Banyamulenge complain of exclusion

However, members of the Banyamulenge community in eastern DRC complained they had not been invited to the civil society debate. In a statement, received by IRIN, five South Kivu organisations said the age-old anti-Tutsi policy in DRC was continuing. “We condemn this attitude of exclusion at the peace meeting in Kinshasa which is going ahead without us,” the statement said. It warned the facilitators of the Lusaka accord to beware of such peace initiatives “by certain Congolese who dare organise a national meeting without considering the Congolese Tutsi as compatriots with whom they have to share a dialogue”. “Searching for peace in Congo, and particularly in Kivu, without including the Congolese Tutsi, will be a vain effort,” the statement concluded.