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11.29.2012The Latest from Goma
From Zarembka
The situation in Goma seems to remain “calm,” meaning that people are tentatively going about their normal everyday tasks of living. There are reports that M23 is planning on evacuating the outlying towns they captured and retreat from Goma. I’ll believe this when there are actual reports that they have left. There are also news reports that trucks full of goods are leaving the town for the north where the rebels came from. Does this mean that M23 is looting the town? I am not overly surprised if M23 leaves Goma because I didn’t think they had enough soldiers to control such a large city together with the rural areas that they already control. People in Goma are wary about the Congolese army returning because they fear reprisal/revenge killings of those whom they will accuse of helping the M23 – to translate the code, Kiyarwandan-speaking people living in Goma.
The AGLI supported staff and Quakers in North Kivu and
Gisenyi, led by David Bucura, AGLI Coordinator for Central Africa, have been
following the situation closely and have been the source for most of my information.
They asked me shortly after M23 took Goma, since there was a shortage of food --
the roads from Masisi which is the breadbasket for Goma were blocked -- if they
could use the $2420 that was in the AGLI account to buy food. I went out on a
limb and agreed even though these funds were not in AGLI’s budget and would
depend on extra fundraising. Since these funds are for salaries and other
program expenses, AGLI will have to reimburse the Gisenyi account. On Saturday
they distributed 68 bags of corn (maize) of 25 kilograms each (55 pounds) to 91
families including 36 rape survivors. They are now giving out 10 kilograms (22
pounds) of beans to each family.
The AGLI staff estimate that there are 15 people in each
family. When I questioned this large number, I was told that this means “extended
family” which is how poor people survive in such conditions, that is, by
sharing and helping each other out. Moreover people in Goma frequently host people
who had fled to Goma from the towns that had previously been attacked. When I
worked as a young man in a Rwandan refugee camp, I was amazed by the fact that,
when there was hunger and people got some food, they shared it with family, friends,
and neighbors. Then in return when their neighbors received some food, the
sharing was reciprocated, although they also included elderly people and young
mothers with children who were not likely to have much to give back. I found
this most impressive since it belied the “rugged individualism” that is the bedrock
of American psychology that I had grown up with.
The AGLI group in Goma/Gisenyi has formed a Goma Relief
committee to decide the mechanics of a relief program including that hard
question of deciding who is going to be helped. There are a million people in
the Goma area and we can’t possibility help all. They have decided to help the
rape survivors who are part of the HROC-North Kivu program and poor members of
Friend’s churches in Goma. They would like to help 270 families (or 4050 people
at 15 members per family) each with 25 kilograms of corn flour and 10 kilograms
of beans. I have attached a picture of women receiving the distribution last
Saturday at the Gisenyi Peace Center. This food relief is going to cost $7338
for one distribution.
When AGLI participated in relief during the 2008 post-election
violence in Kenya, we realized that, while giving humanitarian aid, as we
called it, was necessary and useful, psychological support was also important,
particularly when we realized that Kenyan Quakers were the only group doing
this. Recovering from the shock, trauma, and despondency that occurs when one’s
world is turned up-side-down is also important. If people can regain a sense of
perspective, can have hope, can realize that they are not the only ones
suffering, can look positively at the future, that healing is important for
them and their family’s well-being.
First Theoneste Bizimana, the HROC coordinator in Rwanda,
plans to do a one-week residential healing companion training for 15
participants at the Gisenyi Peace Center at a cost of $1350. The participants
will be people who have participated on our HROC and AVP workshops in the past.
After this training, 27 one-day listening sessions for 540 participants are
planned. This will occur in Goma, conditions permitting. The healing companions
will work with a HROC facilitator for each session. The 270 families given the
rations above will send one man and one women to the listening sessions.
Theoneste himself will develop the agenda and modify it as experience dictates.
Each workshop will cost $291 for a total of $7857.
The grand total for this Goma Relief project as proposed
will be $18,965. A number of people have already indicated that they would
support this project. I am asking you to also contribute whatever you are able.
I also ask you to circulate this request to your meeting, church, friends,
family, and other who might be willing to assist. Tax-deductible checks should
be made out to “Friends Peace Team/AGLI” with memo notation of “Goma Relief”
and mailed to 1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104. Or you can also go to the Friends
Peace Teams webpage at www.friendspeaceteams.org
and click on the AGLI button. If you would like to donate to the AGLI account
in England, please let me know and I’ll send you the information.
