The international community has applauded the military agreement that launched the transitional government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this week, but locals should be forgiven for running for cover.
Each of the milestones reached by the country emerging from the world’s most costly strife in terms of human lives since World War II has been followed swiftly by an outrage from people who have a vested interest in keeping the war alive.
Within days of signing the all-inclusive deal in Pretoria last December, there were reports of cannibalism in the eastern region of Ituri where an international force now keeps order.
The military deal reached this week differs very slightly from the agreement rejected by all but the Rally for Congolese Democracy in Goma (RCD-G) in March.
It still gives the RCD-G control of the army, which is the bulk of the Congolese military strength. And since this movement, backed by Rwanda, has the defence portfolio in the transitional government, sceptics are talking about an effective military takeover.
Agreeing to an RCD-G stranglehold on military power in the DRC might well have been a demonstration of good faith by President Joseph Kabila.
However, he was under enormous pressure to meet the July 1 deadline for installing the transitional government that he set himself in meetings with the United Nations Security Council delegation last month.
Kabila has named 36 ministers and 25 deputy ministers according to the formula wrung out of delegates at the protracted Pretoria negotiations.
This government is supposed to lead the DRC to its first democratic election since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.
“The final obstacle to movement towards peace in the DRC has been removed. We wish the government and the people of the DRC well in their endeavours to henceforth determine their own future,” said President Thabo Mbeki in his capacity as chairperson of the African Union.
His Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, was a little circumspect. “Getting the transitional government going was the first hurdle. Others are still to come. I hope the international community will not remain complacent.”
Speaking at his national day celebration on Monday, DRC ambassador Bene M’Poko thanked South Africa for the political risk it took in brokering the DRC peace deal.
He also thanked the governments of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola for providing troops to prop up Laurent Kabila after he had fallen out with Uganda and Rwanda. Those troops, now all departed, remained to shore up Kabila’s son who took up the reins on the assassination of his father.
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monuc) and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan both welcomed the formation of the transitional government and urged the belligerents to end the five-year war.
“The transitional government is a positive response to the expectations of the populations, the UN and the international community as a whole,” Namanga Ngongi, Annan’s special representative for the Congo, said in Kinshasa.
The transitional government ministries are shared by the government, the pro-government Mai-Mai militia, rebel movements, the unarmed political opposition and civil society.
Key ministries go to the government and the two main rebel groups: RCD-G and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC).
The government holds the ministries of the interior, decentralisation and security, finance, energy and industry.
RCD-G gets defence, demobilisation and war veterans, economy, portfolio (parastatals), and telecommunications.
The MLC gets foreign affairs and international cooperation, planning, and budget.