(RRSSJ)
Publication of the sixth working Group’s report on the peace process:
“IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 31st DECEMBER 2016’s POLITICAL AGREEMENT: WHAT IS THE STATUS OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION SEVEN MONTHS LATER AND WHAT ARE THE EXPLECTATIONS?”
Kinshasa, 10th August 2017 – The “Réseau pour la Réforme du Secteur de Sécurité et de Justice (RRSSJ)”/Network for Security and Justice Sector Reform, in partnership with “Action Contre l’Impunité pour les Droits Humains(ACIDH)”/Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, the “Centre des Recherches et d’Etudes sur l’Etat de Droit en Afrique (CREEDA)”/Center for Research and Studies on the Rule of Law in Africa, the “Centre pour la Gouvernance (CEGO)”/Governance Center and the “Ligue des Electeurs (LE)”/Voters’ League will publish the sixth Working Group’s report on the DRC’s peace process entitled : “Implementation of the 31st December 2016’s Political Agreement: what is the status of its implementation seven months later and what are the expectations?”
The report is an objective evaluation of the implementation of the All-inclusive Political Agreement reached on 31st December 2016 (Accord de la Saint-Sylvestre). It highlights the breakthroughs made and the bottlenecks faced by the full implementation of the said Agreement as well as their effect on the achievement of the main goal set out in the Agreement: the organization of the elections within the timeframe agreed for a return to the constitutional order.
It emerges from the report that for the past seven months, the implementation of the 31st December 2016 Agreement was arduous, I may even say disastrous. The political consensus arising from this Agreement has been broken; the good faith has fallen apart and given way to the law of the strongest; which has once again plunged the country into chaos and the population into the uncertainties that prevailed during the period before December 2016.
The responsibility for this situation is shared by all the parties to the Agreement: the ruling presidential Majority abusing its dominant position, the fragmented political Opposition unable to come up with a common stand and a portion of the civil Society Organizations having no audible voice for being willy-nilly aligned with either of the active political forces.
The sixth report issued by the working group attempts to identify the challenges faced by the full implementation of the 31st December 2006 Political Agreement, to determine the signatory parties’ responsibilities and to formulate recommendations with a view to reviving the political process in anticipation for the December 2017 elections.
The painstaking and disastrous implementation of the December 3st 2016 Agreement reveals the real nature of the political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is basically ethic-related or made by the Congolese people themselves. This situation also helps to pull out of what appears like “good faith collective ignorance or innocence” or just abuse of good faith in which the majority of the Congolese people are locked in, having believed in the formal discourses of the political actors. Not long ago, the search for an all-inclusive political consensus was put forward as the only way out of the legitimacy-related crisis for the political institutions in the country, caused by the failure to organize the elections within the constitutional timeframe. To date, after reaching this consensus, the political actors are have departed from it to satisfy their unbridled thirst for power and easily earned money, in defiance of their commitments and the Congolese people.
The identification of the obstacles and accountability for the violation of the December 31st 2016 Agreement helped the drafters to formulate some recommendations with a view to reviving the political and electoral processes for a definitive exit from the crisis.
Contact details for Media:
Emmanuel KABENGELE, RRSSJ National Coordinator, tel. +243 818101084
Joseph CIHUNDA, CREEDA Vice-President, tel. +243 810399060
Sylvain LUMU MBAYA, Ligue des Electeurs/Voters’ League, tel. +243 815079823