If AGLI is able to raise more than the $18,965 needed, I
would like to be able to make another food distribution shortly before
Christmas. For the people in Goma, it has been a rough year and it would be
nice to have a little something extra to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
______________________________
If you would like to be added to this listserve, please send your name and email address to dave@aglifpt.org. Please donate to AGLI's programs by sending a check to the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams made out to Friends Peace Teams/AGLI to 1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 or go to our webpage at www.friendspeaceteams.org to donate by debit/credit card. 11.23.2012Update #3 on Goma
From David Zarembka and African Great Lakes Initiative - Friends Peace Teams
My contacts in Goma and Gisenyi and international news reports indicate that the situation in Goma has calmed down
and life is returning to normal. This means that people are out of their
houses, walking through the town in their normal activities. There is no
electricity and as a result also no water since the electricity pumps the
water. Food is scarce because mountainous Masisi is the breadbasket for Goma
and travel from Masisi to Goma has been cut. I will return to this at the
end of this report.
The M23 rebels who now control the
city have asked policemen and any soldiers remaining in the town to turn in
their weapons and it seems that they are turning them in. M23 has recruited
thousands of new soldiers, many of them deserters from the Congolese army. As I
learned when I was in Masisi in 2008 during the previous Tutsi-led rebel
movement, young men of all ethnicities are enrolled into the rebel fighting
force as the foot soldiers. The command, of course, remains in the hands of Tutsi.
On Thursday, M23 soldier moved 17
miles west along Lake Kivu and took, without resistance, the small town of Sake.
This is significant for much more than the few miles separating Goma from Sake.
Most of the land between these two cities is volcanic rock. Hardly any trees
grow and even the grass is sparse in this lush part of the world. This inhospitable
area is where the million Hutu refugees from the Rwandan genocide were placed
and later the internally displaced camps for those fleeing the violence in
North Kivu. This also is the traditional boundary between the
Kiyarwanda-speaking people of Goma and the local Congolese tribes in Sake. So
M23 has move outside the traditional Kinyarwandan-speaking areas where they
have succeeded in the past. The second signficant reason is that the road to Masisi branches
off at Sake, climbing the mountains to an area that has been controlled by the
Tutsi since the previous rebellion in 2004 led by Laurent Nkunda. The Congolese
army counter-attacked Sake, but was repulsed. M23 claims that they are now moving
south on the shores of Lake Kivu towards Bukavu which they are planning on
taking. Bukavu is about 60 miles south of Goma on the southern shore of
Lake Kivu and is the capital of South Kivu.
We cannot sit around idly while the
humanitarian situation in Goma escalates. David Bucura, Central African coordinator
for the African Great Lakes Initiative, has gone to Gisenyi, and hopefully,
Goma, to develop plans on what we might do. The outline is as follows: Since
Goma is lacking food, AGLI will buy food in Rwanda and take it to the Gisenyi
Peace Center which is only two blocks from the Congolese border. Since our resources
are very limited and can’t possibility serve the one million people in Goma, we
are going to concentrate on destitute members of the Friends Church and those
rape survivors that Zawadi Nikuze has been working with. They will come across
the border – there seems to be no problem with people crossing the border –
and receive a ration commensurate with the number of people in the family.
Families with children will be targeted. The ration will consist of basic foods
like beans, rice, corn flour, and so on. Bucura will meet with the AGLI people
in Goma and Gisenyi and work out all the details. I have authorized Bucura to
use the AGLI funds that are in the bank in Gisenyi for this immediate relief and we will
reimburse the funds used with the hope that we can raise sufficient funds.
What we found when we did humanitarian relief
during the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya is that our
limited resources could reach only a few people, but it was important to do
what we could. But later we did listening sessions, AVP and HROC workshops,
which ended up being more important because nobody else was doing anything
equivalent to this. I’ll be letting you know when we have more fully developed
the project.
______________________________
Please donate to
AGLI's programs by sending a check to the African Great Lakes Initiative of the
Friends Peace Teams made out to Friends Peace Teams/AGLI to 1001 Park
Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 or go to our webpage at www.friendspeaceteams.org to donate by
debit/credit card.
.
11.21.2012Zarembka on East Congo - an education People like to have simple explanations for foreign policy issues – anti-communism, war on terror, axis of evil, bad guys versus the good guys, them and us. While I doubt that these simplistic terms of reference are very useful, they are impossible in describing the conflict in North Kivu because the situation is complex and ever changing. I will attempt to outline the conflict so that anyone can understand it. I am leaving out many of the names and details that can confuse the situation. The conflict is also polarized with various sides having their “true” explanation of the events. I will try to be as even-handed as I can, but I am sure I will not satisfy partisans to the conflict.
