http://mediastorm.com/0022.htm
Click the link for a look at the DR Congo's ongoing crisis.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Aid Workers Protest
Aid groups protest DR Congo deaths
10/13/2009 2:41:57 PM
Taken from Al Jazeera:http://m.aljazeera.net/?i=4360&artId=184702&showonly=1
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed since January in fighting between Rwandan Hutu rebels and UN-backed government forces in eastern Congo, rights groups say.
A coalition of 84 rights groups announced the figure on Tuesday in a report in which they sharply criticised UN peacekeepers for supporting a deadly government offensive against the rebels.
The report said nearly 900,000 civilians had been displaced in the offensive, while 7,000 women and girls had been raped.
"The human rights and humanitarian consequences of the current military operation are simply disastrous," Marcel Stoessel, of the UK-based aid agency Oxfam, said.
"UN peacekeepers, who have a mandate to protect civilians, urgently need to work with government forces to make sure civilians get the protection they need, or discontinue their support."
'Risk of backslide'
The UN mission said it must continue supporting government forces in their operation against the Hutu rebels, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Reuters news agency reported.
"The target still has to be the FDLR and the disarmament of the FDLR," Kevin Kennedy, a UN spokesman, said.
But he said the UN is making efforts to limit the cost to civilians.
"If you do not keep moving forward, and if you don't have the international community supporting the democratically elected government as a backstop to the army, there is a risk of backslide."
The offensive, launched in January, began in North Kivu with the backing of Rwanda, and has subsequently reached into South Kivu with the backing of the UN Security Council.
But the coalition of rights groups said civilians were paying the price of the offensive, with thousands caught between retaliatory rebel attacks.
10/13/2009 2:41:57 PM
Taken from Al Jazeera:http://m.aljazeera.net/?i=4360&artId=184702&showonly=1
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed since January in fighting between Rwandan Hutu rebels and UN-backed government forces in eastern Congo, rights groups say.
A coalition of 84 rights groups announced the figure on Tuesday in a report in which they sharply criticised UN peacekeepers for supporting a deadly government offensive against the rebels.
The report said nearly 900,000 civilians had been displaced in the offensive, while 7,000 women and girls had been raped.
"The human rights and humanitarian consequences of the current military operation are simply disastrous," Marcel Stoessel, of the UK-based aid agency Oxfam, said.
"UN peacekeepers, who have a mandate to protect civilians, urgently need to work with government forces to make sure civilians get the protection they need, or discontinue their support."
'Risk of backslide'
The UN mission said it must continue supporting government forces in their operation against the Hutu rebels, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Reuters news agency reported.
"The target still has to be the FDLR and the disarmament of the FDLR," Kevin Kennedy, a UN spokesman, said.
But he said the UN is making efforts to limit the cost to civilians.
"If you do not keep moving forward, and if you don't have the international community supporting the democratically elected government as a backstop to the army, there is a risk of backslide."
The offensive, launched in January, began in North Kivu with the backing of Rwanda, and has subsequently reached into South Kivu with the backing of the UN Security Council.
But the coalition of rights groups said civilians were paying the price of the offensive, with thousands caught between retaliatory rebel attacks.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Fugitive Captured!
Taken from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/world/africa/07rwanda.html?_r=2&hp
October 7, 2009
Rwandan Fugitive Is Captured in Uganda
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya — One of the most wanted fugitives from Rwanda’s genocide, an intelligence officer accused of organizing the slaughter of civilians, including a ceremonial queen, was arrested in Uganda this week, Ugandan and Rwandan officials said Tuesday.
The fugitive, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, had been on the run for years. He was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2000 and charged with crimes against humanity and offenses related to genocide for orchestrating massacres of civilians, including whole families. He had been an intelligence officer in the former Rwandan Army and was the second in command of an elite military school in Rwanda before the country exploded in genocide in 1994.
More recently, Mr. Nizeyimana was a top commander of a rebel army of former Rwandan soldiers hiding out in the forests of eastern Congo, Rwandan officials said. That force, the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, or FDLR, has been blamed for some of the most atrocious attacks in eastern Congo and is widely seen as a threat to regional peace.
Eric Kayiranga, a Rwandan police spokesman, said Mr. Nizeyimana was arrested in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on Monday, though he did not have many details about the capture. According to the BBC, Mr. Nizeyimana was trying to travel to Kenya from Congo and was caught in Uganda with false papers.
“This guy was causing terror in Congo, and he was a threat to the region,” Mr. Kayiranga said. “His arrest is a success.”
