Press Review

6 mar 2009

Press Review

The majority of today's local papers in Kinshasa mostly focus on Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa's declaration calling for a halt of the DRC peace process following the massacre of Banyamulenge refugees in the Gatumba camp, Burundi, as well as Rwandan and Burundian declarations threatening to attack the DRC.
The declaration made by Mr. Azarias Ruberwa, Vice-president for Political, Defence and Security affairs sparked off several debates, says LE POTENTIEL declaring itself surprised by Mr. Ruberwa's statement firmly condemning ''without a single evidence, his Congolese compatriots for perpetrating the crime ' the Gatumba massacre ' without any prior investigations''. The paper further highlighting, ''The Vice-President crossed the Rubicon 48 hours ago, by calling for a halt of the transition''. The paper points out that this would entail ''the suspension of the expansion of the State authority across the national territory, the economic reunification, the reintegration of the armed forces and police as well as the intelligence services''. Criticizing the Vice-President's ''attitude'', the paper refers to a ''plot'' masterminded by Mr. Ruberwa who is seeking ''a fresh start'' of the transition. The same paper goes on to charge the Vice-president with treason, ''Ruberwa has subtly thrown out a threat on the partition of DRC, that will certainly come after the withdrawal of RCD members from the transitional institutions''.

Referring to Vice-president Ruberwa, L'AVENIR titles ''the man continues giving headache''. The paper finds it ''strange'' that after attending the funerals of the Gatumba victims, the Vice-president has settled in Goma, ''in the residence which he used to occupy during the rebellion''. The paper adds that this is the very reason that sparked off debates on top of his call for a halt of the transition from Burundi with a view to making an assessment of the overall situation.

Simultaneously, ''Burundi and Rwanda issued threats to intervene in DRC, following the massacre of 160 Congolese perpetrated in Burundi by assailants who apparently came from DRC'', LA REFERENCE PLUS says. Quoting an AFP press release, the paper echoes a declaration made by the Chief of staff of the Burundian army that did not exclude ''the possibility of launching military offensive on the DRC, in order to enforce respect of his country's borders''. The paper recalls that Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, made a similar declaration stating that his country will not ''sit back'' after such a killing, criticizing ''the UN missions deployed in Burundi and DRC''.

In the same development, LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES notes that the declarations of war made by Rwanda and Burundi heralds ''a new conquest of Kivu by the Hima-Tutsi''. The paper says that they use the International Community's failure in anticipating and preventing the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis in the Great Lakes region as an excuse to threaten to intervene militarily wherever the Tutsis would be threatened. ''All these declarations suggest a strong determination on the part of the political and military elite of the Nilotic minority to militarily re-conquer a portion of the Congolese territory in Nord Kivu and Sud Kivu'to be annexed to Rwanda'', the paper writes.

LE POTENTIEL, in turn, publishes an excerpt of Laurent Nkunda's press release that further ''exacerbated the tensions''. After assessing the Gatumba events, ''I have drawn the highly logical conclusion that the chief of the DRC highest is the very one who masterminded the operation'. As a consequence, I no longer have anything in common with such a power, which behaves like an executioner of its own people. Therefore, I have decided as of the next coming days to suit the action to the word, that is to say, making Kinshasa clear off this power by all means'''. The paper also wonders what the International Community will do, and particularly the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, Washington, Paris and Brussels, ''in reaction to the announced 3rd war''.

The massacre of the Congolese refugees has indeed sparked off several debates. LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES publishes the US Government's declaration ''strongly condemning the attack on the Gatumba refugees camp''. The US Government pledged its strong support to the UN Security Council's initiative for investigations into the massacre and calls on the Burundian and DRC Governments to cooperate in identifying the perpetrators of the attack who must be brought to justice.

It is in this context that Kofi Annan proposed that strength of the UN peacekeepers in DRC be more than doubled, indicates L'OBSERVATEUR, alluding to the recently submitted report of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan to the Security Council on 16 August. Kofi Annan proposes the number of peacekeepers to be increased to 23,900 troops versus the current strength standing at 10,300, the paper adds. ''According to the proposed plan, 150 additional troops would be deployed in Ituri and 3,550 to Nord and Sud Kivu' and 3,500 to Katanga. A 950-reserve troops and an army headquarter will also be based in Eastern DRC, while another 2,450- reserve troops will be based in Kinshasa'', says the paper.