• by Joyce Mulama (nairobi)
• Wednesday, January 14, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Direct talks between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government and rebels have resumed in Nairobi with discussions on a joint cessation of hostilities currently underway. The talks seek to bring calm to the troubled eastern part of the country.

The first and second sessions of negotiations broke off on Dec. 20 without the parties reaching agreement on how to end escalating violence.

This third session is designed to achieve a comprehensive cessation of hostilities, said Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president and chief mediator to the United Nations-backed talks. Obasanjo arrived in Nairobi on Jan. 9 after consultations with the government in Kinshasa, rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (known by its French acronym, CNDP) in eastern DRC, and other regional heads of state.

He is expected to move on to New York where he will brief the UN Security Council on the progress of the talks, according to Nasser Ega Musa, a UN spokesman in Nairobi. While Obasanjo is in New York, the dialogue will continue with his co-mediator, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, chairing.

However, prospects of a peace deal for the troubled central African state are being undermined by a leadership wrangle that has emerged within the CNDP headed by Laurent Nkunda. Just before the commencement of this round of talks Jan. 7, CNDP's chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda announced that Nkunda had been ousted, a claim dismissed by Nkunda.

Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, has questioned the authority of the delegation chosen by Nkunda to negotiate at the talks on behalf of the CNDP, reportedly saying he would pursue separate peace negotiations with the government.

This is creating concern in the region. On Jan. 10, Kenya's foreign affairs minister, Moses Wetangula, urged the two delegations to 'deliver results not least for the sake of the long suffering people in Eastern DRC'. The minister announced a mini-summit of regional leaders to discuss DRC's peace talks in Addis Ababa on Jan. 31, prior to the African Union Heads of State Summit.

Fighting between CNDP forces and government troops resumed in eastern DRC in August 2008, with rebels threatening to capture Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. More than a quarter of a million people have been displaced and hundreds dead from the offensive, according to United Nations figures. A humanitarian crisis has since emerged with international humanitarian agencies being forced to suspend their relief operation due to the violence, says a statement from ActionAid - Africa.

The urgency for peace has also been reiterated by Congolese women who want the warring parties to speedily sign a lasting peace agreement to end violence. 'We want a solution; the parties should come back home with a peaceful solution. We do not want them to keep postponing and breaking talks as innocent people continue to suffer,' Hortense Maliro, spokeswoman of Sauti ya Mwanamke Mkongomani (Voice of the Congolese Woman in Swahili) said in a Jan. 13 interview with IPS from Goma.

She added, 'It is women who have suffered most in the war. We are raped, our husbands are killed and we are left as widows to take care of our children alone. Surely the world needs to speak out for Congo.'

Her organisation has registered 3,750 rapes in North Kivu alone, following the resumption of the violence last August.

Officials of the organisation stormed into the peace negotiations last December and met with both delegations, issuing them with demands as people most affected by the conflict. Key on the list was for countries that feed into the war in DRC to vacate for the sake of peace.

'Let those countries participating in the war stop and instead of using weapons of destruction, provide help to reconstruct DRC,' remarked Maliro.

A UN report released last December says that Rwanda is supporting ethnic Tutsi rebels of CNDP (Nkunda previously fought alongside Rwandan Patriotic Front) to fight the Congolese government. The investigative report also provides evidence of widespread collaboration between the Congolese troops and Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and the Mai-Mai tribal militia. The report to the UN Security Council panel was prepared by five independent experts.

Both governments however have denied aiding rebels.

Regional and international rights groups have called for the implementation of a November 2007 accord signed in Nairobi compelling the Congolese army to disarm the Hutu rebels who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which close to a million people died. Rwanda on its part is expected to seal its borders to prevent the entry into or exit from its land by any armed groups including Nkunda's forces.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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