We have just received an update from Henri regarding the situation in Beni. There has been fierce fighting between the Ugandan rebel group ADF Nalu and the Congolese army since June 30th. The government army aimed to root out all ‘negative elements’ in the east of the country, but reports indicate members of ADF nalu had been living peacefully amongst villagers since 2004. The UN estimates that 90,000 villagers have been forced to flee their homes. Oxfam say that the Congolese army is so poorly disciplined that is is likely that rape and other attrocities are being used as weapons of war.

Henri reports that the ADF Nalu attacked the government army last week in Eringeti – around 55 miles from Beni town. Villagers were again forced to flee, and have now congregated in Oicha town, 30 miles from Beni. The numbers of people coming into Oicha are growing daily, and figures are estimated as high as 14,300 families.

Henri’s organisation CRC has been working with the displaced families in Oicha. It is vital at this point that those who have been forced to flee their homes do not join an opposing rebel group, and that violent retribution is avoided at all costs. CRC is working with both the host community and those seeking shelter to try and restore hope and encourage cohesion between the groups. Following negotiations with CRC the Food Agriculture Organisation has committed it’s support to assist the displaced families.

It is now that the work Henri has been doing over the past ten years, to encourage neighbouring communities to leave peacefully together and to provide shelter to those who need it, will be most crucial. The situation is extremly volatile, yet Henri and the task forces of former militia members and local leaders that he has set up across eastern Congo will help to negotiate safe passage for those who need it, and to encourage calm within Oicha.

Please support Henri today, and help to restore hope in this volatile region.

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WALL OF HOPE.

June 30 was the anniversary of 50 years of Independence in D.R. Congo and local peacebuilder Henri Ladyi worked with the local community in Beni to celebrate with a peace procession involving the national police, state services and all members of the community.

Traditional music and dance brought the community together and Henri’s organisation ran speeches and workshops on the rights of the child, and the need for peace in Congo’s future.

The unveiling of the Wall was a central part of the day and the Mayor has declared it a permanent memorial to children. The Wall is part of a campaign that has used the personal testimonies of children who have been victims of forced recruitment into armed groups, as well as messages of support from Peace Direct supporters.

In just three weeks Henri has reached 3299 people, including 1172 children. He has held 4 conferences on child protection and ran 15 workshops in rural villages using projected messages from Peace Direct supporters for the children of Congo. Eight of the 30 children who were rescued by Henri in May have helped to connect with those children who are still members of the militia, to show them that they do have an alternative.

Henri plans to erect another wall in Butembo and to run more workshops, so if you haven’t done so already, please leave your message of hope for the children of Congo.

THE FIGHT FOR PEACE.

Tragically on June 30 what should have been a day of joy became a night of fear. Fighting broke out between government forces and a Ugandan rebel group just 50 km away from Beni. The streets of Beni began to fill with people fleeing the violence, who told of shops destroyed and houses ransacked. In the last week the militia soldiers have started leaving letters in the villages warning communities to leave as they will attack and kill anyone who stays. The number of people arriving in Beni is growing by the day.

The new arrivals are coming with nothing, and they are dependent on the people of Beni to help them. Over the last 5 years a lot of Henri’s work in Beni has focused on reducing tensions between those who have been displaced and the host community. So far many people in Beni have opened up their homes to offer food and shelter and town and army officials are keeping the people informed on what is happening.

In Congo there are over 2 million people who have been forced to flee their homes because of violence and who arrive in neighbouring villages with no way to support themselves. Across eastern Congo Henri has set up teams of former militia members and local leaders to perform reconnaissance visits to check that it is safe for people to return to their villages, and then accompany them through the bush to ensure they are not attacked enroute. In the coming weeks their role will be crucial to the future of the people who are currently sheltering in Beni.

“Building peace in Congo is a bit like washing a pig, just when you think, you’ve got him clean, he’s wriggled free and is squelching in the mud again. But that doesn’t mean you give up.” Henri Ladyi

Henri, and the local peacebuilders like him, have the determination, the contacts and the moral legitimacy to make a real difference in their communities – you can give them the one thing they urgently need – your support. Please make a gift today and show the people of Congo that, like Henri, you won’t give up on peace.

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A thousand militia fighters are expected to emerge from the bush and lay down their weapons today in the Congolese town of Beni, brought in by local peacebuilder Henri Ladyi. It’s the start of a campaign to disarm 10,300 fighters, including child soldiers as young as 8 years old, who have been living in the forests of eastern Congo and terrorising local villagers.