The most notorious accusation against Mr. Nizeyimana was that he ordered a squad of soldiers to kidnap and execute a ceremonial Tutsi queen who was believed to be in her 80s at the beginning of the genocide in 1994. Local Rwandan courts have already convicted and punished several other men who were part of that killing.
Officials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is located in Arusha, Tanzania, said Mr. Nizeyimana would be extradited from Uganda to the tribunal, where he would stand trial. Already 47 of the genocide’s ringleaders, “the big fish,” as they are called in Tanzania, have been prosecuted at the tribunal, with all but a handful found guilty.
According to tribunal officials, Mr. Nizeyimana was one of the top four genocide suspects still on the run.
October 7, 2009
Rwandan Fugitive Is Captured in Uganda
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya — One of the most wanted fugitives from Rwanda’s genocide, an intelligence officer accused of organizing the slaughter of civilians, including a ceremonial queen, was arrested in Uganda this week, Ugandan and Rwandan officials said Tuesday.
The fugitive, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, had been on the run for years. He was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2000 and charged with crimes against humanity and offenses related to genocide for orchestrating massacres of civilians, including whole families. He had been an intelligence officer in the former Rwandan Army and was the second in command of an elite military school in Rwanda before the country exploded in genocide in 1994.
More recently, Mr. Nizeyimana was a top commander of a rebel army of former Rwandan soldiers hiding out in the forests of eastern Congo, Rwandan officials said. That force, the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, or FDLR, has been blamed for some of the most atrocious attacks in eastern Congo and is widely seen as a threat to regional peace.
Eric Kayiranga, a Rwandan police spokesman, said Mr. Nizeyimana was arrested in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on Monday, though he did not have many details about the capture. According to the BBC, Mr. Nizeyimana was trying to travel to Kenya from Congo and was caught in Uganda with false papers.
“This guy was causing terror in Congo, and he was a threat to the region,” Mr. Kayiranga said. “His arrest is a success.”
The most notorious accusation against Mr. Nizeyimana was that he ordered a squad of soldiers to kidnap and execute a ceremonial Tutsi queen who was believed to be in her 80s at the beginning of the genocide in 1994. Local Rwandan courts have already convicted and punished several other men who were part of that killing.
Officials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is located in Arusha, Tanzania, said Mr. Nizeyimana would be extradited from Uganda to the tribunal, where he would stand trial. Already 47 of the genocide’s ringleaders, “the big fish,” as they are called in Tanzania, have been prosecuted at the tribunal, with all but a handful found guilty.
According to tribunal officials, Mr. Nizeyimana was one of the top four genocide suspects still on the run.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Oakland International Film Festival
Gilbert Mulamba's Street Children of Kinshasa will be shown at the Oakland International Film Festival. The festival starts October 8, 2009.
use the link below to get the film schedule:
http://www.oiff.org/filmschedule.pdf
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Congo-Kinshasa: End Resource War, Urge Congolese Activists
Congo-Kinshasa: End Resource War, Urge Congolese Activists
Kambale Musavuli
22 September 2009
Guest Column
One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Although advocacy for the Congo has a rich and illustrious tradition dating back to the dawn of the 20th century, contemporary advocacy is faced with unprecedented obstacles: corporate interests, the humanitarian industry, geo-strategic battles, the devaluation of black lives, and media caricatures and misrepresentation of Africans.
In 1908, international advocacy resulted in Congo being taken from King Leopold II and given to the Belgian state as a colony. The ultimate aim of today’s advocacy is to see the Congo removed from the clutches of multi-national corporations, foreign governments, multi-lateral institutions, the humanitarian industry and local elites and placed in the hands of the people of the Congo. The challenge of 21st century advocacy is for the affairs of the Congo to be determined by the people of the Congo.
Corporate Interests
American business interest in the Congo is focused primarily on the mining of resources such as tin, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, tungsten and uranium – including minerals vital to the aerospace, military, automobile, electronics and technology industries.
A number of American companies were listed in a 2002 United Nations document as being among companies accused of benefiting from the pilfering of Congo’s wealth.
Humanitarian industry
Unfortunately the humanitarian industry has been trapped in a “charity prism” in which Congo is viewed from the perspective of poverty, conflict, atrocities and depredation. One of the results is that the humanitarian industry is silent in the face of oppressive governments and often works in cahoots with exploitative corporations.
