APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 44 44 AFRICA PEACE AND CONFLICT JOURNAL Kivu became a crucible of war, where fighting between the army and insurgents led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda left more than 370,000 persons internally displaced in 2008.3 In South Kivu and Oriental provinces today, the problems that sustained the conflict that lasted from 1997 to 2007 have yet to be addressed; fear of the ethnic other and suspicion and rumours run as deep as ever.4 The UN Plan of Action (2008–2010) for eastern Congo identifies the problems that stand stubbornly in the way of peace: intra- and inter-community disputes over land, illegal timber logging, undetected antipersonnel mines, violence against women, and insecurity around the gold and cassiterite mines towards which former militias awaiting re-integration continue to gravitate.5 The plan expresses increasing concern about criminal activity by youths, unemployment, and the relatively recent appearance of street children. Ominously, but perhaps not surprisingly, the program for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), launched nationwide in 2005, has had little success tackling the problem of youth criminal activity and militias groups. In addition, struggles over the country’s rich natural resources continue. This is not, however, due to a lack of effort. The deployment of UN peacekeepers to DR Congo has been one of the largest in the organization’s history (up to 22,000 troops), and the conflict has also involved some 60,000 representatives, volunteers, and employees of nongovernmental organizations and multinational groups.6 The government, through 5 Chantiers (Five Grounds), a socio-development program, continues to work to transform the simmering embers of the conflict in the east. Despite the progress made in DR Congo, two related questions persist: Why have all the many peacebuilding efforts failed to bring about lasting peace and how can sustainable peace be reached in eastern DR Congo? One possible reason is that these efforts have been based on an external and top-down approach, rather than a bottom-up and transformative model that takes local tensions into account and emphasizes personal and systemic change through peace education. Prospects for successful peacebuilding in eastern DR Congo would likely improve with the implementation of strong peace education programmes and local involvement, but the ultimate success of such efforts would still depend on the country’s determination and ability to address the local causes of conflict. THE DR CONGO CONFLICT AT A GLANCE The DR Congo conflict has been marked by a series of challenges that at various turning points took the form of a cycle of civil wars and other armed confrontations. Shortly after independence in 1960, the first Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated, on 17 January 1961. The country plunged into an era of 3. Ibid. The Rwandan army arrested Nkunda in Rwanda on 23 January 2009. 4. Johan Pottier, ‘Representations of ethnicity in the search for peace: Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo’, African Affairs, 109:434 (2010), 23–50. 5. United Nations Development Programme, ‘Plan d’actions prioritaires visant la stabilisation et le relèvement communautaire de l’Ituri’, Bunia, 2008, 19–20. 6. Paulin Manwelo, ‘Lettre ouverte à la communauté internationale à propos de la parabole du bon samaritain’, Congo-Afrique, no. 440 (2009), 649 n. 1.