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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Disarming Militias
Last Thursday, I received a phone call from the Mwami Ndezi, the traditional leader for Bwisha. He’s a tremendously influential and much understated man, who rules over 2 million subjects. He has always stayed clear of politics, and as a consequence commands very considerable influence over the people of Rutshuru. He has always been a friend of the park, and helped us on numerous occasions over the years. He asked us to join him in a last minute effort to plead with militias to put their weapons down and turn themselves in. As you will recall, a joint operation between the Rwandan and Congolese armies has begun, targetting the FDLR militias. With the massive deployment of Rwandan and Congolese troops in his area, all the signs are that a long and bloody battle is about to begin. As always, the real victims will be the unarmed innocent civilian population.
The Mwami’s position is simple: if militias can be convinced to disarm and demobilise, the battle will be shorter and civilian lives will be spared.
The Congolese and Rwandan position is that any militias can put put down their weapons and join the voluntary disarmament process. Those that refuse will be disarmed by force. Voluntary disarmament needs a bit of explanation. The process is known as DDR (disarmement, demobilisation and reintegration), which applies to Congolese armed groups such as the Mai-Mai, or DDRRR (also includes repatriation to Rwanda and resettlement) which applies to non-Congolese militias, such as the FDLR. The disarmament process has had very limited success so far, hence the enormous difficulties that we are experiencing in our area (our ranger Kakule Safari was killed by Mai-Mai militias two weeks ago). The UN’s peace-keeping mission in Congo, MONUC, is one of the key players in this process, and also took part in the our joint effort with the Mwami.
We left early yesterday morning and drove through Rutshuru. We were joined by Major Mohammed, a highly professional and deeply compassionate Jordanian officer, working on the DDR process for MONUC. After a few hours we suddenly fell on the Rwandan column. There must have been about 2000 soldiers, in single column walking along the road. It was a startling reminder that the clock was ticking, and time was not on our side.
Rwandan Infantry, walking towards the National Park at Ishasha.
A long dusty drive brought us to Ishasha in the early afternoon, and from there we entered the park and traveled to the fishing village of Nyakakoma on the edge of Lake Edward. This used to be one of the richest and most beautiful areas of the park. It borders Queen Elizabeth National Park, and once had huge herds of elephants, buffaloes, topis and hippos. All we saw was one small herd of topis and a few Uganda Cob. The poaching here had been out control.
On arriving at Nyakakoma, we were surrounded by militiamen, all bearing arms and many of them smelling of alcohol. Some of them, like the boy below, looked like they were barely into their teens. These children are now potential targets in a massive onslaught by two national armies, by now a matter hours away.
A Mai-Mai child soldier in Virunga
The Mwami called a meeting with the Mai Mai and FDLR leaders. My hopes were not that high at first. How do you convince a militia leader to give up his weapon and hand himself in to the authorities. After about one hour, the commanders withdrew to make their decision. Amazingly, they agreed. The Mwami had convinced them to cooperate and to come back with us with their weapons and to hand themselves in to the Congolese military authorities.
With the Mwami Ndeze and Major Mohammed at Nyakakoma, waiting to hear from the Militia commanders on their decision whether or not to disarm and hand themselves in.
In all, seven Mai-Mai and one FDLR agreed to come back to Ishasha with us. They were to hand themselves in with their weapons, and then work out the procedure for their troops to follow. They should all get conscripted into a training programme and will then either be integrated into the army or demobilised with some training to begin a new life.
5 AK47s surrendered to the Congolese military by militia commanders.
Hand-over to the Congolese Military back at Ishasha
So there we had it, a simple phone call from the Mwami Ndezi, a day’s drive, some discussion, and … a result…
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11 Responses to “Disarming Militias”
Wow. Thank you for this detailed report, Emmanuel. Diplomacy in the field, at its best. Congratulations and thanks for your part in this. May this be the beginning of many such successful discussions and agreements. There is such a complex and sprawling web to untangle! I wish you all the very best with the new tasks required.
Than k you Emmanuel. Thank you very much…
Amazing work guys, this is one of the most positive things i’ve heard from the region in a long time. If success stories like this continue then there is some hope after all.
Emmanuel, if just one child like the boy soldier in the photo is given a chance to live a decent life all your diplomatic efforts will have been worthwhile… You have my admiration and respect and I wish you good luck for what follows. Iris
Let’s hope the Hague can do what they are supposed to do now and make sure Lubanga goes down (See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7850397.stm). Will there be any point to all the work that actually happens on the ground if all the big boys walk away clean after their tours in Europe…
Thank you for all you’re doing, Emmanuel! This is truly impressive!
Nice work, all. It’s a good start and I hope you’ll be able to convince more militias to give up their weapons.
s.
What foresight and belief from the Mwami Ndeze on behalf of his people. The three of you have enabled such a truly positive example to others, who may well not want to take the route the gun provides. As Iris says, you have all our admiration and respect.
-if you save one life it is as if you had saved the world
Wonderful news Emmanuel! Thank you for the explanation and details. You have my admiration and respect also for the incredible work you do. Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end to a war that has gone on too long.
[...] Saturday I accompanied the Mwami Ndeze to Lulimbi on his continuing efforts in disarming the militia found in and around the Eatern Sector of the park. (see [...]