AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - Local Church’s intervention to help process of disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion of militia: Meeting in Kinshasa

Tuesday, 15 February 2005

Kinshasa (Fides Service) - A meeting to discuss how the local Church in Democratic Congo can help in the programme for disarmament, demobilisation and social reinsertion of troops involved in civil war started yesterday, 14 February in the capital Kinshasa organised by Caritas Congo and the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Democratic Congo.
According to a local Catholic news agency DIA about twenty people are attending the meeting which will close on 18 February. The participants will listen to reports on the situation of former military which will serve as a data bank necessary to plan a Church intervention to be approved by the country’s Bishops.
The meeting will also discuss how the Church can act as mediator and promoter of reconciliation among civilians and demobilised militia. Representatives of different dioceses which share the experience and information, including maps, necessary for a programme of disarmament, demobilisation and social reinsertion.
Delegates of the UN mission in Democratic Congo MONUC and the government’s National Disarmament Commission are also at the meeting to discuss how the local Catholic Church can help in the process of disarmament and rehabilitation.
During the meeting there will also be a report on “Practical experience of Bukavu diocesan Caritas office in disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion” (for more info on disarmament in Bukavu see Fides 10 February 2004).
Officially the civil war in Democratic Congo, which killed at least 2 million people, ended in 2003. The process of disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion was part of the peace agreement. The pact established an interim government to include representatives of former rebel groups and the formation of a new unified army with the troops of the armed groups which signed the peace agreement. Despite the peace agreement there is still tension in the east where reportedly violence on civilians continues mainly in Ituri (see Fides 14 February 2005). This year there should be political elections to bring the interim period to a close. However so far the parties have failed to reach an agreement with regard to a date for the elections and a new electoral law. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/2/2005 righe 48 parole 406)


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