wfn.org | AANA - BULLETIN No. 32/02 August 19, 2002 (c)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and 
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa.  AANA Bulletin is 
published weekly and, together with the French Edition - Bulletin APTA - is 
also available through e-mail.  For editorial and subscription details, 
please contact:	

AANA Bulletin					Bulletin APTA
Acting Editor - Mitch Odero			Acting Editor - Silvie Alemba

Kisangani Bleeds As Peace-Building Faces A Dilemma

The small town of Kisangani in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo could 
pass with flying colours in a test of fame in Africa, but of a different 
kind.  Although known to be rich in mineral resources, its fame comes not 
from this fact but from the painful truth that it has suffered some of the 
hardest blows of the Great Lakes conflict.  Rev. Emmanuel Muamba Kamuanga 
of Culture for Peace Network narrates how Kisangani has survived six 
devastating wars in a span of only five years, and discusses possibilities 
of peace building in the region

P
eople of Kisangani do not understand what they have done so that they may 
loose peace for a long time.  Neither do they know what to do to regain the 
lost peace.  Between March 1997 and May this year, six murderous wars have 
taken place in Kisangani town.

The result: Thousands of people have been killed leaving alarming numbers 
of widows and orphans.  Large numbers of ladies are rape victims. 
Illiteracy levels are soaring high.  Suspicion and tension have become a 
norm, and despite Kisangani's wealth in diamond and gold, villagers are 
just poor.

The persistence of war in this region has created a peace building dilemma 
to those who have made attempts at bringing peace.

The latest of the tension came just recently in May when armed men 
identifying themselves as dissidents from the Rwandan-backed rebel group, 
Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) mounted a mutiny in Kisangani town.

According to reliable eyewitness accounts, "an unknown number of people 
were slaughtered, mutilated and then thrown into the river over a period of 
three days."

There are reports that during the mutiny, RCD rebels took many villagers 
prisoners before killing, mutilating and throwing them into Tshopo 
river.  It is said that residents of Kisangani who had not seen their kins 
from the day of the mutiny found beheaded bodies in the river.

The exact number of people killed and mutilated is not clear, but rough 
estimates place it between 50 and 250.  Number of families with missing 
relatives kept on increasing day by day, making it difficult to have a more 
precise estimate.

Reacting to this, head of MONUC - Mission de l'Organisation de Nations 
Unies au Congo (United Nations Misssion in the Democratic Republic of 
Congo) Mr Amos Ngongi, said the UN security council should bolster MONUC's 
mandate from that of peacekeeping to peace enforcement.  "This would enable 
the UN to lead the demilitarisation of Kisangani," he pointed out.

Before this year's massacre in May, five other wars, whose key players are 
non-Congolese, took place in Kisangani.  The first was in March 1997 when 
the late Laurent Kabila launched his assault on the then President Mobutu 
Sese Seko's government.

Kabila's Alliances des Forces Dimocratiques Pour la Libiration du Congo 
(AFDL) battled and defeated Mobutu's army in Kisangani, but not without 
killings of innocent villagers.

The second war, which took place in August 1999, was between military 
troops of Rwanda and Uganda battling for some control in Kisangani.  Like 
the war of 1997, innocent people suffered unspeakable loss and damage 
affecting not only their material status, but also their psychological and 
social dispositions and spiritual lives.

The third attack is said to have been accidental.  A rocket-propelled plane 
from Kinshasa wanted to bomb Rwandan and Ugandan military bases in 
Kisangani.  The pilot released high-explosive shells at high altitude and 
killed innocent civilians instead.  This took place also in 1999.

The fourth war took place on May 5, 2000, again between Rwandan and Ugandan 
military bases there.  This time round, the troops engaged heavy artillery 
in their battle.  Although this war lasted only 24 hours, great destruction 
of property and loss of lives were experienced.

Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers were at it again on June 6, 2000, in what can 
be considered the fifth war in Kisangani.  This one lasted six 
days.  Because of the heavy weapons used, health and educational facilities 
were among property destroyed.

