AFRICA/CONGO DR - Peace accord signed in North Kivu

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – A peace agreement has been signed between the government and the rebels from the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) in North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The agreement was signed yesterday, March 23, in Goma (the capital of North Kivu), by the Minister for Regional and International Cooperation, Raymond Tshibanda and rebel leaser Desire Kamanzi, in the presence of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and special envoy for the Kivu crisis for the Secretary General of the United Nations.
The accord comes as the conclusion to the peace process (called Nairobi III) initiated under the auspices of the UN and the African Union, to resolve the crisis that broke out in the Summer of 2008, when the rebel movement, led by Laurent Nkunda, began attacks which he claimed to be simply an effort to “defend the local Tutsi population” threatened by Hutu Rwandan rebels that took refuge in the area in 1994. The conflict is really just a cover-up for hidden economic interests in relation to the exploitation of resources in the region (from coltan to gold), a fact that has been denounced on several occasions by the Catholic Church (see Fides 14/10/2008 and 11/11/2008).
The situation remained at a standstill following the accord reached between the DRC and Rwanda, which had been indicated as one of the supporters of the CNDP, which led to the arrest of Nkunda by Rwandan authorities and the beginning of a joint military operation between Congo and Rwanda verses hutu militias still living in the Congolese territory. The attack began on January 20 with the arrival of Rwandan troops to support the Congolese Army in North Kivu. The military operations continued until the end of February, when Kigali's troops returned to their country.
The accord signed in Goma, the so-called “Ihussi Accord,” named after the Hotel where it was signed, says that the CNDP will renounce armed conflict, becoming a political movement and calls for the freeing of the arrested rebels and the promulgation of a law of amnesty in favor of the former rebels, on the part of the Kishasa government.
The Congolese press has given positive reviews to the accord, but warns of the danger of trying to appropriate local riches, on the part of the central government, not via the military, but through a plan of territorial reconfiguration. A December 2008 study called for the division of North Kivu, “along sociological lines.” The document prefigures the division of Kivu in two provinces: the Great North, made up of Beni and Butembo, and the Great South, made up of Maisis, Rutshuru, and Walikale.
The former would be mainly populated by people of the Nande ethnic group, while the latter would be predominantly Hunde, Hutu, and Tutsi. The authors of the plan affirm that the feudal and ethnic conflicts of North Kivu come from the contrasts between the various ethnic groups living in the area and that this new subdivision would allow the chance to avoid them. Other analysts note that this proposal separates the areas of Masisi, Rutshuru, and Walikale, those richest in minerals, from the rest of North Kivu, which in the end will have an influence on the economy and politics of the neighboring countries. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 24/03/2009)