U.N. Peacekeepers Accused in Congo Deaths: Analysis

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War is hell. Often even with the best of intentions and the noblest of goals, mistakes are made and innocents are murdered. I've picked on the UN in this space in the past but I'm not sure this is a case where one can solely condemn the UN peacekeepers as you could in the instances where they've been implicated in child rape. The evidence seems murky according to a story from the AP:

"Human rights activists charged Tuesday that U.N. peacekeepers knowingly gunned down civilians in a raid that targeted a marketplace, pinning down dozens of people down during the biggest gunbattle in the U.N.'s six-year mission in Congo.

The human rights group Justice Plus listed names of several alleged civilian victims from a March 1 raid in eastern Congo and said they "paid with their life, while the mandate of the United Nations was to protect them."

The United Nations said its troops fired only when they were attacked, and that women and children were among those who fired weapons.

The charges Tuesday came as U.N. peacekeepers announced they were staging an assault on a militia camp, targeting fighters in eastern Congo who have killed thousands in a years-old ethnic conflict. But the militia fled the camp before the troops arrived, spokesman Mohammad Abdul-Wahab said by telephone from Bunia, capital of the violent Ituri province and some 25 miles from the targeted camp.

He said the 300 peacekeepers sent to attack the camp instead spent the day dismantling it."

Now I'm of two minds here on this; if the UN peacekeepers story is reality then they had every right to shoot back at the enemy, regardless of whether or not they were women and children. Soldiers of any stripe must protect themselves at all costs and once you attempt to do soldiers or even police harm, you give up your right to be protected, come what may. In the developing world and especially Africa, child soldiers are not all that uncommon and thus it is not totally unreasonable to believe that children may have shot at the peacekeepers. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, "more than 120,000 children under 18 years of age are currently participating in armed conflicts across Africa. Some of these children are no more than 7 or 8 years of age. The countries most affected by this problem are: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. Furthermore, Ethiopian government forces engaged in an armed conflict against Eritrea, and the clans in Somalia, have both included an unknown, though probably not substantial, number of under-18s in their ranks. In internal armed conflicts in the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal, on the other hand, there has been little or no recorded use of under-18s by government or armed opposition forces, and there are almost certainly no under-15s participating in hostilities in these three situations." (credit reliefweb.int)

However, if the story Justice Plus is putting forward is true, that the UN peacekeepers maliciously shot into a crowd of innocent people for God only knows what purpose then they need to be tried before either their home courts for murder and/or crimes against humanity or be tried before the World Court. Say what you will about our troops, when there is even a hint that a soldier has acted unbecoming according to the Geneva Conventions and our rules of engagement, it would seem there is usually an investigation and possibly a conviction resulting in swift punishment. All I'm asking is that UN personnel be held accountable to the same expectations, which is all I've ever asked of the UN; be consistent and accountable.

Justice Plus, "was first established at the beginning of the Hema-Lendu war. University students and others brought people together in hopes of finding a non-violent resolution to the conflict. Since that time, the organization has continued to promote dialogue between ethnic groups, publish reports, lobby the Congolese government and engage in conflict resolution efforts throughout the Ituri region. Radio broadcasts, promoting broader human rights education in various local languages, also reach thousands of people. Justice Plus also plays a significant coordinating role for other organizations working for peace, focusing particularly on the illegal trafficking of light arms and the use of child soldiers in the region."

It would seem that Justice Plus has no good reason to fabricate their side of the story so it remains to be seen how this tragic situation will be resolved. For their part, the UN states via Spokesman Kemal Saiki that, "they chose a market day because that is when militia leaders come out to extort from merchants. "This is the day these guys do their rackets," he said.

Saiki said helicopters made two warning passes over the market to give civilians ample time to flee. Even after they were attacked, he said, peacekeepers did not immediately start shooting.

The United Nations said last month the firefight began when peacekeepers looking to dismantle a Lendu militia camp approached the target and were fired upon."

The only fair way to handle this issue is to conduct a full investigation and mete out justice where it is necessary. Meanwhile, more must be done to secure peace across Africa at large so that the question of whether or not children are shooting at soldiers will be as moot and absurd as it should be instead of being depressingly possible