Amani Labda - Peace Maybe Joint Evaluation of Conflict - Channel ...

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JOINT EVALUATION OF CONFLICT PREVENTION AND PEACE BUILDING IN DRCVOLUME 1that prevails in the majority of the territory. It is particularly inept in dealing withcomplex property conflicts, especially over land ownership. As a result, frequentdisplacements and predatory practices by armed groups have made land-basedclashes a significant factor of conflict. With a justice system lacking politicalcommitment, competence, independence and resources, insecurity persists:murder, torture, collection of illegal taxes, arbitrary arrests, destruction orpillaging of private property and sexual violence against girls and women, allcontinue to be part of daily life for many Congolese 36 , in a climate of impunity.Attempts to revitalise the Congolese economy have mainly focused on naturalresources. A new forestry and mining code have been approved by the Congoleseparliament, and mining and forestry contracts been revised. A large-scalecontract with China has been signed to improve the necessary infrastructure foreconomic growth.Following IMF and government forecasts, the Congolese economy should havegrown by 8% a year from 2008 onwards, mainly due to increasing mineralexports. However this prediction has not been realised. Foreign investors werediscouraged by a variety of factors, including the sudden drop in commodityprices in 2008-2009, slow progress and lack of transparency in the revision ofmining contracts, lack of reforms in public finances, and bad publicity from thepresumed relationship between resources and violence, particularly in the East.Since the early 2000s, experts and donors have increasingly viewed conflict in theDRC as a means for powerful actors to acquire or maintain commercialadvantages, often through the exploitation of natural resources and control overtrading activities. Despite modest progress in the re-industrialisation of the DRCmining sector since the end of the war, still artisanal and small-scale mining(ASM) accounts for 90 % of the country’s production 37 . Though this is not a directsource of conflict, the deregulated nature of the sector encourages abuse andillegality. ASM remains crucial to the country’s economy, and the World Bankestimates that between 14 % and 16 % of the Congolese population depend onthis activity (directly or indirectly).Numerous reports and publications have illustrated in detail Rwanda’s stake inthe Congo wars, pointing to security and economic interests as the main motivesfor Rwanda’s support to Congolese rebel groups 38 . Since the official of Congo’swar in 2003, Rwanda has played a key role in the Kivu provinces. A UN Group ofExperts investigated the respect for the regional arms embargo formulated by theUN for all non-government armed forces since 2005: it reveals Rwanda’s logistical36 Vlassenroot and Romkema (2007), Local Governance and Leadership in Eastern DRC.37 World Bank (2008) Democratic Republic of Congo - Growth with Governance in the Mining Sector. Oil/Gas,Mining and Chemicals Department, Africa Region, World Bank38 See UN Panel of Experts (2001, 2002 and 2003). Academic publications on this issue mostly refer toempirical data provided by these reports.
JOINT EVALUATION OF CONFLICT PREVENTION AND PEACE BUILDING IN DRCVOLUME 1and military support to the rebel forces of Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, knownby their French acronym, CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of thePeople).Since 2009, we’ve seen modest improvements in diplomatic relations betweenRwanda and the DRC, reflecting in part shifts in the relations between theGovernment of Rwanda and international donors, where sadly their focus hasbeen more clearly centred on regional peace.Since the start of the “Nkunda war” in North Kivu 39 , resource competition hasbecome the main paradigm 40 and a dominant issue in advocacy, which isreflected in different programmes and initiatives by international donors.Nevertheless, some justified controversy still exists regarding the role played bynatural resources. Beyond conclusions regarding the correlation betweenfrequency of human rights abuses and proximity to mines or their commercialplatforms, research analysis reveals that the relationship between resources andconflict is indirect 41 . Furthermore, there is also a lack of sufficient empirical dataon resource activities in eastern DRC, particularly on conditions in mining sitesand local value chains 42 .3.2 Conflict determinants in eastern CongoThe team equally leant on its own members’ observations to develop a broadanalysis of the conflict drivers. The section below presents a synthesis of theanalysis above, in order to identify the analytical foundation of politics andeconomics, the key drivers that have a specific influence on eastern Congo, andthat should be taken into consideration for the prevention of conflict, if theyconstitute conflict drivers, or in the case of peacebuilding, if they constitutedrivers to peace.The concept of drivers is distinct from the more general terms of causes or factorsof conflict, and serves to distinguish events and trends that have a relationshipsto the situation—in other words, they are distinct elements recognisable to allobservers and that hold a strong degree of influence. Aid interventions can havean influence on drivers (such as impunity for war criminals), whereas othersremain outside the international sphere of influence (for example the results of39 For further information please refer to the annexes on conflict analysis and to the Inception Report.40 Such influential reports on this issue are regularly produced by Global Witness and IPIS. An excellentassessment was produced by International Alert (2009), « Etude sur le role de l’exploitation des resourcesnaturelles dans l’alimentation et la perpétation des crises de l’est de la RDC ». Other influential sourcesinclude: DFID (2009), “Trading for Peace. An Agenda of Reform”; Tegera (ed.) (2002), Le coltan et lesPopulations of Nord-Kivu, Regards Croisés, n°007, Pole Institute; and the different reports by the UN Panel ofExperts (2001, 2002, 2003) and UN Group of Experts (2008, 2009) on the Congolese war economy and armsembargo. On the Ugandan stakes in the DRC war economy, see the Porter Commission report (2002) and“The curse of gold” (Human Rights Watch, 2005).41 See Garrett et al. (2009) and Jackson (2003, 2006).42 One interesting exception is International Alert (2009).
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