Mediation to ease tension in North Kivu

Rwandan authorities are mediating between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and dissident commander Laurent Nkunda, whose forces have been involved in clashes that displaced thousands of civilians in North Kivu province, a spokesman in Kigali said.

"We are taking on the role of facilitator," Maj Jill Rutaremara, spokesman for the Rwanda Defense Forces, said on Friday. "The two parties have agreed to respect a ceasefire agreement." Rwanda, he added, was committed to mediation to help restore peace to the eastern DRC, where several ‘genocidaires militias’ have taken refuge.

A spokesman for Nkunda, Maître Réné Abandi, confirmed the ongoing talks in Rwanda. He said their rebel movement – le Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) - was willing to collaborate with the government in resolving the conflict, but only if the process was conducted openly. "We need everything to be done in a clear and transparent way," he told IRIN by telephone.

The clashes between CNDP forces and the DRC army displaced thousands of civilians from their homes in late December, according to military sources and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUC. Nkunda lost 18 fighters in clashes that were quelled by the peacekeepers, according to MONUC spokesperson Lt-Col Didier Rancher.

A Congolese military spokesman, Col Delphin Kahindi, said the fighting affected Jomba, eight kilometres north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, and villages around it, with an estimated population of 20,000-30,000. Most fled towards Bunagana and Rutshuru, 70 km northeast of Goma, towards Uganda.

"In the province of Kivu north, the people do not sleep any more," a local source said on Friday, adding that Nkunda had mainly recruited his fighters from Tutsi communities in Kitchanga, 80 km northwest of Goma, where he lives. Nkunda, a former officer in the DRC army, led a mutiny against the government in 2004, saying he was protecting his Tutsi people from persecution. He is wanted for war crimes allegedly committed in the eastern city of Bukavu.

In December, President Joseph Kabila offered Nkunda an olive branch, saying his government would pursue reconciliation to bring about peace in the east. But, he added, if that failed it would use military force. "Militia activities [in the east] are the kicks of a dying horse at a time when the country is in a period of transition," he told a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Analysts say the solution must be political and Nkunda should be engaged in talks. They say he needs assurances of safety for his Tutsi ethnic community in the east.

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