Thanks for your comment. I do think you missed the point of this posting. I am not questioning the competence of UN/EUFOR troops — they are professional soldiers. I have been embedded/integrated with them (UN troops) — and went on patrol with them — in various parts of Congo . I have a clear sense of their work. The issue is the type of mandate they have. That mandate is questionable and the Supreme Court incident underscores that.  Mvemba

Kim, your points are well-taken as usual. You are right that the Congolese police is trained/equipped to handle this type of incidents. Clearly, they have not been up to the task — and this is not the first time. Still, I have one question for you. What exactly is MONUC/EUFOR’s mandate in these circumstances? On Nov 17, a friend and I were attacked and stoned by shegues (street kids) unhappy with the election’s results as French para-troopers stood by and watched from their APC. There was no police officer around.  They obviously did not deter the shegues…Even street kids know that MONUC/EUFOR do not bite. What was the point of their presence there?

That said, when was the last time that Congolese politics made sense, I ask you… Mystere et boule de gomme! In the mean time, let’s wait and see what they will say, although it is almost a foregone conclusion.

The weapon of a soldier is a machine gun and if he uses it it would get very ugly. Imagine the headline: "MONUC shoots into crowds, 6 dead". That would seriously ignite Kinshasa, in which a majority believe the international community is there only to get rid of Bemba.

If the Supreme Court got badly damaged, it’s because Kinshasa doesn’t have a proper fire department. Small fires turn into blaze in Kin. We saw two fire trucks go back and forth between the court and the river to get water. Ridiculous.

As you rightly said commenting on the three-day war in Kin last October, the successful post-apartheid transition in SA was as much to the credit of the political class as of the existence of a robust institutional framework to investigate anti-democratic crimes and ANC-Inkatha inter-ethnic violence. Capacity — political will — to investigate criminal acts and violent behavior aimed at derailing the process is the most important piece that has consistently been lacking to support the Congolese transition and election process.

And this has not been for lack of institutions responsible for such investigations. Both MONUC’s human rights division and the pro-Kabila leaning national judiciary have the legal mandate, sufficient resources and the necessary moral authority to investigate political violence and anti-democratic criminal behaviors such as this one and bring authors to justice. They have deliberately chosen not to pursue their mandate. Short term political gains (blame pro-Tshisekedi opposition for the 2005 violent demonstrations in Mbujimayi, discredit Bemba’s post-election legal efforts after the Supreme Court burning, etc.) are casting a black shadow over the long-term political stability of the country.