Cold War to Congo Crisis.

    1)Thesis:

    Congo Crisis(1960-1965) was a period of hardship, and another battle for the superpowers,after Belgium grant Congo independence.This crisis at various points had the characteristics of anti-colonial struggle, a secessionist war with the province of Katanga, a United Nations peacekeeping operation, and a Cold War proxy battle between the United States and the Soviet Union where 100,000 people died.It proves the way how the UN , and the superpowers play a role in the crisis. ONUC, the UN Operation in the Congo (French: Opération des Nations unies au Congo) was in Congo from July 1960-June 1964 to oversee the withdrawal of the Belgian colonial administration from Congo. During the transition the mission was to help maintain law and order and provide technical assistance as required.The mission was extended to prevent the secession of several provinces, prevent civil war, and remove foreign military forces from the country in what is known as the Congo crisis.It also marks a traumatic setbact to the United Nations following the death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash as he sought to mediate.As part of the 30 yrs plan,Congo was set free, with the insistance of the superpowers ,from Belgium though Belgium was reluctant.Thus Cold war affect the peacekeeping during Congo Crisis and UN peacekeeping during Congo Crisis was effective in fulfiling their task where needed.

2)Causes of Conflict:

The first cause of conflict was the armies of Congo taking action after state independence.Immediately on 1st wk of July,the army rebelled and throw away,mutinied against the white officers which previously led the congolese army and thus more attacks launched against the Americans living there.This caused the Belgian govt to react fast and send paratroopers over:this was an illegal act as Congo was an independent state thus the Belgian was so called invading into Congo’s premises.

Such problems were made worse when the mineral-rich area of Katanga in southern Congo was declared independent by Moise Tshombe who lead the people in Katanga.

Belgian made athe conflicteven harder to resolve where demanded a more decisive ending – they wanted Lumumba delivered into the hands of his sworn enemy, President Tschombe of Katanga.

3)UN Involvement:

Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo, abbreviated ONUC, (English: The United Nations Organization in the Congo) was a UN peacekeeping force in Congo that was established after UN SC Resolution 143 of July 14, 1960.

The Security Council adopted resolution 143 (1960), by which it called upon the Government of Belgium to withdraw its troops from the territory of the Congo. The resolution authorized the United Nations Secretary-General to take the necessary steps, in consultation with the Congolese government, to provide that government with the necessary military assistance until it felt that, through its efforts with the technical assistance of the United Nations, the national security forces were able to meet their tasks fully. Following Security Council actions, the United Nations Force in the Congo (ONUC) was established. To carry out these tasks, the Secretary-General set up a United Nations Force, which at its peak strength numbered nearly 20,000.^[1] The Force stayed in the Congo between 1960 and 1964, and was a peacekeeping force, not a military force. The blue helmets could use their arms only in self-defense. However, they eventually became actively involved in suppressing the attempted secession of Katanga.

The first troops reached Congo on 15 July, many airlifted in by the United States Air Force. This caused an immediate calming impact. The troops began to occupy the area and the withdrawal of Belgian troops was completed by September. Dag Hammarskjöld was successful when he tried to negotiate a pacific interference of the ONUC in Katanga.

Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, dissatisfied with Dag Hammarskjöld’s refusal to use UN troops to subdue the insurrection in Katanga, decided to attempt an invasion of Katanga on his own and turned to the Soviet Union for help. The invasion attempt never reached Katanga but led to dissension within the Central Government, the collapse of the Central Government, and eventually to Patrice Lumumba’s arrest in December. After the withdrawal of the Belgians, the troops remained until 1964, to help the government to maintain the peace and consolidate the independence of the country. In the end, Katanga remained a province.

In February 1963, after Katanga had been reintegrated into the national territory of the Congo, a phasing out of the Force was begun, aimed at its termination by the end of that year. At the request of the Congolese Government, however, the General Assembly authorized the stay of a reduced number of troops for a further six months. The Force was completely withdrawn by 30 June 1964.

