Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its appeal to the Democratic Republic of Congo's transitional government to amend its press legislation after Déo Mulima Kampuku of the independent daily La Référence Plus was sentenced in absentia to four months in prison and a fine for alleged libel in an article about corruption in an oil company. Kampuku has been in hiding since the end of December after learning that he was going to be prosecuted. (Available in English and French)

In face of the imminent threat of new laws and re-zoning plans supported by the World Bank that could result in up to 60 million hectares of rainforest (an area the size of France) being opened up to logging companies, a group of international NGOs made a joint declaration addressed to the Congolese government and the international financial agencies. They demanded that a moratorium on the issuing of any new logging concessions should be maintained until the Congolese authorities comply with strict conditions.

Demonstrations took place this week in Kinsasha, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, over an announcement of a possible delay in planned 2005 elections. The threat of election delays comes after a turbulent 2004 in DRC politics. Last year ended with heightened tension in the east of the country with Rwanda threatening to pursue enemy forces into the DRC and fighting taking place for the control of several towns. Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba answered some questions by email about what is happening in the DRC.

PZ: Last year ended with increased tension in the east of the country with reports indicating that Rwandan troops were operating in the DRC. What’s your reading of the situation?

EWDW: While information is not easily available, it does seem to be the case that the Interahamwe militants and ex-FR soldiers must have become more efficient. This means that they have continued to benefit from moral and/or material support from people in the DRC transition itself. It does reveal also the real problems of the functioning of the DRC transition.

At the signing of the peace accord, it was public knowledge what allies each participant had; it was known the RCD was an ally of Rwanda and that Rwanda was mostly concerned about the insecurity at its border with the DRC and the presence of the 'negative forces' that had to be disarmed. Despite the so-called Pretoria Memorandum of Understanding, there has not been any trust between parties at all. Within the DRC leadership, mistrust has been rampant. That situation makes it easy for all kinds of pursuits to take place. There is hardly a leadership around to make sure what may be agreed upon is actually carried out.

Since 1996, Rwandese troops have been in and out. Some deserters seem to have remained and are claimed to be around the mining zones (Walikali,etc.). Some advisers to RCD seem to have remained as well. Due to the hostility towards the 'Rwandophones' within the DRC and inside RCD, the process of army integration is not moving as it should be. This has created a division within the RCD former army; part of it, mostly composed of Tutsis or 'Rwandophones', is accused of having become mutineers. These seem to facilitate the 'infiltration' of Rwandese soldiers into the RDC. The DRC government suffers from division and inaction due to mistrust and antagonism of alliances. It appears more like there is no State at all. Both people and government expect the MONUC to handle the matter of the Interahamwe, etc.

PZ: How serious should the hostilities at the end of 2004 be taken and what are the implications for the transitional government in the DRC and peace in the Great Lakes region?

EWDW: It is serious in two ways. It happened just a few days after the signing of the Dar-Es-Salaam Declaration. One would have expected that the Declaration would have created a positive enough atmosphere to entice both countries to discuss, at the highest level, the matter and find a sustainable solution to it. It also happened when the DRC, running short of time, must accelerate the pace of preparation of the elections due by June 2005. This is why people felt that the conflict was restarted by people in both countries who are not favorable to the coming elections, to make sure these do not take place.

Rwanda and the DRC are neighbors. They have to find a way to live in peace together. Others should help them discuss among themselves and find a solution. Kagame and Kabila have to meet alone and come out with a solution.

PZ: The Great Lakes conflict involving Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi is reported to have resulted in three million deaths and more than two million refugees and internally displaced people. Somehow it seems that the DRC crisis has played second fiddle to other international and regional concerns. Why do you think this is?

EWDW: It is not the first time that tragedy in the Congo has not been seen as needing urgent treatment by official representation of the international community.

The position by the international community towards Congo has always been that of treating the country as a sick person that needs to be kept alive in the intensive care unit, but not to allow him to fully recover; this would make it difficult to control him. Punishments have always been administered to anyone Congolese who has agitated for real self-determination. Lumumba and his companions' bodies were dissolved in acid to make sure none would imitate or get inspired by their actions. Mulele's body was cut in pieces and pieces were put in a sack and thrown into the Congo river. Of course, this is so since Haitian slaves challenged the slavemasters in 1804.

