Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Fides Service)- “On behalf of the Bishops’ Conference of Congo I welcome with gratitude the tireless efforts made by you and your government to find a peaceful, just and concrete solution to the crises in Democratic Congo which has lasted for more than 6 years”. This is how Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kisangani who is President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Democratic Congo, greeted, in a memorandum, the President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki who made a recent visit to that country. For some time South Africa has been engaged in the difficult task of mediating negotiations to restore peace in this central African nation.
On the occasion of the visit the Bishops’ Conference addressed a memorandum on the national situation Mr Thabo Mbeki. “Political events in recent months, a coup, war in Bukavu, massacres at Gatumba and dissidence on the part of a wing of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) demonstrate, if there were any need, the fragility of political and social balances” the Archbishop wrote, referring to the situation in eastern Congo where, dissidents of the RCD group (the main rebel group which has joined to peace process) attacked the town of Bukavu. On August 13 several hundred citizens of Congo were killed at Gatumba, in Burundi, where they had fled fearing more violence.
Archbishop Monsengwo recalled that the Bishops’ Conference “has always expressed the hope that the political crisis in RDC would be solved not with war and arms but with dialogue and full respect for national and international law: (national sovereignty and territorial integrity), human rights of individuals and groups”.
“The Bishops’ Conference - Archbishop Monsengwo continued - deplores and condemns attempts to underhandedly introduce and consolidate seeds of ethnic-centric ideology to conquer and exercise power, an ideology which is foreign to the culture of our country which has 400 different ethnic groups each smaller than the other. It would be a shame if the question of nationality were to be imprisoned in a problem of ethnic minorities falsified by considerations of a political nature”.
In their memorandum the Bishops recall that the Church would welcome the formation of a national unified army, the signing by all the countries in the region of a pact of non-aggression and the prevision of measures against anyone who violates the Constitution or commits crimes against humanity. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2004, righe 37 parole 444)
