NEWS

22 feb. 06 - 12.50h

KINSHASA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo plans to hold legislative and presidential elections on June 18, the electoral commission said on Wednesday after the passage of an election law opening the way for ground-breaking polls.

Congo's parliament approved the electoral law late on Tuesday which will allow the vast, war-scarred central African country to hold its first independent elections in four decades.

"If the law is promulgated by the end of the month, this means the first round of elections will take place on the 18th of June," electoral commission spokesman Dieudonne Mirimo said. "This is a very, very important step," he added.

President Joseph Kabila was now expected to sign the electoral law, whose absence had been blocking the poll process. The elections are the final step in a peace process aimed at drawing a line under a five-year war in the Congo -- officially ended in 2003 -- which sucked in six neighbouring countries and killed four million people. Most of them died from hunger and disease caused by the conflict. Around 17,000 United Nations troops -- the world body's biggest peacekeeping operation -- are in Congo trying to keep the peace and enforce law and order. According to the electoral commission, it will take nearly four months to complete all the necessary steps for holding elections, from the registration and verification of candidates to the distribution of voting material across the country, which is the size of Western Europe. Polls were originally scheduled for mid-2005 but divisions in the transitional government, continued fighting in the east and the logistical problems of working in a country with virtually no infrastructure had produced a delay.

The poll postponements sparked rioting in 2005.

Mirimo would not specify when a second round of presidential elections might take place if no candidate gained 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

But analysts believe it will be impossible to hold a second round presidential poll before August, which raises the prospect that Congo might fail to meet a June 30, 2006 deadline for completing its electoral process.

Xinhuanet

22 feb. 06 - 08.30h

KINSHASA, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The parliament of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) adopted an electoral law on Tuesday, paving the way for the country's first free presidential poll since its independence in 1960.

Under the law, the National Assembly and Senate of the DRC agreed to establish a special commission to handle issues raised by lawmakers concerning allocation of parliamentary seats and the election schedule. On Tuesday, the Independent Electoral Commission of the DRC submitted a scheme to parliament on the allocation of the parliamentary seats. Under the scheme, Katanga province, the hometown of President Joseph Kabila, wins a lion's share of 69 seats, followed by Orientale Province, with 63 seats. Kinshasa and Equateur Province win 58 seats each. Of the remaining seats, 57 go to Bandundu, 48 to Nord-Kivu, 40 to Kasai Occidental, 39 to Kasai Oriental, 32 to Sud-Kivu and 24 to Bas-Congo. According to the electoral schedule submitted by the electoral commission on Tuesday, there will be 110 days from candidate registration to the start of the first round of voting. The commission suggested that the elections begin on June 18 asl ong as the president signs the electoral law on Feb. 27. Enditem

22 feb. 06 - 21.44h

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the new Constitution and electoral laws of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the United Nations is helping to organize one of the biggest polls in which it has ever participated.

“These steps mark important milestones in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Mr. Annan said in a statement released by his spokesman.

Kofi Annan looks forward to the early publication by the IEC of an electoral calendar.

“The Secretary-General looks forward to the early publication by the Independent Electoral Commission of an electoral calendar providing for the timely holding of free, fair and transparent elections,” the spokesman added, pledging all possible UN support for the elections and the Congolese peace process as a whole.

In December, about 25 million Congolese registered to vote in a referendum to endorse the Constitution, paving the way for the country’s first free elections in more than four decades and one of the biggest polls – with 36,000 vote offices and nearly 200,000 electoral agents – in which the UN has participated.

21 feb. 06 - 22.25h

To highlight the plight of millions of African refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees, the heads of the three largest United Nations humanitarian agencies will be travelling Saturday to the Great Lakes region, the agencies announced today.

More attention is needed to highlight the persistent problems faced by the world's refugees - most of them in Africa.

António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), James T. Morris, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, and Ann M. Venneman, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, will visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi from 25 February to 2 March.

“As media and the humanitarian community focus on the spreading drought in the Horn of Africa, UN humanitarian agencies are concerned that more attention is needed to highlight the persistent problems faced by the world's refugees – most of them in Africa,” said Jennifer Pagonis, UNHCR spokesperson, as she delivered the joint announcement.

She said that the unprecedented joint mission – the first ever by the three heads of the agencies involved – is evidence of closer cooperation to alleviate the plight of refugees.

monuc.org © 1999-2006 United Nations - MONUC

18 feb. 06 - 17.31h

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) adopted a new constitution on Saturday, February 18, 2006 which marks the start of the country's Third Republic. The constitution is a milestone in Congo’s transition from war to a decentralized democratic state that paves the way for the first elections in more than 40 years. It takes immediate effect.

The DRC entered a historic phase today with the adoption of its new constitution and national symbols.

I now invite all political actors, for the sake of our people to respect the verdict of the ballot box. - Kabila

"The constitution promulgated today inaugurates a new era for our country," President Joseph Kabila said at a ceremony in Kinshasa. He called on the nation to unite as it prepares for the historic elections scheduled for April. "I now invite all political actors, for the sake of our people to respect the verdict of the ballot box," he added.

Thousands of people gathered in the gardens of the presidential palace, waving the country's new flag as the President signed into law the new constitution. The new national flag depicts a yellow star in the upper-left corner on a light-blue background with a diagonal red stripe edged in yellow.

