Monthly Publication of the European Network for Central Africa ( EURAC ) No. 79 –September 2011 www.eurac-network.org EDITORIAL Consolidating democracy or CONTENTS deepening confusion? Summary of events (p. 2-4) - Great Lakes: President Museveni hough you may doubt it, there will soon be elections in the DRC. visits Uganda; worrying situation on Without knowing by what miracle the CENI will keep to its own South Sudan; appeal to stop timetable, election fever is certainly on the increase. intimidation of the LDGL. The events in Kinshasa on 5 and 6 September were noted all over the world. - DRC: Criticisms of the electoral In June there seemed to be a risk that election fever in Katanga might arouse process; presidential candidates; some the demons of the past. Political demonstrations were banned in Mbuji pre-electoral violence and political Mayi from 7 to 11 September. In South Kivu, public life has been paralysed intolerance; cassiterite found in by serious tension within the army while elsewhere in the province Monusco jeep. instability continues to increase. On 13 September civil society organisations - Burundi : Lawyers imprisoned, in North Kivu condemned the widespread insecurity. journalists and civil society The potential for violence is palpable. Clearly this is linked to the elections harassed; killings of opponents and but I do not have the impression that we are facing a scenario anywhere general insecurity; Zuma’s visit. where the people are divided into two or more camps, each one lined up - Rwanda: Farmers suffer to behind a leader who incarnates the aspirations of one section of the community. The potential is more a case of people feeling that enough is produce more; local authorities enough: the conditions of daily life have not improved since the last abuse fines; bad management elections. Many people are thus easily exploited. and misappropriation of funds. In the east the situation is still more complicated because there is even no lasting progress in dealing with insecurity. Early in 2011 we saw efforts to Advocacy (p.5-6) reach a negotiated settlement with the FDLR, accelerated and superficial Selling off mineral concession; integration of armed groups etc. This had the aim of reversing the pre-electoral violence; pressure on unpopularity of the President in the provinces which gave him his victory in human rights defenders; Mai Mai 2006. But the government faces the almost impossible task of dealing with boss escapes. different Pandora’s boxes at the same time. To make progress on the issue of effective integration of the CNDP (which is still a state within a state, an Main documents received (p. army within an army), it is hard not to agree to the promotion to ranks that 7 - 8) the CNDP has been demanding for two years. But if the authorities grant this, the pressure from Congolese armed groups will increase and there is a risk that they will get unrealistic expectations. The greater the effort made to Publisher respond to expectations of the various groups in the east, the greater the Kris Berwouts Rue des Tanneurs, 165 feeling of exclusion which existed already elsewhere in the army and the 1000 Bruxelles (Belgique) republican guard. And if you scratch the surface you can see how national Tél. + 32 2/502 33 12 and provincial politicians try to use the armed groups as a way to promote Fax + 32 2/ 502 21 42 their political ambitions. In the Congo, all the major questions are interrelated and at the moment they are all coming together around the Secretariat: elections. It is our fear that the Congolese state and its agencies may be too Donatella Rostagno; Kris Berwouts; weak to stand up to a reality of disintegration, accelerated because of the Joseph Ntamahungiro. elections. This is why we have joined AETA’s appeal to the political actors Mail : to commit themselves and non-violence during the electoral process while [email protected] maintaining a space for interactive dialogue between them. We are adding to this our recommendations to the EU to be more involved in the electoral N.B.: Texts and information sources process so as to guarantee that the Congolese people can make their choice selected do not necessarily represent the and express their wishes in a free and transparent process. position of members of the Network Kris Berwouts Director Summary of events July-August As regards the relations with North Sudan, the conflict Great Lakes and the clashes focus on the Abyei enclave and the region of South Kordofan. In South Sudan itself the President Museveni visits Rwanda Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) regime does The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni made an not have unanimous support and is opposed by South official visit to Rwanda from 29 July to 1 August. This Sudanese rebels who support the independent state but are not satisfied with the political consequences of the provoked interest among many observers since relations referendum. They want more power in the between the two countries have seen a lot of tension, in particular after the direct clashes between their armies on government. Thus scarcely two months after Congolese soil in 1999, 2000 and 2002. Since then Uganda independence South Sudan faces a big risk of falling and Rwanda have regularly accused each other of apart which would have the potential to affect the supporting their respective oppositions and the two whole region in a very negative way. This led the Congolese political analyst and researcher, Tharcisse countries continue to have intense rivalry in the mineral rich eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Boka Matadi Wamba, president of the Congolese Institute for Strategic Studies, to say on 4 September Tensions rose again in 2010, when the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, suspected that his Ugandan that the current violence in South Sudan risks having counterpart was supporting the dissident general, Kayumba negative consequences for Orientale Province in the Nyamwasa, who has close relations at the top of the North East of the DRC which shares a frontier with the Ugandan army and of the Ugandan political class. Before new state. The problem of the Lord’s Resistance Army relations got bad the two heads of state were brothers in (LRA) is also present: its struggle involves four countries, South Sudan, Uganda, the Central African arms. Paul Kagame who was a Rwandan refugee in Uganda at the time took part in Yoweri Museveni’s Republic and the DRC. Neither the countries in struggle to win power in Kampala. A few years after his question nor the African Union, nor even the victory in 1986, le President supported the FPR militarily international community, seem capable at present to and diplomatically against the regime of the Rwandan provide effective strategies which would end the president, Juvénal Habyarimana. In the course of this visit scourge of the LRA. (kb) the two presidents did not directly raise the subjects mentioned above, leaving such matters to their foreign Appeal to stop intimidation of the ministers. The Ugandan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa, thus declared: «When people go for visits it is not LDGL a sign that they are trying to solve certain problems, but rather a sign that they are friends ». It may be On 23 August 2011, Human Rights Watch (HRW) remembered that this official visit of the Ugandan asked the Rwandan authorities to stop the intimidation President to Rwanda had been preceded by a visit by of defenders of human rights following the illegal Rwanda’ s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, to her detention on 19 August of Joseph Sanane and Epimack counterpart and namesake, Jeannette Museveni. (kb) Kwokwo, president and executive secretary respectively of the Ligue des droits de la personne Worrying situation in newly dans la région des Grands Lacs, (LDGL), the coalition independent South Sudan of human rights NGOs in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda. The LDGL, which has its headquarters in Kigali, is After the overwhelming majority of the people of South one of the last independent organisations for the Sudan voted for independence in January 2011, the new defence of human rights active in Rwanda. This is state came into being with celebrations on 9 July 2011, the why the league is the subject of a great deal of pressure happy product of the peace accord of 2005 which brought from the Rwandan authorities. This pressure increased Africa’s longest civil war to an end. For sure the further following the critical report which the LDGL sustainable viability of the new-born state was not yet produced about the Rwanda elections of 2010. certain. Even before the setting up of independent South Concerning this detention, the LDGL’s communiqué Sudan the new country was the scene of violent clashes throws suspicion on the finance officer at the LDGL with its powerful northern neighbour, as well as violence who has just been dismissed for gross misconduct. The inside the country since the ethnic balance contains a two members have been falsely accused by the significant potential for conflict. The combats which have Department of Criminal Investigation (CDI). (kb) flared up between the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups in Jonglei State in recent days have left at least 600 dead and many wounded and displaced. The United Nations indicates that this explosion of violence was provoked by thefts of large numbers of cattle by these two groups: as many as 30.000 head had been stolen from their owners. EURAC - 23/09/11– page 2 that is to say the candidate of all the colours, all the DRC parties and even those of the opposition, because there are members of the opposition who believe in Kabila’s Criticisms of the electoral process achievements».