coupures 10 mai 2007 (english)

Nepad plans bridge over Congo River


Duncan Guy Johannesburg, South Africa
09 May 2007 09:03
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The New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) has ambitious plans to build a bridge across the massive Congo River, connecting the capitals of the two Congos.Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, are visible to one another in the distance on either side of the Stanley Pool.The pool is dammed by the Inga rapids -- where a hydroelectric scheme is another Nepad project -- and collects water from the enormous Congo Basin.Fed by water from alternative rainy seasons on both sides of the Equator, the Congo River crosses the line twice in its journey to the Atlantic."The bridge has been prioritised as a project that should be implemented with urgency," read a Nepad report presented to the Pan-African Parliament at Midrand this week.In addition to being important to the two Congos, the bridge would connect Africa's Economic Community of Central African States and Southern African Development Community regions.Further south, Nepad has plans for a bridge over the Zambezi river at Kazungula, where Zambia and Botswana meet close to the borders of Namibia and Zimbabwe.For years, a pontoon has carried lorries over this stretch of water."Initially, funding was identified from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, but the funding was not applicable for Zambia due to its Highly-Indebted Poor Countries Incentive status."The Nepad secretariat held several meetings with the African Development Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa to secure funding of the Zambian portion of the costs."The Botswana and Zambian governments are considering the option of implementing this project estimated at $70-million."Various financiers have shown interest in supporting this project," the report read. - Sapa
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Congo army raids spread terror in eastern Congo
09 May 2007 14:30:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier
NYONGERA, Congo, May 9 (Reuters) - "I buried my child in the forest," said Jeannette Nyirarukundo, who fled her village in eastern Congo when it was attacked by the government army meant to protect it.
Six-year-old Moise starved to death before the family reached the safety of a camp at Nyongera, 70 km (44 miles) from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma.
Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.
"We slept in the forest for two weeks, and then they came after us there too. It wasn't safe anymore, and we came here," said Nyirarukundo, 28, who was accompanied by her husband and three surviving children.
Eastern Congo is no stranger to violence, but ironically the latest surge in killing started with a deal designed to bring peace to this corner of the vast country nearly four years after a nationwide accord officially ended a 1998-2003 war.
Laurent Nkunda, a dissident Congolese army general, led his two brigades into the bush in 2004, vowing to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsis. He is under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes after his men occupied Bukavu, South Kivu.
After last year's historic polls saw President Joseph Kabila become Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began negotiations to bring Nkunda and his soldiers into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.
But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo.
"CATASTROPHIC"
"There's more and more movement every day ... If this military strategy continues, we could be looking at another 280,000 more (displaced)," said Luciano Calestini, emergency specialist for eastern Congo for U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF.
"The next six months is going to be a disaster. It's going to be catastrophic," he said.
Human rights observers accuse the mixed brigades of killing, raping and forcing civilians from their homes.
Soldiers from the mixed Bravo Brigade arbitrarily executed at least 15 mostly Hutu civilians in Buramba village about 100 km (60 miles) north of Goma, the human rights division of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission said in a report.
Bravo Brigade commander Colonel Sultani Makenga blamed the massacre on the FDLR.
"What we did was separate the population from the FDLR. That's why the villages are uninhabited," Makenga told Reuters in an interview. "We evacuated the civilians in order to fight the FDLR alone ... It was to protect them."
Makenga said operations would continue until the FDLR were chased out of Congo or destroyed.
Dominique Bofondo, territorial administrator of Rutshuru, where Bravo Brigade is based, said civilians now lived in fear of the mixed brigades.
"These are the same soldiers who killed people, who raped women. And now they are here to take care of us? ... We are in the hands of a killer," Bofondo said.
In Nyongera camp, Nyirarukundo said she is still afraid to return home but says her surviving children are hungry and sick.
"For now, we have nothing. There's no food. Nothing. We just want security, so we can go home," she said.
