Nairobi - There is a real risk of a new full-scale war in Central Africa and the international community needs to act quickly to strengthen the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Tuesday.
The warning came a day after former rebel leader Asarias Ruberwa stepped down as one of four vice-presidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) transitional government.
The resignation marked the first time since the transitional government was formed in July 2003 that one of the parties pulled out.
Ruberwa, the Tutsi leader of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-Goma), said his decision was linked to the killing of nearly 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees in Burundi on August 13.
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Although a Burundian Hutu rebel group - the FNL - claimed responsibility for the attack, Ruberwa has accused the Congolese army of involvement.
In the days following the murderous attack - in which men, women and children were shot, hacked, clubbed and burnt to death - both Rwanda and Burundi threatened to enter DRC territory to hunt down extremist Hutu militias if the Congolese government did not deal with them.
ICG head Gareth Evans said that since the formation of a Congolese transitional government, the international community has not "provided adequate political or military support to the effort to establish peace and security in the Congo".
Evans also attacked the Congolese government, saying "to date, the government of transition has not shown any will or capability to address the major political challenges, impeding the achievement of peace, stability and democracy in the country".
Evans continued to say that as various armed groups continue to threaten the stability of the country, Congo's neighbours continue to perceive the situation as a threat to their interests and have taken actions that further destabilise the fragile process of transition.
The conflicts in the three central African countries, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC are closely linked.
Armed Hutu extremist groups based in eastern DRC are fighting the armies in Rwanda and Burundi, which are both Tutsi-dominated.
Rwanda and Burundi have sent their armies twice before to hunt down Hutu extremists in the DRC.
The second invasion, in 1998, triggered a five-year war involving several other African countries and came to be known as Africa's World War.
The current transitional government in DRC was set up to end that conflict, which directly and indirectly claimed the lives of three million people. - Sapa-dpa
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Cape Times on August 25, 2004
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