DRC’s constitution was accepted by 84 percent of the ballots cast in a referendum on December 18 and 19, 2005. It provides for a decentralized political system with provincial administrations responsible for local decision-making and controlling 40 percent of public funds.

It also lowers the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30 - allowing an election bid by the 34-year-old President Kabila.

The ceremony was attended by South African President Thabo Mbeki and Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the neighboring Republic of Congo and chairman of the African Union. Ketumile Masire, the former facilitator for the inter-Congolese dialogue, was also present, as well as Moustapha Niasse of Senegal, former UN special envoy. Louis Michel and Aldo Ajelo represented the European Union.

“This is a very important day in the life of the Congolese people,” said William Swing, Special Representative of the Secretary General in the DR Congo. “The road is now open to conclude the transition period with the promulgation of the electoral law and the holding of the elections,” the chief of MONUC added.

The new law replaces the interim constitution which laid the foundation for a transitional government that will govern the country until the June 30 election deadline. Elections were initially due by mid 2005.

18 feb. 06 - 18.53h

The security situation in South Kivu Province generally remained calm from the 7th to the 14th February. Throughout the week, the South Kivu Brigade carried out 284 patrols to ensure peace in South Kivu.

1. On the 10th February 06 ambushes were laid twice by supposedly FDLR elements inside Kahuzi Beiga National Park (KBNP) to stop the repatriation of 18 Rwandans (1xFDLR soldier, 2 x men, 7 x women and 8 x children). The Pakistani Contingent was providing an escort to the DDRRR (disarmament demobilization, repatriation, resettlement, and reintegration) team from Miti to Hombo and back. The escort was made of 4 armoured personnel carriers and 2 jeeps.

2. The first ambush was laid when the leading vehicle of escort had crossed Gate No 2 (exit gate) of KBNP and last vehicle was still 5 - 6kms behind the exit gate, FDLR elements fired on the vehicles which were at the tail of convoy. Due to immediate response and firing by the Pakistani Blue Helmets, FDLR elements fled from the scene. FARDC soldiers present at the site were hesitant to retaliate and go behind the rebels inside the forest.

3. The commanding Pakistani officer along with his guard went inside the jungle and pursued the fleeing FDLR elements, FARDC soldiers seeing this also accompanied. The small force followed the FDLR elements for about 3 kms and sustained fire by the rebels.

4. Due to thickness of the jungle, the force returned. FDLR elements, while running inside the jungle, left behind some looted material. Once the convoy reached near Saba Saba, a motor bike rider passing by indicated he had seen a few armed persons near the road taking positions along road side behind the trees.

5. Anti Ambush drills were carried out in pre-emption to prevent any ambush. At the same time the convoy received fire from the site, as indicated by the motorcycle rider. Exchange of fire continued for about 10 minutes. Timely response saved the convoy from any damage.

6. 499 returnees from Tanzania arrived at Baraka by boat on 08 Feb 2006 bringing total number to 7407. These returnees were received by the UNHCR representative and were moved to Refugees Transit Camps.

7. There is one company of Pakistani Blue Helmets stationed in Baraka. South Kivu is planning the deployment of a company to Kalehe (50 km north of Bukavu).

8. Officers visited a school and “adopted” children by covering the costs of their schooling material. They then interacted with the local chiefs of the Muslim and Christian Communities and local authorities to discuss the purpose and modalities of their deployment.

9. Daily operations are conducted to guarantee security in the local markets, which used to be a preferred spot for illegal taxing. For example troops of the third Pakistani Battalion conducted Operation Market Domination in Uvira Town zone Market and carried out detailed assessment of the situation. The operation was aimed at keeping vigilance and an effective check over illegal tax collection. Patrol went into the market and discussed the situation with people and notables of the area. It was learnt that the market activity is going on peacefully and there is no illegal tax collection taking place.

10. In support of the local population the Pakistani peacekeepers distributed gifts to the children at Mwanga Orphan House, clothes and cooked meals to the elderly at their compound in Uvira, cooked meals to the prisoners at Uvira Prison.

Mrs. King is being honored as a champion of human rights and for a life dedicated to peace and justice. An estimated 10,000 people, including four U.S. presidents, were expected to attend the funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where King's daughter Bernice is a minister.

"The dream is still alive," said Bishop Eddie Long, leader of the suburban church in Lithonia, Ga.

"We are all in a better place, doing better things, doors have been opened," he said.

The widow of Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. King died Jan. 30 at the age 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke.

Coretta Scott was studying voice at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music and planning on a singing career when she met her future husband. They married in 1953 and had four children: Yolanda Denise, Martin III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine.

After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she continued his work for social justice and devoted her life to his legacy, establishing the King Center in Atlanta and working for decades for a federal holiday in his honor.

King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.

"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.

In 1969, she founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues that she said breed violence -- hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.

"The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.

In recent years, King spoke out against racial profiling, mandatory minimum sentences and attacks on affirmative action.

She became increasingly critical of businesses such as film and television companies, video arcades, gun manufacturers and toy makers she accused of promoting violence. She called for regulation of their advertising.

"In this country, we vigorously regulate the sale of medicine and severely limit the advertising of cigarettes because of their effect on human health," she said Jan. 15, 1994, the 65th anniversary of her husband's birth. "But we allow virtually anyone in America to buy a gun and virtually everyone in the nation to see graphic violence."