Henri Ladyi has spent months enticing these hardened fighters out of the bush. His teams of local volunteers have walked deep into the forest to reach and persuade fighters who have often known no other life since civil war began in the Democratic Republic of Congo 15 years ago. He has offered them safe passage through government-held areas, organised transport for them, and persuaded previously demobilised militia commanders to attend in Beni as a reassurance.

Now he is aiming to disarm thousands of the Pareco Mai-Mai militia and, crucially, help them to settle back into normal life so that they do not return to bush warfare.

This may be the last chance the militiamen get to lay down their weapons peacefully and return to civilian life, because the Congolese government has announced an end to its amnesty for militias. The government has sent a special delegation to meet them today, to issue them with ID papers and absorb many of them into the civilian police force.

Henri’s campaign continues next weekend in Butembo, and then 13 other villages in the war-torn region of North Kivu. This is the worst-affected area of DRC. His programme is run by local NGO Centre Conflits Resolution, funded by Peace Direct.

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In a forest clearing in eastern Congo. Kamberi is a 15-year-old in a red shirt, surrounded by a gang of young boys perspiring in the afternoon heat. He kicks a football in the dust as he talks to them, quietly yet with conviction. It’s a tranquil village scene – except for the machetes hanging from the belts of the boys, and their faded, outsized army fatigues.

These Congolese boys are members of the Mai Mai Pareco militia, a group that relies on child soldiers to fight its wars. Kamberi was once one of them. He first picked up a gun aged 12. There are secrets in his eyes.

But his life changed in December. Kamberi heard a radio broadcast by Henri’s organisation Centre Resolution Conflit (CRC), offering help to those who leave the militia and settle back into village life. Henri’s words gave Kamberi the promise of a future. It was enough for him to lay down his gun and find his way to CRC.

When children like this come to CRC, they lack skills or schooling to earn a living. The school year won’t start until July and without an income, many will return to the military life they tried to leave behind. So Henri starts by finding out what work they would like to do. The boys often want to become mechanics or drivers, and the girls to sew clothes or raise livestock. Henri finds and pays someone to teach them these skills. He budgets just £20 for each child, but this tiny amount is enough to start the children on the way to a life beyond violence.

Kamberi had missed three vital years of school while fighting in the bush. Now he has started a small shop, selling essentials like petrol and sugar. In just two months his life has changed beyond recognition.

When Henri talks of Kamberi, his voice is thick with pride: “This boy, he is helping so much – he has done so much good.” Kamberi knows how important it is that other children in his situation have the same opportunities. With Henri’s guidance he journeys deep into the bush, to meet with other child soldiers.

In the village clearing, Kamberi plays football with the boys. They think he is just another child soldier. Kamberi begins to talk to them. He tells them how good life is outside the militia, how much they can learn at school, how he has been accepted back into his home village. It is the opposite of everything these boys have been told by their commanders. Within a week, nine of them have walked 90 miles through deep forest to reach the CRC office.

Those nine boys are now reunited with their families. Kamberi is visiting other villages on the edge of militia rule, reaching out to children trapped by fear and ignorance in a life of violence. And he is looking forward to starting school again this July.

Henri was able to give Kamberi £20 to set up his shop because of generous donations from people like you. Kamberi was able to save those nine other children – who are learning now to be mechanics, barbers and farmers – because of your support.

Henri has helpers like Kamberi throughout eastern Congo. The CRC is reaching some 5,000 militiamen. He wants to give every soldier an option for laying down their weapons, every village a chance of security in a region shattered by 16 years of guerrilla war.

Let us call for Peace this new year for people who are living through extraodinary trials here in Eastern Congo. It’s a black hole where no-one is safe and where no outsider goes…

Every night there is another village attacked, burned and emptied. It could be the Mai Mai-the traditional local militia , or the regular army, or the National army for the liberation of Uganda( NALU) based in Rwenzori mountain near Beni and Uganda Border,  or deserters from any group, no -one knows…

But there is hope for change in 2010. The High Council of Defense reports improvement in the general stability and security. And we continue to work for peace, not through political or military power, but from within the communities.

Happy New Year 2010, I wish and grant you peace, contentment and good health through this New Year.

