DRC: UN Envoy to Congo Notes some Improvements, but says Peacekeeping Mission still Needed

Progress has been made toward quelling mass rapes by armed combatants in Congo, but the U.N. peacekeeping mission is still needed in the African nation and requires more helicopters to do its job, the U.N. envoy to the African country told the Security Council Monday.

Roger Meece, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's representative for Congo, told council members he was encouraged by the recent arrests of army soldiers accused of mass rapes, including a lieutenant colonel who was once a rebel commander.

But Meece said that troops with the U.N. force is still needed because of ongoing security problems, including the continued use of mass rape as a "grotesque weapon" of war. The lieutenant colonel and seven other soldiers were recently arrested for the New Year's Day rapes of at least 50 people.

With contracts expiring on many of the helicopters peacekeepers use to patrol the country's remote regions, the mission will be left with only 14 helicopters attack helicopters, Ban said in a recent report on Congo. The Secretary-General said the loss of choppers "will diminish the mission's ability to protect civilians and its own forces, to deter armed groups."

Council members said in a press statement afterward they are deeply worried about the insecurity, violence and human rights violations in the country, especially in the eastern part of the Congo where many mass rapes have occurred. They welcomed the arrests in the New Year's Day rapes, and called for swift prosecution of militia members arrested in connection with more than 300 rapes in 13 villages between July 30 and August 2.

The numbers of rapes reported recently have been shocking even for eastern Congo, where rape is a daily hazard and some women have been sexually assaulted repeatedly.

Council members additionally called on U.N. member states to contribute military helicopters, saying they are necessary to help maintain security.

Eastern Congo has been torn by violence since Rwanda's 1994 genocide spilled war across the border. Hutu militias that participated in the massacres of more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus sought refuge in Congo.