King received numerous honors for herself and traveled around the world in the process.

Due to poor health, King missed the annual King holiday celebration in Atlanta earlier this month, but she did appear with her children at an awards dinner a couple of days earlier, smiling from her wheelchair but not speaking. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.

Memorial Excerpts

Excerpts from King's funeral, held Feb. 7, 2006, at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church:

• President Bush: She "worked to make our nation whole."
  
• Former President Clinton: "What will happen to the legacy of Coretta King?"
  
• Poet Maya Angelou: "A study in serenity."
  
• Rev. Joseph Lowery: "She summoned nations to study war no more."
  
• Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin: "She sang for liberation."
  

More ...

Gathered from NPR reports, Associated Press.

ATLANTA - Coretta Scott King, who worked to keep her husband’s dream alive with a chin-held-high grace and serenity that made her a powerful symbol of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s creed of brotherhood and nonviolence, died Tuesday. She was 78.

King died in her sleep during the night at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, her family said.

In a statement released Tuesday, the King family said she in Mexico “for observation and consideration of treatment for ovarian cancer. She was considered terminal by physicians in the United States. Mrs. King and her family wanted to explore other options.”

King was partially paralyzed and suffering from cancer when she arrived last week at the clinic where she died, clinic doctors said.

They gave the cause of death as respiratory failure, related both to a serious stroke she suffered in August and the cancer they said was diagnosed last year.

King checked into the Santa Monica Health Institute in the Mexican beach resort of Rosarito, 16 miles south of San Diego, on Thursday under another name. The doctors said they did not know who she was until her medical records arrived on Friday, and they never began any treatment because of her condition.

"She came here with half her body paralyzed," Dr. Rafael Cedeno, the doctor who was overseeing her case, said at a news conference. "She was in really bad condition."

Last appearance two weeks ago

Just two weeks ago, she made her first public appearance in a year on the eve of her late husband’s birthday.

Arrangements were being made to fly the body to Atlanta.

News of her death led to tributes to King across Atlanta, including a moment of silence in the Georgia Capitol and piles of flowers placed at the tomb of her slain husband. Flags at the King Center — the institute devoted to the civil rights leader’s legacy — were lowered to half-staff.

“She wore her grief with grace. She exerted her leadership with dignity,” the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King’s husband in 1957.

Rice, others hail civil rights icon

In a statement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said “the United States and the world have lost a champion of human rights. Mrs. King was one of the pioneers in our country's fight for equality and justice for all its citizens. Her courageous stand alongside Dr. King during a time of tremendous struggle for America was one of our greatest examples of selfless dedication to the good of all Americans.”

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, one of Martin Luther King’s top aides, said Coretta Scott King’s fortitude rivaled that of her husband. “She was strong, if not stronger than he was,” Young said.

Coretta Scott King was a supportive lieutenant to her husband during the most dangerous and tumultuous days of the civil rights movement, and after his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she carried on his work while also raising their four children.

“I’m more determined than ever that my husband’s dream will become a reality,” the young widow said soon after his slaying.

Pressed for national holiday

She pushed and goaded politicians for more than a decade to have her husband’s birthday observed as a national holiday, achieving success in 1986. In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and used it to confront hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.

“The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society,” she often said.

She also accused movie and TV companies, video arcades, gun manufacturers and toy makers of promoting violence.

King became a symbol in her own right of her husband’s struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, stoic dignity over seminars and conferences.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was with her husband when he was assassinated, said Tuesday that she understood that every time her husband left home, there was the chance he might not come back. Jackson pronounced her a “freedom fighter.”

“Like all great champions she learned to function with pain and keep serving,” he said, adding: “She kept marching. She did not flinch.”

In Washington, President Bush hailed her as “a remarkable and courageous woman and a great civil rights leader.”

After her stroke, King missed the annual King celebration in Atlanta two weeks ago but appeared with her children at an awards dinner a few days earlier, smiling from her wheelchair but not speaking. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.

Despite her repeated calls for unity among civil rights groups, her own children have been divided over whether to sell the King Center to the National Park Service and let the family focus less on grounds maintenance and more on King’s message. Two of the four children were strongly against such a move.

Flags at half-staff in Georgia

Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff and offered to allow King’s body to lie in repose at the Georgia Capitol. There was no immediate response to the offer, the governor’s office said.
King died at Santa Monica Health Institute in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, south of San Diego, said her sister, Edythe Scott Bagley of Cheyney, Pa. She had gone to California to rest and be with family, according to Young.

Coretta Scott was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and planning on a singing career when a friend introduced her to King, a young Baptist minister studying at Boston University.

“She said she wanted me to meet a very promising young minister from Atlanta,” King once said, adding with a laugh: “I wasn’t interested in meeting a young minister at that time.”

She recalled that on their first date he told her: “You know, you have everything I ever wanted in a woman. We ought to get married someday.” Eighteen months later, in 1953, they did.

A move to Montgomery

The couple moved to Montgomery, Ala., where he became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and helped lead the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott that Rosa Parks set in motion when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. With that campaign, King began enacting his philosophy of nonviolent, direct social action.

