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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Focus on North Kivu rivals seeking peace
KANYABAYONGA , 4 November 2003 (IRIN) - Congolese farmer Pierre Kabinda, 36, "abandoned" his plot of land on Wednesday for the 10-km hike to the town of Kanyabayonga to witness the reconciliation of two rival governors who had divided North Kivu Province, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, into two.
It was a momentous occasion for Kabinda, who was among an estimated 2,500 people who turned up to witness the governors agree to set aside their differences and embark on the reconstruction of the war-torn province.
Kabinda cast a smile across his face as he watched the two men embrace and promise to work together to end the senseless wrangling that had led to the loss of thousands of innocent lives.
As far as he was concerned, it was these two men who had fanned the war that killed two of his sons and gave him and his neighbours sleepless nights.
"It's unbelievable to see these two governors can come together before us, let alone hug each other," Kabinda said. "The power struggle for control of this area by these two men has been the source of all the trouble we have witnessed."
Kanyabayonga, the remote town of some 30,000 people, lies in the middle of a hilly landscape in mineral-rich eastern Congo. Most of its residents went through appalling experiences during the eight-year-old civil strife in the country.
Strategically placed in the heart of North Kivu Province, Kanyabayonga had for a long time been the scene of fighting between the formerly Rwandan backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and the formerly Ugandan backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) rebel forces. The two movements have since been incorporated into a transitional government of national unity.
Across the town, schools, hospitals and homes are all in a shambles as electricity, clean water and adequate food remain a dream for the majority of its residents.
"We have seen it all," Kabinda said. "We have seen the Ugandans take over this place, the Rwandans, the Mayi Mayi [Congolese militia], Interahamwe [Rwandan Hutu militia] and all the bandit forces you have heard of in eastern DRC. We are simply tired of this war."
As a result of all the fighting, North Kivu has been split into two; one area controlled by the RCD-Goma with its headquarters in Goma town, and the remaining part controlled by the Ugandan and Kinshasa backed RCD-ML with its headquarters in Beni town. The RCD-Goma appointed Eugene Serufuli as governor for North Kivu-Goma and RCD-ML chose Eric Paluku to head North Kivu-Beni.
With these former rebel movements having appointed governors for the two areas in the province, Kanyabayonga, strategically placed in the middle, remained a control target for both groups. The RCD-Goma and RCD-ML forces fought each other more than 10 times in a bid to control Kanyabayonga, local residents told IRIN.
However, with Wednesday's reconciliation between Serufuli and Paluku, in truth between RCD-Goma and RCD-ML, there is hope for lasting peace in the troubled province. This also follows a commitment by the numerous factions to put aside their differences and begin reconstructing and unifying the province.
Already, the newly installed transitional government, mandated to guide the vast central African nation to its first democratic elections in two to three years, has embarked on a process to unify the nation.
Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba presided over Wednesday's ceremony to broker an agreement between the RCD-Goma and RCD-ML, and managed to get the governors to pledge to resolve their differences and work together for the good of the province.
"The heritage that God gave our nation has been wasted over these years," Mbemba said. "We have decided to come together, stop the killings and restore uniform authority for this nation."
He said a new governor for the province would be appointed, instead of the two, as a way of unifying North Kivu.
"For the sake of rebuilding our nation, we have resolved to do away with the past and join hands together with our brothers to rebuild this nation," Serufuli told Paluku as they hugged, amid applause from the crowd.
A great moment
"This is a wonderful moment for the people in North Kivu," William Swing, the UN special envoy to the Congo who attended the ceremony on 30 October, said. "It is a serious effort by the transitional government to resolve local conflicts and we think that this conflict is on the way to a firm resolution."
In an area where two belligerent forces had made it a nightmare for humanitarian agencies to access civilian populations, the reconciliation was seen as likely to facilitate the work of humanitarian agencies trying to reach thousands of internally displaced people.
"This is definitely a significant step which we believe will in the end ease humanitarian supplies to the internally displaced population," Gilbert Gitelman, a senior humanitarian officer at the Goma office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
In its latest study, done in spring, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) concluded that 3.3 million people had died from war-related causes since fighting broke out in the DRC in 1998. Millions others have been displaced as a result of the conflict fuelled by ethnic rivalry as well as the country's vast natural resources.[The IRC survey is at www.theirc.org]
No more militia forces
"There are no more RCD-Goma forces or RCD-ML forces. We now have a unified national army," Mbemba told the gathering in Kanyabayonga who included supporters of the two movements.
"We have fought each other, lost lives but we have now decided to put the past behind and to rebuild our country," he said as the militias, the local population and the governors nodded their heads in compliance.
Under Congo's new constitution, the rebel-turned-political movements now have the task of leading commissions overseeing the country's reconstruction and development, political and economic revival, and social and cultural renaissance.
Swing, who is also head of the UN Mission in the country, known as MONUC, said North Kivu's unification would facilitate both MONUC's and government's efforts to track down and repatriate Rwandan Hutu rebels still present in eastern Congo.
"We certainly hope that this new commitment will help us in intensifying the DDRR [Demobilisation, Disarmament, Reintegration and Rehabilitation] programme," he said.
The militia groups in North Kivu promised to share information with MONUC and, wherever possible, carry out joint operations to track down the Rwandan rebels.
Since his appointment as head of a strengthened MONUC, Swing has taken a proactive approach to deploy UN troops in various provinces in the Congo, from where they will fan out into embattled areas to provide security for the DDRR process and to facilitate the integration of many of the warring forces into a national army.
To Kabinda, and many other Congolese farmers and villagers, the time for the nation's renaissance has come - a time for the guns to be silent and for the people to embark on the road to political tranquillity, economic transformation and social stability.
"Its great that these two foes can face each other," Kabinda said. "I think the war is steadily fading. We need to live like people and make good use of our land instead of turning into beggars."
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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