Henri

It has been an incredible year for Henri and his organisation Centre Resolution Conflit (CRC). Henri has set up 3 task forces across North Kivu, creating a network of police, militia, army, civic and community leaders, all of whom are united in their struggle for peace. The task forces have mediated in disputes across the district stopping violent outbreaks and have worked to bring rebel soldiers out of combat and back into their communities.

CRC has also focused on peace education, working with schools and local communities. Henri uses radio to reach militia groups and his connections and networks to organise meetings in schools, church groups and communities. These are just some of the highlights from this year.

Working with rebel soldiers:

• In March the Task Force negotiated with Mai Mai militia group and persuaded them to hand over 250 child soldiers to the UN.
• Realising the burden of feeding child soldiers had become too much for some militia, Henri negotiated the release of 100 children by exchanging them for goats. Read the story in the Independent
• Following consultation with the Task Force 271 Mai Mai rebels and 47 child soldiers have chosen to come out of combat and be integrated into the national army.
• The Mai Mai leaders asked us to convey their paln for peace to the international community. Read the result

Peace Education:

• CRC’s Peace Education project trained 60 teachers to integrate conflict resolution training into the school syllabus
• The Task forces organised 19 sessions in Beni churches reaching 5,700 people. The sessions focused on the need for peace and non violent conflict resolution.
•  Over 1000 young people outside of schooling have taken part in peace eduction sessions
• CRC organised a large peace parade and celebratory football match between the police and MONUC in Beni on International Day of Peace

 Nov 09:

When the town of Lubero was attacked by the FDLR, local people began to question the humanitarian organisations. Whilst the FDLR had surrounded the town and trapped villagers, the humanitarian staff were able to move freely between rebel lines. FDLR would not attack because of fear of international repercussions, and villagers were angered by this inequality, some began to react with violence . Negotiation sessions were being held but civic society leaders held separate meetings from those organised by the humanitarian organisations. Henri was able to use funds from the Peace Direct champions scheme to host a meeting in which all parties came, and reach a shared understanding of the situation.

 These are just some of Henri’s amazing achievements. 2010 will see the reach of the Task Forces expanding with the aim of stopping violent conflict and building a culture of peace in a country ravaged by war.

84 human rights and humanitarian groups in the Congo Advocacy Coalition have denounced the U.N.’s failure to act over the actions taken by the Congolese government’s military operation in eastern Congo, which is backed by U.N. peacekeepers. The operation, which is aimed at neutralising the threat to civilians from the Rwandan Hutu militia group FDLR, has resulted in an “unacceptable cost to the civilian population.” 

Estimates suggest that since the operation began in January 2009, 1,000 civilians have been killed, 7,000 women and girls have been raped, and more than 6,000 properties have been destroyed – not only by the FDLR militia – but also the UN backed Congolese government soldiers. In total, some 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

These devasting figures highlight the inability of the UN to stop abusive soldiers from the Congolese government engaging in civilian violence. The DRC conflict is the world’s deadliest since World War II and has already cost the lives of over 5 million people. Reading this report it would be easy to lose hope for a peaceful solution. However there are people living in DRC who themselves are victims of this war but who refuse to give up hope and who are making real lasting achievements to build peace through non-violent methods.

Henri Bura Ladyi is the director of  Centre Resolution Conflit (CRC), a peacebuilding organisation based in Beni supported by Peace Direct. He is working to persuade the militia to lay down their arms, to leave their factions, and to return peacefully to their communities. His programmes break down the barriers of fear and mistrust that feed the cycles of violence and enhance trust, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Henri uses a network of ex-militia to contact hard to reach armed groups and to demonstrate there are other options available to them. His programmes offer militia the support they need to return to normal life; teaching them livelihood skills so they can support themselves without violence  Henri works with local people to show them they have more to fear if the militia remain armed in the bush than if they accept them back into their communities. He also works to negotiate the release of child soldiers and give them the support and skills to live in peace.

CRC has created a network of people stretching across militia commanders, government, church leaders, and right across communities. Due to their influence in Aveba and Beni area, four brigades comprising a total of 8,000 militias disbanded last year. Over the next year CRC will demobilise a further 5000 militia members, bringing the surrounding communities closer to peace.

Henri’s achievements are a clear indication that there is cause for hope in DRC, but that peace will not be obtained through sanctioned violence. In a country ripped apart by years of war and instability, adding another armed force to the mix, no matter their intentions can only bring more suffering to families and communities. Peace Direct believes that local people need to be at the centre of conflict resolution, and building peace needs to happen not through armed clashes but in the villages and communities at the heart of this conflict.

