June 30, 2010 -- The Democratic Republic of Congo is 50 years old today. And despite all of the pomp and circumstance around Congo's independence jubilee, the Congolese have little reason to celebrate. Over the past 14 years, more than five million Congolese have perished. If not by a gun shot or other mortal wound from one of the invading armies or many violent militias, they have died by disease and starvation. And today, the dignitaries speeches ring hollow, when considering the human cost of the conflict in the east over mineral wealth, a stagnant economy, widespread graft, more rapes than anywhere else in the world, and human rights abuses. The country is ripe for a new vision.

By and large, the outside world has never done well to Congo. More than a hundred years ago, King Leopold gained a fortune by turning much of the Congo's adult male population into slaves to gather wild rubber while holding the women as hostages.  Some 10 million were estimated to have died during King Leopold's rule and its immediate aftermath, mainly by disease and starvation.

Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first legally elected prime minister, was a visionary. He said, "We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of Congo the center of the sun's radiance for all of Africa … We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children."

Only ten weeks later after sworn in office in 1960, his government was overthrown in a coup during the Congo Crisis. The circumstances of his murder suggest the complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States. Next came the long reign of U.S. installed Mobutu. Western mining interests advanced, Mobutu became incredibly rich and most Congolese outside of Mobutu's circle remained among the world's poorest people.

Following the genocide in Rwanda and subsequent refugee crisis, Mobutu was ousted by a Rwandan-Ugandan invasion, supported by Washington. A second war erupted in 1998. The largest war in modern African history, it directly involved eight  African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups.

Despite a 2006 peace treaty, the militias of Rwanda and Uganda remain activate in the Eastern Congo. Security is a big concern for the Congolese. The country cannot thrive without it. The Congolese government troops (FARDC), supported by Rwanda and the U.N.,  continue to fight since January 2009 against the Rwandan Hutu rebels FDLR  and other armed groups , causing one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world. Murder, rape and pillage and burning of homes is endemic. The incorporation of former warlords and their undisciplined forces have made the army a threat to civilian populations.

Clearly, the warming of diplomatic relations between Congo and Rwanda was done for a collusion of economic interests and the peace hasn't held in the east. Strangely, Kabila's government is asking UN peace keepers to leave the country. There is a risk that if the UN peace keepers start to pull back, Congo will totally unravel as warlords and profiteers become firmly entrenched.

A new vision for the country would involve a concerted effort to end the exploitation of Congolese minerals. All the major players -- the Congolese government,  Rwanda and Uganda, China, U.S., Canada, the European Union, the UN, and the mining interests -- should broker an agreement to establish the Congo as an exploitation-free region with no tolerance for commerce that terrorizes the local people. Consumers of electronics in the West should demand that their cell phones and other products are not fueling the conflict.

And the international justice system should not only bring warlords to justice, but hold to account those who finance them. To date, the International Criminal Court has been unsuccessful in prosecuting the four Congo's warlords it has arrested. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2005 that the Ugandan state was guilty of killing and torturing civilians, destroying villages and plundering natural resources during its five-year occupation of northeastern Congo. This has been another dead-end road. Rwanda, equally damaging to Congo, claimed to be outside the jurisdiction of the court.

The Congo has ample arable land replenished by rainfall, lakes and rivers to become the breadbasket of Africa. Instead of selling of land to Asia, land must be preserved for the Congolese to produce their own food. The Congo government could work closer with international friends on grassroots seeds and tools programs. At the same time, Congo could use more international partners for the green sustainable development of natural forestry resources, such as timber and rubber. Outside investment also requires a better infrastructure. At least the Chinese in their mega-mineral deal with the Congo have pledged to build roads and medical clinics.

A new Congo would set a higher standard for human rights for all of her citizens. Congo is among the countries classified by Freedom House as suffering from combination of extreme power concentration and severe institutional weakness. Congo's leading human rights activist Floribert Chebeya, who was shining a bright light on treatment of prisoners and dissidents, was slain recently. The government has had little to say about his death. It was not an isolated killing. In 2006, Congo held democratic elections for the first time in four decades, but lobby groups say hundreds of people have since been imprisoned, tortured or killed in political acts.

The Congolese government must  help itselfby enforcing its laws. It must follow through with promises on zero tolerance for corruptionby prosecuting all involved in corruption and public funds mismanagement, which arecited in the different reports such as the panel experts of the UN,Congolese audits institutions (Accounting Court, General Inspection ofFinances and Parliament Control Commissions).

