DR Congo: Fighting Continues

出自Taipedia

• 原文標題：DR Congo: Fighting Continues
• 中文標題：剛果：戰火繼續延燒
• 原文作者：Elia Varela Serra
• 譯者：User:Mrtial
• 校對：User:校對者用戶名

As the world celebrates Barack Obama's victory as the next president of the United States, AfroSpear reminds us that the conflict in the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo hasn't stopped: 當世界歡慶歐巴馬當選下屆的美國總統時，AfroSpear提醒我們，剛果民主共和國North Kivu省的衝突尚未停止：

   In this era where a man of African descent has secured the throne of the most powerful nation of the world, a tragedy of enormous proportions continues to be played out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is indeed easier to sell a “message of hope” in political change to cure what ails us… than to “commit to action” so as to change a situation of recurring despair and destruction.

在一個非洲後裔能站上全世界最具影響力國家的寶座的時代，無以計數的悲劇持續在剛果民主共和國上演。事實上，在政治變革上推銷一個「希望的訊息」去治療那些癒折磨我們的事，比起「承諾付諸行動」去改變不斷循環的絕望與毀滅的情況，容易多了！

At the Untold Stories blog from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Michael Kavanagh writes from Goma: 在普利策危機新聞報導中心(Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting)的Untold Stories部落格中，Michael Kavanagh在戈馬（Goma）報導：

   There are now more than one million people who have fled their homes in North Kivu, and very few are receiving any humanitarian aid. Before last week's fighting, most were getting by through the generosity of neighbors who hosted the displaced in their homes and yards and farms. Now those host families are displaced, too. People are fleeing into forests, to churches, to schools […]

現在North Kivu，有超過一百萬人逃離他們的家，且只有極少數人得到人道救助。在上星期的衝突前，這些被迫離開他們家園的人，大多靠慷慨的鄰居收留勉強維生。但現在，這些收留他們的家庭，也被迫離開。人們逃進森林，逃往教堂、學校...

Villagers of Kibati fleeing towards Goma after fighting in the area. Photo by Julien Harneis 戰火開始後，Kibati村的村民逃往Goma，Julien Harneis拍攝。

Last Friday, November 7th, regional African leaders meeting at a United Nations-backed summit in Nairobi called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern DRC, and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor so that the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the recent crisis can get the assistance they need. The summit, hosted by the African Union (AU), brought together DRC President Joseph Kabila and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, which borders North Kivu, as well as the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Africa. 上星期五，11月7號，非洲的區域領袖們在肯亞奈洛比召開的聯合國會議上碰頭，他們要求剛果民主共和國東部立即停止戰火，同時建立人道庇護所，好讓數以百計因近日戰事而被迫離開家園的人，可以得到他們需要的幫助。這場由非洲聯盟所舉辦的會議，使剛果民主共和國總統Joseph Kabila與盧安達總統Paul Kagame碰面，盧安達的邊界與North Kivu相接，此外，肯亞、烏干達、坦尚尼亞、蒲隆地以及南非的領袖也在場。

Already on October 29th a ceasefire was announced unilaterally by the CNDP, the rebel force led by Laurent Nkunda. However, even as the summit was taking place, there were reports of heavy clashes between FARDC (the Congolese army) and CNDP in a number of rural areas including Kibati, about 9km north of Goma, leading to further displacements. Dawn Hurley, an American Expat in Goma, comments on the situation: 在10月29號，由Laurent Nkunda領導的反叛軍CNDP已經單方面地宣布停火。然而，正當領袖們的會議正在舉行，FARDC（剛果的軍隊）與CNDP激烈交戰的消息仍不斷傳出，他們在數個鄉村地區開戰，包括Goma北方久公里外的Kibati，這造成更多的人流離失所。一位在Goma的美國人Dawn Hurley評論這情況：

   Nkunda claims that he has not broken his self-proclaimed cease-fire and that he has merely fought off attacks from the government. But this distinction is hard to understand at best. Nkunda's rebels have taken two towns in the North, forcing the population to flee further. They have also retaken the town of Kiwanja. The town of Kiwanja was under Nkunda's control until Tuesday when another rebel group allied with the government retook the town in a surprising show of power. This lead to bitter fighting between the two groups, and eventually Nkunda's rebels reclaimed the town. However there are wide spread reports that many civilians were killed by Nkunda's forces as they reclaimed the town, apparently in a retaliatory fashion.

Nkunda聲稱沒有打破他自己宣告的停火聲明，他只是反擊政府軍的攻擊。但這其中的差別讓人無法理解。Nkunda的反叛軍已經拿下北方的兩個城市，迫使人們逃的更遠。他們也重新拿下Kiwanja。Kiwanja原本一直在Nkunda控制下，直到星期二時，另一個反叛軍與政府聯手，以意想不到的強大武力將它奪走。此舉造成雙方間的苦戰，最終，Nkunda的陣營重新奪回這座城市。然而，有許多報導指出，當Nkunda重新奪回這座城市時，許多平民百姓被他的軍隊以一種報復性的方式殺害。

Meanwhile, a preliminary fact-finding mission from MONUC visited Kiwanja, north of the town of Rutshuru, after receiving reports that several civilians were killed there during the fighting including a Congolese journalist, Alfred Nzonzo Bitwahiki who worked for the community radio Ushikira (Racou). Colette Braeckman, a Belgian journalist and author of several books on Central Africa, wonders: 同時，在收到好幾位平民在戰火中慘遭殺害的消息後，MONUC(聯合國剛果民主共和國特派團)來到Rutshuru北方的Kiwanja進行初步調查任務。其中包括一位剛果的新聞記者Alfred Nzonzo Bitwahiki，他替Ushikira社區電台（Racou）工作。比利時記者兼許多本書的作者Colette Braeckman質疑：

   Des civils massacrés pratiquement sous les yeux de Casques bleus impuissants ou indifférents: Kiwanja sera-t-il un Srebrenica congolais ?

