Airstrip One

Congo Intervention - 24th May 2003, 20.33

No doubt the suffering in the Congo is vicious and appalling, after years of civil war and foreign intervention. The French view armed intervention as an opportunity to demonstrate their military capacity in support of international law under the sanction of the United States.

Such a selfless sacrifice has led Blair to suggest that British forces, embodying his missionary zeal, should also decamp to the dark heart in order to show that we are friends with the French and all things European. They may be acting as a stopgap for two months but how peacekeepers will be able to stop a war started by our very allies in the region, Uganda and Rwanda, remains curiously unresolved. Perhaps turning up with the power of well-armed civilisation will do the trick.

Two groups, Hemas, traditionally cattle-raisers, and Lendus, predominantly farmers, have been in conflict for centuries for land and other resources in the area. The rivalry has become more bloody because the Ituri district around Bunia is rich with gold. Neighbouring nations involved in the civil war - Uganda and Rwanda - armed both sides as proxy militias.

As France is finding in the Cote D'Ivoire, you are left as the only force preserving peace and the only exit strategy is to find some other mug to replace your forces. Therefore, No to intervention in the Congo!