Details have emerged from DRC’s opposition parties including other civil society groups that they don’t think an Washington mediate agreement between Rwanda and DRC would bring lasting peace to the Eastern region of the country.
For example former President Joseph Kabila, Moise Katumbi, Lubaya, Sesanga, Kikuni, Diongo and Vuemba consider the Washington agreement “insufficient” and call once again for an inclusive Congolese dialogue.
On Friday, several opposition parties and civil society groups jointly called for a “sincere dialogue among Congolese” to address the internal causes of the crisis in the Kivu region.
However, in a joint statement, they said they acknowledged the signing by the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers, under the auspices of the United States.
They stressed that the signed text “reduces [the crisis] to a bilateral conflict, obscuring the proven involvement of other regional actors.” They believe that this approach cannot “guarantee lasting peace, let alone stability, either in our country or in the region.”
The signatories insist that “the root causes of the Congolese crisis are primarily internal” and list in particular “the decline of democracy, the return to an exercise of power that increasingly resembles dictatorship, the recurring violation of the Constitution and laws, serious and repeated violations of human rights, judicial harassment of opponents, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, tribalism, nepotism, corruption and massive embezzlement of public funds.”
According to them, “as long as these endogenous causes are not taken into account and adequately addressed, the Congolese crisis will persist and true and lasting peace will be nothing more than a mirage.”
The declaration is signed in particular by Olivier Kamitatu for Ensemble pour la République, Rodrigue Ramazani Bekola for Envol, Raymond Tshibanda for the FCC, Claudel Lubaya for UDEAO, Seth Kikuni for PISTE for Emergence, Franck Diongo for the MRC, Jean-Claude Vuemba for ABA/MPCR, Palmer Kabeya Tshishimbi for Filimbi, Martin Milolo for the Citizen Forum and Jean-Jacques Lumumba for the Convention of Citizen Civil Society.
