More reports on security incidents occurring this month:

June 4: Monitors reported that the FDLR raped 15 women in Makungu

June 11: Former FARDC soldiers loyal to Col. Kifaru (an ex-PARECO commander) have been ravaging the area around the village of Nakiele. According to Arche, there have been 68 documented cases of rape in the area from these soldiers.

To recap what I stated in my previous blog entry, a lot of the integrated FARDC units that used to belong to rebel movements (such as PARECO) are not happy with the whole bracage/mixage process, and thus quite a few have deserted and gone back to running wild in the bush. So, bracage has not been the grand success that everyone had planned.

Due to combat between the FARDC and the FDLR/Mai Mai, there have been more refugee movements in Fizi Territory, such as from the area around Lukungu towards places like Mboko and Swima. At an OCHA meeting in Baraka on Friday, the HCR security liaison gave strict orders to all NGO workers to avoid certain areas of Fizi (particularly between Fizi Centre and Lulimba) and to observe precautions in more secure districts.

In addition, this past week soldiers from Mai Mai Yakutumba stopped a commercial boat on Lake Tanganyika near Talama and demanded $15,000 from the crew and passengers. When the boat could not cough up enough cash, the Mai Mai made the boat go ashore at Talama. There is a lot of lake traffic up and down Tanganyika, since it is a convenient way to get from places like Uvira down to Baraka, Kalemie, Kazimia, or even as far as Zambia. However, it seems that more and more the rebels and militia are figuring out how to go naval, thus further disrupting economic activity in the region.

Marceline Kongolo

Marceline Kongolo

Meet Marceline Kongolo.  Marceline is the founder and executive secretary of SOS Femmes en Danger, a grassroots organization that seeks to improve the situation of women in Eastern Congo through education and assistance.  SOS Femmes en Danger primarily works in Fizi Territory, where women are routinely abducted and subjected to sexual violence by numerous armed groups, both state and non-state.

Marceline is only 22 years old, but she has grown up amid the violent upheaval that has affected her homeland since the mid-90s.  Her personal story of flight and loss is quite incredible.

“I was born and grew up in Kindu, in Maniema Province,” Marceline told us, “In 2001 my family and I fled Kindu because of the war.  We were on the road for a long time, and in the process my father and brother were killed.  After that, we were five: my mother, my siblings, and me.  We fled then to Kisangani, but there life was difficult because of all the violence, war, and killing.  After Kisangani, we went to Bukavu, then to Uvira, and we finally ended up in Fizi.   Because of all the problems I saw around me during this period, I saw it was necessary to start helping women.”

Marceline’s story is unfortunately not too uncommon in Eastern Congo.  The circumstances under which her brother and father were murdered are also sadly familiar to the area.

“When we were fleeing Kindu,” said Marceline, “the Congolese soldiers were taking girls as young as 13 and forcing them to be their wives.  They would take girls into the forest, and after they had finished with them they would simply discard them.”

“This became a problem for me too, as a local commander wanted to take me as his wife.  He was going to take me, but my mother refused, saying that I was too young.  So, he sent men to kill my father and brother as we left Kindu.  The commander put my sister and me in prison.  After two days we were freed and we continued our flight to Kisangani.”

Stories similar to Marceline’s are still common in this part of Congo, and SOS Femmes en Danger faces an uphill battle in trying to break the cycle of sexual violence.  However, Marceline remains positive.

“I will continue my work and will not be discouraged,” she said, “I work little by little to help women in the Congo, and things will change.”

Since SOS Femmes en Danger is a very small local organization, it has difficulty in responding to the need for assistance in Fizi.  Marceline hopes that her organization will continue to grow and that women will be able to live without the constant fear of violation.

“We want to increase the number of women we are able to help.  Today, perhaps we can work with 30 victims, tomorrow maybe 60, after that maybe 70, 150, and so on.  That is the vision of SOS Femmes en Danger.  For women in general, we want peace, development, an end to the fighting and violence, and the ability to go about our business without being threatened.  Really, we just want women’s lives to be better.”

