Rwanda key to peace in the DRC

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has witnessed an extraordinary number of attempts to resolve what is considered to be one of Africa's largest conflicts. All have failed to end the violence or bring sustainable peace.

A month away from the 10th anniversary of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and the establishment of the UN Mission, Tatiana Carayannis reviews important lessons from the conflict resolution efforts and highlights missed opportunities for a durable peace in the DRC in her publication entitled The challenge of building sustainable peace in the DRC.

Carayannis draws attention to the key to resolving the conflict, which she argues is the DRC-Rwanda relationship, a neglected aspect of peace efforts until now.

The publication [available at http://www.hdcentre.org/publications] is the first in a series of three background papers building on discussions at the 2009 African Mediators' Retreat which took place in March 2009 in Zanzibar bringing together 70 selected participants, including current and former heads of state, leading mediators and other peace process actors. The event, organised jointly by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre) and the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, with financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is part of the Oslo forum process, an on-going series of informal and discreet retreats for those actively engaged in peace processes around the world.

The author is Associate Director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum of the Social Science Research Council.

The Challenge of building sustainable peace in the DRC will be followed by two background papers on the mediation of election-related conflicts and the consideration by mediators of the economic dimensions of conflicts.

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For information on the Oslo forum, please visit www.osloforum.org.