UNICEF: "Not by Bombs and Bullets: Behind the DRC Conflict"

The following stories are based on reporting from the new documentary, 'Not by Bombs and Bullets: Behind the DRC Conflict', about the war's ongoing effects on women and children (see video links at right).

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 June 2008 -- The road to Rutshuru runs past hazy active volcanoes and silver lakes. It would be the stuff travel brochures are made of -- that is, if this route on the eastern edge of DRC, flush with Rwanda, wasn't literally lined with the hardware of a war few understand.

The road starts at Goma on Lake Kivu, a town that has swelled to 10 times its size in half as many years dotted now with mini villages made up of mini-huts of banana leaves with plastic sheeting. For most of last year, the traffic went only one way, as fighting scattered tens of thousands.

Despite the recent peace conference between the government and rebel forces here, it is still too risky to travel without a convoy. At a village along the Rutshuru road, participants in a UNICEF mission were stopped by a large group of displaced people wanting to talk to us on camera.

"It's fine you can bring your humanitarian help, your tents, your water, your food," one of them, Jean-Bertrand Rworetse, told us. "But you know we really don't need that. There is only thing we need, only one thing we ask for, and that is peace."

To read the full story, visit: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/drcongo_44641.html

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• UNICEF
• DRC
• Democratic
• Republic
• Congo
• violence
• children
• schools
• education

[LaVieJolie1]

This is a wonderful documentary. Very troubling