The first issue to realize is
geography. Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, is roughly 100 miles from
Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, but 1000 miles from Kinshasa, the capital of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Moreover there are no roads, rivers, or
railroads that can take people or goods from Goma to Kinshasa – the only option
is to fly. Therefore all goods, all imports to and exports from North Kivu
travel through Rwanda and Uganda. Swahili, like in most of East Africa, is the
common language of North Kivu. North Kivu is much more closely tied to the east
than to the west.
Moreover North Kivu is 2 ¼ times the
size of Rwanda, while it has only half the population (5,767,945 in 2010).
Therefore it is much less densely populated. This has been true for a long time
so Rwanda’s surplus population – encouraged during Belgian rule which ended in
1961 – migrated to North Kivu.
Historically there are a number of
issues of interest. When Rwanda was part of German East Africa before World War
I, northwestern Rwanda was not part of the kingdom of Rwanda but two
independence Hutu kingdoms. The people in this area were called Bakiga. With
the help of the German led soldiers, the Mwami (king) of Rwanda was able to
conquer these two kingdoms. These had no Tutsi among the population so the
Mwami imposed Tutsi chiefs loyal to him. Since the Bakiga live in a mountainous
area not conducive to cattle-keeping, but small scale farming, over time these
Bakiga became labeled as “Hutu” as in the rest of Rwanda. Most of the main leaders
of the Rwandan genocide came from this region of present day Rwanda and had an
intense hatred of the Tutsi overlords that were imposed upon them by the Mwami
and Germans and then the Belgians.
The second historical issue is that
the Europeans did not set the boundaries according to language or ethnicity.
Consequently, there were many Kiyarwandan (the language of Rwanda) speaking people
who live in the area close to the Rwandan border including Goma and Rutshuru.
Their dialect is slightly different from that spoken in Rwanda, so these Kiyarwandan-speaking
Congolese are obvious to other Rwandans. Some of these fled to Rwanda during
the conflicts of the mid-1990’s and they are still held in refugee camps where
they are not allowed out without official permission. These
Kiyarwandan-speakers are not considered Rwandan nationals and are usually
referred to as “Congolese.” When the situation was still tense in Rwanda in the
early 2000’s, there was a proposal -- that was never implemented -- to expel
all these “Congolese” from Rwanda.
During the colonial period seven
Italian families obtained large estates (over 10,000 acres each) in the hills
of Masisi, high above Goma and Lake Kivu. When I visited there in 2008, these
estates reminded me of Switzerland with European grade cows contently grazing
on the mountain slopes. The Italians hired Tutsi cattle-keepers from Rwanda to
take care of these herds. Then during the chaos after Congolese independence,
these Italian families sold their estates to elite Tutsi. Laurent Nkunda and
Bosco Ntaganda, two of the leaders of the Tutsi rebel forces in North Kivu, are
the owners of two of these formerly Italian estates.
During the colonial period, since
North Kivu was relatively under-populated, the Belgians encouraged Hutu farmers
to move to the very fertile, well-watered hills of Masisi. Usually these Hutu
farmers lived in separate villages from the local Congolese tribes. After the Rwanda
genocide in 1994, many of the Hutu genocidaries fled to North Kivu and are
still one of the many armed groups in North Kivu.
There are numerous small local tribes
in North Kivu. One of the larger ones, the Hunde, who live also in Masisi, is
perhaps half a million people. The local non-Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese
tribes do not distinguish between the various Kiyarwanda-speaking groups listed
above, but consider them all “Rwandan” and “foreigners” in North Kivu. To
counteract the Tutsi and Hutu rebel groups in North Kivu, the local Congolese
have formed their own militias, known as Mai-Mai. But the Mai-Mai are not one
group, but a number of ethnic warlords, each with their own agenda, frequently
combining with other groups including at times with the Rwandan rebel groups. Nonetheless,
the Kiyarwandan-speakers are by far the largest single group in North Kivu, but
as indicated above, far from united.
Another side of the conflict is the
Congolese army, which is supposed to bring order and security to the province.
