Belgium vows to maintain military cooperation

Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut ended a three-day working visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday with a promise to continue military cooperation with Kinshasa despite a recent diplomatic hiatus between the two countries.

The first secretary at the Belgian embassy in Kinshasa, Bernard Quintin, said in Kinshasa on Monday that Flahaut, who headed a ministerial delegation to Kinshasa, had presented the government with 264 military officers who have just finished a three-month training course as instructors in Belgium.

Sixteen of these officers deserted during their course period. The desertion compelled Belgium to speed up the training of the rest, by a week, and send them back to Congo. Despite the incident, Belgium has decided to maintain its military-aid programme to its former colony in the heart of Africa.

"Minister Falafaut and Congolese authorities have decided to continue their partnership, but they prefer to adopt a shorter training module that will be conducted in Kinshasa," Quintin said.

Belgium has said its military aid to the Congo is to ensure there are Congolese instructors able to weave former enemies into integrated territorial brigades loyal to the state, a Brussels newspaper, Le Libre Belgique, reported on 22 September.

The Belgian segment of their training constituted the second part of a wider programme with the Belgian military. The first training cycle, under Belgian instructors, took place in the northern Congolese city of Kisangani. At the end, the first integrated brigade of the Congolese army was deployed to the northeastern district of Ituri on peacekeeping duties.

The Belgian delegation arrived in Kinshasa a week after the visit there, and to the region, of Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht. He had angered Kinshasa when he said there was "no real government" in the Congo and that he was "not very impressed" with many of the politicians he met in the country. His remarks sparked a diplomatic row because Kinshasa considered them all the more insulting since they were made in Rwanda, with which Congo has had an estranged relationship.

However, Brussels has tried to ease the recent tension and says it is ready to remain a major contributor of aid to Congo.

"This year we are giving between 50 million and 60 million euros [US $63.1 million and $75.71 million] in financial support," Francois Delhaye, the economic adviser to the Belgian embassy in the Congo, recently told IRIN.