DR Congo har været i mere eller mindre konstant konflikt siden 1960’erne, men oplever i øjeblikket en relativt stabil periode. Denne stabilitet skal udnyttes til at ”vinde freden”, opfordrer lederen af FN’s fredsbevarende styrker i landet nu Sikkerhedsrådet.
KINSHASHA, 14 March 2014 (UN News Centre): The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) Friday urged the international community as well as the Congolese Government to adopt concrete measures that will build on the current stability in the country.
“It is now up to us to win the peace…with energy, conviction and persistence”, he stated.
“There is a new momentum and we have to build on it. Our robust protection stance and the hard-won stability are the foundation to build peace,” Special Representative Martin Kobler said, in a briefing to the Security Council, in which he said that the responsibility to protect, stabilize and reform will remain the mission’s priorities.
The DR Congo has been torn apart by civil wars and factional fighting since it became independent 1960, but with the support of a series of UN missions a measure of stability has been restored to much of the vast country over the past decade.
Much remains to be done
Illustrating the progress made in the DR Congo in the past year, Mr. Kobler highlighted the Amani Music and Dance festival for Peace which took place in February, following an initial postponement, thanks to the return of peace in Goma.
“The Amani festival was a perfect illustration of how culture is capable of bringing people together in peace. Over 11.000 Congolese and Rwandans danced and sang together,” he insisted.
Still, “much remains to be done to bring peace and security to conflict-affected areas,” Mr. Kobler said, describing the so-called ‘triangle of death’ in Katanga, where Mayi-Mayi Bakata Katanga groups burnt some 80 villages, terrorizing the population.
“Over 400.000 people have been displaced so far. I saw children just separated from these armed groups, their eyes glazed and empty, their parents killed. They had no home to return to,” he lamented.
Ahead of the Council’s upcoming decision on renewing MONUSCO’s mandate, these contradictions “illustrate the hope and the desperation, the chances and challenges, the past and the future of the people of the DR Congo,” the Special Representative noted.
