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NEW CRISES EMERGE AS FOREIGN TROOPS WITHDRAW
Initial hopes that the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) in early October would jumpstart the economy now appear cast in doubt. So far, the pullout of troops and the influx of returning refugees have impeded economic revival and may create new problems to the Kinshasa regime. The withdrawal is set to end a four-year war that has involved half a dozen African countries and armed Congolese groups whose power struggles have siphoned off much of the country's vast natural wealth. According to the UN Secretary-General's Representative for Congo, Namanga Ngongi, some 12,000 Rwandan troops, 3,000 Ugandans, 700 Burundians and 2,092 Zimbabweans are leaving the DR Congo. Namibian, Angolan and Chadian troops had earlier withdrawn from the war that threatened the entire Great Lakes region. But there is growing fear that the vacuum created by such withdrawals will stall President Joseph Kabila's economic recovery plans. Although Uganda has entered into some arrangements with authorities in Kinshasa over instability likely to be experienced by their withdrawal along the Uganda-DR Congo borderline, Rwanda, on the other hand, has simply left the issue hanging with threats of a comeback should her security be threatened by events across the border. On the Uganda-DR Congo border, fear of instability could be a cause for concern in the short term. The local Hema and Lendu ethnic groups are pitted against each other, as well as rebel groups such as the Uganda-backed Rassemblement Congolais Pour La Democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement Pour La Liberation (RCD-K-ML). On the border with Rwanda the RCD, Interahamwe and the Mayi Mayi are a cause for concern. According to Vital Kamerhe, Congo's commissioner general in charge of peace in the Great Lakes region, a framework is to be formulated in which both countries could work together to establish peace in Ituri alongside monitoring the Ruwenzori mountain area. Refugee returnees - In the period preceding military withdrawals,
authorities in Rwanda, the DR Congo's neighbouring country with the largest
number of DR Congo refugees, were accused by the Unites States Committee for
Refugees (USCR) of forcing nearly 10,000 ethnic Tutsi Congolese refugees to
return to the DR Congo. In a letter to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the USCR
called on Rwanda to end the forced returns, further urging Rwanda to permit the
entry of Congolese seeking safety again in Rwanda. "It appears that the majority
of refugees have returned against their will as part of a deliberate campaign
carried out by the Rwandan government in violation of international refugee
laws", reads the USCR letter to President Kagame. During 1995 and 1996, more
than 30,000 Congolese Tutsi refugees fled to Rwanda to escape persecution and
violence by former Rwandan Hutu government soldiers and militia operating in
Eastern DR Congo. Until the forced repatriation began on August 31, the
refugees, unable to return home because of continued warfare and human rights
abuses in Eastern DR Congo, had lived peacefully in Rwanda under the protection
of UNHCR, and the Rwandan government. Some 17,000 refugees lived in Gihembe camp
in northern Rwanda's Byumba region, and 15,000 others lived in Kiziba camp,
located in the Kibuye Zone in Western Rwanda. In the aftermath of the forced
repatriation, fewer than 9,000 Congolese refugees remain in Gihembe and only
some 12,000 remain in Kiziba. Rwanda authorities have, in the meantime, razed
sections of Gihembe camp. "Frightened refugees have cited intimidation from
local security forces as the primary reason for decamping Gihembe and Kiziba",
the USCR letter noted. The refugees, who were forced to return involuntarily,
left Rwanda hurriedly with few personal possessions. Many have settled
temporarily in the DR Congo village of Kichanga, 50 miles (80 km) north of Goma.
Kichanga reportedly lacks adequate food, shelter, water, sanitation, and health
facilities. Africa's Great Lakes region is one of the continent's most
volatile areas. In less than a decade, civil war, ethnic conflict, and political
violence in DR Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda have led to deaths of several million
civilians and displaced millions of others, according to estimates. By August
this year, USCR estimated that there are nearly 3.5 million refugees and
internally displaced persons in the Great Lakes region. These include more than
2 million internally displaced persons in DR Congo, an additional 350,000
Congolese refugees, more than 600,000 internally displaced Burundians, some
350,000 Burundian refugees, and approximately 60,000 Rwandan refugees. Caught in
the middle are the 53 million Congolese civilians. After decades of government
neglect and war, the country's health system is in a state of complete collapse.
An estimated 2.5 million Congolese are displaced inside the country, many of
them outside the reach of aid workers. The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" |
