Criticized U.N. Congo force seeks clearer mission

By David Lewis - Analysis

KINSHASA (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers in east Congo, under fire for failing to shield civilians from a chaotic war between rebels, army and militias, are struggling to find their role to halt a wider conflict and humanitarian disaster.

Almost a decade after being sent to Democratic Republic of Congo on their latest mission, the blue helmets are Criticized as inept by the government and civilians. Anti-government rebels call them biased and diplomats say their action is confused.

As Tutsi rebels have seized swathes of eastern territory since August, routing chaotic army troops backed by the peacekeepers, the U.N. soldiers have seemed to hesitate, unable to stop bloodshed and unsure how to secure and preserve peace.

"I'm not sure what our position is anymore. We were ready to intervene, but we didn't," one senior U.N. officer in Congo told Reuters after the rebels advanced, pushing back the army and ignoring threats of attack by U.N. helicopter gunships.

The Security Council is to vote on Thursday on a resolution that would boost the 17,000-strong peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) -- the world's largest mission -- to over 20,000.

International pressure has grown for the United Nations to sharpen and strengthen its peacekeeping efforts to stop a determined rebellion by Tutsi fighters loyal to dissident General Laurent Nkunda from escalating into a repeat of Congo's 1998-2003 war.

The world community has already spent billions of dollars trying to help the mineral-rich former Belgian colony at Africa's heart recover from that war and its aftermath, which killed 5 million people through violence, hunger and disease.

The U.N. Congo force complains it is over-stretched and cannot protect all civilians in the east, which teems with aggressive armed groups despite successful national elections in 2006 that returned President Joseph Kabila to office.

The peacekeepers have not always shirked direct combat. Indian U.N. soldiers have in the past used attack helicopters and heavy weapons to kill hundreds of Nkunda's fighters threatening Goma, the capital of eastern North Kivu province.

But in the most recent fighting since August, the rebels seized Rutshuru town in an advance that took them to the gates of Goma before Nkunda declared a ceasefire. At nearby Kiwanja, U.N. soldiers did not stop the killings of dozens of civilians blamed by human rights organizations on Nkunda's fighters.

The rebels deny this and blame their Mai-Mai militia foes.

UNEASY ALLIES

In addition to reinforcements, world leaders want the Congo U.N. force to redeploy more effectively and be more robust.

"We also think they (MONUC) should take the opportunity to re-read the rules of engagement," Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's ambassador to the U.N., said in a briefing to reporters.

A key part of the U.N. mission's role in Congo has been supporting the new national army, a rag-tag amalgam made up of former government, rebel and militia factions from the last war.