A Congo Action Plan

Nairobi/Brussels  |   19 Oct 2005

The Democratic Republic of the Congo will likely relapse into mass violence unless the Congolese parties and the international community take urgent measures.

A Congo Action Plan,* the latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, lays out a comprehensive and urgent set of actions to save the peace process and produce a successful transition to elected government by June 2006. Reunification has been plagued by government corruption and mismanagement, failure to reform the security sector, the ongoing threat of the Rwandan Hutu insurgency FDLR based in the eastern Congo, and a weak UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) that is not adequately protecting civilians.

"With elections already postponed for a year, security sector reform, good governance and justice cannot await a new government", says Suliman Baldo, Crisis Group's Africa Program Director. "They must be prerequisites for elections or the transition process will continue to crumble, and the country will descend into renewed ethnic violence".

Up to 1,000 people are still dying every day from war-related causes in Congo. While the transitional government has made some progress, the reluctance of the main parties to relinquish power has stalled the process. Crisis Group's Congo Action Plan lays out specific steps for the transitional government and major donors, such as the U.S., the UN and the European Union to take, including to:

• prepare for and carry out free and fair elections by passing key electoral laws and setting up a robust monitoring system;
• curb state corruption by tying foreign assistance to good governance, strengthening Congolese institutions, creating a human rights chamber in the court system and enacting targeted sanctions;
• create an integrated national army and police force to establish security; and
• resolve the FDLR problem by returning the rebels to Rwanda, peacefully and voluntarily by incentives if possible, or by forcible disarmament if necessary, led by a more assertive MONUC, which must fulfil its mandate to protect civilians.

"This is a watershed year", says Jason Stearns, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for the Congo. "Thousands of civilians are still at risk, and this is their country's last best chance at a real transition to peace".