Searching for Lasting Peace - Population-Based Survey on Perceptions and Attitudes about Peace, Security and Justice in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Patrick Vinck, Ph.D.
Phuong N. Pham, Ph.D.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report presents the results of a mixed-methods study conducted in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between November and December 2013, to assess the population’s perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes about peace, security and justice. The study included a survey of 5,166 randomly selected adult residents, to provide results that are representative of the adult population of territories1 and major urban areas in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, and the district of Ituri. The study sought to contribute to an understanding of the following questions:

1. What is the population’s sense of security and how do they perceive security actors?

2. What is the population’s understanding of, access to and perception of justice and justice actors?

3. What are the sources of tensions and factors hindering or promoting social cohesion?

4. What are the priorities of the population?

5. What is the prevalence of various forms of violence and crimes?

6. How are disputes and crimes addressed/resolved? By whom?
   How are these processes perceived?

7. How is progress toward peace and stability perceived?

8. How are institutions and their capacity for response perceived by the population?

Detailed results outline the challenges of building a lasting peace, ensuring security, and achieving justice after decades of conflicts and poor governance. Highlights from the findings are presented here.

Respondents’ priorities for themselves and for the government highlight the continued need for the consolidation of peace and security, as well as for economic revitalization. For respondents, achieving a lasting peace is possible (92%) but will require a wide range of measures, including having inter-ethnic dialogue (31%), defeating armed groups (26%), establishing the truth about the conflict (17%), arresting those responsible for the violence (16%), providing jobs and reviving the economy (16%), and having a dialogue with armed groups (15%). Respondents most frequently identified the government (73%) as the key actor that must take action, followed by God (35%), and the population/communities themselves (30%).

Despite the critical role of the government in bringing peace, respondents questioned the commitment of the government to improve security, peace, and services. Just half the respondents (57%) believe the government is working to improve security, and slightly more (61%) believed it is working to establish peace. Just 29 percent believed the government is working to improve their daily lives. In 2008, a reference survey on the same indicators showed that 56 percent of the respondents believed the government was working to improve their daily lives.
The results suggest a decreasing belief that the government is working to improve the respondents’ conditions.

Social relations show improvement according to the data. In 2008, just 60 percent of survey respondents ranked positively their relations with members of any other ethnic group, compared to 79 percent in 2013. (No reference was made to nationality/country of origin). The change is most important in North Kivu, where 78 percent of the respondents were positive about their relations with members of other ethnic groups, compared to 52 percent in 2008. Respondents also felt increasingly comfortable in social situations in the presence of former combatants.

Respondents’ sense of security also shows improvement over time. Compared to the 2008 survey, the sense of security walking at night improved in North Kivu (58% in 2013 v. 17% in 2008) and remained roughly similar in Ituri (52% in 2013 v. 48% in 2008). However, it worsened in South Kivu (38% in 2013 v. 58% in 2008), likely driven by poor and worsening sense of security in the territories of Shabunda, Walungu, and Uvira. For the entire study area, nearly half the respondents (48%) indicated that their security situation had improved over the previous year, compared to 24 percent who said their security situation had worsened.

Overall, improvements in sense of security and social relations mask some negative trends. Women, for example, were significantly less secure than men, and were more likely to report no improvement in security over the last year. Many respondents (32%) also report that nobody (but God) provides them with security. Respondents further indicated that in most cases (69%), they did not have any form of community-level mechanism to ensure security.

The security role of the United Nations stabilization mission (Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo - MONUSCO) is perceived negatively, with respondents showing distrust: 77 percent of the respondents judge the contribution of MONUSCO to security as being weak to non-existent, and more than half the respondents (58%) had overall a negative perception of MONUSCO. However, there were important differences. For example, in the territories of Rutshuru and Nyiragongo, nearly half the respondents (42% and 45% respectively) judged positively the contribution of MONUSCO to security, likely reflecting recent progress against the M23 armed group in and near those territories. Overall, however, the results indicate that any possible contribution to peace is largely unrecognized by the population.

When asked what needed to be done to improve security in their neighborhoods or villages, respondents most frequently mentioned measures concerning security actors, especially the FARDC, and common security sector reforms. The most common responses were for the Congolese Army (Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo – FARDC) to attack armed groups (29%), for the FARDC to be paid (27%) and deployed (17%), for the police to be paid (26%) and deployed (18%), and for both the police and FARDC to be trained (13% and 14% respectively). Among measures not related to specific security actors, respondents emphasized the need to provide education (22%) and jobs (19%) to the population as a means for security.

The justice system remains negatively perceived overall. Despite significant improvement, knowledge of formal justice systems was low, with just 16 percent of the respondents describing their knowledge of tribunals / courts as good or very good, and 9 percent similarly rating their knowledge of military justice. A larger percentage of respondents ranked positively their knowledge and access to traditional and local justice mechanisms. Women, however, had lower reported knowledge levels and access, especially with regard to customary and local justice mechanisms.

A majority of respondents described the formal justice system as corrupted (54%), non-existent / enabling impunity (41%), being biased / in favor of the rich (35%), and requiring payment (24%).
Despite the negative views of the formal justice system in eastern DRC, most respondents (85%) believe that it is possible to achieve justice.
Their recommendations to improve justice reflect their criticisms, and include fighting corruption (59%), training judges and lawyers (31%), paying staff and judges (27%), and informing the population about justice (25%).

Accountability and justice for the serious crimes committed during the wars and conflicts between the government and rebel groups are very important to most people in eastern DRC (89%). Given the choice, most respondents said they would like to see those responsible for the violence punished (60%), put in jail (42%), or facing trial in a tribunal (38%).

Awareness and knowledge about the International Criminal Court (ICC) has increased significantly (53% have heard of the Court in 2013 compared to 28% in 2008), but most respondents believe that the national court system is more appropriate to achieve justice for warrelated crimes (48%), and just one in five respondents said the Court had had positive impacts on peace (20%) and/or justice (22%).
Based on these findings and other results outlined in the report, we offer the following recommendations to the Congolese government and to actors in the international community engaged in supporting DRC’s reconstruction:

1. The state must take steps to be trusted among the population so that it is perceived as working to improve daily lives, rather than being perceived as corrupted, focused on rapid gains, and failing to deliver basic services. These steps must include (a) effective execution of public policies and service delivery, (b) inclusiveness, (c) increased transparency and accountability, and (d) public outreach and communication to engage the population with the role and capacity of the state.

2. All actors must continue initiatives that promote peace and intercommunal dialogue. There are already significant improvements in social relations; these should be supported and reinforced. Socioeconomic drivers of conflicts and recruitment in armed groups beyond ethnic divisions should be explored and addressed.

1. There is a need to deploy, train, pay regularly, and equip properly the FARDC and the police. Security actors must ensure that protection services are available locally and contribute to rebuilding security and trust in government institutions, as well as the reduction of violence. Respondents highlighted the need for more patrols and presence in the field.

2. At the same time, **MONUSCO should step up and improve its community outreach and dialogue efforts, including information exchange, and develop better strategies to increase its visibility among other security actors and communities.

3. Salaries that reflect work completed and cost of living should be paid to civil servants in a manner that is consistent and timely**, especially in the security sector at large, including justice actors. The absence of payment was seen as a main driver of insecurity and corruption within the protection and justice sectors.

4. The independence of the justice system, including military courts, must be established and maintained. Anti-corruption policies and programs to establish the rule of law and support the local prosecution of perpetrators of atrocities from all sides of the conflict must be supported.

5. Considering the heavy reliance on local and customary justice systems, it is necessary to build the capacity of the local actors administering those systems and take steps to ensure that they uphold the rights of all parties in disputes. This may include efforts to strengthen administrative capacities, enhance capacities to respect due processes and knowledge of national laws, and possibly integrate these actors better within a national framework for local justice. These mechanisms must ensure that it is easy and comfortable for anyone, especially women, to seek justice. Improving knowledge and access to customary and local justice mechanisms among women must be prioritized given the limited range of formal justice mechanisms.

6. ICC outreach shows significant improvement in awareness about the Court, but more local engagement about the mandate and reality of the ICC is needed to manage expectations. This should also be an opportunity to reach out to the population to improve understanding of the formal court system (national and international).
   Any outreach strategy must recognize the limited use of media, especially among those with limited information.

7. There is a need for better monitoring and evaluation of peace and stabilization efforts, with on-going analysis and research to develop the necessary knowledge and evidence-based contextual analysis, program design, and implementation.

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