CONGO-DEM.REPUBLIC 16/6/2004 13:46 ARCHBISHOP OF KISANGANI: âINTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS UNDERESTIMATED CRISISâ Church/Religious Affairs, Brief âThere were already signs of a possible third war in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo in March, and all the international institutions were warned: I am amazed that there is surprise over what is happening,â monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kisangani (northern DR Congo), a key figure within the Catholic Church in the country, told MISNA. For several weeks now, the eastern region of ex Zaire has been rocked by tension and armed clashes, particularly between renegade soldiers and the new unified army. âThe international community should have managed to follow the development of this situation. It is no longer a problem within the army, but it is now a question of international law,â insists monsignor Monsengwo Pasinya. On 2 June the city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu on the border with Rwanda, was seized by dissident soldiers only to be reclaimed by regular troops a week later, but not before dozens of people had been killed and thousands of people had fled into Rwanda and Burundi. For a couple of days there have been persistent rumours of mass concentrations of troops along the borders between the former Zaire and Rwanda - the most unstable frontiers in the Great Lakes region. âOn an international level, the serious danger in this part of Central Africa has been underestimated,â continues the archbishop. The governments of Kinshasa and Kigali, who were pitted against each other during the five-year war, have begun to accuse each other again over the last few weeks, but monsignor Monsengwo Pasinya prefers not to comment on this issue: âFor now, I have said all that I canâ. However, he insists: âNow the idea of a united Congo that is inviolable from a territorial point of view and regarding its national sovereignty belongs to the entire populationâ. [LC] N¬±êï‰Ç²,µçhžØ^"wèr‰§zÜ(®Hm¶Ÿÿà "ú ¢g(º
