Forum Overview :: Motherfucking News :: Because everyone's bored with the Sudan.

[quote name="conflictNo"]<a href="http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3446358">UN + Congo = NUTS!</a> [quote name="The Economist"]That same month in Bukavu, your correspondent joined South African peacekeepers on a night patrol to rescue some nuns besieged in a convent by renegade troops. New in town, the South Africans got lost. After wandering around for an hour looking for a convent with a red gate, the captain in charge ordered his armoured personnel carrier to a halt outside a deserted house with a black gate. “Yes, I think we've found it,” he radioed back to base. “Everything seems quiet here, we're coming home.”[/quote] [quote name="The Economist"]Indeed, it would be hard to exaggerate the UN's unpopularity. Some Congolese shake their fists or throw clumps of mud at passing UN patrols. Three months ago, militiamen burned 17 people to death while a detachment of MONUC troops 200 metres away, whose mandate authorised them to use force to prevent such massacres, did nothing. “Is MONUC here to do anything apart from count the bodies?” asked a Congolese witness.[/quote] [quote name="The Economist"]MONUC's reputation has been damaged still further by revelations that some peacekeepers have been sexually molesting Congolese children. In the latest incident, a senior French civilian with the mission has been handed over to authorities in Paris and the UN has launched an investigation which insiders say will seek to discover whether MONUC has been penetrated by organised paedophiles who recruit their friends.[/quote] [quote name="The Economist"]Morale among the blue helmets is not high. Many regard their posting to Congo as the height of misfortune. Some are ashamed to be part of such an indolent force. During massacres in Ituri's main town of Bunia last year, some Uruguayan peacekeepers suffered nervous breakdowns after watching atrocities they had been ordered not to prevent. One reportedly told his psychiatrist that goats were talking to him. When asked what they were saying, he replied, “They're shouting: ‘Help me! Help me!'”[/quote] [/quote]