Over the years, King was with her husband in his finest hours. She was at his side as he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. She marched beside him from Selma, Ala., into Montgomery in 1965 on the triumphant drive for a voting rights law.

Only days after his death, she flew to Memphis with three of her children to lead thousands marching in honor of her slain husband and to plead for his cause.

“I think you rise to the occasion in a crisis,” she once said. “I think the Lord gives you strength when you need it. God was using us — and now he’s using me, too.”

Her husband’s womanizing had been an open secret during the height of the civil rights movement. In January, a new book, “At Canaan’s Edge” by Taylor Branch, put his infidelity back in the spotlight. It said that not long before he was assassinated, King confessed a long-standing affair to his wife while she was recovering from a hysterectomy.

The King family, especially Coretta Scott King and her father-in-law, Martin Luther King Sr., were highly visible in 1976 when former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter ran for president. When an integration dispute at Carter’s Plains church created a furor, Coretta Scott King campaigned at Carter’s side the next day.

She later was named by Carter to serve as part of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, where Young was the ambassador.

Favored trial for husband’s assailant

In 1997, she spoke out in favor of a push to grant a trial for James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to killing her husband and then recanted.

“Even if no new light is shed on the facts concerning my husband’s assassination, at least we and the nation can have the satisfaction of knowing that justice has run its course in this tragedy,” she told a judge.

The trial never took place; Ray died in 1998.

King was born April 27, 1927, in Perry County, Ala. Her father ran a country store. To help her family during the Depression, young Coretta picked cotton. Later, she worked as a waitress to earn her way through Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Passing the torch

In 1994, she stepped down as head of the King Center, passing the job to son Dexter, who in turn passed the job on to her other son, Martin III, in 2004. Dexter continued to serve as the center’s chief operating officer.

Martin III also has served on the Fulton County (Ga.) commission and as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, co-founded by his father in 1957. Daughter Yolanda became an actress and the youngest child, Bernice, became a Baptist minister.

In 1993, on the 25th anniversary of her husband’s death, King said the war in Vietnam that her husband opposed “has been replaced by an undeclared war on our central cities, a war being fought by gangs with guns for drugs.”

“The value of life in our cities has become as cheap as the price of a gun,” she said.

In London, she stood in 1969 in the same carved pulpit in St. Paul’s Cathedral where her husband preached five years earlier.

“Many despair at all the evil and unrest and disorder in the world today,” she preached, “but I see a new social order and I see the dawn of a new day.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The EU is ready to set up a military force which could stay on standby during elections in Congo, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, with German chancellor Angela Merkel keen to provide German troops for the operation.

The move comes as a response to a request made by the UN earlier this month to beef up its security presence during elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are likely to take place at the end of April. The UN in its letter asked the Europeans to "make available a deterrent force during the electoral process." But Mr Solana told Reuters following an EU fact-finding mission to the violence-stricken country last week that the EU force might also stay on alert outside the country, rather than in Congo itself. "It may be necessary to have a sort of reserve in case of need, that is not an actual operation on the ground," he stated. The UN has about 16,000 troops in Congo, in a bid to secure a fragile peace after a brutal war in the African state from 1998 to 2002. But Congo witnesses regular violence between government forces and rebels, with Ugandan militiamen in January killing eight Guatemalan UN peacekeepers. The leader of the independent elections commission in the country, Apollinaire Malu-Malu, welcomed EU engagement according to German daily Tageszeitung. Mr Malu-Malu said "It is about deterrence. If someone declares himself as an election winner against the people, he has to be confronted. [EU] troop deployment creates a climate of security for the people."

Concern in Germany

But the prospect of an EU mission to the trouble zone has created concern in Germany, with reports indicating German troops are likely to take part in the mission. Die Welt wrote on Friday (10 February) that German chancellor Angela Merkel is personally pushing for German engagement, in a bid to show solidarity with France which is likely to have a leading role in the EU force. One scenario is the deployment of around 300 to 500 German troops along with a similar number of French forces, with France providing the battle troops and Germany focusing on logistics and other auxiliary tasks. German politicians and commentators have reacted with concern to the idea of German soldiers having to fight in Africa, with CDU and SPD coalition party members telling German media that deployment of battle groups in the area is out of the question. The German parliament's special commissioner for the armed forces, Reinhald Robbe, told weekly Der Spiegel last month that the German army is "not prepared for shooting at child soldiers."

EU battle groups

In 2003, the EU also launched a military operation in Congo, under a UN resolution authorising the deployment of an interim emergency multinational force in the region of Bunia, which lasted for three months. This year's possible new EU force is likely to be an ad hoc formation, possibly led by France which also led the 2003 operation, instead of one of the EU’s formal so-called battle groups. EU member states are currently setting up a series of battlegroups for rapid deployment to crisis zones. These groups, most of them multinational, are composed of around 1,500 combat soldiers which could be sent to trouble spots within days for a period of up to three months. For example, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria are setting up such a force, while Sweden, Finland, Norway and Estonia have teamed up in a Nordic battle group. The Irish Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, on Thursday indicated Ireland is also willing to participate in the battlegroup scheme, according to RTE news. Mr O'Dea said the battle groups do not constitute a "European army" and do not undermine Ireland's traditional neutrality.

