Military apprehensive ahead of DRC peacekeeping

South African defence officials told IRIN on Friday that they were increasingly concerned at "unrealistic" expectations among other Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries of the scale of a South African peacekeeping deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki agreed to contribute troops to a future international peacekeeping mission to war-torn DRC earlier this year. However, this commitment has been over-optimistically interpreted by some SADC countries as a guarantee to underwrite the entire mission, officials complained. "It is simply not going to happen," one military officer commented. "DRC is vast, the infrastructure is poor or non existent and South Africa just cannot pick up the pieces of a country from over a dozen competing or allied military groups," he said. Another official capped any future deployment of South African troops at just one battalion of some 800 men. Zimbabwean military sources had earlier insisted to IRIN that South Africa would be able to make a significant contribution. "They are have all the equipment, numbers and training. When they come the rebels will really be running," one source prophesised. But South African officials disagreed. "We are not thinking what can we deploy? We are thinking what can we sustain for a long period of time," he explained. "We could deploy a large force, but six months later, we would just not be able to support them in the DRC. There is no intention of South Africa holding any line for other SADC countries." Regional analysts in Harare believe tension with Zimbabwe, which has as many as 10,000 troops fighting alongside embattled President Laurent Desire Kabila in the DRC, is likely to make South Africa even more cautious about deploying to the region. "South Africa is certain to insist on a United Nations mandate and a much better peace than we have at the moment before it sends in any troops," one commentator said. South African defence officials were more specific. "I think there is a growing consensus that any DRC mission should not be just a SADC affair. We want other Western countries to join in. We know if it is just SADC then South Africa will be left to underwrite the whole deployment. We do not want the DRC buck to stop here," one official explained.