The United Nations Security Council yesterday passed a watered down resolution transitioning responsibility of the African-led International Support Mission in the Central Africa Republic (MISCA), to the African Union (AU) while postponing preparations for a United Nations-led Peacekeeping Mission by at least three months, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), who chaired a recent congressional hearing on the crisis in the Central Africa Republic (CAR).
“In effect, the Council has deferred taking truly effective action, the result of which will likely be not only lost time, but also lost lives,” Smith said. “We have been down this road before.”
Smith noted that in August 1997, the Security Council approved an AU-led Mission for the Surveillance of the Bangui Accords, MISAB, coupled with French military support, to restore order in the CAR. By January 1998, the mission proved incapable of fulfilling its mandate, France scaled back its presence, and the U.N. was left with the “only viable option” of deploying a half-hearted and poorly-funded U.N. peacekeeping operation.
Smith called for “a robust effort to get ‘blue helmets’ – U.N. peacekeepers with a U.N. Charter mandate – on the ground in the CAR.”
“Nothing to precludes us from working simultaneously to get this under U.N. auspices while at the same time supporting African forces that are already on the ground,” though he noted that three civil society witnesses at his recent congressional hearing on the troubled nation, including a CAR bishop, believed that the existing forces were ineffective and had called for deployment of U.N. peacekeepers as soon as possible.
“If the international community is serious about its commitment to stop genocide, and ‘Never Again’ is to be more than a bumper-sticker sentiment, this is the moment to get it right,” Smith said. “Yes: we must provide rapid and robust support the AU and French mission to ensure their success, but we must also be as prepared as possible should they falter. These efforts are not mutually exclusive. The Security Council should immediately begin preparations for a rapid transition of MISCA into a robust UN peacekeeping operation with the mandate and resources necessary to protect civilians from mass atrocities and restore immediate stability.”
Smith held a Nov. 19 hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations entitled “Crisis in the Central African Republic” featured Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robert P. Jackson, Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State; Bishop Nestor-Désiré Nongo-Aziagbia, Bishop of Bossangoa in the CAR; Search for Common Ground, and; Human Rights Watch. Click here to read their testimony.
At the hearing, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jackson cited reports that five to ten women per day are being raped, violence that continues with “total impunity” since not one accused rapist has yet to be brought to justice. He also stated concern about the continued activity of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in southeastern CAR, where in 2013 the LRA has continued to commit attacks against civilians, Jackson said. According to U.N. sources, from January to September 2013, presumed LRA fighters committed 21 attacks, resulting in 33 deaths and 128 abductions in the CAR. An estimated 21,000 Central Africans remain internally-displaced and over 6,000 are living as refugees as a result of the LRA threat. The United States continues to support efforts by the regional forces of the AU Regional Task Force to end the LRA threat and bring its top commanders to justice.
