This week the UN launched two inquries in the conflict in the Congo. But the real issue is still being ignored-who will disarm the militias? I produced Victoria Brittain comment and analysis on Guardian. Analysis By;- Victoria Brittain A humanitarian catastrophe more overwhelming than Afghanistan's grips the Democratic Republic of Congo.UN figures suggest than 2 million people are displaced, and estimates of the number killed in the past half-dozen years of the invisible war ranges from 1 million to 3 million. This week the UN has announced two human rights inquries into different areas in the eastern part of DRC; the international court of justice at the Hague has started hearing a case between the DRC and neighouring Rwanda; and the UN's mission in the DRC, monuc, has had its mandate prolonged for year. Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands os dollars were sent by international community on seven weeks of peace talks in suncity, South Africa, between the various Congolese factions.The political talks produced a power-sharing formula between president Joseph Kabila and the millionaire northern leader, Jean- Pierre Bemba, a protege of Uganda, but no resolution in the east. Meanwhile, the social and political crisis is worsening. A report from human rights watch this week on the war in the east reveals a level of sexual violence against women and a barbarity which local doctors describe as unprecedented. The consequences of this growing culture of brutality, and the health crisis rendered acute by galloping HIV/Aids are grim. The UN inquries, the internationally guided peace talks and the extension of MONUC's mandate are aspects of an old Congolese story; the attempt bu out-siders to impose their own norms on the huge country.The Kinshasa government's court case against Rwanda is another old Congolese story;a government that counts on westerners to do their dirty work-in this case hoping to persuade the UN court to order Rwanda's troups to leave DRC without ending the threat of 1994's genocide in Rwanda. The DRC is a product of colonialism, too vast and diverse to be a viable country.The atmosphere in Goma in the east is instantly recognisable as East Africa, while Kinshasa feels like Guinea, Senegal or Angola.The eastern provinces of Kivus have long been regarded as a bastion of opposition to central government, and since 1993, when a violent land dispute broke out, there has not been a day of peace. Today, around 40 percent of the east is nominally under the control of the rebel RCD that has the trappings of an administrative structure, as well as an army.But the RCD leadership has fractured severeal times and has little credibility. Various RCD factions were allegedly in volved in the killings in Kisangani ON May 14, which are being investigated by the UN, and in the repeated bouts of ethnic conflict between the Hema and Lendu in the north-east, where the second UN inquiry will take place. The RCD-Goma faction, which has the biggest army, is supported by Rwamda, other factions by Uganda. The fabulous welth of DRC's mining industry(gold, cobalt,diamonds, copper.cadmium,coltan and germanium) has long made it a magnet for unscrupulous outsiders. Its postcolonial leadership was happy to be wooed by western interests,notably the US and France, and to grow rich while the country stagnated and its vast areas were used for subversion elsewhere in Africa. The new, post-cold-war DRC shows little sign of being different. The fundamental power struggle remains for the wealth of the country.The weak Congolese elite in Kinshasa is courted by ambitious businessmen from the host of countries.Meanwhile, the formal economy and the state have virtually collapsed over much of the country. The catastrophic condition of the people is even worse than undercPresident Mobutu. The vast majority of the people eats less than two-third of the calories needed to maintain health, and 70 percent of the population have no acess to healthcare. As the human rights watch report details, destitute women, often displaced or widowed by war, now make a living selling sex, the only commodity they have. Since 1996 this tragic place has been at the centre of series of wars that have greatly contributed to the continent's impoverishment.The war has varying extents involved almost all the DRC's neighbours: Sudan,Uganda,Rwanda,Burundi,Zimbabwe and Angola.Zimbabwe has no strategic interest in the war. For the three close neighbours in the east- Rwanda,Uganda and Burundi- war in DRC threaten chronic instability. The poison which feeds it now is the continuing presence in the DRC of 12,000 or so armed former combatants from the days of genocide in Rwanda.After they and thousands more fled into exile in the DRC they were initially used by president Laurent Desire Kabila, father of the current president, against his former backers, the government of Rwanda. Many were retrained in camps in Zimbabwe, and aimed to return to Rwanda to complete the genocide. In the lawless east, where numerous militias of shifting alliances make much of the region a no-go areas,the Interahanwe militia and ex-soldiers from Rwanda- participants in the genocide- remain a significant factor.Over the years, thousands of them have returned voluntarily to Rwanda or been captured.Peace talks, UN inquries into human rights violations and international court cases are distractions from the central issue of who will disarm this group of men, who have caused so much suffering. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~