IRIN - 10 feb. 06 - 12.02h

KINSHASA, 10 February (IRIN) - Incidents of rape have risen sharply along the Kanyabayonga-Kayna road in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu Province, where fighting between the army and renegade soldiers has displaced at least 70,000 people, according to humanitarian workers.

"We are witnessing a quadruple increase in rape cases in the Kanyabayonga-Kayna axis this week, where victims have been treated by [Medecines Sans Frontieres] MSF-France," Patrick Lavand'homme, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma, the provincial capital, said on Thursday. Kanyabayonga, Kibirizi and Kayna are towns in North Kivu's Lubero Territory. Those blamed for the rapes are suspected to members of the army and the renegades. Confirming the increase in the number of rape cases reported to their mobile clinics, the head of the MSF mission in Kayna, Jean Guy Vataux, said, "The number of rape victims has reached 23 especially, in the Kibirizi area." Fighting erupted mid-January in the province between elements of the Congolese army and renegades, displacing tens of thousands of civilians. International advocacy group, Amnesty International, issued a report on Wednesday accusing the army and the renegades of rape, extortion and other human rights violations in North Kivu and in the province of Katanga, where Mayi-Mayi militias, former allies of the government, are now pitted against the regular army. Some of the rape cases reported involve underage girls. MSF said the 23 rape victims receiving treatment at Kanyabayonga were among some the latest displaced civilians, 35,000 of whom arrived in the town last week. OCHA said another group of the displaced had sought refuge in the towns of Rutshuru, Kirumba and Kayna. Local families have accommodated the majority of the displaced. "We are trying to double the supply of free water to the whole population of Kanyabayonga because the arrival of the displaced has created a water and food shortage," Vataux said. He said the problem had been exacerbated because the Kibirizi population already had a high number of malnourished children. Kibirizi residents did not have access to MSF aid for three weeks because of insecurity. However, MSF has been providing free medical aid to the displaced for a week now. "The highest number of patients come in with respiratory diseases and malaria patients come in second," Vitaux said. He added that 40 of the 1,500 patients treated by MSF had been transferred to the hospital in Kayna, which is some 12 kilometers north of Kanyabayonga. Meanwhile, more displaced continue to arrive in small groups at Kanyabayonga from the Kibirizi periphery, the head of OCHA in the town of Beni, Ibrahima Diarra, said. The UN World Food Programme and NGOs such as Solidarity are distributing food and non-food items to the displaced. The UN Mission in the Congo, MONUC, reported that calm had returned to the Rutshuru area but that the situation was still tense. However, the small groups of displaced that continue to arrive say fighting continues. Some 1,400 insurgents surrendered to army on 3 February during a visit to North Kivu by Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba. These have been grouped at a site to await integration into the army or demobilisation. UN-supported Radio Okapi has reported that more insurgents have joined in the fighting and replaced those who surrendered their weapons.

TAORMINA, ITALY/BERLIN - Germany may send up to 500 troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a United Nations mission, a report said Friday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to deploy between 300 and 500 non-combat troops along with France which plans to send battle groups, said the newspaper Die Welt.

A German Defence Ministry spokeswoman declined to initially comment on the story.

Germany plans to send air force transport planes including medevac jets with medical personnel, engineers and logistics experts, the report said.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, speaking at a NATO meeting in Taormina, Italy, insisted there was still no final decision on whether European troops would be dispatched to Congo.

A European Union fact-finding mission would present a report next week, he said, adding: "If the UN decides such a mandate and asks Europe to help then we will not shirk such a request."

Jung declined to speculate on how many soldiers Germany would contribute to a Congo mission other than underlining Berlin would not take a "lead role" in any such operation.

DPA

10 feb. 06 - 12.35h

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Thousands of Congolese civilians forced from their homes by recent fighting in the east are now fleeing again to escape rape, beatings and torture by marauding gunmen, aid workers said on Thursday.

Just months ahead of scheduled elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, clashes between government forces and rebels and militias in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Katanga provinces have displaced tens of thousands and curbed aid work, relief organisations said. France's Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement civilians were being "raped, tortured and beaten up". MSF doctors had provided medical care for 23 rape victims during the last six days alone in North Kivu. "The population fled into the bush during the fighting. But they are now having to flee again because of abuses by armed men and the poor conditions," Jean-Guy Vataux, head of MSF-France in Congo, told Reuters by phone from the eastern town of Kayna. Congo's war officially ended almost three years ago. Nearly 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed across the vast central African country and elections are due to be held by mid-June. But the violence continues across much of the east. After weeks hiding in the bush, some 40,000 civilians had sought shelter in three towns in North Kivu, where former Rwandan-backed rebels have rejected integration into the national army and are confronting government soldiers, MSF said.

Many other displaced people remained in the bush, however, subject to violence and looting but unable to move on because they were too weak or it was too dangerous, it added.

Congo's war killed some 4 million people since it began in 1998. Experts say some 1,000 people continue to die every day, mostly from war-related hunger and disease.

UK-based Amnesty International said on Wednesday that government forces as well as rebels were carrying out abuses against civilians in North Kivu and Katanga.

"In both provinces, military action is preventing aid efforts of humanitarian agencies, leaving thousands of people dying from direct violence or from preventable disease and starvation," the organisation said. Government officials were unavailable for comment. While U.N. peacekeepers are trying to keep a lid on ethnic violence in North Kivu, they are thin on the ground in copper-rich Katanga, where former government-backed militias are battling government forces and more than 100,000 civilians have fled their homes.

