Juakali Kambale
28 January 2008
Goma — Tension has relatively diminished since the signature of a peace deal by armed groups, and the Congolese government last Wednesday.
The deal covers the two eastern DRC provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
The event, chaired by President Joseph Kabila, was celebrated in the whole country as unprecedented since war began in the region way back in the 1990s.
In Goma, the capital city of the North Kivu province, people in general, remain sceptical about the good faith of the armed groups and the implementation of the deal on the ground.
"The peace deal in itself is a good thing but we prefer to remain not so optimistic because we know the realities on the ground. Furthermore, it is not the first peace deal signed in that way," Mr Gilbert Birere a businessman told the Nation in his shop in Goma.
However, despite the pessimism of the majority of the people in Goma, there are those who are optimistic.
"Everything has a beginning and an end. I personally consider this conference as an operation of a popular exorcism as each group had the opportunity of setting free of all that was supposedly frustrating its ethnic community or armed group. I hope the international community which was present at the conference will help the implementation of the results of the peace deal," Ms Marcelline Mwara, a local teacher said.
The coronation
The peace deal's signing is the coronation of a long process of restoration of peace and security in North Kivu and South Kivu.
Since 1994, after the political disturbances and the genocide in the neighbouring Rwanda, the two provinces have been living in a permanent political and social disorder. Two wars and lots of small rebellions broke out in the area causing a permanent crisis with losses of millions of lives. The signature of a broader peace agreement in Sun City, South Africa, in December 2003, between various armed groups and the government was supposed to bring a real peace in the country but this was without taking into account the various internal conflicts within the eastern provinces.
One by one, North Katanga and Ituri district ethnic conflicts were solved. The warlords were jailed in Kinshasa or sent out of the country such as Thomas Lubanga who is on trial at the International Penal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Only the two provinces - North Kivu and South Kivu - remained in a sort of a non state zone due mostly to the presence of the Rwandese Hutu militias, the Tutsi led rebellion of the renegade general Laurent Nkunda supported by Rwanda and various Congolese militias combating the two groups allegedly because they were fearing for their land.
The idea of a peace conference was raised as Nkunda's troops threatened to attack the city of Goma an event that would have caused a major humanitarian crisis.
The issue was enlarged to two provinces as the problems were similar. The Tutsi ethnic groups in the two provinces were complaining of suffering from social exclusion and discrimination because of their Rwandese origin.
In North Kivu province, Nkunda was complaining of the risk of extermination of the Tutsi ethnic group by the Rwandese militias massively present in the province. The unique solution was the peace talks after the defeat of the government army by the Nkunda's troops in December 2007.
The Goma meeting, the so called conference on peace, security and development started on January 6 and was supposed to end 10 days later.
But, due to some inevitable negotiations, four days more were necessary for the talks and get the unexpected signatures from the rebel groups.
On Monday, January 21, after lengthy negotiations held by an Elders' Council, the rebels agreed to a text calling for them to lay down their arms and integrate into the national army or demobilise in exchange for the offer of a limited amnesty.
However on Tuesday, the Nkunda delegation, through Mr Kambasu Ngeve, its spokesman, complained that the text of the deal had been changed overnight. It was decided then that whether the Nkunda delegation signs or not the deal should signed. The rebels asked for 24 hours of consultation with their leader arguing that the government's status in the peace deal was no longer clear in the new document. The rebels signed the deal after having consulted Laurent Nkunda in the bush. Mr Ngeve form the CNDP, Nkunda's political party, was the first person to sign the agreement.
According to this precious document, an immediate ceasefire should take effect, troops must withdraw gradually from the battle front, UN troops will be patrolling in a buffer zones between armed groups and the loyal army, Congolese militias will stop importing arms and foreign armed groups will be repatriated to their respective countries.
A representative of the displaced persons pointed out that the international community was responsible for the insecurity in the two provinces for having facilitated the entry of the Rwandese refugees in DRC.
"As they imported them in DRC for allegedly humanitarian reasons, they have to repatriate them to Rwanda accordingly.
"We, as displaced persons, have suffered too much from the consequences of the Rwandese internal problems", he declared.
Around 1,300 delegates from armed groups, the military, local community and business leaders, and politicians attended the conference.
Half of the Cabinet was present along with MPs from the two provinces at both national and provincial levels.
Representatives of the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the SADC also attended.
Unfortunately, some 18 foreign diplomats could not attend the closing ceremony. Among them, the ambassadors of France and Belgium.
Their plane, a Boeing 727, could not land at the Goma airport due to technical reasons.
It was diverted to the airport of Bukavu 70 kilometres south of Goma, and the diplomats returned to Kinshasa.
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