Since the early 1990s, relations between the Great Lakes countries have been compromised by war, competition for regional leadership and mutual distrust. Today, several years after the end of that war, the situation is improving, aided by several multilateral initiatives40, though relations between the GoDRC and its neighbours are yet to recover fully41. Still, an important amelioration of relations between the GoR and the GoDRC appears to be taking place gradually. The GoR’s facilitation of talks between the GoDRC and the dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda in Kigali in January 2007 is an encouraging indicator that the two
38
The RCD ‘ministers’ were called ‘Chefs de Départements’. 39
Recommended reading on this subject is the 2006 publication of the Bukavu-based Observatoire Gouvernance et Paix (OGP). Entitled: Congo: Poches Trouées; Province du Sud Kivu: flux et fuite des recettes douanières. This publication can be obtained through the Observatoire in Bukavu or in bookstores in Kinshasa, Goma, Kigali and Bujumbura.
40
In particular the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region on peace and security (organised and facilitated by the UN and AU) and the Tri-Partite Plus commission (facilitated by the US).
41
Neither the GoU nor the GoR were invited to President Kabila’s inauguration in December 2006,and there are still no diplomatic relations between the GoR and the GoDRC.
countries can collaborate when they have a common interest. About a year ago, Rwanda would still occasionally accuse the GoDRC of supporting the FDLR, while GoDRC officials would in turn accuse the GoR of interfering with internal Congolese matters, in particular with the security situation in the eastern provinces. The GoR now acknowledges that the GoDRC ceased supplying the Rwandan rebels with arms and ammunition since 2002, and the GoDRC appears to accept that the GoR is not the shadow behind every rebellion in the east of the country. What remains a concern in the DRC is a relatively small but vocal group of radicals, often civil society activists, who continue to vilify Rwanda for all problems in the Kivu provinces. The GoDRC could distance itself from these elements.42
The GoU and the GoR were close allies in support of the AFDL rebellion, but they had a series of damaging fall-outs in the city of Kisangani in 2002. Only in 2006 did the two countries take measures to rehabilitate their relationship. Over the past months, however, major steps forward are evident. Newspapers regularly report on events that suggest reconciliation between the two countries, such as bilateral meetings of the presidents, military exchanges and visits of ministers43. Moreover, in March 2007, the GoU handed over to the GoR twelve Rwandese dissidents who had been hiding in Uganda and who were accused of trying to foment a new rebellion against the GoR.
The relationship between the GoR and the GoB is also good at present. The GoR has been supportive of the current ruling party in Burundi, CNDD-FDD (Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie), and the relationship has proven mutually beneficial. Among others, the GoR and the GoB have collaborated on the subject of foreign AGs. The FDLR has always used Burundi as one of its entry points for infiltrations into southern Rwanda, but this has become increasingly difficult since the CNDD-FDD entered into negotiations with the Burundian transitional government and later on when it won the elections. Several FDLR infiltrators have recently been arrested in Rwanda or were apprehended in Burundi before they could cross the border into Rwanda based on intelligence provided by the GoB44.
These overall improvements in the relationships among governments in the region are in part a result of the Tri-Partite Plus Joint Commission45 (TPP) initiative that has been facilitated by the Government of the United States since 2004. The TPP resulted in 2004 in the establishment of a joint intelligence unit, the (intelligence) Fusion Cell, in the Congolese city of Kisangani. This Fusion Cell aims to share intelligence on the Rwandan and Ugandan AGs in the DRC, allowing the FARDC to apply pressure on these groups. The Fusion Cell has provided a forum for the Congolese, Rwandan and Ugandan militaries to work together towards a common objective, which has contributed to restoring a degree of mutual confidence among the respective military forces of the countries.
The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) has also made a useful contribution to the mitigation of tensions in the region. Through resolutions 1291 (24 February 2000) and 1304 (16 June 2000), the UN Security Council (SC) affirmed that under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU), an international conference on peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes Region should
42Interviews with civil society activists in North and South Kivu, as well as in Kinshasa. 43
E.g. several articles in October and November in the Rwandan New Times and the Ugandan Monitor and New Vision.
44
In June 2006 six FDLR/FOCA operatives were arrested in Bujumbura in a joint operation. 45
Initially it was a Tri-partite initiative concerning the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. When Burundi joined on April 20, 2006, the initiative was re-baptised Tri-Partite Plus or the Tri-Partite Plus One.
be organised. In December 2006, after a series of meetings at different levels (governments, civil society, women groups, youth, etc.), the countries of the region46 signed a peace pact47 that provides a general framework for the peaceful resolution of regional conflicts and for economic development. On the issue of armed groups, the pact states that ICGLR member states should “abstain from sending or supporting armed opposition forces or armed groups
or insurgents onto the territory of other Member States, or from tolerating the presence on their territories of armed groups or insurgents engaged in armed conflicts or involved in acts of violence or subversion against the Government of another State”.
Although the Great Lakes countries still have a long way to go on the road to reconciliation and normalising relationships, the positive trend in relationships among the countries concerned by this study is promising for the much needed cooperation in solving the foreign AG issue.