FACTBOX-Eastern Congo peace deal is shaky
July 21 (Reuters) - The 6-month-old peace deal in eastern Congo is meaningless because it has failed to protect civilians from rape and murder, a leading rights group said on Monday.
The U.N. and Western governments brokered the deal in January, hoping to bring peace to a region where violence has persisted long after the formal end of Congo's 1998-2003 war.
Here are some details of the conflict in the east.
* ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT:
-- The roots of renegade General Nkunda's rebellion lie in unresolved ethnic and political tensions that make racially mixed eastern Congo a tinderbox.
-- The presence in east Congo of both Tutsi and Hutu rebels stems from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days by the Hutu-led government and ethnic militias.
-- Hutu militias fled to Congo, their presence provoking Tutsi-led Rwandan invasions that helped ignite the wider 1998-2003 Congo war, in which some 5.4 million people died, most of hunger and illness.
-- Nkunda led a revolt in 2004 with 4,000 soldiers and briefly captured the South Kivu capital Bukavu. An international arrest warrant was issued for him for war crimes committed while occupying Bukavu, but Congolese officials say this has expired.
-- After 2006 elections aimed at drawing a line under the 1998-2003 war, President Joseph Kabila promised to bring peace to east Congo.
-- In November 2006 U.N. Mission in Congo (MONUC) helicopters and armoured vehicles killed hundreds of Nkunda's fighters in fierce clashes.
-- Under a January 2007 peace deal, Nkunda's fighters joined special mixed army brigades, but walked out again in August.
-- Nkunda has said he was fighting to protect his Tutsi people in eastern Congo against attacks by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu rebel group which controls parts of North Kivu. He says Kabila's government backs the the FDLR, a charge the government denies.
-- The FDLR includes former Rwandan soldiers and members of Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in the Rwandan genocide.
* CEASEFIRES:
-- U.N. mediators announced a limited ceasefire on Sept. 6, 2007 after two weeks of fighting in North Kivu province.
-- Nkunda, who had made parts of North Kivu province into his personal fiefdom, later said he was abandoning the ceasefire because of attacks by the government, which in turn accused him of pushing the country towards war.
-- Fresh talks opened in January 2008 in Goma. On Jan. 23 nearly two dozen rebel and militia movements signed the peace accord with Congo's government to end a decade of conflict in North and South Kivu. More than 500,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu alone in the past year.
The U.N. and Western governments brokered the deal in January, hoping to bring peace to a region where violence has persisted long after the formal end of Congo's 1998-2003 war.
Here are some details of the conflict in the east.
* ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT:
-- The roots of renegade General Nkunda's rebellion lie in unresolved ethnic and political tensions that make racially mixed eastern Congo a tinderbox.
-- The presence in east Congo of both Tutsi and Hutu rebels stems from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days by the Hutu-led government and ethnic militias.
-- Hutu militias fled to Congo, their presence provoking Tutsi-led Rwandan invasions that helped ignite the wider 1998-2003 Congo war, in which some 5.4 million people died, most of hunger and illness.
-- Nkunda led a revolt in 2004 with 4,000 soldiers and briefly captured the South Kivu capital Bukavu. An international arrest warrant was issued for him for war crimes committed while occupying Bukavu, but Congolese officials say this has expired.
-- After 2006 elections aimed at drawing a line under the 1998-2003 war, President Joseph Kabila promised to bring peace to east Congo.
-- In November 2006 U.N. Mission in Congo (MONUC) helicopters and armoured vehicles killed hundreds of Nkunda's fighters in fierce clashes.
-- Under a January 2007 peace deal, Nkunda's fighters joined special mixed army brigades, but walked out again in August.
-- Nkunda has said he was fighting to protect his Tutsi people in eastern Congo against attacks by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu rebel group which controls parts of North Kivu. He says Kabila's government backs the the FDLR, a charge the government denies.
-- The FDLR includes former Rwandan soldiers and members of Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in the Rwandan genocide.
* CEASEFIRES:
-- U.N. mediators announced a limited ceasefire on Sept. 6, 2007 after two weeks of fighting in North Kivu province.
-- Nkunda, who had made parts of North Kivu province into his personal fiefdom, later said he was abandoning the ceasefire because of attacks by the government, which in turn accused him of pushing the country towards war.
-- Fresh talks opened in January 2008 in Goma. On Jan. 23 nearly two dozen rebel and militia movements signed the peace accord with Congo's government to end a decade of conflict in North and South Kivu. More than 500,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu alone in the past year.
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
Indian models dare to bare