Civilians being massacred practically under the blue helmets' eyes, helpless or indifferent to it: is Kiwanja going to be the Congolese Srebrenica? 那些平民百姓，幾乎是在戴藍帽子的眼底下被屠殺，是無能為力或是無關痛癢。難道Kiwanja要變成剛果的斯雷佈雷尼察（Srebrenica）了嘛？

In order to document what is happening right now on the ground, on Friday the Ushahidi has deployed its software to the DRC after successfully using it during January's post-electoral violence in Kenya and in May during the xenophobic attacks on immigrants in South Africa. Ushahidi, that means “witness” in Swahili, is a tool that allowes anyone to submit crisis information through text messaging using a mobile phone, email or web form, and to visualize it on a map or timeline. The phone number to send the SMS reports to is +243992592111 and the site to view the reports is http://DRC.ushahidi.com. 為了要記錄此刻發生在這片土地上的事，暨今年一月成功運用於肯亞的選後暴力事件，以及五月的南非攻擊移民排外事件後，星期五Ushahidi在剛果民主共和國置署了他的軟體。Ushahidi在Swahili語（班圖人的語言）的意思是「目擊者」，它是一個裝置，允許任何人得以透過手機簡訊、電子郵件或是網路，傳送事件的消息。並在地圖上視覺化，或是列出事件時間表。傳送手機簡訊的號碼為+243992592111，而報導可以在下列網站上看到。http://DRC.ushahidi.com.

One of the incident reports that can already be found on the DRC Ushahidi page refers to the killing of a local journalist in the Kiwanja area: 已經刊登在剛果民主共和國的Ushahidi網頁上的報導，其中一篇提到在Kiwanja地區被殺害的本地記者：

   One of our facilitators for community radio (Ushirika) was killed in Rutshuru.

我們社區電台的一名成員在Rutshuru遭到殺害。

   The Kiwanja Nehemiah Committee president has fled, the parish is more insecure.

Kiwanja的Nehemiah委員會主席已經逃離，該教區更不安全。

   We have had some contact with Kibirizi, but phone contact there is difficult. I'm in permanent contact with the Nehemiah Committee in Kiwanja and Rutshuru. Our superviser has been visited three times in a row by uniformed men in his house in Kiwanja.

我們已經和Kibirizi連絡上，但打電話到那邊很困難。

For more reports from the ground, see this blog post by aid workers from the International Rescue Committee in North Kivu, or this diary of another aid worker in the area at the Alertnet blog.

A few days ago, the BBC's Africa Have your say asked its audience “Why can't DRC keep the peace?”. Here's a small selection of the answers given by Congolese readers:

Joseph, from Goma:

   The whole problem stems from the DRC government in the 1990's not fulfilling their promise to hunt down the killers during the Rwandan Genocide. They promised Rwanda they would hunt down and kill those Hutu's who fled into Congo that took part in the genocide and they never did. Rwanda and the rebels were forced to take matters into their own hands because of the poor leadership in Congo which backtracked on their promise. I love my country but our leadership is hopeless.

Davis Tara, from Kinshasa:

   DRC can have peace only when her leaders develops political will to end war. It seems kabila is enjoying to have insecurity in that part of his country so as to scare off polical opponents.

Dr Paul Kabasele, a Congolese in London:

   The international community has been risponsible for the Hutus crossing the borders after the genocide, why shouldn't the same community sort out this mess?

Michelle F. of the Stop Genocide blog also has her say on how to keep the peace in the DRC:

   If some degree of security can be established in the Eastern DRC, it will not be sustained without serious reforms to the Congolese military. The FARDC, beyond being under-resourced and generally incompetent, is responsible for some of the worst abuses committed against Congolese civilians, including enthusiastic participation in the brutal epidemic of rape that has become a hallmark of the conflict.

Speaking of the much-publicised problem of rape in Congo, Michael Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting things that journalists and activists write about it “a lot more than they write about the war”. And he adds:

   The problem with much of the reporting on sexual violence in Congo - my own included, sometimes - is that it lacks context, often because the context is so complicated that journalists and editors decide to gloss over it.

   But it needs to be said over and over: rape in Congo is a direct result of the conflict. Rape cases skyrocket after fighting and near frontlines; when fighting dies down so do the number of rapes. Rape is an epidemic born from violence, not an endemic part of Congolese society. The only way to “Stop Rape” is to end the war. It can only happen in that order.

Dawn Hurley shares this anecdote:

   As I was walking around Goma I talked with young one man, who perhaps best summarized the mood of Goma. I asked if he was scared.

   He replied “Fear is a luxury for the rich.” If you are poor, what does it matter if you are afraid? There is nothing you can do about it. You can't run away, you can't change anything. You just keep on living. What is the point of being afraid?”

For a comprehensive list of background briefings and policy recommendations on the DRC, as well as ideas for action, see the Individual Responsibility to Protect blog. 11月 18, 2008