corporal involved in the operation. "To actually kill some of the murderers and rapists that have turned this place into a living hell feels very good."
By Adrian Blomfield in Bunia
After years of passively watching while the world's most vicious conflict raged around them in Congo, United Nations peacekeepers have at last taken the fight to the enemy.
The UN's battle honours in what is currently its largest military deployment have been few and far between. More than three million people have died since war broke out in 1998, most of them of starvation or disease.
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Pakistani UN troops stand guard over the Tche refugee camp in eastern Congo
But tens of thousands have been slaughtered, many in full view of UN bases. And yet the policy of laissez-faire suddenly ended last week when Pakistani UN troops were ordered to dismantle a militia camp in Ituri, seize documents and arrest commanders – and to use force in the attempt.
The militia, the Nationalist and Integrationalist forces (FNI) hit back with mortar and machinegun fire. But instead of retreating, as would have been the norm in the past, the Pakistanis counter attacked, killing up to 60 militiamen in a four-hour battle.
"We have been so tired of looking the other way for all this time," said a Pakistani corporal involved in the operation. "To actually kill some of the murderers and rapists that have turned this place into a living hell feels very good."
Despite a 2003 peace deal that ostensibly ended the war, fighting has continued in much of the east of Congo, and Ituri district in the north-east has witnessed some of the worst horrors.
Six militias have ravaged the hilly countryside, cutting off much of its humanitarian aid. The fighting there pits the Hema and Lendu tribes against each other but it is also a battle for control of the region's gold and mineral resources.
No one really knows how many people have been killed in Ituri. A figure of 50,000 is often cited but is both out of date and incomplete.
Among the many victims of the conflict is Harriet Tchesi, a Hema woman from the village of Bii. She fled an FNI attack on the village last year but was discovered by the Lendu militiamen hiding in the bush with nine of her friends.
After having her hands chopped off and a machete hacked into the back of her neck, she was tossed on to a pile of her dead friends. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she saw the militiamen pick up her two-week-old son, Jacques.
"First they cut off his legs, then they cut off his arms," she said. "When I woke up, he was still alive by some miracle. But he died minutes later."
Ms Tchesi was forced to flee again last month when the FNI burnt down her village. She is now living in a temporary camp with 12,000 other people, many of whom bear the horrific wounds of their attackers.
It is this upsurge of violence that the UN's force in Congo, known by its acronym Monuc, says it is determined to stop, using force if necessary.
Not all are convinced by Monuc's new macho rhetoric, however. Critics point to the fact that the more robust approach was only adopted after nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were executed and their bodies mutilated in an FNI ambush.
There has been criticism too from some human rights activists who say that more than 120 people, mostly civilians, were killed in last week's Pakistani-led attack.
The UN does not deny that women and children were killed, but insists that they were among the fighters. Up to half the militia ranks are filled with child soldiers, some as young as eight, often energetic participants in murder, rape and cannibalism.
Gen Patrick Cammaert, the newly appointed Dutch commander of Monuc, dismissed the critics' objections.
"Those guys who are so critical, let them come down here and get their boots muddy," he said. "Everyone can talk but I will get on and do my own thing."
For someone so long in the UN machine, the general is surprisingly hawkish – promising more military operations, including pre-emptive strikes, in the future. "We have learnt the lessons of Srebrenica, Somalia and Rwanda," he said, referring to some of the UN's most disastrous peacekeeping operations.
"If we have an opponent that engages you or misbehaves, he will feel the consequences. It's very simple,'' the general added.
Monuc has a difficult balancing act to perform. It must deal firmly with both Hema and Lendu militias. Critics are already predicting that the UN risks becoming sucked into an Iraq-style quagmire with its peacekeepers regarded as little better than an occupation force.
3 March 2005: 60 killed in biggest UN battle for a decade
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