Probably the most deleterious effect of this way of viewing Congo is the military prescription that these institutions lobby for in Washington, DC. They often support policies that prolong conflict, prioritize military options and in the final analysis serve the propaganda of belligerent allies of the United States – such as Rwanda and Uganda – as well as U.S. corporate foreign policy interests.
In the final analysis, the humanitarian industry functions more as an instrument of Western soft power than as a genuine help to Africans. If they truly have the interests of the people of Africa and Congo at heart, their number one aim should be to put themselves out of business by calling for justice and not charity. When the people of Congo attain justice, charity will no longer be needed.
Geo-strategic Battle
Congo is a storehouse of geo-strategic minerals vital to the industrialization of great powers in the east, mainly China, and to the west’s efforts to maintain their economic and military dominance in the world.
Apart from Western investment, China has invested U.S. $9 billion in the Congo in a mineral for infrastructure swap with the Congolese government.
Congo’s location, size and mineral wealth are far too valuable to be left alone: it will be the playground of great power interests for the foreseeable future.
Devaluation of Black Lives
Nowhere outside Africa could the deaths of an estimated six million people in a 12-year period not cause a global outcry.
The United Nations says the conflict is the deadliest in the world since World War II, and the former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said the Congo is “the worst killing field of our generation.”
Yet, the world community is silent. Doctors Without Borders has reported that Congo is one of the top 10 most underreported stories. We live in a world where black lives are undervalued and underappreciated.
But things do not have to remain this way. We can break the silence and change the attitudes and beliefs that have trapped the world in a mindset that undervalues a fellow member of the human family.
Pathological Media Prism
The mainstream media have presented the Congo crisis as an internecine tribal conflict with no discernible beginning or hope of ending, leaving people of goodwill hopeless, despondent and disempowered.
If more stories were presented that clearly articulate the true nature of the conflict – that of a resource war and that there are major identifiable players in Western backyards that we can hold accountable – we would see if a dramatically different response from consumers of the mainstream media.
We almost never see a Congolese scholar, thinker activist or intellectual articulating the issues of the Congo. Our people are almost always presented as hapless and in need of saving by Western do-gooders, usually a Hollywood star. Slain gorillas usually get more sympathy and in-depth analysis than the Congolese people.
Prescriptions
A global Congo movement is as important today as the anti-apartheid movement was yesterday. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has presciently noted, “There cannot be a new Africa without a new Congo.”
Contrary to presentations by Western scholars and thinkers, the conflict in the Congo is not intractable. If the correct policies were implemented, the conflict could end quickly or at least be mitigated.
The two basic goals of today’s global movement in support of the people of the Congo are:
• To bring an end to the resource war being waged on the backs of the Congolese people, particularly women and children, and
• To ensure that the people of the Congo take control of their own future so they can determine how best to use their enormous resources for the benefit of their people and Africa at large.
Global pressure must be mobilized to call for a diplomatic and political approach to ending the conflict as opposed to the military heavy policies favored by the U.S. government, think tanks and humanitarian institutions in Washington, DC.
There is a growing global grassroots movement around the Congo. Thanks to the Internet, the Congolese can speak to the world uncensored. Inside the country, Congolese are organizing teach-ins and rallies. Congolese women are staging sit-ins, artists are using their talent to break the silence, and civil society is rallying to reconstruct our nation. Next month, from October 18 to 24, Friends of Congo and its allies will hold “Congo Week II,” a repeat of last year’s awareness-raising campaign.
As more people get involved, it is critical that the integrity of the movement be safeguarded. The last thing the people of the Congo need is for the movement to be “darfurized” – a process in which people are objectified and their struggle emptied of cultural and historical context. We must press for justice, not charity, and the Congolese must assert their role as agents of their own destiny.
Kambale Musavuli is the spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, an advocacy group based in Washington DC.
Copyright © 2009 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica - All the Time
Kambale Musavuli
22 September 2009
Guest Column
One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Although advocacy for the Congo has a rich and illustrious tradition dating back to the dawn of the 20th century, contemporary advocacy is faced with unprecedented obstacles: corporate interests, the humanitarian industry, geo-strategic battles, the devaluation of black lives, and media caricatures and misrepresentation of Africans.
In 1908, international advocacy resulted in Congo being taken from King Leopold II and given to the Belgian state as a colony. The ultimate aim of today’s advocacy is to see the Congo removed from the clutches of multi-national corporations, foreign governments, multi-lateral institutions, the humanitarian industry and local elites and placed in the hands of the people of the Congo. The challenge of 21st century advocacy is for the affairs of the Congo to be determined by the people of the Congo.