The invisibility of the number of deaths and the atrocious way of dying, not projected on TV as much as was the genocide of Rwanda, helps the international community not to feel bad over those deaths. And our so-called leadership, that went as far as to celebrate the genius of King Leopold II in the Belgian Parliament, is so submissive that the international community does not feel pressurized enough to act.

The African community, always complaining of lack of resources, has been put aside, with the exception of South Africa, whose model of transition we are following. We are far from Mwalimu's proposal for the DRC; he wanted the international community to let Africa, this time, resolve the crisis in the DRC - as they badly resolved it in the 1960s. After his death, we are back to the model of the 1960s. The international community has not yet overcome its guilt over its failure to do anything about the genocide in Rwanda and seems to be very lenient towards Rwanda.

PZ: South Africa has played a role in the peace negotiations in the DRC but the process seems to keep on stumbling against the same obstacles. What does this say about the South African approach to establishing peace on the continent in relation not only to the DRC, but also their involvement in the Ivory Coast?

EWDW: There seems to be a real discrepancy between what the South African leadership affirms as values which have to guide Africa in handling conflicts and the so-called political realism, money and civil servants' appreciation of criterias of selection, profiles of people to be placed in leadership positions and relationships with superpowers.

I believe that the DRC crisis could have been resolved differently. There was no real concern for the profiles of people, no concern for knowledge of the political history of the country (due to tendencies of paternalism and exceptionalism). This led to thinking that what is good for South Africa must be good for the DRC. It looked like a quick solution to the crisis was more important than whether or not the solution was sustainable. We hope, on this continent, that there is going to be a way of making constant critical evaluations of conflict resolution experiences and use of the results to correct possible future mistakes. Repeating what went on in the Congo in the 1960s is an indication that there is no accumulation of experience and that no global learning is taking place. It is good that South Africa contributes to establishing peace. It should not just be repeating the same approach. Results in Ivory Coast will show whether we are advancing or not.

PZ: What action needs to be taken to move forward and secure human rights in the region?

EWDW: First of all, we need to have a State in the DRC and move away from this claim that less State (almost no State at all) is best State. Post-conflict situations need a real State capable of addressing real problems with great works mobilizing a great deal of the now unemployed society. This means that we have to have an army (which we have never had since independence, a Mobutu's personalized army is no national or Republican army at all); we need a real public administration (we have never had it since independence; with the sudden departure of Belgian civil servants, promotions without merit did not lead to a real public administration at all); we need to reconstruct the State as a Federal State for all and not a Party State trying to equate society with a Party. Once the DRC is properly governed, the State to State relations with the neighboring countries will improve. Mistrust would be addressed by the confidence that will be returned to the country. A power is not loved but respected. Neighbors should not be made to love the DRC but respect should follow the kind of good neighborliness relationship of cooperation that will develop. I think that it is in the interest of the region and Africa that State confidence be returned to the DRC. The other issues will be dealt with more positively after that.

PZ: Further comments?

EWDW: I think I have said what I had to say. I sometime feel that the incremental approach that dominates the international community's way of handling the issues is itself a problem. Sometimes we need bold moves to actually solve once and for all the problems. I do feel like countries coming together in a federation or confederation in the great lakes regions, may force them to address problems in a much more trustful way than now.

* Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba is a historian who is serving as a senator in the transitional senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has taught at a number of universities including Harvard University and the University of Dar-es-Salaam.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The African Union called on the international community to take tougher action in Ivory Coast and Congo, two of the continent's biggest crises that risk destabilising their wider regions. Thirteen heads of state and ministers from at least 10 other nations met late into Monday night to try to revive faltering peace efforts in the two countries as well as in Sudan's Darfur region, anxious to show the African Union (AU) is more than just a talking shop.

