ABSTRACT
The UN operation in the Congo, ONUC (Operation des Nations Unies au Congo) is an example of what may ensue when the UN embarks on a mission without a clear plan and without establishing the role and status of the international troops employed. Ambiguous UN Security Council resolutions confused the Congolese who requested the Forces’ presence and the members of the Secretariat charged with conducting the operation. As the peacekeepers engaged in armed conflict with one of the local parties, the operation could be seen as failing to adhere to the tenets of ‘traditional peacekeeping’: yet lacking the required military might and the authority of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, it could not be deemed an exercise in ‘enforcement’.
