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DRC: Waiting for militias to leave the Kivus

12 Mar 2009 07:38:05 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• Children

• Congo (DR) conflict

BUKAVU, 12 March 2009 (IRIN) - Civilians affected by recent violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) South Kivu Province are facing continuing insecurity, sources said.

"In most areas hosting IDPs [internally displaced persons] ... we observe a strong presence of armed actors," Stefan Lehmeier, International Rescue Committee (IRC) South Kivu emergency response programme manager, said.

"These armed groups have a very poor human rights record, and usually a high concentration of armed men is directly related to a high frequency of rights violations, including roadblocks, extortion, looting and sexual violence."

Most IDPs in South Kivu were initially those who fled fighting in North Kivu's Masisi and Walikale territories, but others are victims of more recent military operations.

"The villagers were afraid they would be caught in the crossfire when fighting started," Lehmeier added. "Those who [fled] had to leave everything behind, grab their children and spend long days in the forest."

By late February, approximately 27,000 newly displaced people had reached Bunyakiri-Hombo, 5,750 in Kalehe-Nyabibwe while unconfirmed numbers were in Nyamasasa, Minova and Numbi areas, according to the IRC.

"The region had been stabilising, but now people feel the situation is not good any more," David Nthengwe, the UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) external relations officer for eastern DRC, told IRIN.

New displacement

The recent operations involved the DRC and Rwandan army, as they jointly tried to oust Rwandan Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) rebels in neighbouring North Kivu.

"[People] in South Kivu are traumatised by the Rwandan [rebels], North Kivu is more Rwandaphone," Sylvie van den Wildenberg, UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) information officer in Goma, the North Kivu capital, said.

Laurent Nkunda's Congrès national pour la defense du peuple militia occupied areas of North Kivu before he was arrested by the Rwandan army in January.

"Here, the feeling is that Nkunda's arrest means an end to problems," Bukavu resident Walumpumpu Gerald said.

In total, an estimated one million people are displaced in North Kivu - of whom about 250,000 fled their homes between August and December 2008.

In South Kivu, several armed groups have remained active, including various Mai-Mai factions, the Forces Republicaines Federalistes militia [the Banyamulenge - Congolese Tutsi] and the FDLR, who are operating in seven of the eight territories.

More recently, fleeing FDLR militia have moved to Bunyakiri, Mwenga and Shabunda. "The FDLR movement scared local residents, leading to displacement and lack of food as people left their farms," Prospére Birhakaeka, South Kivu's Minister for Health and Humanitarian Affairs, told IRIN.

"The FDLR are passing [South Kivu] on their way [home]," he said. "We are sensitising [the rebels] not to hang around as the delay causes them to engage in bad things."

Militia views

Some FDLR ex-combatants claimed the movement was no longer interested in fighting. "They are asking for dialogue with Rwanda," ex-combatant Gaspard Ntashavu said.

Ntashavu, who was in the Rwandan army during the 1994 genocide, was among dozens of ex-combatants awaiting repatriation to Rwanda at the Bukavu UNHCR transit site.

"I joined the FDLR because I had many children and no means of supporting them," he told IRIN. "But we always planned to return home although the FDLR leaders would not let us ... even now, there are those who do not want to return - those who participated in the genocide. They are going deeper into the forest."

FDLR attacks were, however, recently reported in Bunyakiri, according to Jacqueline Chenard, MONUC information officer in South Kivu, pitting the militias against the Patriotes résistants congolais group, comprising Congolese Hutu.

Furthermore, "the FARDC [DRC Army] do not get their full pay most of the time, so they attack people and establish checkpoints to extract money", Chenard said, adding that MONUC was using radio broadcasts to sensitise the soldiers.

Better terms

To ensure peace in the region, the fighters needed better terms, according to Apollinaire Malumalu, the national coordinator of the Amani programme, which seeks to consolidate peace in the Kivus.

"If they are deployed but are not paid for a year, then there are bound to be problems," he said. The rest of the country is saying the Kivus are dragging [them] down. There is a need to return to the disengagement plan and the rule of the state."

According to Malumalu, peace had eluded the Kivus largely because various active militia had an interest in its mineral resources.

"If the Rwandans leave, North and South Kivu will be okay," Birhakaeka said.

aw/eo/mw

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