Strong foreign policy required to deal with African crisis.

Angus Reid
Vancouver Sun

Just when Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien should be enjoying the twilight of his three terms in office, his government seems, instead, to have entered the "twilight zone"—a disquieting place somewhere between shadow and substance where all of the inconsistencies of his decade in power are coming together in one final discordant burst. Nowhere is the gap between words and deeds louder and more disturbing than in the area of foreign policy.

Chrétien has presented himself to Canada and the world as the great multilateralist. A leader so loyal to the cause of the United Nations (UN) as the world's premier institution for peace and security that he has alienated our most important ally and trading partner. He said "no" to participation in the Iraq campaign because the United States-led coalition lacked a mandate from the UN.

Yet now that the UN is desperately trying to cobble together a military mission in an effort to staunch an African holocaust in the Congo, which has already cost several million lives, the best he can do is to offer a couple of transport planes. He claims that Canadian resources are already stretched too thin supporting the U.S. agenda in Afghanistan and helping to rebuild Iraq.

There's a kind of double jeopardy at work here. The Americans are more annoyed than ever over Chrétien's words, in spite of the fact that this country's limited resources are principally devoted to their causes. The UN gets lots of friendly rhetoric but little by way of substantive assistance to help contain the biggest humanitarian disaster since the genocide in Rwanda.

I doubt that anything short of regime change here in Canada can repair our damaged relations with the Bush administration.

But, as events unfold in post-Saddam Iraq, Chrétien's decision not to join the American-led "coalition of the willing" appears increasingly justified. Despite the best efforts of the entire U.S. military to locate the weapons of mass destruction that served as the causus belli for the entire Iraq adventure, the only anthrax that's been unearthed was discovered earlier this week 80 kilometres from Washington, near Fort Detrick in the Maryland countryside. Apparently the non-virulent strain was produced by a long-abandoned germ weapons facility.

The irony of the Iraq affair is that by taking such a principled stand—by not overtly supporting the U.S.—Canada's substantial presence "in theatre" was largely ignored. Our naval vessels and our observers assigned to U.S. and British units constituted a more formidable commitment than that of many other countries who had signed on with little more than words of support. Add to this our troops in Afghanistan and the promise of substantial aid ($150 million U.S. and climbing) for post-war reconstruction and it turns out that we're doing a lot to help our American friends.

But the even bigger inconsistency is Chrétien's unwillingness to match deeds with words when it comes to the UN. Over the past five years, according to the Washington-based International Rescue Committee, somewhere between 2.5 and four million innocent civilians have already perished in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of civil war, foreign invasion, ethnic conflict and seemingly random violence.

This cycle was ignited by a disastrous sequence of events starting with the arrival of Hutu refugees and genocide plotters trying to escape justice following the Rwandan massacres.

The latest incident in the Congo is chillingly reminiscent of the early days of the Rwandan crisis. Last week, a small, poorly equipped force of UN peacekeepers in blue helmets stood helplessly behind razor wire as opposing gangs roamed the streets of Bunia, in eastern Congo, slaughtering everyone in their path. Men were disembowelled, women raped and children murdered. Credible reports tell of cannibalism, the drugging of child combatants and ritualistic killings as the region descended to a new level of horror. Thousands of civilians hoping to escape the slaughter cowered behind the thin line of Uruguayan peacekeepers or formed a seemingly endless procession of the dispossessed streaming out of the region.

In early May, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International alerted the UN Security Council to the mass killings and targeted rapes based on racial identity that had started a "deadly spiral." NGOs and religious groups have added their voice to the pleas that a credible UN force be put in place to end the slaughter.

In the face of this, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has once again sounded a global alarm calling on "governments with capacity" to contribute to a credible force to stop the violence. The Americans and British, while sympathetic, have refused to send troops since they are already fully committed in Iraq. The French might send as many as 1,000 soldiers, but only if they can get additional military personnel from other countries.

Earlier this week, Peter Langille, a Human Security Fellow at the University of Victoria's Centre for Global Studies, wrote a passionate statement that questioned Chrétien's claims that additional resources aren't available for the Congo. With a regular force strength of 19,500 soldiers and reserves numbering an additional 15,500, we might not be as overstretched as the prime minister claims. Only 4,500 are required for existing commitments in Bosnia and Afghanistan taking into account troop levels, rest, recuperation and rotational needs.

According to Langille, there should be sufficient room to commit 1,200 troops consisting of mechanized infantry to the Congo. We currently have a mere 220 soldiers on UN assignment, placing us 31st when nations are ranked according to their peacekeeping commitments.

During his remaining months in power, the prime minister might not be able to salvage his relationship with the Bush administration—even if he were inclined to. But he still has time to reverse the gap between words and deeds when it comes to the UN and the cause of human security in Africa.

In doing so, he also has a chance to exit the twilight zone that encompasses his government. Indeed, as a multilateralist, friend of the UN and advocate for Africa, the Congo crisis presents Chrétien with a final opportunity to regain some semblance of consistency and coherence in Canada's foreign policy.

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