News About Congo

Congolese Women and Children are Causalities of War AGAIN

Once again, poor Congolese women and children are the causalities of war.  But this time, it is war between the Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate.

The Dodd-Frank act passed last year contained the Congo Conflict-Minerals legislation in its Miscelleanous Provisions (Title XV, Section 1502).  The UN committee charged with overseeing conflict minerals issues reported that this legislation was a "catalyst" for efforts to save lives by cutting off a key source of funding for armed groups.

Please let your Senators know how you feel about the Congolese women and children.

SEN. RON JOHNSON, R-WIS.: The thing that would really get our economy going again is if we would repeal the entire Obama agenda -- I mean, "Obamacare," Dodd-Frank, all the regulations that he is shackling our economy with! That's what's keeping our economy from moving forward!

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/transcript/dodd-frank-bill-cure-or-039horror-movie039-economy#ixzz1VOsD5MQ3

Disclosures on Conflict Materials in or Near the Democratic Republic of the Congo (source: Wikipedia)

• The SEC is mandated to create rules that address potential conflict materials (e.g. blood diamonds) and to assess whether materials originating in or near the Democratic Republic of the Congo are benefiting armed groups in the area.^[209]
• The Secretary of State and Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development are required to develop a strategy to address the linkages between human rights abuses, armed groups, mining of conflict minerals, and commercial products, and promoted peace and security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[209]
• An industry group has complained that the legislation goes beyond voluntary industry initiative such as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.^[210][211]
• The United Nations Security Council committee charged with overseeing conflict minerals issues reported that this legislation was a "catalyst" for efforts to save lives by cutting off a key source of funding for armed groups.^[212]

Grade F: Protecting Civilians

After reading this article and viewing the accompanying video, you will see how fragile life is for women in eastern Congo.

Over 200 women were raped over a three day period.  Lawlessness!!!

Congo's mineral wealth is a root cause.

Frenzy of Rape in Congo Reveals U.N. Weakness - NYTimes.com.

LUVUNGI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Four armed men barged into Anna Mburano’s hut, slapped the children and threw them down. They flipped Mrs. Mburano on her back, she said, and raped her, repeatedly.

It did not matter that dozens of United Nations peacekeepers were based just up the road. Or that Mrs. Mburano is around 80 years old.

“Grandsons!” she yelled. “Get off me!”

As soon as they finished, they moved house to house, along with hundreds of other marauding rebels, gang-raping at least 200 women.

What happened in this remote, thatched-roof village on July 30 and continued for at least three more days has become a searing embarrassment for the United Nations mission in Congo. Despite more than 10 years of experience and billions of dollars, the peacekeeping force still seems to be failing at its most elemental task: protecting civilians.

 

How Are Things Going In The Congo?

Many people ask the question.  How are things going in the Congo? Or they ask. Are thing improving in the Congo?

Here's my assessment and answer to the question.  For the part, except for eastern provinces, Congo continues to be stable and is making progress. 

Although, the State Department warns US citizens of the risk of traveling to Congo.  You have to read the travel warning to understand the situation.  Most of the instability is in the eastern provinces of South Kivu and North Kivu.  However, other provinces were mentioned.  A high ranking State Department official sees "positive momentum", too.

I travel to the central provinces of West Kasai and East Kasai.  They are not mentioned!

allAfrica.com: Africa: U.S. Official Sees Improvement in Africa's Great Lakes Region.

Assistant Secretary Carson pledges support to region's "positive momentum" The situation in Africa's Great Lakes region has improved and the United States remains "dedicated to doing what we can to keep that positive momentum going," the State Department's senior diplomat for African affairs told the U.S. Congress May 25.

In testimony before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said central to those efforts is improving the situation in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), "where the continuing presence of armed groups has been exacerbated by the lack of state authority." The assistant secretary was on Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the latest developments in the region.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's military, commonly referred to as FARDC (Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo) is "ineffective and frequently abusive," Carson told the lawmakers.

Where is the 'rape capital of the world'?

Women and girls are the targets now.  Armed militias are not shooting each other.  They are using rape against women and girls.

BBC News - UN official calls DR Congo 'rape capital of the world'.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is "the rape capital of the world", a senior UN official has said.

Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo.

Rape remained a dominant feature of the ongoing conflict in eastern DR Congo, with impunity being the rule rather than the exception, she said. More than 8,000 women were raped during fighting in 2009, the UN says.

"Women have no rights, if those who violate their rights go unpunished," Ms Wallstrom told the UN Security Council on her return from DR Congo.

"If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is not because the law is inadequate to protect them, but because it is inadequately enforced," she said.

The UN mission in DR Congo, Monuc, has been trying to deal with the problem by escorting women on their way to market, developing early warning systems and working with local officials, according to a UN statement.

Just Scandalous

The Congo is not ready for the UN's departure.  Eastern Congo is still the wild, wild East.  One election does not make a democracy.

It's just scandalous to think of withdrawal of the UN forces.

U.N. fears Congo pullout will hurt fight against rape | Reuters.

Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, is visiting Congo, where thousands of women are raped every year, as the U.N. tries to persuade the government not to demand a hasty withdrawal of the U.N. force.

Democratic Republic of Congo has advanced legislation in place to outlaw sexual violence but Wallstrom said the country's capacity to implement it was "near zero."

"How will it help if (the U.N. peacekeeping mission) withdraws? Will it help the situation here? I think not ... I have a lot of fears," she added in Kinshasa Monday.

Aid agencies and rights groups accustomed to the violence and suffering during and since Congo's 1998-2003 war, which left millions dead, have been shocked by reports of the scale and brutality of the rapes by rebel and government forces alike.

