{{A UN Security Council diplomat has said that the main purpose of a special intervention force created last week by the Council will be to ‘search and destroy the M23 rebels and other armed groups in the country. }}
The official who declined to be named, confirmed the worst fears of the M23 Movement whose political leader Bertrand Bisimwa at the weekend warned the UN that by attacking the M23, the world’s body would be choosing war instead of peace and that it would be at war with the very people of Congo who are struggling to attain good governance.
UN officials believe its peacekeepers are being stretched thin by fighters of the M23 who have shown a capability of neutralising government forces.
The admission came as the UN’s special envoy to Congo, Roger Meece was told by Kinshasa that it would bring a group of suspected mass rapists to justice after the United Nations last month threatened to halt support to two Congolese army battalions.
The United Nations claims 126 women were raped in Minova in November after Congolese troops fled to the town as M23 rebels briefly captured the nearby provincial capital of Goma.
In a March 25 letter to Congolese authorities, Mr Meece had given the DRC government seven days to take action on the rapes.
This came after earlier demands by the UN for Congolese authorities to prosecute the suspected rapists went unheeded.
“MONUSCO notes that assurances have been received recently from various DRC (Congo) officials – including from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Raymond Tshibanda – that justice will follow its course on this matter,” said U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Andre-Michel Essoungou.
REUTERS
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