Congo’s Catholic bishops helped other religious leaders circulate a petition asking UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international community to end the continuing conflict in eastern Congo.
The UN-run Radio Okapi reported that the petition had about 10 million signatures; Congo has a population of 65 million.
At a late-August ecumenical service in the Protestant Centenary Cathedral, the petition, launched on July 12, was formally closed.
Church leaders announced that the next stage will be to take it to New York to present to the UN.
It has already been presented to the Congolese minister of foreign affairs, Raymond Tshibanda.
Father Donatien Shole, deputy secretary-general of the Congolese bishops’ conference and spokesman for the heads of religious groups represented, said the Congolese churches are demanding that the Rwandan government stop “once and for all the invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the looting of its wealth, and rapes of Congolese women.”
Echoing the Catholic bishops’ call in July against the “balkanisation” of Congo, Imam Cheikh Abdallah Mangala Luaba said, “All we want is an end to divisions in the country and for the Congolese people to remain united.”
The petition also calls on the international community not to negotiate with the “eternal criminals” in Congo, including M23, a group of soldiers who rebelled and broke off from the army in May this year and are responsible for continuing conflict in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
A UN report has pointed a finger at Rwanda for allegedly funding and supporting the group - CNS