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Print This PageDR Congo Passes Amnesty Law
As the BBC reports here, the DR Congo parliament has passed an amnesty law for “acts of war” committed by militia in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. Although it looks aimed to assist the ongoing peace process within the DRC, the granting of an amnesty for only DR nationals (foreign fighters are not included) and then only for acts committed in these two provinces is sure to provoke some objections from outside the DRC. It also raises the vexing question of the effect of these kinds of domestic amnesties on the peace process and on ongoing war crimes investigations and proceedings — both within the DRC and at the ICC. The law appears not to extend any immunity to individuals who are accused of war crimes. President Kabila will need to sign the legislation before it becomes law. The BBC notes:
[The amnesty] will include “acts of war” committed since 2003 but does not offer amnesty to those accused of war crimes such as rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. Gen Nkunda remains in detention in Rwanda since his arrest in January. DR Congo has applied for his extradition.A Tutsi like Rwanda’s leaders, Gen Nkunda had guarded Rwanda’s western flank against attacks ethnic Rwandan Hutu rebels - the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - some of whose leaders have been linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende told the BBC the amnesty would only to apply to Congolese militia and would not cover crimes committed by foreign rebel groups.
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Looking at the history of the DRC, it may not be a bad idea for Joseph Kabila to grant amnesty to those accused of “acts of war”. The question is the motive behind the amnesty. Is it a personal attempt to remain in power or is it driven by the need to find a lasting solution to the DRC’s never ending crisis?
A country cursed by its own mineral resources, Congo, has too many players who want to exploit its riches and shape its history. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that Joseph Kabila is trying to gain as much ground as possible by pooling as many enemies he can into his own camp whilst his nemesis General Laurent Nkunda is incapacitated in Rwanda. Whether this ploy will work or not remains to be seen, but again what has worked in Congo? Nkunda may not be totally out of the picture. He is held in a very friendly country, Rwanda, which is very sympathetic to his Tusti ethnicity and is indebted to him for the contribution he made to the war that finally ousted the genocidal Hutu militias. Kagame, the president of Rwanda, and Nkunda have a very long history and it will be considered an ultimate act of betrayal for Kagame to extradite Nkunda to DRC. Thus, the exclusion of Nkunda as a beneficiary of the amnesty may be moot. Given the versatility and unpredictability of the Central African region, and DRC in particular, it is also naïve to totally rule Nkunda out of the picture, but if the amnesty gives ordinary Congolese some reprieve from the never ending suffering that they have endured then it is worth trying.
The question why the amnesty is not nationwide may be revealing. Congo is a vast country. Kabila is headquartered in the capital, Kinshasa, which lies on the western coast of the country. When he came to power Kabila carried the eastern part of Congo. By extending the amnesty only to North and South Kivu which lie in the east, he consolidates his base. Jean Pierre-Bemba who is currently awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, carried the west in the 2006 elections. Kabila remains relatively unpopular in the west. Eliminating the real threat that was coming from Nkunda’s group allows Kabila to concentrate on the west. With the history of DRC in mind, Kabila may be acting as cautiously as he is practical. Depending on the real motive behind the amnesty, he may incrementally extend the amnesty to include all rebel groups, if the Kivu amnesty works.
The issue about foreigners fighting in DRC and the impact of the amnesty on the international investigations against some of the beneficiaries of the amnesty may be legitimate, but its legitimacy is tempered with by the long suffering of the Congolese people. Congolese will take almost anything in return for peace. Certainly, legalese and outside objections to the amnesty are the least of worries that Congolese have to contend with right now. They are desperate and if they can gain trust of each other through this amnesty, they will be able to secure themselves and deal with the foreigners who have destabilized their country. It is a tall order and maybe an overly optimistic deduction but then it may be the only practical solution that will bring peace to a desperate people.
at 6:25 am EST Godfrey Mhlanga