DRC's ex-rebels are restless
2006-04-26 17:42
Bunia - A former child militia fighter spends his days tilling a field in the war-battered Democratic Republic of Congo. But he dreams of beating ploughshares back into swords.
Serge Palmi, 18, is one of 17 000 Congolese who laid down their weapons last year, in an effort to disarm the DRC after its 1998 to 2001 war.
DRC officials promised the fighters some cash and skills training, but Palmi says his new life of field toil can't compare with looting and fighting.
"We are suffering without money, and if life continues like this, we will return to the bush," said Palmi.
"Life was better during the war. I should have stayed with my militia."
The United Nations says recruitment into armed groups is on an upswing in eastern Congo, where warlords, rebel leaders and militia factions offer former fighters guns and ammunition.
The words of Palmi and others underline what aid workers have long averred: Disarmament is relatively easy, lasting peace is hard.
'We did it to survive'
Palmi said he trudged back home because of the hardships of life on the run in Congo's forests.
"I did not enjoy attacking people and looting. We did it to survive," said Palmi. "But compared to my village, the bush is paradise."
While much of Congo has been pacified, the east near Bunia remains restive.
About four million Congolese have died since 1998, most through strife-induced hunger and disease.
In the east, they keep dying. The UN calls the area one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
UN peacekeepers are hoping to calm the region enough for upcoming elections - the DRC's first in four decades of coups d'etat, military revolts and wars that have left the resource-rich country in tatters.
UN and Congolese troops have battled fighters and many scared civilians have returned to their homes. But many have not and the UN says increased recruitment of fighters is threatening to scupper elections.
New DRC militia launched
No balloting date has been set to choose a president and parliament to replace President Joseph Kabila's transitional government.
UN military spokesperson, Djibril Samassa, said: "At least 500 demobilised soldiers have been recruited again in the past month or so, threatening security and elections.
"The situation cannot remain like this, we cannot have elections like this."
He said a new militia was launched in the country in December. It united a dozen loose factions that didn't surrender arms before the July deadline last year.
Samassa said the Congolese Revolutionary Movement had 1 500 fighters roaming the hills and forest of eastern Congo with rebels from neighbouring Rwanda.
UN soldiers say the new militia is growing rapidly, capturing new territory every week and winning over ex-comrades who had once quit fighting to give cattle and crops a try.
- AP