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Ending the Deadlock: Towards a New Vision of Peace in Eastern DRC

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Ending the Deadlock: Towards a New Vision of Peace in Eastern DRC a ENDING THE DEADLOCK: Towards a new vision of peace in eastern DRC September 2012 Understanding conflict. Building peace. About International Alert International Alert is a 26-year-old independent peacebuilding organisation. We work with people who are directly affected by violent conflict to improve their prospects of peace. And we seek to influence the policies and ways of working of governments, international organisations like the UN and multinational companies, to reduce conflict risk and increase the prospects of peace. We work in Africa, several parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, the Middle East and Latin America, and have recently started work in the UK. Our policy work focuses on several key themes that influence prospects for peace and security – the economy, climate change, gender, the role of international institutions, the impact of development aid, and the effect of good and bad governance. We are one of the world’s leading peacebuilding NGOs with more than 159 staff based in London and 14 field offices. To learn more about how and where we work, visit www.international-alert.org. © International Alert 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without full attribution. Layout by D. R. ink, www.d-r-ink.com Front cover image: © Gwenn Dubourthoumieu ENDING THE DEADLOCK: Towards a new vision of peace in eastern DRC 2 International Alert Foreword Over the past decade of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a series of peace agreements backed by international interventions has given hope to ordinary people that their suffering might be coming to an end. So far, their hopes have been dashed. The international community has invested billions of dollars in trying to stabilise and build peace, but they know their efforts are not bearing enough fruit. The United Nations has deployed a major peacekeeping mission in the area for a decade. However, there has been no peace to keep. Armed groups continue to control large areas of the Kivu provinces and Ituri district in Orientale province, creating insecurity and preying on the population, with women and girls continuing to suffer disproportionately. The economy fails to develop and young people have no work. Roads and other infrastructure remain dilapidated, and millions of people lack access to the most basic public services. Some 1.8 million people are displaced in the Kivus and Orientale, and hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries. The inventory of suffering goes on. It is clear that new ideas are needed to find a way out for the people of eastern DRC. International Alert has been working with Congolese partners to build peace for over a decade. This report is based on our consultations and interactions with civil society, politicians, business people and international agencies. It is also based on our 25 years of experience in peacebuilding in other parts of Africa and elsewhere. There is no quick or easy solution. We do not claim to know all the answers, and experience of peacebuilding the world over suggests that not all the answers are currently knowable. What is needed is not a new blueprint but a new approach – a way of thinking, working, monitoring, assessing and, as necessary, adjusting. It is our contention that a major reason why Congolese and international efforts have so far failed to bring peace is that they have wrongly diagnosed the issues and accordingly are addressing the problems in the wrong way. Alert’s approach means being willing to question some of the assumptions which have underpinned peacebuilding efforts so far, especially the approaches to stabilisation. It means taking a strategic, longer-term, more patient and incremental approach. It means addressing the political issues that divide people and put them into potentially warring camps. It means bringing people together – everybody who has a stake – in a broad dialogue aimed at figuring out local, provincial, national and regional strategies for peace. It means accepting that the Congolese state will take many years to build, and that support provided to Kinshasa needs to be matched by an equivalent level of support to local peace and reconstruction efforts. Above all, it means two things: working with Congolese people to identify and strengthen their existing mechanisms for conflict resolution and development, and thus helping the Congolese to take part in shaping their future; and staying the course. Peace in DRC is possible, but it will need a sustained effort and clear thinking. With this report, International Alert marks a new stage in our own contribution to this work. Dan Smith Secretary General International Alert Ending the deadlock: Towards a new vision of peace in eastern DRC 3 Acknowledgements The lead authors of this report were Alexis Bouvy, independent consultant, and Maria Lange, country manager, International Alert DRC. Valuable inputs to the research design and drafting process were provided by various International Alert colleagues in London and DRC. These included individuals who have made an integral contribution to Alert’s programming in DRC in the recent past – Annie Bukaraba, Judy El-Bushra, Aurélien Tobie and Bill Yates. It also included others who are still actively involved in Alert’s programming in Africa and will be carrying forward the report’s recommendations in their work – Jessie Banfield, Bertin Bisimwa Kabomboro, Massimo Fusato, Ndeye Sow, Phil Vernon and Zahed Yousuf. Members of staff and Alert’s partners in both Goma and Bukavu provided invaluable logistical support to the research process; colleagues in London were instrumental in bringing the report to publication. Consultation workshops in Bukavu, Goma and Bunia were designed and moderated by Sarah Hughes, independent consultant. These workshops were facilitated by, respectively, Raphael Wakenge, Jean-Pierre Lindiro Kabirigi and Rodolphe Mbale Myango. The report benefited further from the expert guidance of external reviewers Chris Huggins and Hélène Morvan. Alert would like to thank, in particular, all the many officials and representatives of civil society organisations, provincial and national authorities, as well as international NGOs, UN and multi- and bilateral donor agencies, who either participated in consultation workshops or agreed to be interviewed for this report. We are grateful to them for sharing their perceptions and ideas with the report’s authors and greatly contributing to the overall analysis. Alert’s work in DRC over the past decade, on which this report draws, has been supported by a number of donors. They include the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union (EU), UK Department for International Development (DFID), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Women and World Bank. We would like to thank all of our donors and in particular to acknowledge the support given to International Alert by DFID through our Programme Partnership Agreement, which we have used in part to finance the preparation of this report. 4 International Alert Contents Acronyms 5 Executive summary 6 Introduction: Why a “new vision of peace”? 12 1. Current state of the crisis in eastern DRC 14 1.1 Structural factors of instability 14 The patrimonial and predatory Congolese state 15 Geographic, political and land structures in eastern DRC: The underlying 17 structural causes of inter-community tensions Congolese wars: Local tensions and regional dynamics 22 1.2 War without end? Recent developments in the conflict in eastern DRC (2008–2012) 26 Security developments: The persistence of armed groups 26 Political developments: Backsliding democratisation 29 2. Stabilising eastern DRC: A limited response 31 2.1 International partners losing momentum 31 2.2 International and national stabilisation strategies: STAREC and ISSSS 33 Weaknesses of the stabilisation plan 36 2.3 Understanding and breaking the link between the mining sector and conflict 38 2.4 Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, return of refugees 40 and land mediation Reintegrating former combatants 40 Return and reintegration of refugees 41 Land mediation 42 2.5 Civil society: A vector for change? 43 Weaknesses of civil society 43 Alternative solutions put forward by civil society 44 3. Ending the deadlock: Towards a new vision of peace 47 3.1 Recommendations 49 Ending the deadlock: Towards a new vision of peace in eastern DRC 5 Acronyms ADEPAE Action for Development and Internal Peace (Action pour le développement et la paix endogènes) AFDL Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo) APC Action for Peace and Harmony (Action pour la paix et la concorde) CLPC Permanent local conciliation committees (Comités locaux permanents de conciliation) CNDP National Congress for the Defence of the People (Congrès national pour la défense du peuple) DDR Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration DRC Democratic Republic of Congo EU European Union FARDC Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo) FDLR Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda) IDPs Internally displaced persons ISSSS International Security and Stabilization Support Strategy M23 Movement of 23rd March
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