Alas, they do not do this. It is unclear exactly how large the Congolese army
is because there are many “ghost” soldiers on the payroll whose salaries the
generals embezzle. They are not from eastern Congo and therefore do not speak
Swahili and cannot communicate with the inhabitants of North Kivu. They bring
their wives and children with them. Their pay is low and frequently they do not
receive it. Consequently, they too have to live off the land by attacking local
people and looting the countryside. A number of Congolese army generals have
captured a mine or two like the other rebel groups, exploit the local people,
and keep the proceeds for themselves. The Congolese army is also known for
human rights abuses including rape, looting, and destruction.
Lastly, there is the United Nation’s
Peacekeeping force, MONUSCO, which has 19,000 soldiers in the Congo, 6700 which
are in North Kivu province, and 1500 again in the city of Goma. Their hands are
tied, not only with the usual constrains that UN Peacekeepers are not supposed
to be engaged in fighting, but rather in protecting civilians, keeping order,
and being a neutral force between combating forces. In addition, though, in
order for them to get approval from the Congolese government, the United
Nations had to agree to support the Congolese army. Therefore, it is also a
partisan force. Now if one wants to determine who the “good guys” are from the “bad
guys,” the UN forces are also suspect. One contingent was sent home after it
was alleged to have been running a prostitution ring. Others have been accused
of selling guns, ammunition, and other equipment to the various rebel groups.
More to the point, they have been ineffective in protecting the civilian
population even when the fighting was only a few miles from one of their bases.
In the latter half of the 1990s,
Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo twice. The first time they deposed the
long-time dictator, Mobutu, and the second time they almost deposed their
hand-picked puppet, Laurent Kabila, who had turned against them. At the end of
Africa’s World War in 2003, Rwanda and Uganda agreed to withdraw their troops
from the Congo, but it was clear that they left proxy forces behind. In one
illogical moment, two rebels forces, both supported by Uganda, fought against
each other. Another time when the Rwandan and Ugandan armies were in the Congo,
they found each other, leading to a souring of relations between the two
countries. This has since been patched up and Rwanda and Uganda are cooperating
in their approach to the issues on North Kivu.
Throughout all of this, the United
States and Britain have been strong supporters of Uganda and Rwanda. This is
particularly true of the US and British military. Uganda has supplied the
largest contingent of troops for the African Union in the fight against
al-Shabaab in Somalia and Rwanda for the United Nations forces in Darfur,
Sudan. Recently when Rwanda and Uganda were accused by the UN of supporting the
M23 rebels in North Kivu, both threatened to remove their peacekeeping forces
from Somalia and Darfur. Recently a number of countries have withheld aid to
Rwanda because of their support of the M23 rebels and Uganda for extensive theft
of aid funds.
Behind all this conflict is the fact that
North Kivu has hundreds of tin, coltan, gold, and other mines. These are small,
pick and shovel type of operations. Laborers are poorly paid or even forced to work.
Child labor is common. There are no health or environmental protections. Consequently,
the rewards, the profits from these mining operations are substantial. Moreover
there is a large group of middlemen who get the minerals from the mine to the
international market. A rebel group does not even need to secure a mine to
profit as it can tax any minerals passing through the area it controls.
By this point in this report, you have
the lay of the land in North Kivu. You can see how complex it is and how so
many different actors, each looking out for its own best interests, make
innumerable possibilities.
To explain the current conflict with
M23 taking control of the major, capital city of Goma, M23, for the benefit of
Rwanda and Uganda, now has secured a strong hold on the whole illegal trade in
minerals for North Kivu. I would anticipate that they will slowly but surely
take over not only the mines in North Kivu but all roads leading to their
export. On the other hand, the international community is going to condemn, in
fact, already has condemned, this fragrant violation of international borders.
I expect Rwanda and Uganda to continue to hold tight, deny any involvement, and
wait out the international condemnation until it becomes the “new normal.” The
Congolese government in far away Kinshasa will vent and fume, but will be
unable to do anything significant about the new reality.
______________________________
11.20.2012Goma Nov 18 - (Zarembka writing) I have been receiving reports from AGLI staff in Rwanda and North Kivu concerning the renewed fighting in North Kivu. A large group of Tutsi soldiers, called M-23, deserted the Congolese Army earlier this year and conquered territory north of Goma along the Uganda and Rwandan borders. Rwanda and Uganda are accused by the United Nations of supporting and arming these rebels. After a lull of over a month, fighting resumed a few days ago.
