avanderzwan

Following the Sudanese Peace Treaty on January 9 the Democratic Republic of Congo signed another peace treaty yesterday. It is exciting and hopeful, but does not mean that everything is golden. There are a lot of issues that still plague the area. The ethnic Hutu extremists, the ‘Interahamwe’ (same group that carried out the Rwanda killings), are still in the DR Congo. The treaty calls for help from the U.S., the U.N. and the European Union. These three groups will place peace keeping stations in between all of the major fighting regions to control the peace. The treaty calls for an active roll from the international helpers, not just an observing one.

This conflict has killed 5.4 Million people over the last decade. It has been the largest conflict since WWII. It has displaced 800,000 people. The treaty calls for the escorted safe return of these 800,000 people as well as international support in maintaining their security upon return. The U.S., U.N. and European Union will also teach the Congolese army who are notorious for being uncontrollable and ruthless.

I am not pretending to be a reporter here. I am just excited. I am fully aware that this could be another broken treaty but it is at least a step in the right direction. We will see where this goes from here.

Reference:
NPR (optimistic) – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18368606
BBK News (seemingly more realistic) – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7206823.stm

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Ethics, General Life, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.