''Elections Approach in Democratic Republic of Congo''

The constitutional referendum that was held in Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) on December 18, 2005 was accepted by 84.3 percent of Congolese voters and was approved in May 2005 by the National Assembly. The successful passage of D.R.C.'s new draft constitution is seen as a stepping stone in the new political and institutional course in the central African country.

Background to the Elections

The acceptance of the draft constitution comes after almost ten years of continued political and military instability that began with the Tutsi-led insurgency in October 1996 that brought the fall of one of the most prominent leaders of contemporary African history, Mobutu Sese Seko, and subsequently gave power to Laurent Kabila. Then, in August 1998, the conflict exploded with the deployment of troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Whereas for many years the conflict in the eastern regions had been limited to the presence of regular armies and militias from neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, the involvement of more African actors gave a continental dimension to the "quagmire."

The inter-Congolese accord signed in Pretoria on December 17, 2002 established the ruling principles and the directives for a transitional process to take place. The first part of the comprehensive plan culminated in the inauguration of the transitional government in June 2003, led by Joseph Kabila -- son of the former President Laurent Kabila who was assassinated in January 2001 -- that within two years should have organized and guaranteed presidential and parliamentary elections. The elections were repeatedly postponed and now they have been set for the period between the end of April and the beginning of June 2006, while local elections are scheduled for March and April.

Even though the transitional government encountered significant difficulties during the past two years, it was able to widely implement the inter-Congolese agreement that, together with the elaboration of key laws and the initial reintegration of the Congolese armed forces, put in place a draft constitution that set up new institutions. The successful constitutional referendum in December 2005 was a final legitimizing factor.

The referendum was considered a test to see whether general elections could take place in a successful way (former Zaire and the D.R.C. have not held an independent election in over 40 years), and the outcome has generally been deemed positive. Despite the huge difficulties in organizing and participating in the vote, nearly 25 million Congolese were registered and half of them went to the poll stations. The E.U. and other international observers said the referendum was free and fair. Additionally, the threat of violence and armed attacks from the bands of militiamen was limited and did not affect the regularity of the operations.

Elections Approach

The international community's judgment on the whole electoral process testifies that there are hopes for the development of an institutional transition system in D.R.C., acknowledging that the Independent Electoral Commission has demonstrated its ability to handle what the U.N. repeatedly defines as "the most complicated elections it has ever been involved in." Most of the burden in the coming months will be on the transitional government's shoulders. Kabila, although very young at 33, has shown great ability in maintaining the government's power and in dealing with the many obstacles coming from the transitional process, the internal political arena and the critical situation in the eastern regions of the country. Therefore, Kabila is widely expected to win the presidential poll.

What emerges clearly is that Kabila appears to have gained solid support from the international community, and mainly from Belgium, South Africa, France and the U.S. Both the United States and France have been crucial actors in the shaping of the geopolitical balances in the Great Lakes region, particularly since the end of the Cold War; Washington and Paris have been fighting a long "underground" struggle to obtain a sort of political supervisory role in this area but their attention is now oriented toward more strategic areas of the continent, such as the Sahel region, the Gulf of Guinea, Sudan and the Horn of Africa. [See: "Washington's Long War and its Strategy in the Horn of Africa"]

Nevertheless, outside support should guarantee the Congolese transitional government not only solid diplomatic backing -- which is fundamental to prevent the neighboring countries, and mainly Rwanda, from interfering in D.R.C.'s internal issues -- but also the financial and logistical support of the international community, which is definitely crucial for the elections to occur.

What appear to be the most difficult obstacles to overcome in the set up of the electoral process and in the effective and safe execution of the vote are the high levels of fragmentation within the political field and the still erupting military instability in some regions of the country.

Most likely, the government will soon face a spoiling redistribution of power within the principal members of the transitional government. Kabila has four vice presidents and his government includes 36 ministries, while the parliament is composed of 500 deputies and 120 senators. These political figures, some of which can still count on the backing of militia groups, will hardly leave their current positions without significant compensation. Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (P.P.R.D.), Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba's Liberation Movement of Congo (M.L.C.), and Azarias Ruberwa's Congolese Democracy-Goma (R.C.D.), together with other former rebel groups, as well as the opposition parties, are expected to use their preeminent positions and influence in the electoral campaigns, mainly by controlling the media.

On the other side, Etienne Tshisekedi, one of the oldest Congolese politicians, who had fought both the Mobutu Sese Seku and the Laurent Kabila leaderships, will be another key player. As the leader of the main opposition party, Union for Democracy and Social Progress (U.D.P.S.), Tshisekedi constantly worked against the transitional government and has boycotted voter registration and participation at the recent referendum. Nevertheless, it is very likely that he will finally take part in the general and presidential elections.

Concern over Military Instability in Eastern Regions

Another major threat is the military instability in the eastern regions and the renewed calls for autonomy in Katanga.