Rose Shukurami and her family

Rose Shukurami and her family

Rose Shukurami is a woman with striking cheekbones, challenging eyes, a jagged scar on her temple, and a hoarse whisper for a voice.  Ordinarily, she would seem like any other Banyarwandan-Congolese woman, but there is something different about Rose: her husband is a member of the FDLR.  Rose, her daughter Julienne, and her daughter’s two small children, were captured by the FARDC in a village near Luvungi.  When I met Rose, she was being kept in the FARDC military post in Luvungi, a sad group of crumbling buildings with soldiers in red tinsel milling about aimlessly, automatic rifles slung around their shoulders. I was with Arche inqueteur Juvernal Twaibu and Arche field supervisor Iledephonse Masumbuko Songolo to monitor the situation of POWs at the jail; however, on this visit there were no POWs, just Rose, her daughter, and the grandchildren, the youngest of whom was ill.  Thank goodness, they were not confined to the horrible cachot, or cell, but were instead only confined to the compound.  The family slept in a shabby room next to the cachot, but was given no food, and Rose was not permitted to seek medical assistance for her sick grandchild.

 Of course, it may seem ridiculous to imprison two women and two malnourished youngsters, but such is the logic of the Congolese military.  Mr. Songolo told the officer-in-charge that since Rose and her family were civilians, they needed to be taken to UNHCR’s reintegration program in Sange, where they could find food, medical treatment, and be taken out of Congo to Rwanda.  The officer-in-charge needed to release Rose and her family into his custody immediately, said Songolo, so he could bring them to Sange.

 We can’t just let her go,” sputtered the officer-in-charge, “She will rejoin her husband in the bush! The child that is ill may go to Sange to receive medical treatment, but the women and the other child must stay.”

 And so, a peculiar argument erupted, with Songolo and Juvernal pointing out the obtuseness of the officer’s position.  Somehow the officer did not comprehend that this thin grandmother and her descendents really posed little threat to the state of general security in the Congo, especially once in the custody of UNHCR and on the way back to Rwanda.  Finally, Michel Nguale, the section chief for the 8^th Brigade arrived.  Sangolo and Juvernal once again presented their case for the release of Rose and her family, but Commander Nguale would only make vague, non-committal statements, all along the lines of, “come back tomorrow and maybe I will release her”.  However, he did allow Songolo and Juvernal to ask Rose some questions before we left.

 Rose said that they had not been subject to any gross mistreatment by the FARDC soldiers at this post, but she had difficulty finding food.  In effect, if the situation did not change soon, they might starve.

 In Part Two, we will learn a bit about how Rose’s curious circumstances are related to the big picture in the Great Lakes Region.

During our visit to Lubarika, the inqueteurs of Arche d’Alliance interviewed several refugees.  Among them were two village women; we will call them Rehema and Furaha.

Rehema

Rehema

Rehema’s household consists of two adult men, three adult women, and numerous children.  When Rehema’s family started hearing gunshots in their village of Buhembe, they decided to move the women and children to the relative safety of Lubarika.  The men in her family went to Uvira to find work.  Rehema says that they survive on food the neighbors give them.  Rehema has been a refugee numerous times, ever since the war started in the mid-90s.

Furaha

Furaha

Furaha is from the village of Kaziba.  She has nine children, and this is her first time being a refugee.  Fortunately, her husband has found work in a manioc field in Lubarika, so they are able to eat.

These women will return to their home villages when they hear that the security situation is safer.  However, the cycle may start over again at any moment.  Constant internal displacement is hard on the local economy, limits food production, and puts stress on public health resources.  In addition, sexual violence is used as a weapon against the civilian population by both sides of the conflict.

Posters on the wall of the clinic in Lubarika

Posters on the wall of the clinic in Lubarika

Since 1994, the Congo has had to deal with pillaging invaders from Museveni’s Uganda, Kagame’s Rwanda, and Burundi; rebel groups that use the chaos to despoil the civilian population; and a weak Congolese government that has done little to protect its citizens.  In the broader global community, the response to the Congolese crisis has been lost in realpolitik and manipulated by regional players.   The constant internal displacement caused by armed conflict has contributed to millions of deaths in Eastern Congo since 1994; it is estimated that only a fraction of the approximately 5.4 million deaths caused by the war were from bullets or machetes, the grand majority instead were caused by disease and starvation.

One hopes that there will be a quick response to help the community of Lubarika and its population of IDPs.  However, if the security situation further deteriorates, everyone in Lubarika may have to flee to the town of Luvungi.  This, of course, would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the region.  Time will tell.