Find out more about Henri’s work    |    Conflict profile    |     Support us    |    Sign up

We asked Henri for a message of peace to mark UN International Day of Peace.

“We must achieve our vision and mission – to build a world of peace, love and non violence, to transform the conflict from its negative aspects to positive, and to see people living in harmony with their differences

I hope in the next five years we will continue to grow so that we are fully prepared to respond to disaster if it does happen and so that we can pass on our experience and knowledge to help people manage disaster and ultimately so that we are able to prevent disaster before it happens,”

Send a message of peace to Henri >>>

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I wish to tell you about a boy I met this month. On August 13 I traveled to Butembo with 5 other members of the CRC (Centre Resolution Conflits) team. Our aim was to help those who wanted to be reconciled with the government by increasing the militia’s awareness of voluntary demobilization, using radio broadcasts and by meeting with the leaders of armed groups.

Whilst I gave my radio broadcast a boy waited outside. He was around 20 years old and he was bare-chested with soaking wet clothes and a shaved head. I was nervous to approach this stranger, but I did so and this was the story he told me:

His name was Colonel Kambale Maitre des Erreurs (teacher of mistakes) and he was the chief commander of over 150 militia. He had been trying to leave the bush for the past three months but had not been able to find the opportunity to do so safely. The Colonel admitted that he had killed many people, but he also said that he had attempted to liberate almost 40 people who had been arrested under his command. Now he was trying to break away from the militia and live in peace. That morning Kambale had gone to wash his clothes in the river, seeing his chance he had escaped into the forest and after walking all day in the rain he arrived in Butembo, where he heard our broadcast.

Because CRC is known in Butembo the police were willing to let Kambale stay the night in their cell and although by this time everything was closed as it is not safe to be out after dark, I managed to find a woman to prepare some food for us and Kambale.

The next morning we went to seek help from the mayor – he was keen for CRC to help Kambale as he believed that young people must be supported to increase their options so that they are not forced to become combatants in the bush.  It is good to know we have his support and faith in the work we are doing.

I left Kambale with the CTO (Centre for Transit and Orientation) where he was given support to find family members and to re-enter village life. He is now living in a village close to his Aunt’s house. In the following days 11 of Kambale’s combatants came out of the bush and the CTO have been helping them reintegrate. Kambale and I will continue to work together to call others from the jungle.

Kambale is just one example, since the beginning of August, 158 children and 45 adults have chosen voluntary demobilization and come out of the jungle. The CRC team will work with them to find peace.

Henri
CRC Director
Beni Aug 2009″
 
Find out more about the work that Henri and CRC is doing in to find peace in a war which has claimed at least 5 million lives by visiting Henri’s page: http://www.peacedirect.org/peacebuilders/drcongo/

Read Peace Direct’s report on DRC on Guardian weekly here:
http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=1155&catID=17

 “Insecurity continues to grow in North Kivu because of the presence of FDLR rebels. The Congolese national army is badly organised and not responding with urgency. Potentially dangerous new alliances are forming. Last week security services arrested 18 former combatants who were planning a new rebellion at Beni-Lubero Territory .

 As part of the peace process some CNDP rebels have agreed to integrate into the national army. This mixed force now controls the territory of Rutsuru and one part of Lubero. It’s in this area that the humanitarian situation is very bad and where we continue to work. Elements of the PARECO Mai Mai group have been calling for a return to the battlefield. Some Mai Mai groups are beginning to mix with FDLR rebels.  We are working hard to stop this process and have been using radio broadcasts and face-to-face talks to persuade the armed groups not to return to violence.

 Tension is high and for two months certain roads have been too dangerous to travel with ambushes from armed men dressed in military uniforms. One of our Task Force members was recently arrested by the army commander in Butembo for talking with the PARECO Mai Mai group. The good news is that once the army commander realised the intentions of the Task Force he released my colleague and now the army commander wants to be a member of the Task Force!

 There are still many IDPs in the area too afraid to return back to their villages. We have been giving them some emergency assistance and continue to try to return them to their villages where it is safer enough to do so.

Henri
CRC Director
Beni 25th May 2009”

“I am back from the bush today after a difficult mission. It was not easy to reach this group of Mai Mai who live 197km from Beni, with bad conditions on the road.