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INTERVIEW: Scars of Congo fighting could take decades to heal
Wed, 09 May 2007 09:00:01GMT
Berlin - More money is needed to help feed starving refugees in Congo, according to the head of the World Food Programme's (WFP) operations in the vast Central African nation. "We are basically okay until more or less the middle of the year - July, August - and we need 30 million dollars more to cover the needs until the end of the year," said Charles Vincent in a recent interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The United States, Japan and the European Union have signalled their willingness to donate more, but the funds need to be released soon, he told dpa. The country of 60 million has been struggling to maintain stability after last year's free elections, the first following decades of civil war that claimed around 3 million lives. "It has been one of the biggest, most bloody wars ... since World War II," said Vincent. "There hasn't been any conflict where that many people have died."The situation in the south has stabilized, but people were still being uprooted because of clashes that are still taking place between rebels and government troops in the east and north-east, he said. "In some places people are coming back, in other places people are being displaced. Some displaced people are going back to their place of origin, but there are new displacements because of conflicts," he said. "When there is fighting, the civilian population always gets caught in the middle. People are displaced, women are abused. Their assets, goods and food are stolen by the armed groups.""It's a very mixed picture of insecurity," he said, but "there's still a humanitarian crisis in the east."Vincent said 1.6 million people in Congo received aid from the WFP last year. The main problem in getting relief to the starving people, he said, was the poor infrastructure. A lack of security for the WFP's 250 operatives in the country as well as damaged bridges and a shortage of trucks, rail waggons and boats is hampering an effective and speedy distribution of food, he said. In some regions, WFP workers can operate only with body armour and under the protection of military escorts. In other areas, the situation makes relief work impossible. Vincent estimates his team is unable reach one-third of the people displaced in the latest flare-up of fighting, a fact he sees as a potential threat to the nation's stability. Stability is a key factor for the Congo's future, he said - "the basis for its development."French-born Vincent said last year's free and fair elections - the first in 40 years, had shown the Congolese were weary of the conflict that had been sapping their country's strength. "They went massively to the voting rooms and sent a strong signal that they are tired of war, that they want to go on," he said. If the peace process takes hold then the country could reach a stage in 10 years where it no longer requires economic assistance, Vincent added. Congo boasts a tenth of the world's copper reserves as well as abundant deposits of gold and diamonds. "The country is so rich, in all aspects - agriculture, minerals and diamonds: everything grows there, Vincent said. But "things take time," he added, warning that "the scars of the conflict will last for several decades, if not generations."
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Renegade DRC general threatens to withdraw troops from army
GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) - The party of a renegade Congolese general Wednesday threatened to withdraw its troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo's armed forces, sparking fears of renewed violence.
Laurent Nkunda's fighters, who clashed with government soldiers in the volatile Nord-Kivu region in the country's east late last year, had started integrating into the army in January following an accord with Kinshasa.
"The mixing has failed on a logistical and an organisational level," said Patient Mwendanga, who heads up Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) party.
"The government is not taking responsibility for our troops. We have been forced to supply them with food and fuel," Mwendanga added in a telephone interview.
"If the government is unable to live up to its responsibilities, that should be made clear. Otherwise CNDP will take back its troops and use them differently," he said.
When asked if this meant a new rebellion in the region, he answered: "When the time comes we will tell you."
An advisor to President Joseph Kabila lamented the "orchestrated failure of the mixing," telling AFP that Nkunda's men had never intended to integrate into the army and that the former general continued to "exploit" ethnic issues.
The threat, along with nearly daily violence against civilians in eastern DRC prompted observers on Wednesday to predict new violence in the region.
Home to rebellions that have twice plunged the country into war, Nord-Kivu is again "on the edge of the abyss" and the situation is "explosive," according to a Western military observer who asked not to be named.
Nkunda, a Tutsi who fought Rwanda's Hutu-led military during the 1994 genocide, went into dissidence in the DRC in the aftermath of the 1998-2003 regional war, claiming that he sought to protect ethnic Tutsis in the east from attacks by other population groups.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest for war crimes allegedly committed by his troops in 2004.
Meanwhile, the Hutu-led Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebel group active in eastern DRC accused Nkunda and Rwandan President Paul Kagame of trying to "set up a satellite state" in the Kivus.
