The UnitedNations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is cautioning that the country risks plunging into a fullscale war between government forces and rebels loyal to reneged army generalLaurent Nkunda. MONUC said there are ongoing pockets of skirmishes betweengovernment forces and the rebels in the restive North Kivu province despite arecently signed peace deal.
The United Nations and otherinternational mediators are reportedly calling on both sides to respect theceasefire, pull back troops and let UN peacekeepers set up buffer zones toprevent further fighting. Jack Kahora is VOA correspondent in the DRC. From theNorth Kivu capital, Goma he tells reporter Peter Clottey that Congolese havelost confidence in the United Nations mission in the country.
"The situation is stillconfused because since the clashes, which occurred Thursday of last week. Thetwo groups are still in a bad situation because there is a misunderstandingbetween the two groups it means the two positions are ready to fight any time.And what is obvious is that none of the two groups agrees or accepts that itcommitted the mistake of the first to attack," Kahora pointed out.
He said those who wereappointed to mediate between the government and the rebels to bring about peacehave abandoned their mandate.
"The second fact is thateven those people who were appointed to lead the ARMANI, which was the processsigned in Goma in January for peace, now they are taking part in the conflictbecause they are making statements to the media, I mean each of the parties inthe ARMANI program now are no longer hiding their faces, they are showing thatthey are ready to fight. And there is nobody protecting the local people inGoma at the moment," he said.
Kahora said most Congoleseare unsure about the objective of the United Nations mission in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo.
"Most people are confusingthe role, which MONUC has to play. In fact from the ARMANI program, it was saidMONUC has to secure the local people if their lives are in danger. The secondfact was to observe the buffer zone, which was created between the two-armedgroups and the other part was to observe the ceasefire agreement, which meansif there is any party, which violates the ceasefire, MONUC has to investigatethis and prepare a report," Kahora noted.
He said both the governmentand the rebels have expressed their suspicion about the UN mission.
"It appears that MONUC hasnot been communicating a lot on what is happening because I hear some peoplefrom even the CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the People) of LaurentNkunda who said that there are so many when the ceasefire have been violated,but that MONUC does the investigations, but does not make any report about itand inform people about what happened. And this is also the fact from thegovernment, which thinks that maybe MONUC is supporting the rebels," he said.
Kahora said both sides havenot lived up to their side of the bargain after signing the agreement.
"There is a kind ofconfusion in this peace deal because first of all it has to gather all thearmed groups even those who didn't have any troops on the ground, and this wasa problem. We knew that if the peace deal was signed because there was aconflict between the government and the CNDP, and since then the two parts havebeen keeping silent," Kahora pointed out.
Meanwhile,a reported anger spurred by a lack of progress towards pacifying the tinyborder province, and fuelled by rumors of U.N. collaboration with the rebels,thousands of protesters, many of them refugees, barricaded roads this week nearthe town of Rutshuru. A convoy of international mediators was attacked by anangry mob on Tuesday.
U.N.peacekeepers traveling through Rutshuru on Wednesday were forced to seek refugein a MONUC base after protesters surrounded and burned one of their armoredvehicles. The United Nations accuses local officials and politicians ofmanipulating protests, but Doss said it was understandable local peopletargeted by both army and rebels were frustrated.