The General and Officers of the Mai Mai were waiting to meet us and agreed to let us return forty children back to their families. Before reintegrating the children back into their communities we have to carry out a process of reconciliation between them and their families. Many children were rejected by their families, having been forced by the Mai Mai to previously carry out an atrocity in their home community. Some children have run away because of problems at home.

We bought changes of clothes so the children could take off their military uniforms and their guns were recouped by the Mai Mai officers. . A big challenge for us is that there are between 200 and 300 children who need to be reintegrated in their families, all of them is under our responsibility. Some of the children want to return to school and others need to be reintegrated into professional activity or work, to help them to work in groups with other children and learn more from them.

We will support their reintegration for the next two months and then we will leave them and to look for other child soldiers still in the bush. This work is urgent not because their conditions are very bad but because this is a good moment for this action. The level of political crisis is low at the moment, and the situation has calmed down a lot after the recent violence.

A special thing was to see families accept theirs sons even if there were some problems before and to see also children beg pardon of their families. We were obliged to paid things that were stolen by these child soldiers just to allow the reconciliation with their neighbours.

Many thanks and god bless all the team.

Henri Bora Ladyi
Conflict Resolution Center”

“Dear all,

The situation has clamed down considerably. There is now little fighting although people remain very afraid. We are in Beni and have had an encouraging meeting with the governor of Nord Kivu regarding the humanitarian crisis.

Our most crucial work at the moment is working with families in the Butembo area to repatriate children abducted by the Mai Mai.

One of the most disturbing consequences of this current crisis has been the remobilization of Mai Mai rebels who have once again forcibly recruited child soldiers. They are now demanding payment of one goat in exchange for the release of one child. Many families are struggling to find enough goats to rescue their children. It is very sad and we have had three members of the CRC team in Butembo negotiating with the Mai Mai to accept anything that the families can offer in return of their children.

This morning I was finally able to make contact with the Mai Mai commander. I am leaving today to visit him in the jungle between Butembo and Lubero to negotiate release of all the children. I had been intending to meet with President Joseph Kabila who is visiting Beni this week but this must take priority.

The President’s visit to our area is an encouraging sign that he is beginning to listen to local advice on how to end this conflict. The government has agreed to establish dialogue with the rebels which is the only viable solution to resolve the violence. We have been advocating for this since the break out of the conflict.

Thank you for all your messages of support. It has meant a lot to all of us at this difficult time.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two days as I visit the commander, the Mai Mai can be very unpredictable and there is so much at stake.

Henri
CRC Director”

“ I am 20KM from Beni on the Butembo-Beni road. I came here to meet IDPs who have managed to escape the fighting. They are telling me that the fighting is now on the outskirts of Kanyabayonga and Kunda militia seems to behaving the upper hand. The situation is very tense and we might have a humanitarian catastrophe.”
What is CRC doing at the moment?

• “I have been in touch with the UN reps in Beni and Butembo to help secure the roads so that stranded people can get out

• I have spoken to the rich businessmen of Butembo so that they can exert pressure on the government to discipline their renegade soldiers

• We are establishing contact with the rebel leadership so that they can reassure the communities within the towns they control. I believe that people are better living in their own homes under rebel controlled area than living as IDPs beside the roads or in camps

• We have been airing messages of reassurance and dispelling rumours through the local radio to clam down the situation and minimize panic

• We are also organising a huge fund raising event this Sunday to assist easy the humanitarian crisis. There are no international NGOs in our area offering assistance, most them are held up in Goma”

“ I am 20km from Beni on the Butembo-Beni road. I came here to meet IDPs who have managed to escape the fighting. They are telling me that the fighting is now on the outskirts of Kanyabayonga and Kunda militia seems to behaving the upper hand. The situation is very tense and we might have a humanitarian catastrophe.”

“I have received depressing request for help from the business community from Lubero who are afraid of looting if the town fails to rebel hands. They are also scared that the retreating government solider have been looting and killing civilians! I have received calls for help from people stranded on the Kanyabayonga Lubero road.”

What is CRC doing at the moment?

