12/06/2007

Contacts: Mark Malan and Erin Weir

The Congolese government must take steps to publicly denounce the anti-Tutsi rhetoric and fear-mongering that is ongoing in the east, and take action to demonstrate a real commitment to the protection of ethnic minorities, while at the same time sustaining and redoubling efforts to find political solutions to continued insecurity, impunity, and human suffering in the region.

• In North Kivu, when asked who is responsible for the insecurity in the province, internally displaced people almost invariably answer “Nkunda” – that is dissident General Laurent Nkunda and his forces, who claim to be the protectors of the Congolese Tutsi minority, particularly against the FDLR, the group lead by the ex-FAR and Interhamwe who fled Rwanda after perpetrating the genocide of 1994. This almost exclusive focus on Nkunda by the vast majority of the displaced in North Kivu, in spite of the presence and violent activity of the FDLR, Mayi Mayi militias, and other armed groups, is highly significant.



• The overwhelming majority of displaced people are of non-Tutsi decent. By claiming to act on behalf of the Tutsi minority, Nkunda and his men have implicated all Tutsi in the violence that is affecting civilians throughout the east. In other words, the very existence and continued activity of Nkunda amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby he and his forces are actually creating an atmosphere in which non-Tutsi are increasingly hostile towards their Tutsi counterparts.



• This ethnic division is increasingly manifesting itself in displacement patterns as Tutsis flee into Nkunda-controlled areas, fearful of retribution. Likewise, non-Tutsi, fearing ethnic cleansing by Nkunda’s Tutsi dominated forces, tend to flee into areas controlled by the Congolese national army, the FARDC. The concentration of displaced along ethnic lines has created a real threat of ethnically targeted massacres.



• As DRC begins its preparations for the local elections – currently slated for 2008 – local politicians are capitalizing on this prevailing anti-Tutsi sentiment, and hate speech is emerging again, unchecked by the Government in Kinshasa. In the long-term the crystallization of the political dialogue around issues of ethnicity and exclusion creates an uncertain future for Congolese Tutsi, and minority protection more generally. This is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed publicly and unambiguously by the Government of DRC before hate mongering has a chance to become further entrenched in local politics, and ethnic divisions get cemented into the institutional structure of this new democracy.



• The terms of the recent Nairobi Communiqué, designed to appease the Rwandan government, would seem to address this, as the agreement commits the Government of the DRC to pursue robust action against the anti-Tutsi/anti-Rwanda FDLR, the existence of which continues to be Nkunda’s justification for his continuing resistance. Though the FARDC vastly outnumbers the FDLR, it is bogged down in operations in North Kivu and does not have the training, the mobility or the resources to be able to pursue a successful counter-insurgency campaign against the small, but well-organized FDLR. Further, the FDLR have a history of responding to FARDC attacks by massacring civilians in retaliation. As there can be no military solution to the conflict in eastern DRC, the Congolese government needs to make a clear assertion of their commitment to the protection of minorities, and a concerted effort to resolve the underlying conflict through an aggressive political outreach campaign.