Concern over DRC instability

The withdrawal of foreign forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been applauded by Zambia, but the southern neighbour is also worried by the instability that could follow, Zambian officials told IRIN. "There are still some clashes here and there and things are not going as smoothly as we would have expected. That causes concern for us, as when affected people start running, the first place they end up is Zambia," a government official, who asked not to be named, explained. A communiqué on 27 September at the end of a two-day meeting of the Zambia/Namibia Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security expressed "serious concern [over] the continued instability prevailing in the eastern part of the DRC". The commission "called upon the United Nations Security Council to speed up the deployment of an effective peace keeping force". Rwanda is in the final stages of its troop withdrawal from the DRC under the terms of a July peace agreement mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Some analysts, however, have warned that the pullout of one of the more disciplined forces in the DRC could create a power vacuum and lead to even greater chaos. The Economist Intelligence Unit said in a recent report that the Rwandan-backed rebel group governing much of the eastern DRC, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), now looked more vulnerable. Clashes occurred last month with Mayi-Mayi militia in the Pweto area of eastern DRC that led to a fresh trickle of refugees into Zambia. According to the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees, around 100 Congolese cross into Zambia each month fleeing sporadic skirmishes. There have also been reports of gunmen from the DRC harassing Zambian villagers. Security has been beefed up along the border, "but it is a very long border and we can't guard all of it", the government official told IRIN. "We really need a lot of help." At the end of 2000, fighting in the Pweto region led to DRC and Zimbabwean government soldiers fleeing across the border, creating a security scare for Zambia. "It's a case of once bitten, twice shy," a humanitarian worker said, referring to the difficulty the authorities had in separating soldiers from civilians. "The presence of soldiers can cause havoc," he added. Zambia shelters around 55,000 DRC refugees. The Zambian government official acknowledged the international community lacked the appetite for peacekeeping in the DRC. However, he said he was sure "neighbouring countries would be willing to put in forces at the disposal of the UN", but would not identify potential troop contributing nations. Three of Zambia's neighbours - Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - have provided vital military support to the DRC government since the beginning of the conflict in 1998. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month recommended an increase in the size of the UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) from 5,537 to 8,700 military personnel. By the end of August, MONUC's total deployment of uniformed members, including military observers and troops to protect them, numbered 4,302.