Lusaka ‘not addressing hate and fear in Kivus’

Neither reiterating promises of troop disengagement, which have been made before and not followed through, nor repeatedly renewing the mandate of MONUC would help significantly to establish peace in the North and South Kivu areas of eastern DRC or elsewhere, according to a report on the DRC released the NGO, African Rights, on Friday. One reason for this, according to a report exploring ways out of ‘The Conflict Cycle’ in the Kivus, was that the Lusaka peace accord on the DRC was “essentially a response to the military contest for control” that did not, and could not, “broach the deep-seated fears and hatreds that have made the Kivus, where the conflict began, such an explosive region.” As things stood, neither the belligerents nor the peace-brokers were meeting their commitments. Diplomatic activity became “more elaborate and time-consuming; in the meantime, the fighting goes and on and the anger grows,” said African Rights.

A survey of attitudes in urban and rural parts of the Kivus over more than a year had shown the initial optimism for the Lusaka accord fading and “massive resentment” towards the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) growing, the report said. The RCD, which controls the area, is accused by the populace of serving “foreign” [Rwandan] interests, human rights abuses, economic exploitation, lack of leadership and adminstrative failure, it said. As a strong presence in the RCD, minority Congolese Tutsis were held responsible for RCD attacks on civilians of other groups, and blamed for bringing the Rwandan army into the DRC, it added. The Banyamulenge Tutsi of South Kivu were particularly isolated, and “their retaliatory stance has reinforced widespread anti-Tutsi feeling,” African Rights reported. “There is a constant risk of mass killing, despite the presence of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), the continuing presence of which was highly contested, it said.