2004 is set to be a momentous year in the Great Lakes region in terms of its peace prospects, if the achievements made in 2003 are anything to go by, Irinnews reports.
Across the region, right from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to Rwanda, the code words in 2003 seemed to have been transition to peace.
The UN and the African Union (AU), the continents foremost political body, are making preparations for a regional peace and development conference, during which themes such as peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, and humanitarian and social issues will feature.
There are suggestions that the conference could be held in Tanzania in November.
In the course of 2003, the main rebel movement in Burundi signed a power-sharing agreement with the transitional government and was integrated into government institutions; a transitional government of national unity was installed in Congo in June; and Rwanda, nine years after the 1994 genocide, held its first-ever democratic presidential and parliamentary elections.
DR Congo
The determination to move from years of turmoil to peace and democracy is most obvious in the DR Congo, the largest country in the region and the third-largest in Africa, where President Joseph Kabila is reported to be committed to sticking to the transitional government timetable to hold democratic elections in 2005.
Kabilas spokesman, Mulegwa Zihindula, said on 8 January 2004 in the capital, Kinshasa, that the president was committed to organising elections on time and that he felt the move would greatly contribute to the building of a strong country.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was on an official visit to the country in January 2004, a sign that Congo is keen on resuming normal bilateral relations with other African states – se også dagens nyhedshistorie.
Under an agreement signed in April 2003 in Pretoria, South Africa, a power-sharing transitional government of national unity was installed in Congo in June, with Kabila and leaders of former rebel movements setting up government institutions that had been devastated by more than six years of civil war.
However, all is not smooth sailing, inasmuch as restoring order in such a vast country has proved to be a rather slow process. The eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, and Ituri District in Orientale Province in the northeast are still experiencing sporadic fighting, with Ituri largely remaining under the control of rival militias, although a strengthened UN peacekeeping force is gradually restoring security there.
Moreover, the transitional government has yet to establish an independent electoral commission to oversee the elections scheduled to be held 24 months after the governments installation. Although the new parliament in December approved a law providing for the setting up of such a body, it has yet to be acted on.
The government is also struggling with establishing proper control of areas previously under rebel administration, while civilians in many parts of the country still face hardships such as shortages of food, water and other basic needs. Poverty levels remain low, with most Congolese said to be living on less than one dollar daily.
Burundi
In Burundi, the second half of a three-year transitional government is due to end towards the end of 2004, following which democratic elections are due to be held, more than 10 years after civil war broke out in the tiny central African state.
The countrys hope for peace was greatly boosted on 5 January when the only rebel faction, which had hitherto refused to enter into peace negotiations with the government, announced that it was willing to meet President Domitien Ndayizeye for talks.
The announcement by the FNL-faction led by Agathon Rwasa, follows Decembers integration into the government of the main rebel movement, CNDD-FDD led by Pierre Nkurunziza.
In November, Nkurunziza was named minister of state for good governance, the third most powerful position in the government after Ndayizeye and Vice-President Alphonse-Marie Kadege, who must henceforth consult him on matters concerning state security and government appointments.
On 6 January, Ndayizeye signed a decree appointing 33 members of the Joint Military High Command, 20 from the army and 13 from Nkurunzizas CNDD-FDD, in accordance with a Technical Forces Agreement signed in Pretoria on 2 November 2003.
The setting up of the joint command precedes the formation of the new National Defence Forces, following the signing of a power-sharing agreement between the government and Nkurunziza on 16 November in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The announcement by Rwasas FNL that it was willing to meet Ndayizeye caught many Burundians by surprise, and represented a major shift in the factions policy.
The meeting, scheduled to be held in January 2004 at a venue outside the country, will definitely expedite the countrys progress towards peace, given that the faction is now the only one being held responsible for the sporadic fighting in and around the capital, Bujumbura. The province of Bujumbura Rural, which surrounds Bujumbura, is an FNL stronghold and its fighters have staged a number of attacks on the city in the course of 2003.
Ndayizeyes cabinet reshuffle on 23 November 2003 to incorporate Nkurunzizas CNDD-FDD illustrated the countrys determination to move towards peace after 10 years of civil strife in which at least 300.000 Burundians have died.
Besides naming Nkurunziza the minister for good governance, Ndayizeye appointed three other CNDD-FDD members to ministerial posts. With Nkurunziza movement now part of the transitional government, ethnic integration and eventually democracy are now within grasp of Burundians.
Rwanda
In Rwanda, the only country in the region not to have seen much turmoil in recent years, the first-ever multiparty elections were held in August and September, ending a transitional period that began in 1994, soon after the April-June genocide that claimed the lives of at least 800.000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
Despite claims of intimidation and harassment of opposition candidates during the elections, Rwanda distinguished itself as a world leader in gender balance as far as political representation is concerned, with almost half of the elected parliamentarians being women. The elections saw the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) win a landslide victory.
Moreover, the country adopted a new constitution in May 2003, under which women are entitled to hold at least 30 percent of all posts in government and other decision-making bodies.
At the same time, with relative stability being experienced in the DR Congo, hundreds of former Hutu combatants who fled into what was then Zaire after the genocide have returned home, boosting Rwandas efforts to achieve peace and ethnic reconciliation.
A Kigali-based officer of the UN Mission in the DR Congo, known as MONUC, told IRIN on 5 January that a total of 1.455 refugees, including former members of the hardline Hutu Interahamwe militias and of the former Forces armees rwandaises, known as ex-Far, the two groups most held responsible for the genocide, returned home in November and December 2003.
In 1997, the government of President Paul Kagame of the RPF established a Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission for the reintegration of ex-combatants. The programme is designed to foster reconciliation and to contribute towards poverty reduction and the strengthening of peace.
As the country approaches the 10th anniversary of the genocide, scheduled to be observed in April 2004, the government has commended efforts by the African Union in promoting the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution designating 7 April 2004 as International Day of Reflection on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
