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

FALLY IPUPA FIKIN 2009 PRESENTATION DE LA NOUVELLE DANCE "STANKY SLEGGY"

Thanks Isabelle!

Africans in the University

Several years ago, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, stated his belief that very few of Harvard’s black students are the descendants of American slaves. He estimated that 75 percent of black students at Harvard were of African or Caribbean descent or were biracial. Now here is evidence that Professor Gates’ suspicions are correct.

A new study published in the journal Sociology of Education finds that black immigrants are more likely to be enrolled in the nation’s elite colleges and universities than African Americans. Furthermore, these children of African and Caribbean immigrants are more likely to be enrolled in our elite colleges than are white Americans.



The study found that 9.2 percent of the college-age blacks who immigrated to the United States, or who were children of parents who had immigrated to the United States, were enrolled at the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities. In contrast, only 2.4 percent of African-American students were enrolled in the elite group of colleges. Slightly more than 7 percent of white students were enrolled at these schools.



Overall, 75 percent of college-age black immigrants have at one time enrolled in college compared to 72 percent of college-age whites and 60 percent of college-age African Americans.



The results show that immigrant blacks came from families with incomes that were on average lower than those of whites. Immigrant blacks were significantly more likely than African Americans to come from traditional two-parent families.



(source) http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index090309.html#immigrants

(thanks Said!)

Screening of Street Children of Kinshasa

Bay Area Friends of the Congo invite you to a special screening of
Gilbert Mulamba’s Kinshasa’s Street Children Friday, September 18th at 6:30 pm

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) 1924 Cedar Street in Berkeley (cross street, Bonita)
(5 minute walk from North Berkeley BART Station)

Suggested Donation: $5 per person

A Q&A will follow the screening.

About the Movie

Kinshasa’s Street Children made by Gilbert Mulamba is a documentary that puts the street children phenomenon in the context of the current state of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The film presents historical footage of foreign intervention and shows how the exploitation of Congo’s resources threatens the country’s social fabric. Street children can be seen in all poor nations of the world, but their numbers have been rising exponentially in the DRC due to several factors. The alarm must be sounded now more than ever, as the crisis threatens to derail any development plan for the future of the DRC. (www.drcongochildren.org)
About the Congo
The Congo is bordered by nine countries has 66 million inhabitants and over 300 ethnic groups. Some of its key natural resources are diamonds, gold, uranium, copper and coltan which is heavily used in laptops, cell phones and other electrical devices all over the world. These riches are at the heart of a resource war that has taken the lives of over 6 million Congolese since 1996. The rapes and slaughter being committed in the Congo are affronts to the human conscience and are a consequence of the resource war.

Join us by Participating in the Global Movement to help raise awareness, support Congo’s grassroots organizations, participate in or coordinate an event for Congo Week.

To learn more about “Breaking The Silence” and about Congo Week, October 18– 24th visit www.friendsofthecongo.org or www.congoweek.org. To RSVP call 610 649-8173

This event is co-sponsored by BFUU.
Wheelchair Access on Bonita Street

DR Congo War Crime Suspect Bemba Released

The International Criminal Court has ordered the release of former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba until the start of his war crimes trial. He faces charges of commanding a militia that committed murder, rape and pillage in the Central African Republic.
Bemba will not actually be released until September, as the court says it must now determine the conditions of his release, including which country he will stay in.

In a ruling published Friday, judges said Bemba's right to freedom outweighed the risk he might flee, obstruct court proceedings, or commit war crimes while released.

Bemba was arrested in May 2008 in Belgium and transferred to the court in The Hague, Netherlands, in July. No date has been set for his trial.

Secretary Of State Clinton in Goma, DR Congo

Clinton demands end to sexual violence in Congo
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 23 mins ago

GOMA, Congo – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toured an African refugee camp Tuesday crowded with victims of violence and malnutrition, pledging $17 million in American aid to help stem the tide of rampant sexual abuse that has staggered war-ravaged eastern Congo.

Clinton's voice cracked with emotion as she described an epidemic of rapes that has convulsed the Congo over 10 years of internecine conflict. "We say to the world that those who attack civilian populations using systematic rape are guilty of crimes against humanity," she said.

Clinton toured Magunga Camp, a dust-choked warren of tents and tin-lined huts in eastern Congo that is home to 18,000 men, women and children. Most were uprooted from their villages by the on-again, off-again conflict between Democratic Republic of Congo troops and rebel forces that killed more than 5 million people since 1998.

"We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many — that there must be arrests and prosecutions and punishment," she said during a press conference with Congolese Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba in the eastern city of Goma.

At least $10 million of the $17 million pledged by Clinton will be used to train doctors to treat victims of brutal sexual attacks. Some of the funds will also be aimed at preventing abuse.

She met with several residents of the camp, who told her that they are suffering from malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhea. The residents told Clinton that women and young girls and boys are often victimized by rape when they leave the camp to go into a nearby forest to gather wood for cooking.

One camp official said a young boy had been raped on Monday.

"We really want to return home, that's why we are asking America to help stop the fighting," Chantale Mapendo, who lives in the camp, told Clinton.

"That's why I'm here," Clinton replied. "I want you to be able to go home."