Eyewitnesses estimate that 1000 people were killed in addition to numerous 
houses destroyed. About 7,000 people were gravely injured and more than 
43,000 displaced.  Most of those killed were the aged, expectant mothers 
and children.

These wars were a battle for control over Kisangani's mineral wealth, and 
because many mouths are still drooling over the diamond and gold resources 
here, peace-building efforts have been in dilemma.

Two major views embody the content of the dilemma.  One view has it that 
because DRC is majorly a Christian nation, Christian associations could be 
used to promote dialogue for peace.

The second view is radical.  Proponents of this school of thought hold 
strongly Charles Robert Darwin's (1809-1882) theory of "struggle for life".

"To resist and exist" is the motto fronted here.  According to holders of 
this point of view, peace building through dialogues in DRC in general and 
Kisangani in particular, cannot hasten peace as expected.

They say that talks do not consider needs of ordinary people, giving 
examples of how former president Mobutu Sese Seko, negotiated 2,365 accords 
with civil societies, 1,085 with churches, 638 with universities, 120 with 
Angola, 46 with Rwanda and 32 with Burundi among others, that ignored needs 
of the common man.  This view therefore calls for revolutionary wars like 
in the ancient times.

At first glance, the first view protracts the solution to the 
problems.  Changes in a society today may be found through the national, 
regional and international structures.

The history of revolutionary wars has found that if the revolution is not 
well prepared, subsequent is the loss of lives and property. It is not 
automatic that the way a given country has succeeded must be imitated 
successfully elsewhere.

Dr Nulerdin Satti, the director of UNESCO PEER says this on peace building 
efforts: "PEER would like to develop a methodology for action adapted to 
the needs of each community with which it is working and to enhance the 
capacity of the population to own the education process, to develop 
indigenous ways and means for the management, resolution and transformation 
of conflict."

  Trials at Kakuma Refugee Camp - A First Hand Account

Established ten years ago by the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees, Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya accommodates 63,000 
refugees fleeing conflict in the Horn of Africa. But life has not been easy 
for them there either. AANA correspondent Makur Kot Dhuor who spent time at 
the camp recently during a head count, gives an in-depth account of his 
personal experience.

T
he sweltering heat seemed to have risen a little higher.  Then I caught 
sight of the makeshift shelters.  I noticed a number of slender 
half-dressed and some naked children running up and down.  A group of 
starved women were carrying bundles of firewood on their heads, and at a 
distance, I could see some men trying to put together a collapsed 
shackle.  I knew I had arrived at Kakuma Refugee Camp.

As I got to spend time with the refugees, my eyes opened to the reality 
that life here is yet another tough battle.  Food, shelter, sanitation and 
health provision, all of which are basic human needs, are secured under the 
most difficult scenarios that only the refugees understand.  And most of 
all, exploitation by officials who should otherwise take care of the 
refugees, has now set in.

It was not my first time here though, so I could notice that although the 
camp had been in existence for the past ten years, the only improvement I 
could quickly see was the establishment of feeding centres in schools for 
distributing mainly porridge to pupils of ages 5 to 13.

Food is very limited here. Although rations of wheat flour, beans, lentils, 
oil and maize are expected twice in a month, some of the commodities were 
not given on regular basis.

For example, I noticed during my sojourn there between April and June that 
wheat flour had not been distributed for weeks.  The supply of May 15 
brought only maize.  The next distribution, which ought to have been done 
on June 1, came three days late.

All the refugees I interviewed said they had not received any sugar, milk 
or meat since 1994.  Subsequently, some refugees were compelled to sell 
part of their rations to get money to buy the missing items.

The camp chairman Mr Monybut Kuol confirmed that the food they received was 
far too poor in both quality and quantity.  Some go bad before the next 
distribution.  Kofi Mable, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Refugees (UNHCR) sub-office at Kakuma admitted that they did not have 
adequate supplies of food to the refugees.

