Mar,+Derek+2


 * UN Drops Support to the DR Congo Army**

The United Nations has decided to stop sending support to the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo as of November 2, 2009. The reason for that is that some of the soldiers of the DRC's army have taken part in the deliberate killing of civilians. One of the UN officials says they withdrew their support after hearing accusing soldiers of killing 62 civilians. The peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy had said that the army had "clearly targeted" the civilians. The UN has been sending support since January to help the army fight the Rwandan Hutu rebels. Rights activists have accused the UN of doing little to stop the killings after they've been persistently saying that ethnic Hutus were being killed by the Congolese army. Mr. Le Roy had said the army had killed at least 62 civilians between May and September this year. He said those killings took place around the village of Lukweti in North Kivu Province. Congo's government had said they had investigated about the killings and that the withdrawal of the UN's support could destabilise Congo's army. It was said that more than 1,000 civilians are said to have been killed, more than 7,000 women and girls raped, and more than 900,000 people were forced to flee their homes since their operations began in January.

Sources: BBC: [] Al Jazeera: []

I thought the two sources had pretty good coverage overall of this event. Well one noticable difference was that BBC had only pictures of the event while Al Jazeera had a video. Also they had similar info about the event but somethings were more detailed in one source than the other. The 2nd part of each article were different than the other so they had quotes neither source both had. They had one quote that was the same which was what Mr. Le Roy had said We have decided that Monuc [the UN peacekeeping mission] will immediately suspend its logistical and operational support to the army units implicated in these killings,". Al Jazeera had the numbers about how many have been killed, raped, and fleed their homes but BBC didn't be specific they just refered to "rights group had estimated..." So that was another difference they had. That is how those sources are similar or different.

My opinion on this event is that's horrible how soldiers of the Congo army just kill civilians just like that. I think that the UN made a smart decision, I mean I would do the same thing because why would you want to help an army that kills innoncent civilians. Those numbers about all those people being raped, killed, or forced to flee were suprising because i never knew that would happen during a war. This war should be ended as quickly as possible so less people get hurt, killed, or even raped. But i guess the UN stopping their support for them won't help stop the war faster but that was still a good decision in my opinion.