Break The Silence

Congo Week 2009 is now upon us! Everything you do this week, do it for the DR Congo.

General DR Congo facts (from www.congoweek.org)

History & Geography
1. Congo is situated in the heart of Africa straddling the equator.
2. Congo is bordered by nine other countries and is the size of Western Europe with a population of 65 million people.
3. The lingua franca is French however four major (Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba, and Swahili) languages are spoken among the over 250 ethnic groups.
4. Congo’s Ishango Bones, a binary counting system and lunar calendar, is one of the oldest mathematical artifacts in the world, dating to 20,000 BC.
5. The Kongo empire reigned during the period of African enslavement and prior to the Colonization era.
6. Congo was given to King Leopold II of Belgium at the 1884/85 Berlin Conference.
7. King Leopold II ruled Congo as his own personal property for 23 years (1885 – 1908) during which time approximately 10 million Congolese were slaughtered
8. Belgium took the Congo from King Leopold II in 1908 and ruled as colonial power until 1960.

Politics
1. Congo obtained independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960 under the elected leadership of Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba who was summarily assassinated within months by Western powers and Congolese sycophants
2. Pursuant to Lumumba’s assassination, the United States installed and backed dictator Mobutu Se Seko for over three decades
3. U.S. allies, Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo twice (1996 & 1998) which resulted in the removal of Mobutu in 1997 and the unleashing of the deaths of nearly six million.
4. The overthrow of Mobutu resulted in the installation of Laurent Desire Kabila in 1997, who was assassinated in 2001 and followed by his son Joseph Kabila who is still in power after elections in 2006. The next elections will take place in 2011.

The Tragedy
1. Nearly six million people have died as a result of conflict and conflict related causes in the Congo since 1996. Forty-five thousand continue to die each month.
2. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped as weapon of war
3. Eighty percent of the population lives on 30 cents or less per day
4. The international community is systematically looting Congo’s spectacular wealth

The Potential
1. Congo is a storehouse of strategic minerals (cobalt, copper, zinc, gold, diamond, silver, magnesium, germanium, uranium, coltan, petroleum and many other resources.
2. Congo has anywhere from 64% to 80% of the world’s reserve of coltan
3. Congo has 34 % of world’s cobalt and 10% of its copper
4. Congo is a part of the second largest rainforest in the world behind the Amazon
5. Congo has the hydro capacity to provide electricity for the entire African continent, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East.
6. Congo has the agricultural capacity to feed the entire world through 2050