Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
16 January 2008
Kigali — The belligerents at the ongoing Congolese conference in Goma need to come up with a "peace contract", if there is to be any last peace for the troubled country, exiled controversial founder of a Rwandan political party has said.
Dr. Christian Marara, head of the Party for Progress and Concord (PPC) says the groups gathered at the conference and DRC government must come to a 'negotiated accord' based on the principle of free movement for the peoples of Rwanda and DR Congo.
Our contribution consists of a proposal for an accord negotiated based on the principle of free movement, rights for the people of DRC and non-Congolese of Rwandan origin, the outspoken politician says in a January 10 declaration addressed to President Joseph Kabila and presiding president of the conference.
He adds: "PPC proposes a solution that could constitute the base for a social contract for the people of the region". The declaration was sent through the RDC envoy in France.
The Party for Progress and Concord was born just before the 2003 elections in Rwanda that ushered in the current political landscape. PPC and other small parties joined up the dominant Rwanda Patriotic Front to back President Paul Kagame.
The PPC presidential candidate Dr. Mukabaramba Alvera would later become a Senator - among the appointments that the President of the Republic makes.
Controversial Dr. Christian Marara, former head of the National post Office fled the country after the elections citing political persecution - a claim the authorities here dismiss.
Dr. Marara says the institutional framework to achieve this 'peace contract' should be the basis for the "re-establishment and redynamisation" of the regional grouping the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL).
The body re-launched last year, after a lapse of several years brings together DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
The hard-talking politician is of the view that this solution will end the war without any "victors or vanquished, solve the problem of identity that has for long caused the deaths of several Congolese citizens".
It is an exchange between peace, for peaceful cohabitation, and weighed against war, frustration and suspicions, argues Dr. Marara.
Delegates representing the numerous tribes of the North and South Kivu provinces have been up in arms at the conference blaming each other for the chaos that has killed hundreds and displaced thousands. However, the strongest criticism has been directed at people who some Congolese say are Rwandans.
Those that call themselves the original Congolese say their problems came after Rwandans 'occupied' their land - but affected communities say they have lived in Congo for ages.
Dr. Marara says peace is possible considering that the "Tutsi, Hutu, Hunde, Batembo, Nyanga, Bashi, Banyabungo, Bavira, Bafulero etc" lived in harmony before the creation of the State of Congo by the Berlin Conference (1884). (End)
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