APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 43 Gaps in the Eastern Congo Peacebuilding Process: The Role of Peace Education and Local Tensions Pyana Mwamba Symphorien The prevailing explanations of peacebuilding failures tend to emphasize economic interests and cultural and political aspects. Peace education and recognition of local tensions and understandings of conflict and peace are, however, necessary components for building an enduring peace. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s transition from war towards peace and democracy demonstrates the need to address micro problems in extending local, regional, and national security. Involvement by local peoples in peace work and peace education are an appropriate methodology of peacebuilding in war-torn societies to bring about the personal and systemic changes necessary for securing sustainable peace. THE PEACE AGREEMENT SIGNED ON 17 DECEMBER 2002, in Pretoria, South Africa, between the Congolese government and rebel movements brought an end to the sevenyear conflict that some have called ‘Africa’s world war’ given the number of countries involved and the scale of the human, social, and material destruction. Its conclusion allowed the Democratic Republic of the Congo to restore national unity and organize the first general and democratic elections since independence in 1960. Despite presidential and legislative elections held in 2006 and the political unification of the country, security problems, especially in the east, continue to puzzle peacebuilders, academics, and policy makers.1 A few days after the elections, fighting broke out in the capital, Kinshasa, between the security forces of former vice president and opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and the Congolese army. More than 200 people were reportedly killed and many more wounded before the restoration of order.2 Similarly, North 1. Koen Vlassenroot and Timothy Raeymaekers, ‘Kivu’s intractable security conundrum’, African Affairs, 108:432 (2009), 475–85. 2. Paulin Manwelo, ‘Ethical reflections on the intervention of the UN and EUFOR in the DR Congo’ in Heinz-Gerhard Justenhoven and Hans-Georg Erhart (eds.), Intervention im Kongo: Eine kritische Analyse der Befriedungspolitik von UN und EU (Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 2008), 176–77. Pyana Mwamba Symphorien is a research fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a master’s degree in political philosophy from the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy, Saint Pierre Canisius, Kinshasa (Kimwenza), Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a master’s in peace studies and international relations from the Jesuit Hekima College Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations, Nairobi, Kenya. Africa Peace and Conflict Journal, 3:2 (2010), 43–59. © 2010 University for Peace Africa Programme. All rights reserved. ISSN 1659–3944.