A genocide foretold
Ominous signs indicate that the 1994 Rwandan tragedy may be replayed in Congo, writes Faiza Rady
Over the past few months, the northeastern Congolese town of Bunia in the Ituri district has been devastated by what is commonly referred to as "ethnic fighting" -- a euphemism for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Buried behind more prominent reports about Iraqi reconstruction and US- orchestrated roadmaps, Bunia has been quietly relegated to the media's back burner.
Human rights organisations have warned that the deteriorating situation in Bunia requires immediate and, this time, effective UN intervention to avoid a potential repeat of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The London-based rights organisation Oxfam has described the general humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as "disastrous".
It is estimated that 2.5 million people have died since the war began in 1998. And over two million people have become internal or external refugees. A recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) states that the proportion of undernourished people has soared from 35 per cent in 1990-92 to 64 per cent in 1997- 99, ranking the DRC the worst in the world in terms of nutrition. In a country which used to export food and which has the richest metal and mineral reserves in Africa, 16 million people are critically in need of food and one in five children die before they reach the age of five.
The collapse of the health infrastructure has left a population of 50 million people with only 2,000 attending physicians. In six of the major zones in Ituri, doctors have not been paid a salary in six years. As a result of the dismantling of routine vaccination programmes, measles, whooping cough and bubonic plague are making a potent comeback as killer diseases and are particularly prevalent among children.
If the general situation in the DRC is disastrous, time is running out in particular in the ravaged Ituri district. Last month confrontations between Lendu tribal militia fighters and ethnic Hema militias left 400 dead and displaced some 300,000 Bunia residents, who have sought refuge from the killings in the province's forests and in neighbouring Uganda.
The conflict between the Lendu and the Hema is especially charged because of its connections to the Hutu-Tutsi conflict as a result of foreign intervention. When Rwandan and Ugandan peace-keeping forces came to the Ituri province in 1998, settling in and around Bunia, they threw the whole of their military weight behind the Hema and the Lendu respectively. The Lendu are farmers, while the Hema both farm and rear livestock.
Like the Hutus in Rwanda prior to 1994, the Lendu constitute an impoverished and disenfranchised majority and are employed in large part by the more affluent Hema. The Lendu regard the relatively more privileged Hema as traitors and former agents of Belgian imperialism, just as the Rwandan Hutus regarded the Tutsis prior to the genocide. Uganda, which gave asylum to fleeing Rwandan Hutu forces in August 1994, is home to a large ethnic Hutu population and hence has supported the Lendu, while the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government of Paul Kagamé has supported the Hema.
Commenting on the political affiliations in Bunia and the Ituri province and the deadly overflow from the fighting in Rwanda in 1994, Human Rights Watch said: "The two groups are now identifying with the Hutu-Tutsi categories that figured in the Rwandan genocide. The Lendu are now thinking of themselves as akin to the Hutu, while the Hema are identifying with the Tutsi."
UN officials have warned of possible genocide in Bunia and elsewhere in the Ituri province. As in the Rwandan capital Kigali in May and June 1994, hate messages inciting people to "kill the enemy before being killed" are being broadcast in Bunia and elsewhere -- the "enemy" being simply defined as people belonging to the other ethnic group. Among the killer militias is Jean-Pierre Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (CLM), a group backed by Uganda. In January, the UN held the CLM responsible for launching Operation Erase the Blackboard, a plan targeting the Hema ethnic group and aimed at "looting every house and raping every woman". The UN determined that 117 executions took place within one four- day period in October of 2002. The Security Council "condemned the massacres in the strongest terms" but did not take further action.
The conflict between the Lendu and the Hema intensified after the departure of some 6,000 Ugandan soldiers in May. Ostensibly stationed in the Ituri province as peace-keepers since 1998, the Ugandan troops soon turned into a standing army of occupation. Nevertheless, their withdrawal last month left a power vacuum leading to the total breakdown of law and order in the region.
Fearful of the consequences, DRC President Joseph Kabila sent 600 policemen to Bunia to replace the departing Ugandan troops. But Kabila's efforts were wasted. Unable to confront the thousands of Lendu and Hema militia fighters, the police force quickly disbanded when 500 of their men ran away.
Like Kabila, the UN has also made half- hearted and ultimately futile attempts to fill the power gap left by the Ugandans in and around Bunia. Although the 625 UN peace-keepers dispatched to the area stood their ground without disbanding, they were also unable to restrain the thousands of militiamen. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni derisively called the blue- helmeted UN forces "useless". "What they are doing right now is they drive around in their cars, [and they] remain in their cars while people are being killed 500 metres away. That is dangerous tourism. This is not acceptable," said Museveni.
Meanwhile, the estimated 10,000 people who have remained in Bunia are huddling in and around the UN compound and the city's airport -- hoping against hope that some 1,400 European peace-keepers will save their lives.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 12 - 18 June 2003 (Issue No. 642)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/642/in7.htm