FDLR spokesman Anastase Munyandekwe said Nkunda "has recruited thousands of fighters in Rwanda and he is now ready to proclaim himself master of North Kivu and South kivu."
"Kagame cannot openly send his men to occupy the two Kivus," he said, adding that the aim was to create "a Rwandan satellite state in the east of Congo."
Sylvie van den Wildenberg, the spokeswoman for the United Nations mission to DRC (MONUC) in Nord-Kivu, said "all the indicators are flashing red at a security and a humanitarian level and we are seeing a rise in inter-community tensions."
"Since the beginning of the (integration) we have tallied more than 100,000 new displaced people in the province, extortion of civilians is reported virtually every day and troubling events are multiplying," she added.
According to a foreign diplomat in the region requesting anonymity, "the situation appears irresolvable."
"Nkunda had a maximum of 3,500 men before the (integration). He has provided 7,000 and says he has 2,000 more. It is clear that he has recruited from the hundreds of demobilised Rwandans," he explained, referring to military information.
A Western military officer meanwhile predicted that "we are headed towards a conflict. The question is when."
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1,244 militiamen disarm in DRCongo's Ituri region
KINSHASA (AFP) - A total of 1,244 former militiamen have surrendered their weapons in the
Democratic Republic of Congo's contested Ituri region since December, the united Nations said Wednesday.
UN Mission in DRCongo (Monuc) spokesman Gabriel de Bosses said 850 of those who gave up arms belonged to the former Front of the Nationalists and Integrationists, 263 were from the Congolese Revolutionary Movement and 131 were members of the Patriotic Resistance Front in Ituri.
On April 7, Peter Karim became the last Ituri rebel leader to surrender his weapons and order his fighters to demobilise. In return, there was a general amnesty and he was appointed colonel in the regular Congolese army.
Since 2005, a national process of demobilisation has led 15,000 fighters to disarm in Ituri. Almost all the region's militia leaders were arrested in 2005.
One of them, Thomas Lubanga, will soon be tried for alleged war crimes before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Karim's FNI is accused of several crimes
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Some leeway for Wolfowitz, who gets a good word from Rice
By Steven R. Weisman
Published: May 10, 2007
WASHINGTON: Bowing to pressure from the Bush administration, the World Bank board agreed Wednesday to give Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president, slightly more time to defend himself against charges of misconduct before the board decides his future.
In a development that might help Wolfowitz's fight to remain as bank president, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has lobbied European foreign ministers in the last two weeks, expressing support for him.
"She has spoken with several European foreign ministers about her positive impressions of Paul and the job he's doing at the World Bank," Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said in an interview on Wednesday when asked whether Rice had become involved in supporting Wolfowitz.
Despite Rice's efforts and the board's decision to give Wolfowitz more time, bank officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are confidential, said they saw no indication that the board was any less determined to oust him from the presidency.
Wolfowitz was given until Friday evening — two additional days — to make his case in writing to the board, and it was expected that he would appear before the board as early as Monday. The board is to vote on whether he deserves a reprimand, a vote of no confidence or outright removal.
But even those plans could change. Discussions continued Wednesday on whether to proceed with a vote next week. Many bank officials continue to hope that Wolfowitz will resign, making a vote unnecessary.
Last weekend, a special committee of the board concluded that Wolfowitz violated bank rules and the terms of his contract by directing that Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, be awarded a large pay and promotion package when she was transferred to the State Department in 2005.
There were also more reports on Wednesday of officials in Europe who favor Wolfowitz's departure.
A senior German official, Karin Kortmann, told the German Parliament that Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the German development minister, had told Wolfowitz last month "that his voluntary resignation was the best solution for the bank and its goals."
But Kortmann, a state secretary in the development ministry, said the United States should be given "room to react" to the crisis before any divisive vote at the bank.
This was apparently a reference to Europeans' hope that the United States would persuade Wolfowitz to step down, possibly in return for assurances that President George W. Bush could nominate his successor.
It has been a tradition since the 1940s that the United States selects the World Bank president and the Europeans select the head of the International Monetary Fund.