• “I have been in touch with the UN reps in Beni and Butembo to help secure the roads so that stranded people can get out
• I have spoken to the rich businessmen of Butembo so that they can exert pressure on the government to discipline their reneged soldiers
• We are establishing contact with the rebel leadership so that they can reassure community within the town where they hold control. I believe that people are better living in their own homes under rebel controlled area than living as IDPs beside the roads or in camps
• We have been airing messages of reassurance and dispelling rumours through the local radio to clam down the situation and minimize panic
• We are also organising a huge fund raising event this Sunday to assist easy the humanitarian crisis. There are no international NGOs in our area offering assistance, most them are held up in Goma”

We are proud to bring you an intimate insight into Henri’s work with details from Mohamed, our Head of International Programmes, field trip to Eastern Congo this summer.

CRC Centre, Beni

My first few days in Eastern Congo are spent at the CRC headquarters in Beni. This is the centre point of operations with all activity planned from just one room. When I first visited Henri in 2005 the CRC office had just opened. People in the community weren’t sure whether to trust him and the centre was very isolated, this time it’s a complete contrast. The first thing I see when I arrive is people queuing outside the door; I am told that this is a regular occurrence with people beginning to gather from the early hours. CRC has established such a strong reputation locally, people now know this is the place to come to resolve their disputes, problems with neighbours, land issues, people come and request an intervention and also to warn of bigger conflicts brewing – even the police refer cases to the CRC. Henri now employs twelve staff but the centre is also full of volunteers who come to prepare food or clean the offices. The community are deeply invested and fiercely proud of what the CRC represents, with many people seeking to do what they can to support it.

Demobolizing Militia

Some of Henri’s most inspiring and innovative work is in demobilizing militia and reintegrating them back into the community. Here you can see four former militants that Henri has successfully brought home. Each one had harrowing stories to tell, of crimes committed and violence witnessed. Henri and the CRC team support them every step of their complex journey, from laying down their weapons and leaving their jungle hideouts, to acquiring life skills to obtain employment. The man pictured second from right is now working as an apprentice preparing wood for construction. The CRC team also works hard with the community to make integration possible. Deeply hostile, the militants are demonized and unwanted. CRC works to break down these hostilities and find the common ground. The militia, often forcibly recruited as child soldiers, have also been victims of this harrowing conflict. Both they and the community now share a common desire for peace which can only be achieved through compromise and compassion, the conflict will not end until the perpetuators lay down their weapons and work in unity with the community.

HIV Singers

This is a special group of women all living with HIV. They originally met through a counselling programme but soon realized they wanted to do something more meaningful with their diagnosis. They came to Henri requesting training and he has helped them to define their goals, manage group dynamics, and understand how to deliver and promote their messages of peace. Using poetry, song and dance, the women now travel around communities, visiting people in their homes and spreading their message of hope and non-violence. Hugely inspirational, the energy of the group was infectious though their underlying message profoundly sad. They told me that they wanted to use their condition to inspire change in others, saying ‘we no longer have a future, but others do. People must change their ways, and then they can change the future of Congo and peace will come.’

Travelling to Market

Here we see a loaded car carrying passengers to the main market. Innocuous enough this photo has much deeper significance. For a long time this road was rendered completely inaccessible due to intense inter-clan conflict that left hundreds without access to the main centre of food and trade. The CRC have since established peace committees in every village along this road. Dialogue and negotiation have allowed the road to reopen and people can once again access vital resources as well as sell their goods and earn an income.

Peace Committees

Henri took me to visit one of the peace committees in action. Here we are at a communal meeting space set up by the committee to revive the old tradition of information sharing. The room is thick with smoke, and I’m told there is always tea on the stove. It’s the only place in the community where you will find elders, women, IDP’s all gathered together. The meeting place is a safe space for people to come and air grievances,

share rumours, resolve disputes and share information about potential conflict flashpoints.

Building Homes

Henri works with communities to prioritize their needs. One of the big problems for returning IDP’s (internally displaced people) is they arrive back home to find their houses destroyed. So when one community told Henri that what they need most was homes, he helped them to form groups of 30 who now work in rotation to build each other houses.

Current Shelter

A new house

Critical Friend

Every Peace Direct project is evaluated using the ‘Critical Friend’ model. The critical friend is someone local to the project, who therefore understands the context, knows who to talk to in order to get an independent assessment of the project’s impact, and can support the project in an annual cycle of reflection.The CRC project is evaluated by a university professor and respected local leader, pitcured here. They act as an impartial advisor overseeing the development of the project and assessing its impact.

