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Photo: Eddy Isango/IRIN

Vita Kitambala Kimbirikiti, a leader of one of the Mayi-Mayi militia groups signs an agreement to dissolve his organisation as part of efforts to restore peace to North Kivu province. The badge on his lapel portrays President Joseph Kabila

GOMA, 21 April 2009 (IRIN) - Eighteen rebel and self-defence militia groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed an agreement on 18 April to dissolve their organisations, although some expressed concern that the grievances that led them to take up arms had not been fully addressed.

The agreement follows a series of undertakings aimed at restoring peace to the region’s restive Kivu provinces, a process that has already seen thousands of fighters integrated into the national army.

“In this declaration all the groups clearly announced that they no longer exist,” said Apollinaire Malumalu, the coordinator of the committee that is following up progress on the various peace accords.

“From now on, former fighters who integrate into civilian life will use peaceful means to express themselves,” he said.

Photo: Eddy Isango/IRIN

Former rebels and Mayi-Mayi militiamen, integrated in the national army, on parade following an agreement signed in Goma by several armed groups to dissolve themselves

The spokesman for various self-defence groups known as Mayi-Mayi expressed some reservations about the latest agreement.

“We have signed this document, which some are calling a death certificate for armed groups, but that does not mean that there are no more [armed] groups on the ground because each one justifies itself through patriotism, either for families or villages or to protect goods. Once threatened, they tend to take up arms,” said Didier Bitaki.

“Mayi-Mayi is a state of mind that means we can sign ourselves into non-existence today but tomorrow, because of dissatisfaction or frustration or a threat, we cannot, as Congolese people, be stopped from organising ourselves to resist,” he added.

Cautious welcome

The US-based human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) gave a cautious welcome to the declaration.

“The signing of an agreement … is a step forward, but signatures on a piece of paper do not magically remove the problem of armed groups from eastern Congo,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, HRW’s senior Africa researcher.

She pointed out the Forces democratique pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan rebel group long active in eastern DRC, “remains a threat and now deliberately attacks the Congolese population in reprisal for military action against them”.

Woudenberg said the national army “seems unable to protect civilians and itself preys on local communities”.

“Armed groups will remain a problem that plagues eastern Congo if no solution is found to disarming the FDLR and reforming the Congolese army into one that protects rather than abuses its citizens. Such solutions will need to be backed up by a political process that addresses the underlying issues driving the conflict in eastern Congo: land disputes, ethnic cohabitation, return of refugees and the use of natural resources,” she said.

Follow-up committee coordinator Malumalu said these issues would be better addressed once armed groups transformed themselves into political parties, as per the provisions of earlier agreements.

“After the security phase, we are now entering the phase of reconciliation, of community stabilisation, during which the various resolutions” made during peace talks in January 2008 will be effected.

The process of integrating members of armed groups into the regular army began in October 2008, since when some 11,482 fighters from different groups have joined the military.

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