DECLARATION BY THE YIRA / NANDE COMMUNITY AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST ORDINARY SESSION OF THE CULTURAL COUNCIL YEAR 2016-2017 HELD IN KIRUMBA FROM 04 TO 05 NOVEMBER 2016

DECLARATION BY THE YIRA / NANDE COMMUNITY AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST ORDINARY SESSION OF THE CULTURAL COUNCIL YEAR 2016-2017 HELD IN KIRUMBA FROM 04 TO 05 NOVEMBER 2016

At the end of the first ordinary session of the Cultural Council of the Yira / Nande Community, 2016-2017 held in Kirumba City, Musindi Group, Territory of Lubero, from 04 to 05 November 2016, we members of the Cultural Council present our gratitude to the Territory Administrator of Lubero, to the Chief of Chiefs of the Batangi, to the Head of the Musindi Group and other surrounding local authorities and to the entire population for having facilitated everyone’s success, the foundation in the Kirumba agglomeration.

All the members of the Council heard, and after exchanges and analysis of the reports of the various vyaghanda, the Council:

– Honors the memory of the compatriots, innocent victims of the barbarity of the genocidal forces and of occupation, as well as to all the inhabitants of the insecure territories who continue to defend our land inherited from our forefathers, by not letting lose even a single meter of its perimeter.

– Reiterates the call for strengthening the bonds of unity and community solidarity, to dispense with what divides us such as land conflicts and customary power, ideological, political or religious belonging, social ranks, etc. ; but rather to privilege what unites us: our identity and our different cultural values. Participants strongly condemned the risk of depravity of the morals of young Yira / Nande who are increasingly engaged in heavy alcoholic beverages, other narcotics and several other anti-values.

– Honors the stay of the delegate of the Provincial Governor in the agglomeration of Kirumba but especially the significant intervention of the military authority of the Armed Forces of the DRC and the UN military in securing our foundations of this session.

In addition, the Cultural Council deplored:

– The somewhat negative attitude of some customary chiefs against Kyaghanda Yira, the temple of the promotion of the Yira culture, which they are supposed to protect, this for political considerations thus losing their authentic values.

– The resurgence of kidnapping, the burning of vyaghanda, houses in the territories of Rutshuru, Lubero, Beni and Ituri, only on the basis of belonging to the Yira Community, which leads to confirm that there is a dangerous conspiracy against the sons and daughters of our community.

– Prolonged cantonment (more than 2 years) of Rwandan refugees in the City of Kanyabayonga suspected of being the perpetrators of several cases of extortion, armed robbery, looting or intimidation, rape, murder and killing, plunges the population into a permanent anxiety.

– While welcoming the evolution of the trial of the assassination of Father Vincent Machozi, Honorary President of the Cultural Council, the Council was indignant at the free circulation of the alleged perpetrators. Even though provisional liberty is a right, it is obvious that in the case of assassination, the reasoning would be twofold before granting it.

– Concerning the resurgence of Mai-Mai armed groups in the region, the Cultural Council discourages the sons and daughters of the Community from joining in movements whose ins and outs are not clearly defined. The council also denounces the attitude of several authorities to want to bind this movement to our community, a new way to find reasons to bother or kill the innocent.

– Concerning the tattooing phenomenon, the Cultural Council specifies that, without encouraging practice for purposes with fuzzy contours, it is not honorable for the military to begin undressing men and boys in search of tattoo marks because, it must be known, tattooing was and remains (especially in some villages) a traditional way of treatment. And thus, any tattoo scar in a Yira can in no way be associated with any belonging to an armed group.

Done at Kirumba, on 05 November 2016

For the Yira / Nande Community

President of Kyaghanda Lubero-Sud President of the Cultural Council

Find on the following link the original of this document in PDF format: declaration-kirumba-2016-2017

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