Henri: the walking billboard

Spending time with Henri is always humbling. For me this photo sums up his passion and dedication. Here you can see him acting as a moving billboard for peace as the slogan on his t-shirt roughly translates as:

“Rape

Kills your humanity.

We should not accept impunity

Everyone who performs rape should be punished now!”

Henri has devoted his whole life to peacebuilding at great personal risk. Being with him in the field you begin to understand the dangers involved with building peace in one the worlds most traumatic and complex conflict areas. Through his courage and commitment he is transforming individual lives and whole communities.

The breadth of Henri’s work would not be possible without your support. Thank you for being an integral part of this important work and for changing lives in the DR Congo.

“At the moment we are preoccupied with a critical situation concerning two different military groups. Almost 700 militia (475 of them from the Mai Mai group), have agreed to come out of their jungle hiding places and demobilize. A small number also want to integrate into the national army. We’ve just come back from Rutsuru which is around 300km from Beni where we worked with them for a week.
Peace Direct money is currently supporting those men who have left the militia, as well as the population who have already welcomed them.

The situation is very tense; after we left Rutsuru, sporadic fighting with light arms broke out (Sunday 20th April) which could make the situation worse. In collaboration with the UN we have called on them to ceasefire and respect humanitarian principles. We need to move quickly.
We recognize your love for peace work in the DRC and we are continuing to support your passion by constructing peace in this country torn apart by war, injustice and poverty.
Henri
CRC Director”

“I’m currently based deep in the jungle, in a place called Aveba. Although it’s only 380 kilometres from Beni it took me almost a week to get here, travelling over mountains and through deep water. For eight days I have been negotiating safe passage for a 250-strong gang of armed militia. They wanted to come out of the jungle and rejoin the community but were worried government soldiers would arrest them the moment they laid down their weapons. They had heard of work I’d done recently with a neighbouring village and telephoned me to ask if I would act as a mediator. The negotiations were very difficult; the government was adamant the gang couldn’t be trusted. After many days of talks I managed to get both sides to start trusting and communicating with each other. I arranged for the gang to lay down their weapons in a safe area and today the 250 men came out of the forest and received safe passage as promised. I’m staying here for one more week to help them get used to life in the community and have arranged for blankets and food rations from humanitarian NGOs based in the area.

Henri Bura Ladyi
CRC Director”

“At the end of May I returned from my first trip to the Centre Résolutions Conflits (CRC) in Beni in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The region is filled with stark contrasts; the countryside is startlingly beautiful with green fading into the distant, lush fields planted with all sorts of food crops surrounded by thick equatorial forest. The area has abundant water and timber, gold and diamonds, copper and coltan. Yet for all this, the towns and their outskirts are bursting with internally displaced people living in makeshift shelters, too terrified to return to their homes in the countryside.

During my visit I spent time listening and talking with community members and the CRC team. I met people from some of the displaced communities who were looking forward to returning to their fields and beginning to fend for themselves again. I heard stories of success – for example the CRC team was called to the neighboring Butembo town to help resolve a leadership dispute among internally displaced people camping in the town. The conflict had the potential to plunge the whole town into chaos. The CRC were able to draw on experiences from the nearby Ituri district where different ethnic communities worked to share the management of the camps. Using this, they were able to help the communities reach a settlement on how to share the leadership tasks and begin to involve women in the management.

These settlements are the building block for eventual peaceful re-integration when the communities return to their villages.

I also heard about the CRC’s new strategy: to involve the militia in peace building. If the militia has a stake in the peace then they will contribute to its maintenance. Most of the soldiers were recruited to the war by their own clan’s militia in order to seek revenge for attacks from other clans. But before the war they were the local youth, yearning for education and living fairly normal lives. CRC is trying to reconnect them to their experiences of normal life.

In a similar vein, the CRC is also working closely with demobilised child soldiers to heal rifts among their own families and assist in their re-integration into the community. This has been very difficult because some families have refused to take back their children for fear of what they have become and some children cannot go back to their villages for fear of revenge attacks from families, whose members the children killed during the height of the conflict.

The support you are giving them is enabling them to sustain this work since peace building requires constant care and attention. The situation is very fragile at the moment; the peace accord signed by different militia is at risk of falling apart due to the postponement of the election slated for June 30th. Henri and his team at CRC are working around the clock to reassure community leaders and church elders, and re-emphasising the need for patience and consultation.

Mohamed Osman
Head of International Programmes
Peace Direct”