Churches with international ties and NGOs could be conduits for micro-enterprise ventures as well as the spiritual renewal that the wounded country desperately needs. Recently, a local Catholic Church challenged the Congolese people in a Mass that was broadcast on national television: "What is needed is sincere love for others,the opposite to the present culture of selfishness which renders people prisoners of self and prevents any desire or vision for building up the nation.”

The same might be said by the outside interests exploiting Congo's natural resources: more love and less selfishness is needed for the country to develop a positive vision for the next 50 years. The developed world's need for cheap resources has been a curse on the Congo. There has to be a way that the West's appetite for mobile phones and other electrical devices can become a blessing.

The international community seems to have a huge capacity to look the other way when the victims of a genocide are Africans, and a larger issue is how slowly the world comes to terms with mass killings that take place anywhere in the world. It's common knowledge that the Clinton administration quibbled over definitions of genocide while at least a half million Rwandan Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered by radical Hutus in 1994.

The story that will emerge some day -– and we hope for the lives of the Congolese very soon -- is how the ill effects of the Rwandan genocide spilled over into their country to create the most destructive conflict of our age. It started with the influx of more than a million Hutus refugees into the Congo (then Zaire) including many participants and bystanders in the genocide who fled from Rwanda fearing reprisal. This was orchestrated by the French and their controversial "Operation Turquoise." Ever since the Congo has been a battleground with militarized Rwandan Hutus refugees wreaking havoc in Eastern Congo, and an ongoing pattern of the Tutsi-led forces from Rwanda invading and controlling the country while siphoning off the mineral wealth to Western countries. These Rwandan forces, including those that have been incorporated into the Congolese Army, by many accounts are responsible for some of the most inhumane acts committed since the Jewish Holocaust.

In his book Congo -- The Ignored Economic Genocide, Congolese writer Dr. George Alula makes a compelling case that the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with rape used as a weapon to exterminate women through AIDs, and the ongoing violence against local populations, constitutes genocide. The images of carnage in the Congo are available (he includes them in his book) but the mainstream press refuses to show them to their western audiences. If they did, there would no doubt be a huge outrage and world leaders would be forced to act. Waiting, stalling is on their side. No one wants to be held accountable, particularly when so much money is being made at the expense of the Congolese whose country is rich in minerals.

An article in this week's Economist backs up our assertions about Rwanda's destructive role in the Congo and its blatant opportunism. It reports on the recent visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Rwanda to mend relations, which seems like a whitewash of France's involvement in Rwanda before, during, and shortly after the genocide in that country. Not surprisingly, the Economist points out about Sarkozy's visit, "French businessmen came in Mr. Sarkozy’s slipstream, eyeing minerals and timber in neighbouring Congo, for which Rwanda is a conduit."

Rwanda's economic ties to the West, the collective guilt about ignoring the Rwandan genocide, and President Kagame's tight relationships with powerful political, business, and religious groups in the U.S. and Europe all  seem to be working against bringing to light the horrors of the situation in Congo.

Alleged perpetrators of mass killings rarely owe up to their deeds. For example, facing charges of genocide by an international court, former Bosnian Serb leader last week called the well-documented massacre ofnearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 "a myth".

Klaus Barbie, nicknamed the Nazi “Butcher of Lyon,” was responsible for the torture and death of thousands of people during World War II. He deported 842 people -- mainly Jews -- to concentration camps in Germany. After the war, he was recruited by the American intelligence agents because of his "police skills" and anti-Communist zeal. It wasn't until 1987 that he was found guilty and sentenced to life -- this after spending most of his adult life stirring up trouble in Bolivia. 

The Turks continue to deny wrong doing despite overwhelming evidence by eye witnesses and scholars that more than a million Armenians were killed by the Turks in 1915 through direct killing, starvation, torture and forced death marches. Just last week, the Obama Administration, apparently sensitive to not offend an important ally in the Middle East, discouraged a House measure to label the events of 1915 a genocide.

Former US President George W. Bush called the Sudanese government attacks on Darfur's population "genocide."  How strange it is a few years later, even as a Darfur "peace agreement" is announced, UN Ambassador Susan Rice said “We know that weapons continue to flow into Darfur acts of sexual and gender-based violence continue unabated and with impunity, military over-flights and offensive actions continue. And though there has been the recent signing of the framework agreement, the fact is we continue to receive reports of offensive military actions by the Government of Sudan in Darfur. If these reports are true, this behavior does not suggest a new willingness on the part of Sudan to fully engage in the peace process.”

