04 12 13 VoA – UN Launches Drone Patrols in Troubled DRC
At a ceremony marking the launch of the first two of five
drones that will eventually patrol the DRC, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve
Ladsous said his forces needed to get a better picture of what was happening
with armed groups, refugees and displaced persons.
"This will be a tool
of choice for improving the information of the mission," said
Ladsous.
U.N.
peacekeepers will use the drones to watch over the mineral rich eastern region,
near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda.
The aerial surveillance is
starting less than a month after one rebel group announced it was laying down
its arms.
The M23 rebels gave up their fight after the Congolese army
captured their last strongholds with the help of a special U.N. intervention
force.
New York University Center on International Cooperation Research
Director Richard Gowan says until recently, the U.N. mission had been losing
credibility because it did not appear to have a long-term strategy for
stabilizing the DRC.
"It is truly astonishing that the U.N. is only now
mainstreaming drones in one of its most significant peace operations, and it has
taken the U.N. a whole year, in effect, to get its first drone in the air over
the eastern Congo," said Gowan.
Gowan adds the peacekeeping force needs
to step up its reaction to conflict.
"The U.N. has to move quickly in
terms of using new technology for peacekeeping because otherwise it is simply
going to be left behind by rebel groups and armies," he said.
Analyst
Philipp Rotmann of Germany's Global Public Policy Institute says the drones will
be useful to the peacekeeping mission, but cannot be viewed as a panacea for the
country's problems.
"Only a few drones over a huge area. Drones
need maintenance. Drones need to refuel. There will be a limited
amount of visibility," said Rotmann.
He says expectations that the use of
drones will automatically increase the safety of civilians would be
unrealistic.
But John Villasenor of the Brookings Institution says the
drones will be a useful tool for peacekeepers in the vast, rugged regions of the
DRC.
"Anytime you have the ability to get overhead aerial imagery, it
obviously increases the amount of information you have," said
Villasenor.
The United Nations plans to deploy three more drones in the
DRC in the coming months.
VOA
http://www.voanews.com/