The German comments echoed those on Tuesday by top officials in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Wolfowitz's lawyer, Robert Bennett, has said his client wants to present a lengthy rebuttal to the charge by current and former bank officials that he gave Riza the raise without informing or consulting them.
Bennett said the record showed that Wolfowitz gave her the pay and promotion package only after being told by top bank officials that he had to make the arrangements on his own.
Bank officials disagree, saying that while they told him to give her a raise in compensation for being moved to the State Department against her will, he should not have determined the amount by himself, especially since it involved an unusually large amount and promises of future promotions and raises.
The committee that found Wolfowitz guilty of breaking bank rules has not yet determined what punishment to recommend. Whatever the panel recommends, however, will be subject to a final determination by the 24 board members.
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UNHCR fears for Congolese civilians caught in violence
09 May 2007 16:11:18 GMT
Source: UNHCR
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KIWANJA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 9 (UNHCR) – Crouching in a mud hut after a tropical downpour, the UNHCR monitoring team listened as 10 widows told of the dangerous dilemma that they and tens of thousands of other displaced people face in Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) North Kivu province.
"The population is caught in a trap. The FDLR [rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] accuse us of collaboration with the military, and the military accuse us of collaboration with the FDLR," said one of the women, who had all sought safety at the Kiwanja site for displaced people after fleeing their villages.
Although large-scale fighting between rival armed forces has died down in the region, civilians still face threats, attacks and even death and rape in North Kivu. The continuing instability has prompted some 123,000 Congolese to flee their homes across the province over the past three months. Some live in flimsy shelters at displacement sites, others stay with host families.
UNHCR is highly concerned about this displacement of civilians and the targeting of innocents. "Burning of civilian homes and killings of civilians must stop immediately," insisted Ralf Gruenert, UNHCR's deputy representative for protection in the DRC. "We urge all armed groups in North Kivu to refrain from practices violating international humanitarian and human rights law," he added.
The UN refugee agency and its humanitarian aid partners have stepped up visits to sites housing people who have fled their homes in this latest wave of internal displacement in the east of the country. It followed the deployment of new mixed brigades in North Kivu last February and military operations launched by DRC government troops against the FDLR last month. The mixed brigades include regular army troops and former dissident armed groups.
The full scale of the abuse in North Kivu is unclear because aid workers cannot enter certain zones due to security reasons. But displaced people questioned in Kiwanja made it clear that the problem was grave.
Bangamabo Jeton claimed that his eldest son, aged 29, had been killed in February when a government mixed brigade arrived in his village, Kiseguru. "I still ask myself why my eldest son was killed. He was no bandit, no soldier. I am asking myself, but I don't find the answer," said the grief-stricken man, who fled five kilometres with his wife and two surviving children to Makoka village.
"In Makoka, the situation got worse and worse. Bandits entered the houses at night, stealing. I didn't want to die like my son, that's why I fled here [in early May]," Jeton explained. UN peace-keeping troops are protecting the site where Jeton, his family and many others have sought refugee.
Teacher Patrice Luandu*, aged 36, said he lost everything when men armed with rifles and machetes, whom he claimed were FDLR, came to his village, Kasave. "The first time they came, they asked for money and took the clothes of my wife," he said, adding that they later returned for more. Luandu and his family decided to sleep in the bush at night and eventually made their way last week to Kiwanja.
UNHCR, working in partnership with other UN agencies, has been distributing aid to many of the newly displaced in North Kivu. The UNHCR monitoring teams, meanwhile, listen to the concerns of a wide range of civilians, including children and women who are often reluctant to discuss their problems in the presence of men. The meeting here with the 10 widows was one such example.
Another aim of UNHCR monitoring is to find out from the displaced what their main needs are. The widows said access to safe drinking water was a problem, while teenagers said they feared being recruited into armed groups like some of their friends. Others cited emergency health care and shelter.
More than one million people remain displaced in DRC, including an estimated 600,000-plus in North Kivu. Some 340,000 Congolese are refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries in the Great Lakes region.
* Name changed for protection reasons