Corporate Interests
American business interest in the Congo is focused primarily on the mining of resources such as tin, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, tungsten and uranium – including minerals vital to the aerospace, military, automobile, electronics and technology industries.
A number of American companies were listed in a 2002 United Nations document as being among companies accused of benefiting from the pilfering of Congo’s wealth.
Humanitarian industry
Unfortunately the humanitarian industry has been trapped in a “charity prism” in which Congo is viewed from the perspective of poverty, conflict, atrocities and depredation. One of the results is that the humanitarian industry is silent in the face of oppressive governments and often works in cahoots with exploitative corporations.
Probably the most deleterious effect of this way of viewing Congo is the military prescription that these institutions lobby for in Washington, DC. They often support policies that prolong conflict, prioritize military options and in the final analysis serve the propaganda of belligerent allies of the United States – such as Rwanda and Uganda – as well as U.S. corporate foreign policy interests.
In the final analysis, the humanitarian industry functions more as an instrument of Western soft power than as a genuine help to Africans. If they truly have the interests of the people of Africa and Congo at heart, their number one aim should be to put themselves out of business by calling for justice and not charity. When the people of Congo attain justice, charity will no longer be needed.
Geo-strategic Battle
Congo is a storehouse of geo-strategic minerals vital to the industrialization of great powers in the east, mainly China, and to the west’s efforts to maintain their economic and military dominance in the world.
Apart from Western investment, China has invested U.S. $9 billion in the Congo in a mineral for infrastructure swap with the Congolese government.
Congo’s location, size and mineral wealth are far too valuable to be left alone: it will be the playground of great power interests for the foreseeable future.
Devaluation of Black Lives
Nowhere outside Africa could the deaths of an estimated six million people in a 12-year period not cause a global outcry.
The United Nations says the conflict is the deadliest in the world since World War II, and the former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said the Congo is “the worst killing field of our generation.”
Yet, the world community is silent. Doctors Without Borders has reported that Congo is one of the top 10 most underreported stories. We live in a world where black lives are undervalued and underappreciated.
But things do not have to remain this way. We can break the silence and change the attitudes and beliefs that have trapped the world in a mindset that undervalues a fellow member of the human family.
Pathological Media Prism
The mainstream media have presented the Congo crisis as an internecine tribal conflict with no discernible beginning or hope of ending, leaving people of goodwill hopeless, despondent and disempowered.
If more stories were presented that clearly articulate the true nature of the conflict – that of a resource war and that there are major identifiable players in Western backyards that we can hold accountable – we would see if a dramatically different response from consumers of the mainstream media.
We almost never see a Congolese scholar, thinker activist or intellectual articulating the issues of the Congo. Our people are almost always presented as hapless and in need of saving by Western do-gooders, usually a Hollywood star. Slain gorillas usually get more sympathy and in-depth analysis than the Congolese people.
Prescriptions
A global Congo movement is as important today as the anti-apartheid movement was yesterday. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has presciently noted, “There cannot be a new Africa without a new Congo.”
Contrary to presentations by Western scholars and thinkers, the conflict in the Congo is not intractable. If the correct policies were implemented, the conflict could end quickly or at least be mitigated.
The two basic goals of today’s global movement in support of the people of the Congo are:
• To bring an end to the resource war being waged on the backs of the Congolese people, particularly women and children, and
• To ensure that the people of the Congo take control of their own future so they can determine how best to use their enormous resources for the benefit of their people and Africa at large.
Global pressure must be mobilized to call for a diplomatic and political approach to ending the conflict as opposed to the military heavy policies favored by the U.S. government, think tanks and humanitarian institutions in Washington, DC.
There is a growing global grassroots movement around the Congo. Thanks to the Internet, the Congolese can speak to the world uncensored. Inside the country, Congolese are organizing teach-ins and rallies. Congolese women are staging sit-ins, artists are using their talent to break the silence, and civil society is rallying to reconstruct our nation. Next month, from October 18 to 24, Friends of Congo and its allies will hold “Congo Week II,” a repeat of last year’s awareness-raising campaign.
As more people get involved, it is critical that the integrity of the movement be safeguarded. The last thing the people of the Congo need is for the movement to be “darfurized” – a process in which people are objectified and their struggle emptied of cultural and historical context. We must press for justice, not charity, and the Congolese must assert their role as agents of their own destiny.
Kambale Musavuli is the spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, an advocacy group based in Washington DC.
Copyright © 2009 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica - All the Time
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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