The Arche d'Alliance team in Lubarika

The Arche d'Alliance team in Lubarika

Lubarika

Lubarika

On July 21^st, I traveled with a team from Arche d’Alliance to the village of Lubarika to observe and report on the refugee situation there.  The dirt road to Lubarika splits off from the road and travels through steamy thickets and into jagged hills that resemble dragon’s teeth.  We pass soldiers in sweat-stained uniforms carrying rusty AK-type assault rifles.  The road is lined with fields of manioc and coffee.  Most of the houses are made of locally prepared mud bricks, which make the houses look like they have spontaneously sprouted from the earth.

The first stop we made was at the local clinic, or poste de sante.  Here, the medical staff, though strapped with shortages of medicine and medical equipment, combats disease and injury.  The clinic has registered 1635 refugees since July 15^th, some traveling as long as six days by foot, but also some coming from villages as close as Buheba.  From the front door of the clinic I can see the village of Buheba perched on a neighboring hill.  A few days previous the FDLR attacked there and burned ten houses.  Lubarika is indeed right on the precipitous edge of the conflict.  Upon interviewing several of the men of Lubarika, they revealed that they feel somewhat safe, since there are two brigades of FARDC stationed on two sides of their village.  However, in the Congo such things can change in a terrible instant.

The Poste de Santé of Lubarika

The Poste de Santé of Lubarika

The Congolese way is one of hospitality, so the citizens of Lubarika have opened up their homes to the refugees.  Most of the refugees have come to Lubarika because they have family there, but there are some who are lodging with strangers.  One man I spoke with has twelve refugees living on his property.  Some of the refugees have found work in the fields, while others have had to depend on the charity of the villagers for food.  Despite the hospitality and karibu of the citizens of Lubarika, the influx of refugees presents the tiny village with a grave problem.  Work and food are hard to come by, and the clinic staff informs me that the rise in cases of malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition are taxing the already-stressed resources of their tiny clinic.

Arche d'Alliance's Martin Masumbuko (left) interviews IDPs in Lubarika

Arche d'Alliance's Martin Masumbuko (left) interviews IDPs in Lubarika

Mr. Sambuko and his team of inqueteurs interview several of the refugees and ask the clinic staff what kinds of medicines and medical supplies they desperately need.  Among the refugees, they want to know about the numbers of elderly, physically disabled, children without parents, and victims of sexual violence.  Arche’s final report will enable other NGOs quickly assist the refugees and the communities hosting them.

In Part III, we will look at the lives of two women who have fled their home villages as a result of the recent FDLR attacks.

For a little over a week now the FDLR has been on the offensive across Uvira territory.  The first incident we heard about in Uvira town was an attack on a village called Lumera, about an hour drive north.

The FDLR (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda) is a Hutu rebel group made up of remnants of the old Interhamwe that ignited the infamous 1994 genocide in Rwanda.  Few of the FDLR are actually genocidaires from ’94, but now, decimated in numbers, lacking resources, and in exile, they ravage the civilian population of the Congo.  Since the FARDC (the Congolese military) and the Mai Mai (the Eastern Congolese militia) are preoccupied with shooting each other and not with protecting civilians, the FDLR still control quite a bit of territory in remote areas of North and South Kivu.  For more information on why the FDLR is in the Congo, please refer to my esteemed colleague Ned Meerdink’s AP blog and Gerard Prunier’s excellent book, Africa‘s World War.

A list of registered IDPs in Lubarika; with this information Arche d'Alliance will write a report on the humanitarian crisis in the area

A list of registered IDPs in Lubarika; with this information Arche d'Alliance will write a report on the humanitarian crisis in the area

Since the FDLR has started burning villages again, people in northern Uvira territory have been fleeing their homes.  Those who can afford it roll up their mattresses and take a truck to the relative security of Uvira town.  However, UNHCR and other NGOs are also concerned with the situation of villages closer to Lumera, where refugees are streaming in and burdening the area’s already-fragile subsistence state.  Enter Arche d’Alliance; Arche’s inqueteurs collect information from these villages: refugee counts, security-related incidents, violations of human rights by combatants on both sides, and issues involving food security and public health.  The information they collect is published in a report that is made available to the Congolese government and the NGO community in order to facilitate quick cooperative action to help alleviate internal population displacement.

Lubarika

Lubarika

In Part II, we will travel with an Arche team to Lubarika, a village that is on the periphery of the current conflicted area, and therefore inundated with refugees.

Members of the Luvungi CMC

Members of the Luvungi CMC

As many refugees stream back to their home territories in Congo since the (tentative) end of major hostilities, there is a great need for legal structures that will help returning families re-integrate and repatriate.  Since the judicial system is slow and overburdened, it is very difficult for repatriating refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to find legal assistance.

