The unstable security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has prompted the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to send a fact-finding mission. Latest fears were heightened by the 11 June coup attempt in the capital Kinshasa.

The coup attempt sparked an exchange of gunfire in Kinshasa between Congolese troops and rebel fighters led by Major Eric Lenge, now part of the government of national unity, who reportedly seized control of the government’s radio station. This followed seemingly unrelated disturbances in the east of the country in Bukavu.

On 29 May, gunfire coming from the Rwanda border woke up the people of Bukavu, the capital city of the South Kivu province when a group of mutinous Tutsi-Banyamulenge soldiers fired on the regular army officers guarding the border after they had been denied entry as they did not have official permits. They had intended to cross with their families.

The relatively administrative matter of border control degenerated into an uprising led by Colonel Jules Mutebusi, allegedly to protect the Tutsi-Banyamulenge from alleged genocide by General Mbuza Mabe, leader of the government’s 10th Regional Army based in the area.

On 30 May, another group of Tutsi soldiers led by general Laurent Nkunda abandoned their command posts in the neighbouring province of North Kivu to join Mutebusi.

The crisis continued to worsen, and the recent coup attempt, though not directly related, has further shaken what was already a fragile peace process.

Some Banyamulenges have however, rejected the allegation of planned genocide, denouncing what they called manipulation of Mutebusi and Nkunda by Rwanda.

Both Nkunda and Mutebusi have served as high ranking officers in the Rwandan army before joining the rebellion against Mobutu Sese Seko in 1996 and later, in 1998, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, the rebellion against the late DRC president, Laurent Desire Kabila.

A SADC meeting held on 18 June in Lusaka, Zambia within the framework of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, and the Mutual Defence Pact, recommended the fact-finding mission to the DRC.

Speaking at the meeting, the South African Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, said the meeting decided to send a delegation to help bring stability to the DRC and to support efforts to ensure that adopted peace agreements were implemented.

Citing “unwelcome armed military activities, particularly in the eastern part of the country, that can revive the cycle of violence and ruin the peace process,” SADC decided to send the fact-finding mission made up of Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa.

Lesotho Foreign Minister, Mohlabi Tsekoa, who is chairing the mission, said that they hope to meet president Joseph Kabila and the Governor of Bukavu, among others.

Tsekoa said they would also visit Rwanda where they hope to meet with that country’s president. “… there is great suspicion that Rwanda assists rebel soldiers disturbing the peace process in the DRC. And it is believed that some of those rebel soldiers come from Rwanda,” he noted.

SADC has warned anyone involved in the political disturbances in the DRC that it does not accept any unconstitutional change of government in the region and reserves the right to intervene.

The political situation remains uncertain in the central African country, with sporadic fighting still occurring in the city of Kamanyola, South Kivu province, which is 60 kilometers south of Bukavu.

The events at Bukavu bring to the surface the underlying problems of citizenship status of the Tutsi-Banyamulenge living in the South Kivu province. Descendants of the same ethnic group of Rwanda and Burundi, they claim to have arrived in DRC two centuries ago. This is however, disputed by other local ethnic groups, the Bashi, Bavira, Bafuliru and the Barega who allege that the Tutsi-Banyamulenge only arrived from Rwanda in the 1940s.

Congolese citizenship laws dictate that one is only a citizen if they can prove that their ethnic group existed in the DRC in 1885 during the partitioning of Africa at the Berlin conference. The general elections in 1987 were annulled in the South Kivu province as a result of this citizenship wrangle.

The main question, at the moment, is how the expected elections planned for June 2005 will be managed, especially given the continued military conflict in the South Kivu province. These disturbances are considered, in Kinshasa, as a clear intention for those who have no chance to be elected to disorganize the electoral agenda.

The one-year-old transitional government has the principal mandate to lead the country to the planned elections. Twelve months after its installation, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the election deadline will be met, unless the transitional period is extended. The law gives six-month grace period.

(SARDC) Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region.

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SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985