BERLIN, March 21 (UPI) -- Germany will lead a European Union mission to stabilize the first free elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo in more than four decades, a plan that is met by growing opposition from German lawmakers and top military officials.
United Press International has learned from sources close to the military that several high-ranking German generals strongly oppose Berlin's plan to send 500 Bundeswehr soldiers to assist a 1,500-strong EU-mandated mission to safeguard the June elections in the DRC.
"What are Germany's interests there?" the military leaders wonder, according to the source.
The opposition has demanded clarification on the Congo mission before German parliament next month votes on whether to dispatch the troops.
Even lawmakers from Germany's two governing parties have criticized the mission.
Johannes Kahrs, spokesman of the conservative wing of the Social Democrats, told German public radio Deutschlandfunk the make-up of the mission was "very unclear."
He said the explicit goal to safeguard the electoral process could hardly be achieved by sending some 1,500 soldiers, half of whom are expected to remain outside the country for emergency evacuation.
"That's like sending 750 soldiers to Lisbon and claiming they can stabilize entire Western Europe," he said. "I will fight to guarantee that the plan has no majority within the Social Democrat Party."
The DRC is Africa's third-largest country, and is roughly the size of Western Europe. According to officials, the mission will be spearheaded by Germany and France. Germany, as the lead nation, will establish an operating center in Potsdam. The French operate a command post in Kinshasa, capital of the DRC.
The United Nations, already on the ground with some 17,000 peacekeeping troops, requested the additional support as the situation may easily become unstable during and after the country's first free elections in 45 years.
"(The EU mission is) going to be a rapid reaction force to come in as and when required," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the BBC. He added, however, that the poll will pose "major logistical challenges, if not nightmares."
German and French soldiers will be supported by forces from at least 8 EU countries. Spain and Portugal will each send 100 soldiers and Sweden and Belgium 50 each, according to German Defense minister Franz-Josef Jung.
The German Bundeswehr Association, a soldier interest group, is opposing the mission, but if soldiers were to be sent to the DRC, then their stay should be tightly regulated, it says.
"The plan to limit the mission to four months must not be changed," Wilfried Stolze, association spokesman, told UPI. "If the situation escalates, we can't be the last to switch off the light."
He added Bundeswehr soldiers have no experience operating in the region, and -- unlike their French or Belgian colleagues -- lack the language skills necessary to tackle such a mission.
Reports that armed 13-year-olds are fighting in Kinshasa worry Stolze.
"We can't have our men face child soldiers," he said. "That's a situation they are not ready for."
However Denis Tull, Africa expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a Berlin-based think tank, told UPI child soldiers only roam the country's eastern provinces, where German soldiers will not be stationed.
The DRC is suffering from the after-effects of a bloody 1998-2003 civil war that cost the lives of some four million people. The former Zaire remains one of the least safe countries in the world, with armed rebels and warlords creating havoc in a number of provinces. About 1,200 people die daily from the armed conflict, malnutrition and disease in the Congo, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The DRC is led by an interim government that has a tough time securing the vast country. U.N. troops have stepped up action against rebels in the east, but they are lacking support from traditional forces, as the Congolese army is in disarray because of internal quarrels and financial shortcomings.
Officials fear that the DRC may be plunged into fresh violence by the election. As the war ended without handing military victory to either side, the election results will largely define the conflict's outcome. Such high stakes may lead to renewed violence sparked by frustrated parties during and after the election, Tull writes in his latest research paper. "Most competitors in the election," he writes, "are military groups which have put on the cloak of a political group."
Peaceful free elections are nevertheless a major step to a peaceful and stable DRC, he added. The international community has invested more than $2.2 billion in the past two years to finance the U.N. peacekeepers and to prepare the elections.
Berlin is doing well to spearhead the EU mission, Tull said.
"The elections are a critical hurdle," he told the online version of public broadcaster ARD. "If you can help achieve a success with a relatively small contribution, then that's a good investment."