Modern history suggests that eventually the truth does emerge about the perpetrators of genocides and other mass killings.  Victims, their families, and communities, may forgive but they do not forget. As Dr. Alula says of the atrocities committed in the Congo, "Such crimes, the biggest since Hitler's holocaust of the Jewish people during the World War II, should not remain unpunished."

Today the media, politicians, and community leaders will mark the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., as primarily a call to volunteerism. But his more challenging messages, such as the speech he delivered at Riverside Church in April 1967 in New York City a year before his murder, are largely ignored. This important, neglected speech, was clearly against the Vietnam War, but it was so much more.  It was a call for reflection on "the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth" and the unjust ways Western capitalists invest "huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries."

In the speech, Dr. King called us to "play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

This message resonates today with the need to rebuild Haiti, including a more just relationship with the U.S. It also should cause us to raise questions about Western business dealings in the Congo, Angola, Nigeria and other countries in the world where corporations take the profits out with little concern for the people.

Avatar, the most popular movie in recent years, delivers more than 3-D special effects and an exotic adventure that keep you on the edge of your seat. It also has something important to say about the plundering of mineral wealth at the expense of local, "less civilized" people. I don't know if producer James Cameron intended to make a statement about the exploitation of mineral wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but there sure are a lot of parallels between his blockbuster movie and what is happening in the impoverished, yet mineral rich country. Where else on Earth are corporate interests competing so fiercely for control of precious minerals with such catastrophic results as in the Congo?

In Avatar, the tall, blue inhabitants of Pandora called Navis have the valuable mineral unobtainium lying underneath their lush rain forests that the Earthlings so desperately need.  The invaders from Earth, having squandered the resources on their own planet, will do anything it takes to extract this powerful energy source. "This is why we're here, because this little gray rock sells for twenty million a kilo," explains the corporate executive Selfridge.

The Navis, live in harmony with the abundant flora and fauna of their environs, even with the Jurassic Park-like creatures. The Navis want to be left alone and distrust the intentions of the foreign invaders with their military, corporate controllers and scientists. The latter have created a hybrid creature -- part human, part Navi to enter their world conceivably for scientific discoveries. But the hybrids are used by the corporation to pacify the natives so the business interests can mine the precious substance unheeded.

The protagonist, Jake Sully, a young Marine, is paralyzed from the waist down from a war back on Earth. He participates in the hybrid program not knowing what he's getting into. As he enters Pandora in the body of a hybrid that resembles the Navis, he falls in love with his mentor, Neytiri, a beautiful Navi warrior. As Jake is captivated by this native culture and Neytiri, he finds himself at cross-purposes between his military-industrial backers and the Navi living in this lush paradise.

Of course the situation in Congo is not as simple as the theme in the wildly popular Avatar.  But the similarities are striking. Congo has the second largest rain forest in the world, and in it live some exotic wildlife such as mountain gorillas.

Congo also has it's own little black rock called coltan.  It's a critical ingredient in rockets, jet engines as well as as a wide array of consumer electronics -- from cell phones, to digital cameras and laptop computers. Congo possesses 80 percent of the world's coltan and also has abundant reserves of gold, copper and diamonds. The developed world, including the Chinese, want coltan.

What's more, foreign multi-national corporations have been deeply involved in the exploitation of Congo's coltan, gold and other minerals as has Congo's predatory neighbors Uganda and Rwanda. A witches brew of outside interests, proxy militias, corrupt Congolese army, and ineffective UN peace keepers, have left villagers, particularly in the Eastern Congo vulnerable to attack and rape. Both Uganda and Rwanda, with various degrees of U.S. military backing, have invaded Congo over the past 15 years. More than 5 million Congolese are estimated dead because of the wars, related disease, and ongoing violence.

In Avatar, at least some of the Americans finally choose to side with the locals, something that rarely happens in the Congo conflict. When Jake finally switches sides, his words could be coming straight out of the mouth of the Congolese: "They've sent us a message... that they can take whatever they want. Well we will send them a message. That this... this is our land!"

