U.N. on test in Congo

ANOTHER LEADER OF Africa who promised a lot only to slip into a familiar dictatorship mode has fallen, dragging the region into uncertainty and provoking concerns at a time when the continent appears headed for better days. A small-time guerilla leader for three decades before he marched into his country's capital four years ago as the heroic victor over one of Africa's longest- serving dictators, Laurent Kabila had raised hopes of peace and some stability for the chronically unstable region. When he drove out Mobutu Sese Seko and renamed Zaire the Democratic Republic of Congo, there was general rejoicing that Central Africa was at last emerging out of the tunnel. There was even a hint that the debilitating ethnic violence of the past decade and more may be at an end as the entire continent, from Nigeria up north to South Africa, tended to project optimism. The prevalent hope was that the peace fallout from Mr. Nelson Mandela's South Africa would provide the needed spark. Not only did Kabila belie the hopes he had raised but through his own dictatorial ways and a hardline approach to tackling the rebellion that had engulfed more than half of his country he brought suicidal uncertainty to the region. If the United Nations fails to act immediately by sending in the promised international peace force as part of an earlier agreement, the region faces renewed anarchy. Memories of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 - accompanied by the shameful spectacle of the world body reduced to a state of total paralysis by the reluctance of the main member-nations - should serve to remind the international community of the responsibility and burden that it carries and the debt it owes to the innocent people of Central and Southern Africa.

Kabila's Congo is today in a perilous state after decades of the Mobutu dictatorship when the rich land was looted by the late President and his men. Caught in the rivalries of the Cold War, the country - as much as the rest of the region - saw little development or progress for nearly three decades. And since 1997, when Mobutu's autocratic regime was overthrown, it has been wracked by a civil war which has its origin in the mindless ethnic war of 1994 and which has drawn in a string of neighbours. Kabila rode into Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, with the support of extremists of the Hutu tribe in neighbouring Rwanda and quickly turned against them. This was enough to shatter the bewildering ethnic mosaic of Central Africa. On either side of the civil war are ranged six countries and several other rebel movements: Rwanda and Uganda have their soldiers supporting the rebels while Zambia, Namibia and Angola, all ideological cousins of Cold War vintage, had lent military support to the Kabila regime.

The bloody fighting has continued despite the warring groups and their external supporters signing a ceasefire agreement nearly a year ago. A summit in Lusaka in neighbouring Zambia, supported by all the major players on the continent, sought peace-keepers from the United Nations. A contingent of 6,000 should by now have been in place. The delay in the deployment had been blamed partly on Kabila. The U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has been quick to reaffirm the world body's commitment to Congo. His appeal for restraint to the warring parties and the neighbouring countries needs to be reinforced by effective measures to prevent an escalation of the fighting. Seven years ago in a bizarre act the U.N. pulled out - instead of reinforcing - its small continent from Rwanda even as the mass killings were beginning. The world body has before it the report of an extraordinary enquiry into the failure to stop that genocide, critical of the Security Council, the U.S., France and senior officials of the U.N., including Mr. Annan, then not heading it. Africa can ill- afford another such trauma.

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