By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Congo's peace process, crowned by landmark elections last year, could still unravel unless the world community stays engaged to help the country tackle serious security and political challenges, experts said on Wednesday. Analysts from the International Crisis Group think-tank recommended the United Nations maintain its 17,000 peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo for at least another year with a stronger mandate to deal with renegade militias in the east. Their report, entitled "Congo: Staying Engaged after the Elections", urged foreign governments and donors to continue to support reconstruction of the vast, former Belgian colony, which is emerging from decades of war, chaos and corruption. Brussels-based ICG hailed last year's polls, Congo's first free elections in more than 40 years that gave President Joseph Kabila a democratic mandate through the ballot box, as a milestone in the country's transition from a 1998-2003 war. "But the peace process is not complete", said Jason Stearns, Crisis Group's Central Africa senior analyst. "The situation in the East remains volatile, there is little state authority in the West, and relations between the government and the opposition are hostile," he said in comments to accompany the report presented on Wednesday. The report said: "The chances are high that the peace process would unravel if international engagement and guarantees were to be withdrawn precipitously." Crisis Group said that while Kabila, who first gained the presidency when his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, appeared to have won a majority in the national parliament and most provincial assemblies, the opposition was already complaining of being sidelined from legislative committees. Unrest triggered by hardliners could not be ruled out and Kabila's government also faced major security problems posed by an ill-disciplined and often abusive national army and rebel militias who still control large areas of the east. "The international community must remain strongly and collectively engaged," Crisis Group's Central Africa Project Director Caty Clement said. "MILITARILY INDISPENSABLE" Specifically, the report said that the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, known as MONUC, "remains militarily indispensable and needs to maintain its troop level around 17,000, at least through 2007". The Congolese army, hamstrung by "appalling" living conditions and branded by rights groups as the worst human rights abuser in the country, could not deal by itself with the militias still active in the east, the report said. "MONUC troops, with a stronger mandate, will be required for at least another year, and donors will need to prioritise their efforts at creating a national army," it said. MONUC's mandate is due to be renewed in February. U.N. mission spokesman Kemal Saiki said that while he could not second-guess what the Security Council and member states would decide, preserving the stability of a nation strategically located in central Africa would be a key consideration. "You can not switch off a mission like a light switch. Looking at Congo's history in the past 10 years, if there is a place where a domino effect could have validity, it is central Africa. Congo is the centre of gravity that does not exist. Congo has the potential to be an anchor," he told Reuters. Crisis Group said the U.N. and donors should also work to strengthen Congo's weak judiciary and state institutions and tackle corruption which had led to millions of dollars being misappropriated in the transition since the war.
