Congo-Kinshasa: Church Group Calls for Better World Response

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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)

3 October 2008
Posted to the web 6 October 2008

Goma

As violence continues between the Congolese Army and rebels of the National Congress for People's Defence (CNDP) led by Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, in the east, a peace network supported by several missionary congregations has called for meaningful action from the international community.

Fighting continues in spite of the presence of the troops of the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC), which claims to have reinforced their own contingent, and that of the Amani Program, signed by Nkunda in 2006.

"One of the setbacks of the Amani Program and the mediation effort offered by the international community is that of reducing the Kivu conflict to a provincial and ethnic matter, when in reality, it is a national and international issue involving the sovereignty of a state, trafficking of arms, illegal sales of minerals," said a statement by the Congo Peace Network, promoted by several missionaries working in Kivu.

The statement, published by FIDES, affirmed that there is "a fatal program of annexation, balkanization, exploiting of Congo's natural resources, and the extermination of its people," in which Nkunda holds a large responsibility.

"Nkunda, although he has committed all kinds of extortion and crimes against the people of Congo in the Eastern Province and in both North and South Kivu, has never been prosecuted, in spite of the existence of a warrant issued by the Congolese government.

"On the contrary, today he moves quite freely, without the least bit of trouble, living on a portion of Congolese territory (the Masisi and the Rutchuru) where he has placed visible signs of balkanization: security posts, a flag of the CNDP, etc. In the areas controlled by his men, taxes are paid to him, and he receives a considerable [amount] from the profits of illegal mining businesses in the region."

The population of eastern Congo is victim to a Western policy that tends to place the leaders of the country, the rebels, the national army, and armed groups all on the same pedestal, the statement further said. In the past, when there was an inter-Congolese dialogue, there was an intention to justify the lack of popular legitimacy of the constitutive power. However, the tides have turned.

Now, the DRC not only has a Constitution approved by a popular referendum, but also institutions that have arisen as a result of free, honest, and democratic elections, which are recognized by the international community, the peace network said.

"On what grounds can the leaders of a sovereign country be treated as if they were the leaders of a militia? With this policy, Nkunda has remained protected by a government that has received, in spite of everything else, popular legitimacy."

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