United Nations peacekeepers in Congo sexually exploited women and girls, some as young as 13, a U.N. watchdog office said Friday in a new confirmation that efforts to curb abuses by U.N. troops are not working. Charges of sex abuse and other crimes have been lodged against U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world for decades. Officials have found it difficult to crack down because the United Nations doesn't want to offend the relatively small number of countries that are willing to provide peacekeepers.

The security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo poses serious challenges for planned June elections, a UN report warns. The report from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says rebel groups from Rwanda are still operating in the area. The UN's humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said on Thursday that about 1,000 people are dying every day in DR Congo.

The first of thousands of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Equateur province returned home as part of a pilot project being undertaken jointly by the government and the UN. On Friday, 375 internally displaced persons (IDPs) left Equateur’s provincial capital, Mbandaka for their homes in and around the town of Basankusu, 240 km northeast, Social Affairs Minister Ingele Ifoto told IRIN on Monday. Almost three million people displaced by five years of war have still not returned to their homes in various parts of the DRC, despite a December 2002 peace agreement between the government and all rebel groups and the creation, in June 2003, of a government of national unity.

Humanitarian workers have ventured into jungles in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since Thursday to deliver food and non-food relief aid to thousands of war-displaced people in North Kivu Province, a UN official told IRIN on Tuesday. These towns bore the brunt of the latest violence between troops loyal to the Kinshasa government and dissident soldiers of the Congolese army. At least 100,000 people fled their homes for the forests during the fighting.

Eleven ministers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have lost their jobs in a wide-ranging government reshuffle - including six already suspended on corruption charges. Those ministers were accused in November of serious financial malpractice, along with the heads of a number of state-owned companies.

Delphin Manesa and Jean Kambamba, journalists with Radio Arc-en-ciel, broadcasting out of Kamako, were arrested on 28 December 2004 by a group of police officers acting under the orders of Mutombo Tshisala, the municipality's deputy chief of police. Kamako is located approximately 180 kilometres from Tshikapa, the second largest city in West Kasaï province, central Democratic Republic of Congo. (French and English version available)

From 20 to 24 December 2004, a group of 11 journalists from various Kinshasa-based, privately-owned newspapers carried out a mission to Goma, capital of North-Kivu province, to report on the armed conflict that rages in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The group also requested and was granted interviews with Rwandan authorities, including Foreign Minister Charles Morigande and President Paul Kagame. On their return to Kinshasa, however, the journalists, along with their editors, were summoned by the media regulation authority (Haute autorité des médias, HAM). (Report available in French and English)

On 2 August this year in the UK, thirty police officers, twenty Immigration Service officers and two officials from the Department of Work and Pensions raided a factory near Bolton run by Stateside Foods, a company which makes frozen pizzas. They spent four hours checking the status of workers at the factory and arrested twenty-one people, including Alain Kimolo Kikeni. Most of those arrested were 'failed asylum seekers', from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), all countries with well-known human rights problems. The government has made it a priority to clamp down on 'illegal working' among migrants, with increasing numbers of raids on workplaces.

“Conflict is like a fire: It can keep you warm and can cook your food, but if it gets out of control, it can burn your house down.”

One thousand people die every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and nearly half of these deaths are accounted for by children under five years of age, according to a report released this week by the International Rescue Committee (see Conflicts and Emergencies for more details). The IRC says these deaths add daily to the cumulative total of 3.8 million fatalities since the crisis began in August 1998 to the end of April 2004. Far from being resolved, the volatile situation in the east of the country continues to cause grave concern, with recent reports that Rwandan troops have entered the DRC to pursue rebels it says threaten its security. Pambazuka News emailed some questions about the situation in the DRC to YAV KATSHUNG JOSEPH, Executive Director of CERDH (Centre for Human Rights and democracy Studies / Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche en Droits de l’Homme et Démocratie).

PZ: News reports indicate a higher level of sabre rattling between Rwandan president Paul Kagame threatening to pursue forces hostile to Rwanda in the DRC and the DRC government sending troops to the eastern border. Reports indicate that Rwandan troops are operating in the DRC. In May, Bukavu was the focus of violent conflict, with Rwanda fingered as having provided logistical support, but strongly denying any involvement. This time Rwanda has stated in a very clear way that they will cross into the DRC to pursue forces that threaten them. What are the circumstances and the sequence of events that have led to this situation?

