DRC ceasefire 'more fragile'

2008-06-26 09:26

Kinshasa - The head of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Wednesday he was concerned at the slow pace of the peace process in the troubled eastern Kivu region, a day after new violations of January's ceasefire.

"I would like... to express my concern at the slowness of the Goma peace process," Alan Doss told reporters in Kinshasa. "The ceasefire is becoming more fragile every day."

All Congolese armed groups in the eastern Nord and Sud-Kivu provinces signed a ceasefire at Goma in January committing themselves to dissolve and disarm their troops.

Doss, however, called on all the parties involved to stop "paralysing" the process.

In the meantime, he said, more than one million vulnerable people who had been displaced could not return to their homes and begin rebuilding their lives.

Referring to violent demonstrations hostile to the United Nations mission on Tuesday around 50km north of Goma, Doss denied "unfounded accusations" by the local administration that peacekeepers had wounded civilians.

At least three demonstrators were hurt in firing by the state military organisation (FARDC) which tried to disperse the demonstrators.

Doss added the anger shown was "an illustration of the population's frustration at the slowness" of the peace process.

Since August 2007, Nord-Kivu has seen clashes between the army and insurgents allied to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda who claims to be protecting Congolese ethnic Tutsis.

Under current peace agreements more than 6 000 Hutu rebels in eastern Congo - some of whom took part in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda - are to be repatriated, and Congolese militias must disarm.

Nkunda strongly opposes the presence in Congo of Hutus from neighbouring Rwanda, who also have a politico-military movement and some of whom are blamed for that country's genocide, mainly of Tutsis in 1994.

Doss also spoke of the UN's ongoing concern about reports of violence including, serious sexual violence, against Congolese expelled from neighbouring Angola.

He said the violence was attributed to "Angolan and Congolese security forces posted along the border", adding that the UN and other organisations were investigating the circumstances under which they had been sent back to DR Congo.

A recent mission to Congo's central Kasai Occidental province found that out of a total of 6 263 people expelled - of whom 1 021 were women and 913 were children - 565 women had complained of sexual violence, a UN spokesperson told AFP.

Since 2004 Angola has expelled more than 400 000 illegal immigrants, almost all from the DR Congo, from the mining provinces of Angola in an attempt to battle illegal trafficking of Angolan diamonds.

UN observers said earlier this month that there had been an acceleration in expulsions over recent months likely linked to Angolan attempts to curb fraud at forthcoming elections.

- AFP