AFRICA/CONGO DR - Troubling tensions in eastern and western Kasai

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - “We will not allow anyone to set fire to the center of our nation,” said Me Mutombo Bakafwa Nsenda, Vice-Prime Minister for Defense and Security of Congo, at the end of an inquiry mission in Western Kasai. For several months now, the province (situated in central Democratic Republic of Congo and borders on Eastern Kasai, has issued troubling reports of dozens of homicides, hundreds of plundered houses, violent robberies, clashes for control of lands. The Catholic Church has not been spared the violence either. On the evening between July 31 and August 1, a group of unidentified persons tried to attack the residence of Archbishop Marcel Madila Basanguka of Kananga (capital of Western Kasai), and on August 2, some thirty armed thugs broke into the convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Malole (on the city's outskirts), taking 25,000 dollars, 4,000 Euros, a computer, and other objects.
More fighting has been taking place on the border between the two Kasais, in a struggle for control of the fertile grounds and those with diamond deposits. The clashes between the inhabitants of Eastern and Western Kasai run the risk of becoming an ethnic-tribal conflict, so much so that, according to the Congolese press, several politicians are making things worse, as the DRC prepares to launch a program of decentralization, which would call for the transfer of various powers to local organizations.
Faced with this danger of a worsening situation, the government in Kinshasa, at the end of August, sent an inquiry committee presided by Vice-Prime Minister Me Mutombo Bakafwa Nsenda, in Kananga. Soon, the committee will travel to Mbuji Mayi, capital of Western Kasai.
At the end of their stay in Kananga, the members of the governmental delegation affirmed that the government in Kinshasa would take concrete steps to guaranteeing peace and security in the area, however they also mentioned that the local authorities should do their part in the matter. The Vice-Prime Minister also encouraged the people of the two Kasais to learn from the example of what the people of eastern DRC did, having been attacked by armed foreign and Congolese groups. “Do the same as those of the East: they create NGOs, they start community projects, they take the initiative and are active in development.” For this reason, the Vice-Prime Minister met with local religious leaders, beginning with Archbishop Madila Basanguka. While eastern DRC is still seeing fighting between various armed groups, many of them being foreign, the outbreak of more fighting in central Congo threatens to lead the country to balkanization. In fact, the Congolese newspapers denounce the violence in the two Kasais as part of a plan, led by local politicians and foreign entities, to “balkanize the DRC.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 4/9/2009)