In Kivus, the Rwandan Armed Liberation Forces (F.D.L.R.) still constitute a military menace; after negotiations in Rome in March 2005 with the Kinshasa government and the Sant'Egidio community, the F.D.L.R. announced that it would return to Rwanda peacefully; however, after one year the process of disarmament and demobilization is in jeopardy. The threats toward the institutional transition in D.R.C. come not only from the F.D.L.R.'s 8,000 combatants, but also because their presence in the border zone between D.R.C. and Rwanda provides the Kigali government with an alibi to intervene in the defense of its interests, mainly directed to the arrest of some of the F.D.L.R.'s leaders accused of a central role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

From 2005 onward, the Katanga regions have become a cause of tensions both from the political and military points of view. Some conflicts in particular could destabilize the electoral campaign in D.R.C.'s most mineral-rich province. Those conflicts include rivalries between local ethnic groups and the attacks of Mai Mai militias against the national army.

From this side comes another source of uncertainty: the integration of units in the new Armed Forces of the D.R.C. (F.A.R.D.C.) has been slow, and the F.A.R.D.C. brigades that have been established lack both adequate training and equipment. This aspect indicates there's no real insurance for the electoral process to succeed and pose a threat if the election results won't be accepted by the leaders of the militia and rebel groups. Therefore, both the central government and the U.N. mission in the D.R.C. (M.O.N.U.C.) must take in great consideration the immediate strengthening of F.A.R.D.C.

Conclusion

D.R.C. is going to face one of the most crucial and delicate situations in its recent history. If the coming elections finally take place and the result is judged and accepted as free and fair by the majority of the political parties, rebel groups and militias that will take part in the reconstruction process, the situation could improve. The local vote scheduled for March and April will be a significant test, not only for the effectiveness of the whole electoral process, but mainly because it could draw the basic lines of the future political and institutional structure of the country. Indeed, D.R.C. may be too large of a territory to be considered a single political and administrative unit.

Security appears to be the key word in the coming months, with a pivotal role for the international community, both at the U.N. level (with the M.O.N.U.C. military contingent) and for the single actors -- the U.S., France, Belgium and South Africa -- to deploy their political and diplomatic influence and provide their financial support.

Report Drafted By:

Aldo Pigoli

Refugee returns to Equateur and South Kivu provinces of DRC pass 10,000 mark

The UN refugee agency's voluntary repatriation programmes to two separate provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) each passed the 10,000 mark this week as Congolese refugees return to areas of the vast country where security has improved.

A total of 255 Congolese crossed River Oubangui to Dongo from the neighbouring Republic of Congo (RoC) on 7 February, the 57th convoy since UNHCR's facilitated returns to Equateur Province started last April. Some 10,240 Congolese have now been safely delivered to their villages in Equateur, Africa's biggest rainforest.

This was followed on Wednesday by the UNHCR voluntary repatriation to DRC's South Kivu Province from Tanzania also crossing the 10,000 mark. A total of 10,161 refugees have been assisted to return by boat to the province since that operation started in October.

Repatriation to DRC is complex. The first UNHCR voluntary repatriation was from Central African Republic -- 1,941 assisted returns in 2004. The UN refugee agency in DRC also plans to add repatriation both from and to Sudan next month. However, other areas of DRC remain too unstable to begin returning refugees.

Among the Congolese returnees to Equateur on Tuesday were women who, for most of their stay in RoC, trained as tailors. "On arrival, we were happy and confident that the tailoring skills we acquired in RoC will not go to waste," one woman said.

"Our return home has changed the desperate life that we lived in exile," said another woman. She noted a number of assistance activities that have taken off to help reintegrate those coming home. UNHCR has rehabilitated some damaged return routes plus schools and health centres in main return areas. Shelter has been provided to the vulnerable.

"Before deciding to return, we were worried about how to find the means needed to rebuild our house, which was destroyed by the war," said a woman whom UNHCR provided with a house, appealing to those who are still in exile to come back home.

Returnees receive a start-up pack that includes food for three months, non-food items such as blankets, sleeping mats, a kitchen set and shelter kit containing a machete, saw, hammer, roofing nails and plastic sheeting. Tools and seeds for planting are essential for the returnees to start a new, sustainable life in Equateur where the effects of war can still be felt three years after the conflict.

UNHCR has created transit centres at which returning communities either overnight or undergo immigration procedures and screening for medical and social assistance needs.

"Logistical difficulties have slowed down movements either because of the shallow waters on the river that do not allow bigger boats or by the damage to the gravel roads caused by excessive rains. Floods wash away wooden bridges, which also contribute to late arrival of assistance packages," said UNHCR's representative in DRC, Eusebe Hounsokou

But he noted that more areas formerly under militia control are beginning to open up. Eusebe said UNHCR in mid-January 2006 evaluated security conditions in Buburu, a return area located on River Oubangui where 35,000 Congolese had fled the war.

"The military have vacated the area, while residents reported reduced harassment, which was the case when the military was occupying the area," Eusebe said. As a result, the UNHCR representative predicts returnee numbers to Equateur will rise during the course of 2006.

Equateur Province was the second area in the DRC where UNHCR began facilitating repatriation, after the modest returns from CAR in 2004. Returns to South Kivu from camps in western Tanzania, which shelter some 150,000 Congolese, started last October. Including Congolese refugees who returned on their own, more than 52,000 people have returned to the whole country since October 2004.

