Text:
http://www.africanews.org/central/congo-kinshasa/stories/19990315_feat1.html
Christian Groups Initiate Unique Movement For Peace
March 15, 1999
KINSHASA (AANA) March 15 - A "non-violent war" has been declared the Democratic
Republic of Congo DRC by a group called Collective 16 February comprising
Christian movements. The group has launched an appeal to the warring parties in
various parts of the country.
Recently, there has been tension in Uvira, in east Congo, between occupying Rwandan troops siding with rebels and President Kabila's troops of the Congo Group for Democracy.
There are also reports of fighting between Mayi-Mayi and Interahamwe militia at Ngweshe, in the district of Walungu (Kivu).
Fides, the Catholic Church news agency, reports that poverty is rising even in combat free zones. The agency cites the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation finding that families in the outlying areas of Kinshasa spend 90 per cent of their total income on food, and eat meat only twice a month.
The Collective 16 February group takes its name from the date of a peaceful protest march held in 1992, which ended in a blood bath. The people of what was then Zaire demanded the reopening of the National Sovereign Conference which was to give the country democratic institutions in view of the establishment of a state of law.
The protest was suffocated with violence by President Mobutu's troops. Today, seven years later, Christians are still calling for peace. They say the leaders of the country must take the road of "national reconciliation for a truly democratic society."
The rebels who oppose the president, they say, must take the road of "frank,
sincere and constructive dialogue." They also insist that foreign "aggressors" -
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi - must respect the country's sovereignty and the
territory's integrity.
The group further urged President Kabila's supporters to continue the "negotiations begun in Windhoek for a peaceful solution to the conflict." They also called for the people to "take up the torch of freedom so peace may triumph over war."
Copyright © 1999 All Africa News Agency. Distributed via Africa News Online (www.africanews.org). For information about the content or for permission to redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact All Africa News Agency at the link above.