BERLIN, June 1 (UPI) -- German peace experts have criticized the European Union's mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying other areas in Africa were more neglected.
"The mission looks like a cover-up for insufficient action in Darfur," Bruno Schoch, of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, said Thursday in Berlin.
Schoch and four of his colleagues published the Peace Report 2006, which looks at international conflicts around the world and is compiled by Germany's five peace research institutes.
"The Congo mission won't help much, but it won't hurt either," said Reinhard Mutz, of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.
German lawmakers had earlier in the day approved the mission, despite resistance from the opposition, who argued it didn't serve German interests and was poorly planned.
While the experts at the conference agreed that humanitarian interventions should be expanded, they said there should exist independent cost, risk and success evaluations for military missions.
Germany is sending 780 troops (500 soldiers and 280 medical and logistic personnel) to the African country, which will hold its first democratic elections in more than four decades at the end of July.
Germany is to lead the mission, which builds on forces from 16 European countries, from its headquarters in Potsdam, near Berlin. France will command the troops from a control center on the ground.
The United Nations, already on the ground with some 17,000 peacekeeping troops, requested additional support, as the situation may easily become unstable during and after the country's first free elections in 45 years.
Congo, Africa's third-largest country, is roughly the size of Western Europe, and continues to suffer from the after-effects of a bloody 1998-2003 civil war that cost the lives of some 4 million people.