Although the military phase of the United Nations Operation in the Congo had ended, civilian aid continued in the largest single programme of assistance undertaken until that time by the world Organization and its agencies, with some 2,000 experts at work in the nation at the peak of the programme in 1963-1964.

4)Cold War & Impact:

The U.S. played a major role in converting the newly independent Congo into a cold war battleground. In 1961, the Eisenhower administration authorized the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who had been voted into office just months earlier in the territory’s first-ever democratic election. Washington, which then installed Mobutu in power and kept him there for more than 30 years, bears heavy responsibility for the disastrous economic conditions, massive corruption, and suppression of human rights in Zaire. The U.S. prolonged Mobutu’s rule by providing more than $300 million in weapons and $100 million in military training.

With the end of the cold war, the U.S., France, and Belgium formed a “troika” designed to pressure Mobutu to move toward democracy. This effort might have produced more positive results had not France defected to support Mobutu and the Hutu military dictator in Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, in defense of French language and culture, supposedly threatened by “Anglophone” Uganda and its Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) protégés.

Lumumba asked the UN to use ONUC to attack Katanga. However, it is not the part of the UN to attack another state and so they refused to forcefully unite the breakaway province with the rest of Congo. Lumumba was running out of options to achieve his dream of a united Congo and so asked the USSR for help. Anxious to gain a foot-hold in Africa (and, subsequently, an advantage over the USA) the Soviet Union gladly equipped Lumumba’s forces with Soviet transport planes. In August 1960 Lumumba’s forces attacked Katanga themselves but the attack failed.Lumumba’s supporters remained in their stronghold north of Stanleyville, backed by the USSR even after Lumumba assasination.

5)UN Effectiveness in Peacekeeping:

Belgian troops were withdrawn.

Foreign intervention was prevented and Soviet forces and advisers were withdrawn from Eastern Province.

The Congo was successfully reunited.

The economy was maintained up to a point and the UN trained the Congolese to be new administrators.

Order was re-established despite ONUC being constantly under attack from the other factions.

UN officials successfully trained Congolese doctors, engineers and teachers.

Public services such as hospitals were reopened.

They averted a humanitarian disaster by preventing a famine in the Kasai Province of the Congo.

UN managed to get stability in Congo by 1964. But France and USSR angered at role of UN and many felt that Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General, had exceeded his authority.

The UN moved too slowly, however, which prompted Lumumba to ask the Soviet Union for aid. This move alarmed the United States, who assigned a CIA agent to kill Lumumba and install Joseph Mobutu as Congo’s military leader. Lumumba was actually executed by Mobutu’s forces in 1961, which prompted the Cuban government to send in fighters to aid Lumumba’s supporters. By 1965, however, Mobutu seized control of the country and ruled as dictator until 1997. What began as a transfer of power from an imperial nation to an elected prime minister of an independent nation became a Cold War conflict that provoked an international response.

The USSR, Belgium and France refused to pay their share of the cost of the UN operations in Congo because they disagreed with their actions. The USSR claimed that the UN was being biased towards the West. Belgium also had other interests in the Congo including the mines and the fact that it was supporting Tshombe in Katanga.

Certain member states of the UN had openly defied its ruling and actually went against the action taken by the UN. Belgium refused to give up its hold on the Congo which made the UN’s work much more difficult and the USSR also backed rebel forces. This failure to support the UN seriously undermined its authority as it showed that when the will of the UN was contrary to that of member states, the UN could be ignored completely.

Though there were many criticism about UN being uneffective,UN was effective in carrying out the purposeful plans that they thought was important to the point that even the Secretriat-General lost his life while fulfing his duties.They did not side with any of the party and remained focus to make sure that they make the parties invoved not overblow the conflict even further.Eventhough the superpowers had their own plan on carrying it out in Congo to win the other,UN still tried their best to solve the problem.All they could not do was to keep the figure of the numbers of people who died as minimum as possible.Thus,UN was effective to a certain extent where they achieved some of their objectives.