Thus, in order to combat these problems facing marginalized peoples in the rural milieu, Arche d’Alliance has created Comités de Médiation et Conciliation, or CMCs, in 24 different towns across the territories of Uvira and Fizi.  The CMC, a committee of ten, consists of local municipal leaders, representatives from women’s groups, a representative from the FARDC, a representative from the police, and other notable community and tribal leaders.  The CMC functions as an alternative resolution center for minor disputes involving property, harvests, debts, inheritances, and domestic quarrels.  An individual can bring their grievance to the CMC, which then investigates the matter from both sides and renders a non-binding, reasoned decision that it asks both parties to follow.  If one or both of the parties refuses to follow the decision, the CMC will pass the case off to Arche d’Alliance to be heard in court in Uvira.  An important aspect of a CMC’s decision is that it follows the letter of the law, since Arche d’Alliance trains the CMC on Congolese law and the rights guaranteed marginalized peoples (such as repatriating refugees and women) by the Congolese Constitution.

In addition, the CMC acts as an information distribution center; the CMC will help provide citizens of the community with information on public health, security, the constitution, and, if they are refugees, how they can go about reclaiming their land and reintegrate.

This past week I had the opportunity to visit the CMC in Luvungi, a small town about 40 minutes drive from Uvira, near the border with Rwanda.  I was visiting with Jean Mushaho and Martin Masumbuko, two Arche inqueteurs who make weekly visits to Luvungi.  The CMC in Luvungi is managed by Givernal Twaibu, a locally-based Arche d’Alliance inqueteur.  Givernal and the Luvungi CMC explained to me that they have heard 80 cases since the beginning of the year.  They also told me that nine times out of ten parties agree to the decision of the CMC; people in Congo are not opposed to well-reasoned conflict resolution, it is just that structures that facilitate such resolutions have long been absent.

Since the CMC is required to have several woman representatives, there is balance and justice for women.

“Respecting women’s rights is very important,” said Luvungi CMC member Nestorine Seremba, a nurse at a local dispensaire, “In Congo, the woman is the center of the family.”

One crucial service that Arche provides to returning refugees is assisting them in obtaining birth certificates for their children that were born abroad, in refugee camps in Tanzania, Burundi, and Zambia.  Acquiring proper documentation is necessary if repatriating refugees want to send their children to school or make sure their children inherit their property someday.  Using the CMC as a local base, Arche helps refugees gain birth certificates for their children.  Arche will visit a CMC once a week, collect the necessary information, file for the documents in Uvira, and then bring them to the CMC once they are completed.

A repatriating refugee (left) signs for documents for his children

A repatriating refugee (left) signs for documents for his children

The day I was in Luvungi, a group of villagers from Katubota, a small village 10 km away, came to collect birth certificates for their children. Jean Mashaho explained to me that it would be very difficult for these villagers to get birth certificates without assistance from Arche.  Normally, obtaining a birth certificate would require a trip to Uvira, filling out lots of forms, paying lots of fees, and waiting around for the notoriously slow Congolese bureaucracy.

Birth certificates for children born in refugee camps

Birth certificates for children born in refugee camps

In something as small and simple as helping refugees get documents for their children, Arche is helping re-weave civil society in Eastern Congo.  This goes a long way in preventing conflict in the long run.

The CMC in Luvungi has been around since 2006, and its services attract people from villages as far as 30 km away.  In creating CMCs across South Kivu, Arche d’Alliance has laid down the foundations for justice and peaceful conflict transformation in a region that is desperately trying to escape chaos.  Even though Eastern Congo can sometimes feel like the Wild Wild West, the CMC is like the Lone Ranger, an example of justice and peace that everyone can follow and admire.

Secretary and one of the woman representatives of the Luvungi CMC

Secretary and one of the woman representatives of the Luvungi CMC

Ok, I am going to switch into Dwight Schrute mode here for a second…

FACT: There are lots of soldiers here in North and South Kivu.

FACT: Unless I want to pay a hefty bribe or get the giblets beaten out of me, I do not take pictures of soldiers.

However, the BBC has an excellent slideshow that shows Mai Mai soldiers and victims of the war in Eastern Congo.  This slideshow can be found here.

So, now you know what I see strutting down the street every day.  Also, you get a feel for how vulnerable the civilian population is to these hombres armados.