He explained that the UNHCR was experiencing dwindling contributions from 
the developed world, hence the reduction in rations.  In the past, when the 
condition was a little better, each refugee would get 2,100 kilo calories 
per day.  At the moment, they each get only half that.

The penniless refugees are expected to process the food they have been 
given.  For one, firewood that used to be supplied by the Lutheran World 
Federation seems to have stopped this February.

Then the maize needs grinding, which they either pound on their own or look 
for money to have them ground at posho mills.  Again, most of the women 
refugees resort to trading part of the same rations with Turkana women in 
exchange for firewood and money.

A number of them struggle through the hard way.  I one day found Martha 
Ajak, a 26 year-old mother of two, struggling to hew a hard piece of wood 
with an axe.  I asked her why she had to do such a tough job.  "I am doing 
it because of hunger," she responded.  "If I do not do it, how will my 
children and I eat?" she posed.  She told me her husband had been killed 
during war in the Sudan and that she had no money to buy firewood.

My two-year-old child then got me mixed up with the health sector in the 
camp.  He had been stung by a scorpion and needed medical attention.  This 
meant I had to spend time in hospital with him.  We were admitted to the 
children's ward, which unfortunately is usually occupied mostly by women 
accompanying their babies.

Apart from the obvious discomfort I felt, I was shocked at the number of 
patients suffering from acute diarrhoea, vomiting and pneumonia left 
unattended.  For the entire population, of 63,000 refugees in the camp, 
there is only one medical centre.  It is run by the International Rescue 
Centre.  It lacks drugs and personnel.

Mr Mable told me however that in comparison to refugee camps across Africa, 
Kakuma had the best medical centre.  He qualified this by saying the death 
rate at Kakuma had been reduced to 0.02 per 1000 per year, whereas 
elsewhere in Africa, deaths rates in refugee camps averaged 12 per 1000 
annually.

Then came the big shock when Monybut Kuol narrated to me how they lived in 
constant fear because of insecurity in the camp.  I was informed that a 
Sudanese woman had, not in the far past, been raped in the camp by three 
men at gun point.

A similar case occurred in May.  Despite these cases being reported to the 
Kenya Police Reserve (KPR), who are responsible for security at the camp, 
no attempts had been made to arrest the culprits.

So far, Monybut says, 23 refugees have been killed by Turkana bandits in 
the last ten years. Yet nothing is ever reported.  "If any refugee is 
killed by the Turkana bandits, it is not announced in the world media," he 
complained.

I was in for more surprises.  The refugee head count, which formed part of 
my mission, was conducted from April 23 to May 1.  Never did I imagine that 
this process has been gorged with so much rot of late.

The police, instead of maintaining order, opted to have some fun by 
roughing us up, not to mention the scorching heat we had to withstand for 
hours.  Only those who were willing to part with "kitu kidogo" (a little 
bribe) got some humane treatment.

I was taken aback to learn that a number of UNHCR abetted in corrupt 
practices in that refugees who parted with say some Ksh 500 (about 6 US 
dollars) got more ration cards and were served ahead of the others.

Nevertheless, we sailed through the harrowing head count.  Then I thought I 
could venture for a walk around the camp when one refugee after another 
repeated to me that I should have some little money to dish out along the 
way.

On further enquiry, I realised that it was such a dreadful thing to meet a 
police officer at Kakuma.  A journey between Kapenguria and Kakuma can end 
up being a money-fleecing event.  Police at every check point demand Ksh 
500 bribe (USD 6) per refugee.

There are seven police checks along this route, so one can imagine how much 
money one must be prepared to loose.  It does not matter whether your 
documents are in order or not. On top of this, some notorious police 
officers have developed a habit of searching pockets and seizing whatever 
money they find.

"These people would not release you until you pay something.  They do not 
listen nor do they understand your situation.  They listen with their 
mouths when you give them something," remarked one refugee.