DRC: Peace process: 2003 - June 2006

Updated June 2006

The transitional government, which was intended to lead the country to its first democratic elections since 1960, was installed on June 30, 2003. Furthermore, the agreement provided for a transitional Parliament consisting of a 500 member National Assembly and a 120 member Senate, with proportionate allocation of Seats in these Chambers for all signatories (Institute for Security Studies 2005, Answers.com 2005).

To ensure the security of the peace process and to oversee its implementation MONUC was expanded and its mandate extended from implementing and enforcing the ceasefire agreement, to disarming, demobilising, repatriating, resettling and reintegrating the various opposing forces in terms of the agreement and to facilitate democratic elections (MONUC Undated). MONUC has not been able to stop the violence and has been criticised for being ineffectual, while UN efforts to affect an arms embargo have been unsuccessful. In view of the huge size of the territory and the small number of MONUC troops (17 500 soldiers and police at most) it is wholly inadequate (MONUC Undated, Global Policy Forum 2006).

The integration of the various armed forces in the country into a single national military force owing its allegiance to the nation and the constitution has progressed slowly and unevenly. Although a central military command was established, with regional sub-commands, the loyalties of the individual military units were directed to the political formations from which they hailed (Institute for Security Studies 2005). With the 2006 elections only five months away the International Crisis Group (2006, i) observed: "Eighteen integrated brigades were supposed to be created before elections but only six have been deployed, some of which are as much a security hazard as a source of stability, since they are often unpaid and prey on the local population".

Sporadic fighting escalated, especially in the east; in March 2004 there was an attack in Kinshasa on military bases, an uprising in June took place in Bakuva, conflict occurred between government and rebel forces in Nord-Kivu in December 2004 and fighting over two months between UN peacekeepers and militias resisting disarming in early 2005 took place (Answers.com 2005). In 2005 relations between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda deteriorated rapidly, with threats and mutual recriminations made from all sides (Global Policy Forum 2006).

The situation deteriorated further when national troops deserted to Laurent Nkunda when he defected in North Kivu, enabling him to attack government positions there in January 2006. In December 2005 a new force emerged in Ituri, the Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolaise (MRC), which has united various armed factions around the Uganda border that failed to observe the July 2005 deadline for disarmament. In the meanwhile the national army has been unable to assert discipline over its own troops, with some soldiers in the east joining militias on a part-time basis while others engage in atrocities against civilians and in free-lance banditry on their own account (Sundaram 2006).

Violent attacks by various forces across the borders from both sides combined with atrocities against civilians and massive population displacements as civilians fled have created what was described by Jan Egeland of UN Humanitarian Affairs described in March 2005 as "the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today" (cited in Global Policy Forum 2006). Ironically, as the UN itself has come to recognise, it is the mineral wealth of the DRC that is the root of the current conflict as well as provider of the means for the conflict to continue. Meanwhile estimates set the death toll at 36 000 people a month (Global Policy Forum 2006).

Given the lack of progress in establishing a single, integrated and functional military, capable of enforcing state power over the whole extent of the national territory and defending its integrity from outside incursion, it is not surprising that progress in rebuilding public structures, services and infrastructure has necessarily been slow. Only a year after assuming office did the transitional government appoint provincial governors and begin to reestablish the structures that had been destroyed during the Mobutu years (Institute for Security Studies 2005). In terms of the constitution the country is to be redivided into 26 new, smaller, provinces to facilitate the recreation of state structures. This aside, little progress has been made on social and economic reconstruction, infrastructure development or state-building, with all the energy of the transitional authorities focused on addressing the securities problems faced, balancing the demands of the various constituents of the transition and the legalities and logistics of elections.

References

ANSWERS.COM 2005 "Democratic Republic of the Congo", [www] http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=16o66sa9kiwtz?tname=congo- country-zaire&curtab=2222_1&hl=congo&hl=country&hl=zaire&sbid=lc02a [opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).

GLOBAL POLICY FORUM 2006, "democratic Republic of Congo", [www] http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/kongidx.htm [opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES 2005 "Democratic Republic of Congo: History and Politics", [www] http://www.iss.co.za/AF/profiles/DRCongo/Politics.html [opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP 2006 "Security Sector Reform in the Congo", Africa Report N°104, 13 February, [www] http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?action=login&ref_id=3946 [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).

MONUC UNDATED, "Mandate" and pages following, [www] http://www.monuc.org/News.aspx?newsID=9160&menuOpened=About%20MONUC [opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).

SUNDARAM, A 2006, "We Cannot Have Elections Like This", Global Policy Forum, May 29, [www] http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/congo/2006/0529elections.htm [opens new window] (accessed 22 Oct 2007).