[allAfrica.com] [Bishop_John_T._Walker_Memorial_Dinner_November_5] Congo's Forgotten Civilians Suffer as Peace Stalls L'Express (Port Louis) NEWS October 29, 2004 Posted to the web November 1, 2004 By David Lewis Port Louis Tens of thousands of people have died in continuous fighting since the country became independent. Violence peaked in 1997 when President Nguesso seized power in a civil war. Congolese people participate in a peace process march. The radio in the dark, mosquito infested railway control room emits incoherent garble, occasionally cutting out, but the operators just sit and stare. For fear of attack, the trains are observing radio silence. Eventually, the freight wagons roll into the station, laden with fuel, cement and, most importantly, 100 well-armed troops. The soldiers melt away to catch a few hours sleep before returning to protect logs heading to the coast the next day. The tension on this section of railway linking Congo Republic's capital Brazzaville to the coast reflects mounting insecurity in the central African country and, in the eyes of many, a stagnating peace process. The former French colony, which pumps 250,000 barrels of oil per day, has been unstable since disputed elections in 1993. The violence peaked in 1997 when President Denis Sassou Nguesso seized power in a civil war with Angolan help. Although Sassou and rebels known as Ninjas have since struck peace deals and agreed to a disarmament process, violence still plagues the southern Pool province, just west of the capital. Plenty of guns "No one really knows how many they are, but in Pool there are people with nothing to do but wield their gun so they can survive off the back of the local population," said Roger Bouka, president of the Congolese Observatory for Human Rights. "There has been no real demobilisation and neither side really controls their men. And as long as this is the case, these attacks will continue. This is a time bomb," he said. Congo's conflicts are rooted in a power struggle between the more densely populated agricultural south and Sassou's north, a land of hunters and fighters. Tens of thousands of people have died in explosions of violence since independence in 1960. The Ninjas, who take their name from ancient Japanese warriors made famous in action films from Hong Kong to Hollywood, were allied to Sassou's foes in the brief 1997 war and many have yet to lay down their weapons. Soldiers have been riding shotgun on freight trains since a mid-October attack in which gunmen held up locomotive in Pool and seized goods worth 500 million CFA francs ($980,000). Passenger trains no longer run between Loutete and the capital after a string of armed robberies. Hold-ups like this are common in a province saturated with well-armed youths who are no longer officially at war but who have so far seen no benefits from the peace. The U.N. collected about 17,000 weapons two years after a 1999 peace deal and 8,000 former combatants were integrated into Congo's army - but the programme did not include Pool region. "In Pool, there are two sides facing each other - the Ninjas pillage villages and the trains while the army sits and watches. Meanwhile, there is no pressure from the United Nations for all this to end," said an aid worker in Brazzaville. Renegade pastor Frederic Tata Ntoumi, a charismatic former social worker who leads the Ninjas, had opted out of the 1999 deal and agreed to peace only in 2003. Ntoumi wanted a stake in government and the return of politicians chased out of Congo by Sassou, including former prime minister Bernard Kolelas. The government agreed in 2003 to power sharing accords and to integrate militias into society but the opposition remains marginalised and there has been little attempt at disarmament. Some hope that a new World Bank funded programme will bring about long-term disarmament but those involved are very much aware of the difficulties they face. "It is still an explosive mix of unemployment, lack of options and psychological scars from war that could make it reignite," said World Bank demobilisation specialist Adriaan Verheul. "With our programme, we are trying to limit the potential for remobilisation." Not enough attention Aid workers and UN officials recognise the need to intervene in Pool to counter the risks of the crisis spreading elsewhere in the country of 3.3 million. But most international attention is focused just across the Congo river on what is perceived to be a more important and higher profile crisis in the vast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), or former Zaire. Although the 10,800 strong UN mission in DRC is deemed insufficient in the capital Kinshasa, UN officials in nearby Brazzaville say the crisis they are trying to deal has simply been forgotten. "The UN is a small group here so we are not really in the game and don't really know what is going on - except that oil is up $15 a barrel and that should mean that this country is in line to earn more and pay off some its debts," a UN. Official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity. By publishing internal audits and oil figures on its website, the government in Brazzaville is trying to clean up its image, which has been tarnished by numerous scandals over the embezzlement of millions of dollars of oil revenues. New developments have sprung up in the capital and queues of freshly painted green taxis point to a post war sense of order. But Bouka believes no real progress will be made until the government welcomes the return of the exiled politicians and civil society begins to take a bigger role in tackling corruption. "If we are building a democracy, we need the exiles back. The people that are in power are not there for the people but they are there to manage the resources - oil," he said. "The president says that Congo is going from strength to strength. He can't keep saying this when all the indicators are still in the red."   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 L'Express. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================