Defense Minister Javier García assured that the soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in the Congo are in “good health” and “relatively calm” after the riots that occurred on July 25 in the city of Gomasaid the minister at a press conference held this Wednesday in Parliament, recorded by Telemundo and El País.
García spoke with the head of the mission, Gerardo Dattele, who told him that “There was a relative calm regarding the episodes, which had violent characteristics in the last two weeks, but for three or four days there was a relative calm”he detailed.
Hundreds of people mobilized against the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday, July 25. According to images that traveled through social networks, the demonstration in the city of Goma included burning of cars, collapse of walls and destruction of streets. The Uruguayan peace mission It is in the center of the conflict zone.
The National Army expressed at that time that all the soldiers in the mission were “In perfect health”.
These mobilizations are part of a situation that “it has gotten complicated” in the last yearaffirmed Dattele to The Observer on July 22.
AFP
Protests in the Congo against the United Nations
The paramilitary group M23which was reactivated in recent months after a negotiation table in Kenya was frustrated, advanced in recent months on towns in the Rutshuru area, generating the reaction of the Army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The situation of violence caused the internal and external displacement of more than a million Congolese civilians.
At the end of 2012 this group took the city of Goma and a confrontation with the Uruguayan forces almost took place. “They are organized. It’s not that they come out with machetes and old rifles. And that can degenerate into something bigger, that’s why there are forecasts that tensions can increase “Dattele stated.
However, García indicated that he spoke with the representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations to find out the deadlines they manage to “finish the mission”, and for the moment “there is no end date”: “At first there was an idea that by 2024 the withdrawal would begin. I tell you that today it is not raised in those terms, but based on meeting goals. Once the goal of consolidating peace has been met, other decisions can be made“, explained the Secretary of State.
In addition, he indicated that peacekeeping missions are a “state policy”so “the participation of the Uruguayan forces is requested for other scenarios, for other countries” the government will analyze it “with a positive vision”.
“It is a Uruguayan seal. Our soldiers are the best ambassadors that Uruguay has in the world”Garcia valued.
