Blog Posts by Erin Weir

I am just getting back to the U.S. after several weeks traveling around the eastern regions or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Matt and I set out at the end of July to identify the priority issues that need to be addressed in the DRC before the UN peacekeeping mission (formerly called MONUC, and now re-named MONUSCO) begins to withdraw.

The peacekeeping mission has – in one form or another- been present in DRC for over a decade. The peacekeepers – military, police and civilians – have been tasked with protecting civilians, supporting the rag-tag Congolese military, developing good governance structures and state authority, and generally bringing stability, security and democracy to a place where all of these things are unfamiliar in the extreme.

When people think of violence, chaos and suffering, there is a tendency to oversimplify, to make firm distinctions between “perpetrators,” “victims” and “heroes”. But reality is never that cut and dry.  Conflict is messy, and the people involved often defy easy categorization.  

On Saturday, Matt and I set out to visit a community of displaced people south of Bunia town in Oriental province (eastern DR Congo).  It is a community that muddies each of these categorizes.

To the naked eye these people – currently numbering about 475 in all – fit the popular definition of “victim”.  After years spent surviving in brutal forest conditions they took advantage of a humanitarian corridor created by the Congolese military to come out of the woods and seek assistance.  Most of the new arrivals at the makeshift displacement camp are suffering from ailments like malaria, parasites and diarrhea.  Almost all of the new arrivals are malnourished and while they have received pots and utensils, as well as some blankets, plastic sheeting, and other “non-food items” from an international aid organization, they have not yet received food.  Even the emergency rations – delivered to the weakest among them - have already run out.

Saturday May 29th marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, a day to recognize the efforts and the sacrifices made by multinational peacekeepers all over the world. The past 15 years have marked both an exponential increase in the number of missions and peacekeepers deployed, and an overwhelming transformation in the very nature of peacekeeping.

Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, announced that the U.S. is … “very concerned that UNMIS take on board and fully implement the portion of its mandate – the critical portion of its mandate – that relates to the protection of civilians.” Ambassador Rice did not, however, elaborate on what the United Nations Mission in Sudan, otherwise known as UNMIS, could do to make protection a reality.

In two weeks the existing mandate for the UN peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) will expire, and UN Security Council will make an important decision about the future of the mission, and the trajectory of UN involvement in this volatile country.

I am writing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country with incredible natural beauty, a bounty of mineral resources and site of a brutal and protracted conflict that has caused the death and displacement of millions of people since the mid 1990’s. MONUC, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC, was deployed here nearly ten years ago, and its current mandate – which includes over 40 separate and complicated tasks – places priority on the protection of civilians, mainly in the DRC’s unpredictable eastern region.  

September has been a big month for international peacekeeping, for better and for worse…

President Barack Obama’s engagement and encouraging statements at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York this week spoke of the promise of a renewed international push to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UN peacekeeping as a whole. 

I am writing from Bahai, a village in eastern Chad right on the border with Darfur. Camilla Olson and I have trekked all the way out here, to what may be the most remote place I have ever visited, to understand the dynamics that make humanitarian assistance so hard to deliver. 

The following is currently a web feature on PBS NOW: 

Last October I traveled to Congo with a colleague from Refugees International to assess the effectiveness of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the troubled town of Goma, the eastern provincial capital.

Shortly after we arrived, serious fighting broke out between government soldiers and the CNDP, an armed opposition group, just 30 minutes north of us.

Humanitarianism is built upon the principles of neutrality and impartiality and the fundamental assertion that aid should be delivered strictly according to need.  However, aid itself can and has often been manipulated for political and strategic ends.  Large deliveries of food and supplies have a monetary value, particularly in areas suffering from conflict where people are exposed to large-scale deprivation.  Aid can also have a legitimizing effect, giving political credibility and power to those people and institutions that are seen to be the intermediaries between aid agencies and the general population.