Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – The offensive announced against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA, see Fides 4/6/2008) is giving way to an even greater participation on the part of countries in the Great Lakes Region in placing an end – once and for all – to the presence of “negative forces,” trans-border guerrilla groups operating between eastern Congo, northern Uganda, and southern Sudan. In the target of this joint effort, which will take place above all on Congolese territory, is also another guerrilla group that for over a decade has contributed to the instability of the area: the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). It is a group formed by former members of the old Rwandan army and Interahamwe militias, the Hutu extremists responsible for the genocide of 1994, who since then have been hiding out in east Congo.
In order to prepare for this new offensive operation, high-level meetings have taken place in the last month, in 4 parts of the region: Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Kisangani (DRC), Kampala (Uganda), and Gisenyi (Rwanda), which have been attended by representatives of the States involved, the European Union, the United States, South Africa, and the MONUC (United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo). The talks were focused on the application of the Nairobi Accord, signed in the Kenyan capital on November 9, 2007 by the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Congo and Rwanda. In Nairobi, these two countries agreed to take common action against the Interahamwe and have convened to take action in disarming the FDLR and all other Congolese irregular armed groups in the DRC. All these groups, the two governments say, are a threat to the peace and security of DRC and the entire Great Lakes Region.
In Dar-es-Salaam, Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni expressed their intention to see the negative forces, including the LRA neutralized as soon as possible. Last weekend, in Kampala, the committee for peace and security of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region recognized the fact that in light of the failed intent to negotiate with the LRA, the only remaining possibility is to use force.
In the meeting in Kampala, Uganda and Sudan showed their willingness “to support the DRC in taking actions to eliminate the LRA,” and MONUC offered its support for the plan. According to sources in Kampala, the LRA is preparing to launch an offensive attack in Uganda. Authorities in Kampala say that guerrilla parties have received more arms and recruits from Congo and Central Africa (So then, who is financing the LRA, a group that has been declared dissident on an international level?) The meeting in Kampala among experts of security services coincided with that of Presidents Kabila and Museveni in Dar-es-Salaam, in May 2008. Also at this time, in the town of Gisenyi, the representative of the European Union in the Great Lakes Region presided a similar meeting attended by experts from the United States, the European Union, South Africa, and the MONUC.
The re-opening of military operations on a large scale in the east of Congo, including foreign military forces in addition to the Congolese army, is being viewed with a certain restlessness and anxiety by the local population, as the official goal to eliminate all “negative forces” could be simply a facade for other very different objectives regarding the region’s natural resources. In the meantime, the violence continues. On June 4, 6 people were killed in an attack carried out by the FDLR on a refugee camp in Kinyandoni, a little over 70 kilometers to the north of the provincial capital, Goma. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 05/06/2008)
