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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Minority rights, nationality laws and conflict prevention: rethinking the 'Banyamulenge' in the Democratic Republic of Congo |
Author: | Mollel, Andrew |
Year: | 2008 |
Periodical: | Journal of African and international law |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 51-82 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Subjects: | Banyamulenge nationality minority groups |
Abstract: | This paper analyses the role played by the exclusionary measures, marginalization and denial of citizenship rights to the Eastern Congo Banyamulenge ethnic group in the intensification of the conflicts in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region. The important question is whether the Banyamulenge is a minority within the DRC territory, thereby deserving minority rights protection, or whether they are simply immigrants of Rwandan origin to be dealt with as such. The controversy over the Banyamulenge nationality centres on both the actual date of their first arrival in the Kivu provinces of the DRC and on the very term 'Banyamulenge'. The paper first discusses minority rights in international law and the concept of minority and minority rights in the African context. It then assesses the Banyamulenge ethnogenesis in the DRC, while the last section deals with the development of the Congolese nationality legislation and its implications for the DRC conflicts. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |