Les conflits fonciers à l'Est de la RDC: au-delà de la confrontation entre rwandophones et autochtones à Kalehe

Land conflicts in eastern DRC are frequently presented as stemming from a negative perception that ‘autochthonous’ might have of ‘non natives’, who are mostly former migrants from Rwanda. Seen from this perspective, the conflict is based on an anti-Rwandan (and especially anti-Tutsi) sentiment within the collective consciousness of the ‘autochthonous’ communities in the Kivus. However, this article demonstrates that similar dynamics of conflict can be identified within ‘autochthonous’ communities or in areas where there does not appear to be a ‘rwandophone’ presence. Without denying the political and economic competition that exists between the various ethnic groups in DRC, the alternative hypothesis advanced by this article links land disputes to three factors. Firstly, while they may pit ‘autochthonous’ and ‘allochthonous’ groups in the DRC against each other or indeed the ‘autochthonous’ among themselves, the land conflicts in the Kivus appear to consist primarily of a contestation of the existing institutional order. The disputes reflect the concerns of parties searching both for autonomy and for the establishment of a new form of governance and power distribution. Secondly, the current land disputes between autochthonous and ‘rwandophones’ are first and foremost a matter of local land control rather than a political problem. Finally, local land disputes have been politicized by elites and exacerbated by national policies. This politicisation and the role played by ethnic groups has contributed to the undermining of the relationships between the people of Kivu to such an extent that by taking over the kinds of discourse propagated by elites, communities have become involved in a conflict situation whose dimensions reach beyond the local context and which weakens both society and the Congolese state itself.