According to the reports I am
receiving from my contacts in Rwanda and from news reports, the rebels have
advanced close to Goma, emptying an internally displaces persons’ camp of
60,000 to 80,000 people, mostly women, children, and the elderly who have fled
to Goma. The governor of North Kivu has reportedly fled to Bukavu in South
Kivu. The Congolese Army has also fled, leaving the way to Goma open to the
rebels. The Congolese Army consists of Congolese from other parts of the Congo
and don’t know Swahili, are poorly paid if they are paid at all, and have no
reason to resist the advance of the rebel forces. The United Nations peace
keepers are a well-equipped force in Goma, but I am not sure that their heavy
equipment (tanks, helicopter gunships, etc) will be useful in this kind of
fighting which depends upon terrorizing the opponent with looting, destruction,
and rape.
Here is one message I have received on
the situation “The situation in Goma is confusing,
but we are still waiting this night for knowing if Goma will be taken by the
rebels or not. But they are almost two kilometers [1 ½ miles] from the town.
Some people fled from Goma into Gisenyi in Rwanda.”
Remember that some of those who are
fleeing will not survive, dying of disease, exposure, stress, hunger, lack of
medicines, etc. Where will the women sleep tonight? Note that many more people
have already died in North Kivu in this fighting than in Gaza in the last five days.
I
doubt that the rebels have the manpower to conquer and control Goma. In 2008 the predecessor group of M-23, led
by Laurent Nkunda, threatened Goma, but pulled back when he got close.
Theoneste Bizimana wrote, “Gisenyi is safe but as we say, ‘It's
impossible to feel safe when your neighbor's home is burning.’”
November 19 - Last night, the M-23 rebels did not attack Goma. Rather they paused and asked for negotiations with the Congolese government. The Congolese government refused", claiming that M-23 was really a front group for the Rwandan army. As a result M-23 continued their advance today and entered Goma.
One message I received said, "The fighting is going on in Goma. Gisenyi has now a lot of confusion."
Zawadi who was in the hospital in Goma after a still-born baby texted
me, "I have just left the hospital and then crossed to Gisenyi, but
bombs are falling all over. It's chaotic."
News reports indicate that these "bombs" come from the United Nations peace-keeping forces.
November 20 - This
morning, after a day’s truce and the Congolese government’s refusal to negotiate
with the M23 rebels, the M23 soldier entered and took the town of Goma. Here is
one report I received: “Now Goma is in the hands of M23; they are controlling
Goma. The battle now is in Mugunga [the former internally displaced persons’
camp were many of AGLI’s rape survivors live]. All Gisenyi borders are also
controlled by the rebels.”
Clearly
the Congolese army did not put up any resistance and fled. But this is the way “wars”
are fought in this region. One side acquires a fearsome reputation and the
opposing side retreats and flees. I do not remember one case since 1996 where
the Rwandan army or Tutsi-led rebel groups, which have the reputation as the
fiercest fighters in the region, have “lost” to the Congolese army, which has
always fled. It also seems that the UN peace keeping force decided not to
oppose the entrance into the city. I think that this is proper because the UN
peace keepers are not authorized to become a fighting army against the rebel
forces.
This morning I received this message
from David Bucura:
“Yesterday
[Monday], Theoneste, Baptiste, and Therese were doing a [children’s] peer mediation
workshop in the Gisenyi Peace Center [which is only two blocks from the
Congolese border]. Around 10 am, bullets were falling in Gisenyi and they had
to lie down on the floor with the children. There was no way to send the
children back because their parents were not home because they had run away. It
was a bad day, says Baptiste and Therese. Therese fell down and her leg is not
moving now.
“One
person [the news reports say two people] died in Gisenyi and others are in the
hospital. Many people have left Gisenyi, coming here in Kigali. The problem was
to find vehicles because no buses are running, Zawadi was evacuated yesterday from
the hospital and she is now at Mahuko [her home fifteen minutes from Gisenyi],
but she is thinking to come in Kigali today for medical treatment. In our house
now we have two families from Gisenyi. We are expecting more. Zawadi told me
that the main help is to have a little funds for evacuation. Theoneste is going
this morning to Gisenyi to see what is happening. Our church members in the Gisenyi
area hosted many people and they do not know how long it will take. The
situation is so confused. I was told that people in Goma do not want to move
from their houses because they do not know where to go? The problem for our
people in Goma is that, because they can't leave their houses, they have no
water and no food. If the borders will be opened, they will need our help.”
M23 talk as
if they plan now to move on to Bukavu in South Kivu at the southern end of Lake
Kivu. I anticipate that there is going to be a very negative reaction from the
international community regarding M23 conquest of Goma - Zarembka
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