Kampala (Uganda) – Eastern DR Congo is once again on fire.
Fighting between government troops and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) led by so-called renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda has left death and mayhem in its wake.
By the start of the weekend, a ceasefire declared late on Wednesday was still holding but with Gen. Nkunda, camped at the gates of Goma, threatening to storm that city unless, he said, the government troops stopped looting and killing civilians. As always, when eastern DR Congo bleeds, the blood flows into western Uganda. Over the past month of fighting, more than 6,000 Congolese have crossed the border into Uganda seeking refuge, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
This is the sort of thing that happens when political differences are not settled politically and genuinely. Gen. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsi minority in eastern Congo. But this is despite having signed on to “a broad peace deal” in January.
He now says that peace process was “dominated too much by Kabila’s government”. Gen. Nkunda may have a point about fighting to protect the Tutsi, but is he being genuine in making the accusation that Kinshasa dominated the peace process? Why did he sign the agreement that was the result of a process he did not believe in? Or did he simply participate in the negotiations so as to buy time to reorganise and rearm?
As it is, the situation is dire. But, encouragingly, Gen. Nkunda is being reported by the news agencies saying he is willing to talk peace but only under the mediation of a neutral party. The international community should take him on this one, even if it amounts to simply calling his bluff. The United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and countries in the Great Lakes Region should get on with the talks.
The starting point, however, should be to find out what went wrong with the January peace agreement. Also, it would be important to establish why the different regional frameworks aimed at avoiding situations such as presently obtaining in eastern DR Congo have not worked.
The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) lists these as the Pact on Security, Stability and Development and the Protocol on Non-Aggression and Mutual Defence. “These instruments carry obligations which if implemented would forestall any possible aggression,” the ICGLR said in a statement as it called for diplomatic pressure from the international community to be exerted on the parties involved in the conflict.
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API/Source.The Monitor (Uganda) – November 3, 2008.
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