The U.N. warning echoes a call last week by UK rights group Amnesty International, which called the situation scandalous.

With celebrations of the 50th anniversary of independence this year and elections next, Congo is keen for the peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC, to start withdrawing within months and wants the last blue helmet out in 2011.

Eight Red Cross Workers Abducted

Someone asked me in the last week THE question, "How is Congo?"  I thought for a minute while I mentally searched for the last time I heard something bad happening in Congo.  Not much was happening.  The northwest area of Congo had seen unrest but the eastern Congo was quiet.

Just when I thought it was getting better!

Red Cross: Eight aid workers abducted in DRC - CNN.com.

An armed group in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has kidnapped eight international Red Cross staffers -- seven Congolese and a Swiss delegate -- the aid group said Tuesday.

The eight International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) personnel, who had just completed an assessment of displaced people in the Fizi area, have been held since April 9 by Mai Mai Yakutumba, a militia operating in South Kivu province.

Violent ethnic clashes in the South Kivu, related to the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, have forced thousands of civilians from their homes in recent months, the ICRC said.

Would You Prefer An Earthquake or A Hutu Militia?

Thanks to Nicholas Kristof for putting things into perspective.  PLEASE read his article (quoted and linked below).  He presents a perspective of death and suffering in Congo and in Haiti.

I was in Congo when the earthquake hit Haiti on January 12th.  So I missed all the pictures and video news coverage.  I had to follow it by the internet postings when possible.

So we heard about it.  Also, I felt the lost when UN workers in Kananga mourned the lost of their colleagues in Haiti.  Finally, we were puzzled when Congo government donated $2.5 million in emergency relief to Haiti.

Op-Ed Columnist - Orphaned, Raped and Ignored - NYTimes.com.

Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake.

Yet no humanitarian crisis generates so little attention per million corpses, or such a pathetic international response.

That’s why I’m here in the lovely, lush and threatening hills west of Lake Kivu, where militias rape, mutilate and kill civilians with a savagery that is almost incomprehensible. I’m talking to a 9-year-old girl, Chance Tombola, an orphan whose eyes are luminous with fear.

Three Problems with the 60 Minutes Story on “Congo Gold”

After watching the 60 Minutes program, I was left a little confused and lost, too.  I could not believe that "gold" was the source of conflicts in eastern Congo.  I had never heard about the gold conflict.

I thought 60 Minutes was trying to dumb-down the conflict to make it comparable to the past "blood diamond" conflicts of West Africa.  I believe coltan is more comparable to diamond both in fact and impact on the local population. 

But the problem with coltan which is primary component of cell or mobile phones is a close to a necessity versus a luxury.  No one is ready to get up a necessary item used worldwide by everyone including Africans.  Mobile phones are so critical to development in most of Africa.

Coltan and even gold can not be scientifically traced back to the mine of origin.  Although, research is progressing toward a Kimberly-like process for coltan.

So 60 Minutes did not want to open that can of worms.  But they hoped Americans could relate gold to Congo.  Also, the price of gold is at all time highs.  For Christmas, everyone could blame the waring factions of eastern Congo when they went jewelry shopping.

African Arguments » Blog Archive » Three Problems with the 60 Minutes Story on “Congo Gold”.

On 29 November 2009, the U.S. television news show 60 Minutes aired a segment called “Congo Gold”. This segment purported to expose the link between gold and war in Congo, but there were three major problems with the 60 Minutes story that merit attention and discussion.

1. Although the 60 Minutes story focuses on current conflict in South Kivu, most of the footage used in the story is of a gold mine in the relatively peaceful Ituri District, a few hundred miles to the north. ...

2. The second problem could be summarized as “The Enough Project”, but more specifically, the problem is the statements made by John Prendergast, Enough’s director. In the segment, Prendergast states: “If you do a conflict analysis you will find that when there are spikes in violence, it has something to do with contestation over the mineral resources, gold and the rest of them.”  ...

3. The third problem is the suggestion that gold can or should be cut off from Congo. In his interview with Scott Rumsey from the Responsible Jewelry Council, correspondent Scott Pelley asks: “Why can’t the industry cut off the [gold] supply from Congo and strangle the civil war there?”  ...

Humanitarian Aid Worker Killed in Congo

You know that wild, wild east Congo is a deadly place for Congolese women and girls.  But it can be a deadly place for humanitarian aid workers, too.

Humanitarian Relief - Change.org: Aid Workers Killed in Congo, Afghanistan.

The aid agency Caritas has just announced that one of their staff was killed in Congo last week. According to Caritas:

"Ricky Agusa Sukaka, 27, was shot dead in Musezero, North Kivu, on the way home from work on the afternoon of 15 July. When his colleagues found him, his pockets had been emptied and his Secours Catholique-Caritas France t-shirt removed.

Villagers reported seeing Mr Sukaka, who was a Congolese national, stopped by two men wearing Congolese army uniforms before he was killed."

The situation in eastern Congo - and particularly in North Kivu - is not-good, to say the least. According to a recent Oxfam survey, 80% of respondents reported that security was worse now than a year ago.

Aid workers are not immune - for the number and location of attacks against aid workers from January through the end of May, see here. That said, Mr. Sukaka is the first aid worker killed in the DRC this year.

Congo army 'to act over rapes'

I hope the Congolese Army is serious about stopping the rapes!

BBC NEWS | Africa | DR Congo army 'to act over rapes'.

The Congolese military has promised to punish any soldiers found guilty of rights abuses, after activists claimed troops were carrying out mass rape. Military spokesman Colonel Leon Richard Kasonga said commanders must ensure the safety of civilians.

Last week US-based group Human Rights Watch said the army was responsible for most of the rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo's war-torn east.