North Kivu peace deal

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has issued a cautious welcome for the peace deal struck in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) province of North Kivu. UNHCR rep António Guterres told the signing conference in Kivu’s capital Goma it represented a big step in the search for a lasting peace but would not end the immediate problems. Guterres’ caution is understandable given the tenuous nature of previous agreements. The situation in North Kivu remains volatile with 800,000 displaced people still seeking refuge despite the Congolese war ending officially in 2003.

DRC president Joseph Kabila attended the signing in Goma, a city which has suffered heavy fighting in recent months. The UN and western governments exerted heavy diplomatic pressure to get the peace deal to the table and now hope the accord can put an end to fighting in the east, which has raged on despite the official end of Congo’s war five years ago. Last minute disagreements over war crimes cases threatened to derail the talks but the deal was finally sealed on Wednesday.

As well as the DRC government, the deal was signed by Tutsi rebel General Laurent Nkunda, the pro-government Mai Mai militia and about 18 other minor groups. The accord brings long negotiations to an end and includes an immediate ceasefire and the deployment of UN peacekeepers in 13 key locations. It also offers a probable amnesty to Nkunda and his forces however the rebels say the full implementation will require the disarming of a rival ethnic Hutu militia.

The signature of Laurent Nkunda was a key success factor. His forces have clashed with government troops since 2004 and he has been successful in painting himself as a protector of Congo’s Tutsi minority especially from the remnants of the Hutu Interahamwe militia (known as ex-FAR) who were responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Nkunda helped Joseph Kabila overthrow the hated Mobutu reign but fell out with the new Kinshasa regime. The DRC and the UN issued an arrest warrant for Nkunda in 2005 but that has been nullified by the new deal.

Nkunda’s forces have been mainly fighting the government aligned Mai Mai who have been equally as brutal. Both sides use child soldiers indiscriminately. The Mai-Mai are a loosely aligned local defence group of pro-government forces made up of warlords, traditional tribal elders, village heads, and politically motivated resistance fighters. In 2006, Human Rights Watch called for the DRC government to charge Mai Mai warlord Kyungu Mutanga on counts of murder, rape and abuse of civilians.

Analysts are sceptical the latest deal can achieve much as the talks excluded two key players: Rwanda and the Hutu Interahamwe (ex-FAR). Those displaced by the conflict want to see the repatriation to Rwanda of members of Hutu extremist militias they regard as the main cause of insecurity in the region. 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. But most of the people in North Kivu are hopeful the deal will bring peace to a devastated region. "There are too many killings, too many rapes and abuses that should stop at all costs," said local farmer Alphonse Batiburasabinako. Up to 1,500 Congolese die in the region every day, mostly from preventable diseases and malnutrition.

The news comes just days after the International Rescue Committee released its report into "Mortality in the DRC" (pdf) over the last ten years. The report notes that although a formal peace accord was signed in December 2002, the war has since given way to several smaller conflicts in the five eastern provinces including North Kivu. The IRC’s earlier four studies, conducted between 2000 and 2004, estimated that 3.9 million people had died (mostly from disease and malnutrition) in the DRC since 1998, making it the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. This fifth survey, covering the period from January 2006 to April 2007, found the DRC’s national crude mortality rate (CMR) of 2.2 deaths per 1,000 per month is 57 percent higher than the average rate for sub-Saharan Africa. This is despite recent improvements. Once again it found most deaths are due to preventable and treatable conditions. The IRC says recovery from conflict is a slow and painful process. They called on steadfast international commitment to secure recent gains and prevent further deterioration in a country that remains in deep need.

Laurent Nkunda: Congo’s latest nightmare

UN officials in Eastern Congo are blaming rebel leader Laurent Nkunda for forcing almost a quarter of a million people from their homes since the start of the year. Nkunda’s forces are responsible for forcing 230,000 people into refugee camps in the city of Goma which straddles the border with Rwanda. The displacement camps are full again for the first time since the end of the war in 2004 and the UN warns that Congo could be on the brink of another all-out conflict.

Nkunda is a member of Congo’s Tutsi minority and claims he is merely protecting the Tutsi population from violence of Hutu extremists who fled into Congo from Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. Yet Nkunda is also claiming a greater Rwandan kinship that sees both Tutsi and Hutus victims of violence at the hands of Congolese people. Like others from his community he alleges the country’s million strong Kinyarwandan speaking people – both Tutsis and Hutus – have long been discriminated against. Hutus have inhabited parts of North Kivu for centuries, but there were influxes of Tutsis and Hutus from Rwanda to Congo in the 1930s and 1960s, populations who today complain they are treated with contempt.

Nkunda himself was born to a Tutsi family in North Kivu in Congo in 1967. He studied psychology at university before joining the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) rebellion against the Hutu-led Rwandan government (FAR) in 1993. It was this extremist Hutu government that authorised the genocide that killed upwards of half a million Rwandan Tutsis in the first half of 1994. However, they were distracted by the slaughter and allowed the RPF to claim control of the capital Kigali by July 1994.

After the genocide, the Hutu Interihamwe militia fled into neighbouring Congo where they became known as the ex-FAR. The ex-FAR continued to harass and slaughter the native Tutsi population including both of Nkunda’s parents. The young Nkunda also came back to Congo after the end of the Rwandan war and help Joseph Kabila’s fledgling rebel army. In 1996 the Rwandan army came across the border to help Kabila’s defeat both the Interihamwe and their backer – long-term dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Joseph Kabila finally overthrew Mobutu in 1997 but then turned on his Rwandan backers.

Nkunda meanwhile became a senior officer in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main rebel groups fighting in DRC from 1998 to 2003. In 2004 he was named general in a new national Congolese army created from troops of the dissident forces at the end of the war. He refused the post and withdrew with hundreds of his troops to the forests of Masisi in North Kivu. Nkunda controlled the former Sominki (Société Minière et Industrielle du Kivu) Rwandan export trade (pdf) in cassiterite (found in coltan ores). In August 2005 he announced a new rebellion but launched no military operations at that time.

The government and the UN issued a warrant for Nkunda’s arrest in September 2005. But Nkunda remained at large. At the start of the following year his forces attacked Congolese government soldiers and occupied several towns in North Kivu province. After a brief period of calm, they resumed combat. They attacked and raped civilians and looted their property. Tens of thousands of Congolese were forced to flee to neighbouring areas or across the border to Uganda.

In February 2006, the US based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the UN and the Congolese transitional government to arrest Nkunda and charge him with war crimes. HRW claimed his whereabouts were well-known to authorities since the arrest warrant was issued. “The police and army have done nothing about arresting him,” said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. “So long as Nkunda is at large, the civilian population remains at grave risk.”

The reason that Nkunda remains at large is mainly due to the influence of Rwanda. While officially Rwanda does not condone his activities, they say they are sympathetic to his case and “can understand his argument”. Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande told the Washington Post that the root cause of eastern Congo’s instability is not Nkunda but the ex-FAR. “It's like saying, if we didn't have these Tutsis, the ex-FAR would not have people to kill,” he said. “It is an ugly way of seeing things, but, let's hope that which is just will prevail”.