Human Rights Watch released a chilling report about alleged abuses committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by both rebel militias and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). The report alleges that at least 1,400 people were killed, some in very brutal fashion, in the context of two FARDC offensives.  For the United Nations the most disturbing part of the report concerns the fact that the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Congo (MONUC) provided logistical support to the same FARDC units that were complicit in committing atrocities.      

This is clearly troubling.  

There are a couple of things to explain here.  First, the Security Council has given MONUC the mandate to support the FARDC in their effort to fight militias of ex-genocidaires that have molested eastern Congo for a decade. MONUC was not "going rogue" by supporting the FARDC.  Second, since these allegations first surfaced, MONUC has suspended its cooperation with the offending units.  

Beyond that, the report raises a number of important questions regarding the proper relationship between a country's armed forces and UN Peacekeeping units deployed in that country.  Historically, there was no question: peacekeepers were simply deployed to post-conflict zones to act as buffer between two sides during a cooling-off period. (Think Cyprus, Kashmir, or more recently, El Salvador and Bosnia.)  This changed over the past half decade or so.  Rather than being tasked with simply keeping the peace, the Security Council has viewed peacekeepers as potential enforcers of the peace.  That is, rather than being a neutral party to the conflict, they have taken on the role of implementing peace agreements. 

This is a profoundly new phenomenon for UN Peacekeeping.  Joint operations with the FARDC  have been one manifestation of this transition.  Another has been joint operations between Haitian police and peacekeepers against urban gangs in Port-au-Prince.  But it is not something limited to the UN experience.  Key to American exit strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq are building up those countries' military and police forces.  This is called "capacity building" in UN-speak and it is the only way that the UN will ever be able to extricate itself from the DRC.   (This is not to excuse what happened. I'm merely trying to explain the context in which these decisions are made.) 

The allegations of atrocity, however, beg the question: should the United Nations suspend its cooperation with all units of the FARDC?  This Washington Post piece incorrectly states that the Human Rights Watch report says that it should. The report actually  says that MONUC should immediately suspend cooperation with units involved in the offensive, which it has.   

 Interestingly enough, Susan Rice addressed this point during her meeting at the Holocaust Museum last week.  

The U.N. has taken a decision, which we support, to suspend any support to or cooperation with units of the FARDC that have engaged in atrocities. We’re in the process in the Security Council as we speak of reviewing the mandate of MONUC. And we are working with others to identify very specific conditionality for when support to the FARDC can be allowed and when it can’t.

But I think people need to understand that this is a very difficult issue. It’s not black and white. If the U.N., for example, were tomorrow to say, “We’re not providing anything else to the FARDC. We’re having nothing to do with it, no food, no support, no assistance,” that’s not going to solve the problem.

The FARDC will do what it is inclined to do on a much greater scale, which is to rape and pillage and steal from a population to acquire what it needs. And it will become that much more rapacious.There’s a huge dilemma here of dealing with those that have committed genocide and are continuing to kill and having only undisciplined, if not worse, of an armed force to -- to go after them. [emphasis mine]

Given recent trends, the DRC will probably not be the last time that the UN will be tasked to work with national security forces on an operational level.  The key, it would seem, is to set guidelines that stipulate the circumstances under which UN Peacekeeping can partner with these forces.  In the meantime, it goes without saying that there should be no immunity for FARDC units involved in these attacks.  

Photo: MONUC

Talk about a match made in international institution heaven: Interpol and United Nations Peacekeeping entered into a partnership  this week that gives UN Police access to Interpol's vast database of international criminal activity. I've been writing about UN Peacekeeping for a long time, and I actually interned at Interpol in my younger years,  so needless to say I find this marriage particularly interesting. 

Interpol is probably one the most least understood international institution.  Contra Carmen Sandiego or the Bourne series, Interpol is not a squad of elite police officers that rove the globe to catch bad guys.   There is, in fact, no such thing as an Interpol police officer.  Rather, Interpol is more like a criminal intelligence relay station where police officers from 187 member states exchange and analyze information coming to them from local and national law enforcement agencies.  Since 2001, Interpol has managed a secured database of criminal information (like on easily-forged "stolen blank" passports, counterfeit currencies, human trafficking networks, and child pornography rings) that can be accessed by national law enforcement agencies in real time.  The agreement gives UN police deployed to peacekeeping missions access to this database and sets out other ways Interpol can support UN Peacekeeping. 

Why is this important?  A constant problem in countries recovering from conflict is the destabilizing effect of the illicit economy and organized crime.  In places like Afghanistan, for example,  poppy trafficking fuels an insurgency.  In Liberia, criminal groups profit from timber smuggling. In both cases, the illicit activity creates an independent power base for groups that can challenge weak governing institutions.  Combating these criminal networks is therefore critical to successful state building efforts, which is the ultimate goal of UN Peacekeeping.    

It is here that Interpol can lend its expertise and add value to UN efforts to combat organized crime.  For countries in which there is a UN peacekeeping mission, this new partnership can help strengthen nascent governing institutions.  For the rest of the world, this effort can help contain the export of things like arms or women or drugs from post-conflict countries to the rest of the world. 

All in all, this is a pretty helpful collaboration. 

You know, the one he is actually paid for (well, sort of). After rescuing journalists imprisoned in North Korea, Clinton is back to...talking about turning sawdust into fuel.

Electric power is scarce in rural areas and the cutting of trees to make charcoal has led to deforestation in Haiti.

As an example of projects rife for further investment, Clinton described a recycling program that turns paper and sawdust waste into cooking fuel that sells for one-fifth the cost of charcoal.

Seriously, though. Clinton's role promoting international development and stability in Haiti might even be more difficult that freeing hostages taken by the equally impoverished -- but decidedly less hospitable -- regime in North Korea.

And while there may not be imprisoned journalists in Haiti, there is still some dangerous tension between Haitian protestors and UN peacekeepers, who have done much to calm and rebuild the country, but have  again found themselves in the midst of demonstrations turned violent. If Bill can mediate between a hostile regime and innocent Americans, then surely he can soothe animosities between everyday Haitians and the peacekeepers who, after all, are trying to improve their lives.

U.S.-UN Ambassador Rice has begun her testimony in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Check it out. I'll also be tweeting.

Update: Rice's testimony is tracking pretty closely with her remarks in front of the Security Council a month ago.