20091223

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Foreign donors must invest hundreds of millions of dollars and better coordinate an array of Congolese military reform plans before the United Nations can start cutting back on its vast but troubled peacekeeping force.

Congo's President Joseph Kabila, who is likely to stand for re-election in 2011, wants the world body's largest peacekeeping force to have an exit strategy by mid-2010, the mineral-rich giant's 50th anniversary since independence from Belgian.

But Congo's continued reliance on U.N. troops to help tackle violence, whether a new rebellion in the west or years of sustained fighting in the east, underscores the failings of piecemeal efforts to turn rebel and pro-government armed groups into a cohesive national army.

"The lack of strong, disciplined security services is at the core of the conflict in the Congo," said Congo analyst Jason Stearns, who is writing a book on Congo's last two wars.

Despite deals to end the 1998-2003 war and a mostly peaceful election in 2006, which Kabila won with vows to consolidate peace, various rebellions simmer across Congo's east, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting and reports of widespread abuses by government troops.

Kinshasa's army of an estimated 150,000 soldiers regularly calls on the U.N.'s nearly 20,000-strong force for everything from training and food to fire support from helicopter gunships and help moving soldiers and ammunition during battles.

But Stearns said many in government have vested interests in keeping the army weak as it allows them to use units to protect mines and smuggling networks they run in the east.

"Any attempts at security sector reform must tackle this core problem - there is no sense in reforming isolated brigades and then inserting them into the same, corrupt system."