YKJ: Rwanda’s goals are to neutralise the rebel groups/interahamwe based in the DRC who destabilise peace; to prevent incursions from the DRC based rebel-groups; and natural resources control, etc. The DRC goals are security of the people, resources, property and state.

I noted with surprise that barely a week after the conclusion of the international conference on the Great Lakes, where leaders of the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda expressed willingness to co-operate in matters of common concern, there has been an eruption of fresh conflict. In fact, reports are that Rwanda has re-invaded the DRC.

Rwanda has twice invaded DRC in recent years - it says to attack Rwandan rebels based there. Rwanda has consistently said it is prepared to take military action because of the threat it says is posed by the group of some 8,000 men, which includes fighters who took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. As usually, Rwanda justified their invasion by saying that they were pursuing interahamwe who were said to have sought refuge in the DRC.

Even after signing an agreement in Dar es salaam (Declaration on the Great Lakes) in November 2004, the Rwandan president threatened to pursue forces hostile to Rwanda in the DRC. Under the peace deal, the Hutu rebels were supposed to have been disarmed but progress has been slow. For Rwanda, the deadline of demobilizing the interahamwe have passed and the DRC and MONUC failed to do so and therefore, Rwanda would like to do it by force.
PZ: How serious is this latest round of hostilities and what are the implications for the transitional government in the DRC and peace in the Great Lakes region?

YKJ: The Congolese government said 6,000 Rwandan troops had crossed the border and attacked villages. Some 2,000 people have fled in North Kivu province. As a consequence, some 10,000 troops have been sent to expel Rwandan forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwandan military action is unravelling tentative moves towards peace throughout the Great Lakes region and the trust between the various elements in government has thinned because, the RCD (Congolese Rally for Democracy) is seen to deal with the Rwandans.

PZ: The Great Lakes conflict involving Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi is reported to have resulted in three million deaths and more than two million refugees and internally displaced people. In the east of the country instability and the flagrant violation of human rights has continued. The scale of the human suffering is almost unprecedented and yet somehow it seems that the DRC crisis has played second fiddle to other international and regional concerns, such as for example Sudan. Why do you think this is?

YKJ: The war in the DRC has resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with over 3.4 million displaced persons scattered throughout the country. An estimated 3.5 million people have died as a result of the war. This is a figure much higher than the national population of many African countries and several times superior to the number of victims of the Rwandan, Yugoslav, Sierra Leonean and Sudan conflicts that attracted so much attention. All in all, the international response to human rights violations in the DRC was an unsatisfactory one. Even worse was the response of the African Commission. Anyone concerned with the protection of human rights should be interested in the DRC conflict which impacted so negatively on the rights of more than 50 million African people and the resolution of which constitutes a step forward in the promotion of human rights in Africa as a whole.

PZ: South Africa has played a role in the peace negotiations in the DRC but the process seems to keep on stumbling against the same obstacles. What does this say about the South African approach to establishing peace on the continent in relation not only to the DRC, but also their involvement in the Ivory Coast?

YKJ: It is true that South Africa has been instrumental in putting in place the transitional Government in the DRC and actually, facilitating negotiation in the Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). However, there is a kind of fear at some level regarding the Congolese experience. In fact, initially, people were very enthusiastic about its role in the DRC as the main engine driving the process.
Things have however changed. Firstly, there is a general feeling that it is not Congolese, or Rwandans who won the war (if the armed conflict can be considered as such), but South Africa. This is largely in economic terms. South African companies have since invested heavily in the DRC and are behind most explorations and other economic activities. Some even think that this could have been the driving force behind South Africa's fervent involvement in the process. Others are saying that South Africa simply wants to have control in Africa and it is behaving like an imperialist characterized by hegemonic ideas. To me, the South African approach to establishing peace on the continent is a good thing but the objective must be genuine and for the interest of Africa.

