Interviews – en

Matthew Newsome interviews MARY ROBINSON, former Irish president and United Nations Special Envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes Region

What kind of political pressure can you put on Congo’s government so that it plays its part?
The power of the word of the international community, and thefive special envoys. But I deplore that Germany and the EU want to disengage from security sector reform. That is a wrong signal. Reforming the security secor is an absolute priority. Congolese intervention forces need to be built which act according to international human rights standards. That’s important. I hope that the EU will revise its decision.

Pas facile de lutter pour la transparence financière en République démocratique du Congo. Dans le classement 2012 de Transparency International, c'est l'un des pays les plus corrompus au monde. Il occupe la 160ème place sur 176. Pourtant, Oscar Rashidi se bat. A la tête de la Licof, la Ligue contre la corruption et la fraude au Congo, il publie tous les ans un rapport sur l'état du pays. Il répond aux questions de Christophe Boisbouvier.

United Nations — Rape is often perceived as an individual trauma, but in reality its impact extends far beyond a single person and instead affects entire communities, complicating the already challenging task of helping victims of sexual violence.

Guillaume Lacaille is an independent political analyst who specializes in conflicts in Africa. He has previously worked as a political officer with MONUC and as the senior Congo analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG). In 2012, he was seconded by the Swiss government to MONUSCO to support the UN stabilisation unit in redesigning the international stabilisation strategy for eastern Congo (I4S).
The result of this revision has just been presented to the UN Security Council in a special annex to the report of the UN Secretary-General on the DRC that was released on 15 February.

On Monday this week, Laura Heaton published an article in Foreign Policy about the mass rape of women in the Congolese jungle town of Luvungi in late July and early August 2010. Heaton’s reporting suggests that that the rape figures were exaggerated, and that in general sexual violence has been received far more funding and attention than other humanitarian needs in the eastern Congo––she reports that the 1,4 million displaced people in 2011 only received half as much aid as rape victims, and that NGOs dealing with sexual violence in South Kivu had grown from 10 to 300 in ten years.

A peace deal aimed at fixing the long-running conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was signed in Addis Ababa on Sunday. World leaders hailed the agreement, but it is not without a few major flaws. SIMON ALLISON takes you through the details.

Eleven African countries have signed a deal in Addis Ababa aimed at bringing peace to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Analysts believe the agreement could make a difference.

– Jean Francois Dupaquier : Mr. President, in DRC the public opinion seems very unfriendly to Rwanda and yourself sometimes cartooned as a new Hitler. Do you think this hostility may disappear in a foreseeable future or do you feel it may seem a basic part of Congolese identity?

Last month the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down the second verdict in its 10-year history: Congolese militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was found not guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes relating to a deadly 2003 attack in the Ituri region of DR Congo. Ngudjolo was released pending the prosecutors’ appeal, but the three Congolese witnesses who testified against him remain in custody.