DRC: The displaced just want peace
KINSHASA, 22 January 2008 (IRIN) - News that parties to the bloody conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said they would sign a peace treaty was welcomed by those displaced by the civil strife, who just want calm restored so they can return home.
"We eagerly wait for the guns to fall silent, for Laurent Nkunda's [forces] to give up their arms and we will return to our homes," said Domina Maniriho, 37-year-old mother of six and a resident of the Mugunga 1 displaced persons' camp, 17km west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
Nkunda, an ethnic Tutsi, leads the National Congress for the Defence of the Congolese People (CNDP) insurgency, which says it has been fighting to protect eastern Congo’s minority Tutsi population from attacks by Hutu militias known as the FDLR (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda), many of whom are alleged to have taken part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Fighting between Nkunda's forces and government troops in North Kivu intensified in August 2007 when Nkunda pulled out of a peace agreement that would have seen his forces mixed with Congo’s regular army. Congo’s army, he said, had not done enough to neutralise the FDLR.
At a conference in Goma aimed at restoring peace and security to the Kivu provinces, government officials and representatives from rival militia factions and rebel groups on 22 January said they would sign a ceasefire agreement that would bring fighting to an end.
Repatriation
Those displaced by the conflict say they would like to see the repatriation to Rwanda of members of Hutu extremist militias they regard as the main cause of insecurity in the region.
"We expect the government and the international community to take back home the Interahamwe [Hutu extremist militias] as recommended by all participants in the conference," said Maniriho.
The DRC government has tabled a plan that provides for the repatriation of Rwandan Hutu fighters, first voluntarily and then by force from mid-March if they refuse to leave.
Despite expressed commitment to a truce before the conference opened early in January, sporadic outbreaks of fighting between parties to the conflict have been reported.
"There are too many killings, too many rapes and abuses that should stop at all costs," said Alphonse Batiburasabinako, a 50-year-old ethnic Hutu farmer.
Thousands of women have been raped during the violence in the Kivu provinces, according to humanitarian organisations. Entire villages have been looted and often set on fire. Civilians have been forced to flee from areas where they had sought refuge.
Batiburasabinako said his teenage son has been missing for months since he was abducted by rebel forces.
"I do not know what has become of him since the troops of Laurent Nkunda took him hostage on his way home from school to go to work as a slave or child soldier," he said. "I do not know if he is still alive or if he is already dead."
The UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) has denounced continued recruitment, by all parties to the conflict, of children into the armed forces.
Political games
For some of those displaced by the unrest, the ethnic conflict is seen as a game played out by politicians.
"In our village we lived together, ate together, without problems, among Tutsi, Hutu and Twa ethnic groups. But it is the politicians who try to turn us against each other for their own interests," said Batiburasabinako, a resident of the Mugunga camps, where he lives surrounded by Tutsis and members of other ethnic groups.
"We want to live in harmony where there will be no differences in ethnicities like before 1996 [when the civil war that precipitated the current crisis first broke out],” said Maniriho.
"We want the war to stop so that we can regain our villages of origin, go about our businesses and earn our living as free men," agreed Batiburasabinako.
The displaced have complained about unsatisfactory conditions in the camps, saying humanitarian assistance has not been adequate.
"We receive a sack of flour a month, but that is not enough to feed a family of 10 people for a month," said Batiburasabinako. "I sometimes have to barter a little of that for other kinds of food and work in the fields to sustain my family," he added.
Despite the hardship, the camp at Mugunga has a thriving market. Residents trade in farm products and manufactured goods brought from towns.
Inadequate supplies
Prostitution has also emerged as a by-product of the camp life.
"When, at the end of a day, I do not have enough to eat, I solicit for sex, often unprotected, in camps or outside, in exchange for 200 Congolese francs [US 40 cents], as long as I have enough to buy flour and a very small piece of meat for the evening for my son and myself," said Tantine, 19 (not her real name). Hundreds of other women do the same, according to Tantine.
Internally displaced people live in small straw huts often covered with a tarpaulin provided by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. But there are those who do not have roofs over their heads and are constantly exposed to the elements.
"Hundreds of newcomers do not even have shelter. They are crowded in sheds where they sleep rough until they find a solution," explained Vanessa Kalafulo, the official in charge of the Mugunga camp.
Medical supplies are also inadequate, she said.
"During the past four months, we have registered 80 cases of cholera, all of whom died because the care we gave them was not sufficient," she said.
"We just need assistance and the end of the war and then we can go home and enjoy the development that has been promised by Westerners and the Chinese," said Maniriho.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), North Kivu is worst affected by the displacement crisis. Since August 2007, unrest has forced about 232,000 people to flee their homes, taking the total of internally displaced persons in the province over 800,000. Unconfirmed reports suggest there may be an additional 150,000 displaced.
In South Kivu, more than 100,000 people were displaced last year, even as the province became a "safe haven" for 60,000 people fleeing North Kivu, according to OCHA.
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
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Copyright © IRIN 2008
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
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