PZ: What action needs to be taken and structures put in place to end this latest threat to peace and secure human rights in the region?

YKJ: The Security Council urged Rwanda not to send troops into DRC but did not condemn Rwanda's action or impose sanctions on the President, as the Congolese had wanted.

Incursion of the forces of one state into another can lead to rising tensions and inter-state armed conflicts. If the conflicts are not addressed, this can affect the well-being of the population’s socio-economic development and resources might be diverted to warfare instead of human and economic development; and if the conflict is not addressed it can have an impact on inter-state trade and restrict free movement of the people.

THERAPY:

1. There is a need to Disarm, Demobilise, Repatriate and re-integrate armed groups;
2. The international community should assist with the quick implementation of the agreements signed;
3. There is a need to put into consideration/revisit the mandate of MONUC-reinforcing the capacity of MONUC within a realistic time frame to implement the Agreement;
4. Establish joint border patrols between the national armies of all countries;
5. Need to reinforce confidence-building measures and joint and regional verification mechanisms should be reinforced with continued dialogue;
With regards the internal crisis in the DRC, the transitional government brought relative peace to the country, however there still exist pockets of crisis in the eastern regions. The transitional government should be pressurized by the international community and supported to conduct elections in June 2005 as planned. Furthermore, the MONUC should assure the security in the eastern borders of the country for the disarmament of armed groups

PZ: Further comments?

YKJ: In conclusion, all states in the Great Lakes region must know that: “Conflict is like a fire: It can keep you warm and can cook your food, but if it gets out of control, it can burn your house down.”

* Please send comments to [email protected]

One thousand people die every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and nearly half of these deaths are accounted for by children under five years of age. These deaths add daily to the cumulative total of 3.8 million fatalities since the crisis began in August 1998 to the end of April 2004. This makes the DRC conflict worse than any other conflict since the end of World War II and in terms of death toll exceeds other recent crises, including Bosnia (estimated 250,000 dead), Rwanda (800,000), Kosovo (12,000), and Darfur in Sudan (70,000).

Despite this, the international community has failed to take the necessary action to alleviate the crisis. During 2004, only 42% of funding sought by the United Nations for its activities had been raised by August, while contributions by the United States Agency for International Assistance to DRC for 2004 have declined by almost 25% when compared with 2003.

“No other recent conflict has claimed as many lives and mortality rates remain elevated at an alarming level. In spite of these unambiguous facts, the international community has not yet mobilized the necessary will or resources to effectively address the crisis,” according to the latest mortality study, a joint effort by the New York based International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Australia's Burnet Institute.

* Related Link: Why Does No One Care That The World’s Worst Conflict Has Broken Out Again?
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=6860

One of humankind's closest relatives, the bonobo, may be facing extinction. Scientists working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - the only country where bonobos live - have found evidence that they are being hunted for bushmeat in areas where they should be protected. Numbers may be down to 20% of previous levels.

A grave containing "numerous" bodies allegedly killed by rebels has been found in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN peacekeepers say. An underground jail had also been found in a "torture camp" run by the FAPC rebels, said a UN spokesman. The rebel-run Ndrele camp was on Sunday the scene of clashes between the rebels and the UN after peacekeepers tried to investigate reports of abuses.

The plane lands at Ndjili airport, Kinshasa, in the dead of night - the better to avoid monitoring by journalists and human rights activists. Then the returning asylum seekers are led out onto the tarmac by their European escorts to be handed over to the Congolese authorities. Some will have suffered violence in the process of being deported or in the detention centre where they were held prior to the flight. Others will have been tied to the seats with scotch tape for the duration of the seven-hour journey. Most would have been prevented from using the toilet or eating. They are handed over to the offices of the Director-General of Migration (DGM), ostensibly the Congolese immigration service but, in reality, an arm of the government's security services. A file containing details of their claim for political asylum in Europe is also passed to the DGM. According to René Kabala Mushiya, an activist who works in Kinshasa with the National Human Rights Observatory, this is the moment when European governments abandon those who have claimed asylum in their countries to a state which violates human rights with impunity.