Clinton appeared visibly moved when she was shown a four-year-old child, held in his mother's arms, who was suffering from extreme malnutrition. Belly distended, eyes hollow, the skeletal boy weighed less than 15 pounds.

"We're proud to help you," Clinton said.

Picking her way through a path littered with volcanic rock, Clinton said she "wanted to see for myself what was happening here."

Clinton flew to came to Goma, the regional capital of war-pocked of the eastern Congo, aboard a U.N. plane over the objections of some top aides who worried about her security and logistics for the visit. Clinton is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the city, according to the State Department historian's office.

The United Nations has recorded at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence against women and girls in the region since conflict erupted in 1996, something Clinton deplored as "one of mankind's greatest atrocities" before she arrived.

The figures, Clinton told a group university students in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa on Monday, are "astonishing and horrible." She urged the youth of Congo to mount nationwide protests against such abuses and said she would push the government hard on the issue.

Clinton said Tuesday that the people of eastern Congo were still suffering from a "reign of violence" at the hands of rebel groups and the national army, which in January launched a U.N.-backed campaign to pacify the region.

Rights groups have called for a suspension of the operation, which has displaced some 800,000 people from their homes and left hundreds of civilians dead.

Clinton said the U.S. is "very concerned about the civilian casualties, both deaths and rapes and other injuries, from the military action."

But she also said the U.S. supported efforts to eliminate the threat from insurgents and said the U.S. wants the Congolese military professionalized to prevent abuses from the government.

Earlier in the day, Clinton delivered a strong message to Congolese President Joseph Kabila when they met in a tent at a compound in Goma, on the shore of Lake Kivu. Goma is the epicenter of an epidemic of gang rapes and other sexual crimes amid continuing fighting between the army and rebel groups.

After meeting with Kabila, Clinton said impunity for the perpetrators "runs counter to peace and stability for the Congolese people."

She said the U.S. will send a team of legal and financial and other technical experts to come up with specific recommendations for overcoming Congo's problems with corruption. She said Kabila had accepted that offer.

"We do support the efforts to end the militias and the violence they have visited so terribly on the people of the eastern Congo," Clinton said. But she added: "We believe that a disciplined, paid army is a more effective fighting force. We believe that more can be done to protect civilians while you are trying to kill and capture insurgents."

Although fighting has eased since a 2003 peace deal, the army and rebel groups, fighting over eastern Congo's vast mineral wealth, are still attacking villages, killing civilians and committing brutal atrocities.

Members of Kabila's armed forces are accused of taking part in the brutality, including gang rapes that have led to unwanted pregnancies, serious injuries and death to tens of thousands of women and girls.

Earlier this month, a leading human rights group demanded that Congo crack down on sexual violence often perpetrated by military generals and other top officers. It cited U.N. data showing that 7,703 cases of sexual violence by soldiers were reported last year.

Human Rights Watch said the Congolese authorities have failed to prevent the attacks and called on the U.N. Security Council to take tough steps, including travel bans, against individuals or governments that commit or condone sexual violence in Congo and elsewhere.

Secretary Of State Clinton in DR Congo

Clinton visits Congo on Africa tour
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 21 mins ago

KINSHASA, Congo – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promoted democracy in the war-devastated country of Congo on Monday and drew attention to an epidemic of sexual assaults in its violence-torn east.

While in the Congolese capital, Clinton will visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, a native of Congo, and will hold a town hall meeting.

On Tuesday, she plans to go to Goma where she will meet victims of horrific rapes and other sexual crimes committed by the military and rebel groups, many of which are fighting over the region's vast mineral wealth.

Clinton said in Kenya last week that she insisted on visiting Goma despite her staff's security concerns "to speak out against the unspeakable violence against women and girls in eastern Congo. It is the worst example of man's inhumanity to women and women are being used in conflicts."

On Monday, she told reporters traveling with her that she also wants to look at ways "to prevent the mining from basically funding a lot of these militias that are keeping the fighting going with all the attendant human rights abuses."

The United Nations has recorded at least 200,000 cases of sexual violence in eastern Congo since conflict erupted in 1996, at its height drawing in a half dozen of the country's neighbors, each greedy for a share of the region's rich mineral resources.

A 2003 peace deal reduced the fighting but both the army and rebel groups continue to attack villages and kill civilians.

More than 5 million have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless over the past decade, with brutalities commonplace in rural communities, including gang rapes, that have led to unwanted pregnancies, serious injuries and death to tens of thousands of women and girls.

Earlier this month a leading human rights group demanded that Congo crack down on rampant sexual violence perpetrated by military generals and other top officers.

Citing U.N. data that show 7,703 cases of sexual violence by the army reported last year, Human Rights Watch said the Congolese authorities have failed to prevent the attacks, most of which were on adolescent girls.

The group called on the U.N. Security Council to take "tough measures," including travel bans, and other sanctions against individuals or governments that commit or condone sexual violence in Congo and elsewhere.

On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for global action to stop government forces and armed groups from using sexual violence "like a grenade or a gun" to pursue their goals, including in Congo, Chad, Sudan, Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Clinton's Congo stop is the latest in an 11-day journey through Africa to promote development and good governance and underscore the Obama administration's commitment to the world's poorest continent.

She arrived in Congo from Angola, South Africa and Kenya. She will also visit Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.