In addition, on 30 January 2006, UNHCR and the governments of Sudan and the DRC signed two separate agreements to start facilitated returns of refuges from both countries. For up to four decades, 6,800 Congolese have lived in South Sudan, while 13,000 Sudanese had fled fighting to north-eastern DRC. Movements to and from both countries are expected to start next month.

"We hope that conditions in other areas of the DRC will soon improve to allow for organised returns to start," said Eusebe. About 45,000 Congolese from Katanga Province are in Zambia, but the continuing insecurity does not encourage returns there to start any time soon.

Politically, however, the DRC has made significant strides towards restoring peace and expanding state authority over its vast territory. It is assisted by UN peacekeeping forces who have a mandate to end armed hostilities.

Preparations for elections also appear to be on course. On 18 December, 84 percent of eligible Congolese voted in favour of a new constitution, setting the way for the DRC to hold the first democratic elections in 45 years.

By David Nthengwe

In Dongo, DRC

Amnesty International | 08 feb. 06 - 17.37h

PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 62/003/2006 (Public)

News Service No: 035

Amnesty International said today that while leaders of armed insurgent groups in the Katanga and North-Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must be held to account for serious human rights abuses committed by their forces, the DRC government is equally responsible for the lack of protection for civilians in these areas.

"The failure by the DRC government to create a professional, truly unified army is contributing in a large measure to the continuing instability in the east and needlessly putting civilian lives at risk," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme.

In both Katanga and North-Kivu, the civilian population is receiving inadequate protection from the DRC government army against armed insurgents, and is also frequently the direct target of attacks by both insurgents and government forces. In both provinces, military action is preventing aid efforts of humanitarian agencies, leaving thousands of people dying from direct violence or from preventable disease and starvation.

In Katanga province, fighting between mayi-mayi militia and the government army has led to the displacement of more than 100,000 people. The insurgents have attacked villages, raped and killed civilians and burned and looted people's homes. In fighting the mayi-mayi, the DRC army has also been responsible for raping, looting and other human rights violations.

In the Rutshuru territory of North-Kivu province, fighting between the government army and soldiers said to be under the orders of renegade commander Laurent Nkunda has led to the displacement of at least 37,000 people. In the course of this fighting, all forces have been responsible for human rights abuses.

"Civilians in the east are looking to their government for protection," said Kolawole Olaniyan. "But in many cases government soldiers are acting little better than the insurgent groups."

"Military insurgents must respect international humanitarian law, and when they do not, must be brought to justice," said Kolawole Olaniyan. "However, for its part, the DRC government must put all the resources and political will necessary into professionalizing the Congolese army so that it respects international human rights and humanitarian law, enables access by humanitarian agencies to vulnerable populations, and at all times acts to protect civilians."

Despite an ongoing national programme of army unification and reform, little effort has been made to instil a culture of professionalism in the government army. Suspected perpetrators of grave human rights abuses have not been excluded from its ranks. Army personnel have not been provided with proper training in their obligations under international law. Army units -- even among the newly integrated brigades -- receive insufficient equipment, pay, clothing and food supplies. Chains of command often remain confused.

A European Union plan for the reform of the army payroll and food supply system has recently received a go-ahead from the DRC government. "This plan is welcome," Kolawole Olaniyan said. "But fundamental problems relating to the discipline, training and accountability of the integrated brigades need also to be addressed as a matter of priority."

Both North-Kivu and Katanga provinces are home to a mix of ethnic groups with historically troubled relations, living in intersecting zones of control of different, largely ethnic-based, Congolese political armed groups. Some communities, manipulated by their leaders, remain deeply suspicious of the army unification process -- fearing the loss of protection by local armed groups.

Some political and military leaders continue to show extreme reluctance to dismantle their military structures in favour of a unified national army, because these structures are the foundation of their power.

"The DRC's diverse communities must be reassured that the unified army will act as an impartial force. To this end, suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses must be excluded from its ranks and brought to justice. The army must demonstrate that it is capable of acting for the protection of all civilians, irrespective of their ethnic, community or political affiliation," said Kolawole Olaniyan.

Amnesty International also called on MONUC -- the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC -- to implement its mandate robustly, saying that MONUC "must be reinforced in the regions most at risk of escalation of violence and be able to guarantee humanitarian access to those in need."

For more information on the North-Kivu crisis, please see the Amnesty International September 2005 report North-Kivu: Civilians pay the price for political and military rivalry at http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr620132005.

For further information on the situation in Katanga, please see the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) February 2006 report Forced Displacement and Cholera in Katanga, DRC www.msf.org.

U.N. troops fight militias in eastern Congo

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Four killed in Congo riots as vote tensions mount

KINSHASA, June 26 (Reuters) - Four people, including a baby, were killed during weekend riots in Congo, the United Nations said on Sunday, in an early sign of unrest as authorities seek to discourage protests over delays to the first post-war polls.

In the sprawling capital Kinshasa, heavily armed soldiers and riot police patrolled the streets on Sunday and a helicopter gunship buzzed overhead in a show of force to dissuade people from trying to undermine the transitional government.

(read)

• Abstract of the first meeting with Congolese community in Belgium. Brussels - September 24, 2004 - Afribo, located Boulevard Leopold II to 1080 Brussels

• George Alula briefed the community on Unic’s political program. He has two hours discussion with the attending audience. Some questions raised are reported in the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section in this website.