The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been marked by almost unimaginable atrocities - with sexual assault being a major part of the violence. According to the UN, gang rape has been so systematic and brutal that doctors in the DRC are now classifying wounds inflicted by rapists as combat injuries. Up to one in three Congolese women in conflict-affected areas have been raped and detailed reports from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), among others, show the awful ramifications of the widespread sexual violence.

Despite the dedicated work of many Congolese NGOs and international groups, the issue of sexual assault and domestic violence remains a serous problem in the peace-process. HRW points out that while there have been rhetorical denunciations against impunity and calls for accountability, there has been no effective effort to address them. Additionally, attitudes towards rape and women in the DRC have further undermined efforts, with USAID reporting that at least one member of the transitional government dismissed rape as a women's issue and another said that rape was normal behaviour of soldiers who had been in the forest without women for a long time.

Rape, of course, is not a women's issue. Masculinity is one of the most powerful contexts within which sexual assault occurs, argues Christopher Kilmartin in Sexual Assault in Context, yet it is often left unaddressed. Because rape is usually understood as a violent and isolated act that happens to women, (for example, the girl was walking alone at night and was raped) the fact that men, power, and sexual desire are connected with sexual violence can then be safely ignored. Yet, if the fundamental relationship between male and female is one of rule, sexual desire becomes intertwined with power.

In the DRC the connection between men and women is unfortunately usually one of sexualized power. Women's position in Congolese society is totally subordinate to men - one example being that women cannot refuse sex in a marriage or demand a condom be used, even when their partner is known to be HIV positive and sleeping with other women. Polygamy, domestic abuse and marital rape are prevalent, with all considered acceptable and sometimes even normal.

In conflict, gender relations often become polarized. Militarized masculinity becomes the dominant option for men, argues Stefan Dudink and Dubravka Zarkov in Beyond Victims and Villains: Gender and Armed Conflict. Men are expected to take up arms and to fight, while in turn, stereotypical archetypes of femininity, such as the mother of the nation, and the rape victim, reinforce subordinate women's roles, thereby justifying male dominance. In a militarized society, men feel entitled to power and have the means to take it.

The use of rape as a weapon of war in DRC is a clear manifestation of a sense of entitlement coupled with the perceived roles of women and men and the violence that become acceptable in war. Because little attention is paid to how conflict and gender shape the often-violent relationship between men and women in the DRC, men can, therefore, focus on public sphere politics such as peace negotiations while women are left to deal with private sphere issues such as domestic abuse and sexual assault.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that militarized masculinity and men do not have to be synonymous. As Remy Masamba, a Congolese member of civil society, said, the situation is not hopeless. There are no hopeless situations only men who despair. Gender identities are fluid and change with time. The destructive relationship that many men have with women in the DRC today can be altered.

If lasting peace is to be secured in the DRC, gender issues need to be considered in a holistic way. While recognizing that men are not exclusively violent and women are not exclusively peaceful, more consideration is needed on how masculinities and femininities intersect and ways to build programs that foster a positive relationship between them. The African Union, the UN, and African and international civil society must work towards this goal. Only then can true peace be built in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

* Jeanbonheur Kongolo is Co-ordinator of Africa Journalists Commission on Human Rights

* Please send comments to

A top aide to Congolese President Joseph Kabila resigned Monday after being cited in an investigation into embezzlement of state funds that saw six ministers suspended. Evariste Boshaa, Kabila's chief of Cabinet, resigned to protest the inquiry, Kabila's spokesman, Kasongo Kudura said. Kadura referred to an inquiry launched by parliament into allegation of suspected corruption in several government firms.

On 26 November 2004, in the early evening, Delly Bonsange, Rackys Bokela and Jean-Marie Basa Ndjakolo, journalists with the newspapers "Alerte Plus", "Le Collecteur" and "Flash Info", respectively, were arrested by three judicial police inspectors and detained at the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court, where they spent the night. The journalists were released on 27 November, and were ordered to reappear before the court on 30 November. (French version available through the link provided)