Several recent books makes us wonder why Bill Clinton and evangelical leader Rick Warren honored Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, with international peace awards. The authors of these books make compelling cases that Kagame's forces have been responsible for much of the violence in eastern Congo over the years, one of the most destructive scenes of violence in modern history, resulting in more than five million deaths and tens of thousands of rapes. Some of the books also confirm reports by humanitarian organizations that Rwanda is a dangerous place for anyone -- Hutu or Tutsi -- who dares question the president.

In a recent review in The New York Review of Books entitled Kagame's Hidden War in the Congo, Howard W. French, a former New York Times correspondent, notes that three new books all portray Rwanda and its allies in Central Africa "not as heroes but rather as opportunists who use moral arguments to advance economic interest. And their supporters in the United States and Western Europe emerge as alternately complicit, gullible, or simply confused."

The books French reviewed were Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe, by Gérard Prunier,Oxford University Press; The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa, by René Lemarch and,University of Pennsylvania Press; and The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality, by Thomas Turner, Zed Books.

The books suggest that under the pretense of an ongoing fight against the threat of Rwandan Hutus, the Rwandan regime has sought to control Congo's mineral wealth, such as gold, diamonds, tin, and coltan,which is used in manufacturing electronics. They have done so twice by direct invasion and through various proxy armies. Among these,French points out, "none has been more lethal than the militia led by Laurent Nkunda, Congo's most notorious warlord, whose record of violence in eastern Congo includes destroying entire villages, committing mass rapes, and causing hundreds of thousands of Congolese to flee their homes."

In January 2009, faced with international pressure about its role in destabilizing the eastern Congo, the Rwandan government made a surprise decision to arrest Nkunda. Various human right organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which have documented Nkunda's multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity,have called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Nkunda.

Voices from the Congolese diaspora are also speaking out against Rwanda's role in the conflict in their country. "Congolese feel like we are victims of an international plot," writes Dr. George Makita Alua, in The Ignored Congo Economic Genocide. "This plot aims to create instability in our country so international multinational companies can keep on looting the Congolese minerals and richness. The international community at long last shall [should] take the opportunity to put an end to its support to General Kagame's regime, which is crushing people under the pretext of protecting the Congolese Tutsi..."

In God Sleeps in Rwanda, Joseph Sebarenzi, a former speaker in the Rwandan parliament and a Tutsi, tells how he fled for his life from Kagame, who apparently wanted not only the parliament, but also judges and the press to serve his interests as he ascended to political power. Sebarenzi's account of Kagame is consistent with those of  human rights groups. A report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative was the latest to demonstrate that Kagame's regime suppresses freedom of speech, harasses journalists, and allows for little political opposition.

 

These books and ongoing reports by human rights groups and the United Nations raise serious questions about the awards Kagame is receiving. Bill Clinton honored Kagame in September with the Clinton Global Citizen Award hailing him as a "brilliant military commander" whose "national leadership has proven to be as bold as his military campaigns: creating visionary policies, innovative national programs and strong international partnerships to support the development of the new Rwanda." Pastor Rick Warren, the most prominent evangelical leader of our day -- whose church has adopted Rwanda as a "purpose-driven nation" -- recently bestowed Kagame with an "international medal of peace."

Few can argue that after the Rwandan genocide strong leadership was required to hold the country together and put it on a path toward reconciliation and healing. And arguably Kagame's relationships with international donors such as Bill Gates, Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, and corporate brands such as Starbucks, are producing some health, education and economic benefits to a country traumatized by genocide.

But clearly these international peace awards camouflage the role of Rwanda and Western business and political interests in the ongoing suffering of the Congolese people.

This is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster in India that took place at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. A plume of poisonous gas leaked from the plant,which destroyed almost 4,000 lives of Indians who lived downwind of the plant. More than 15,000 people have since died from the after effects. According to a column in today's New York Times, Dow Chemical, which has since acquired Union Carbide, has never taken responsibility for cleaning up the mess, tended to the health care needs of the victims, or even issued an apology.

In reading about the disaster, I was reminded of the role of Western companies in the conflict of the Congo, which has claimed over 5 million lives. As CBS's 60 minutes pointed out in their broadcast Sunday, little care is taken by companies that purchase gold to insure that they aren't feeding the conflict in the Congo. Militias that control the mines can sell the commodities, buy weapons, and keep the conflict going. It seems that everyone wants apiece of the action, including surrounding countries, particularly Rwanda and Uganda, whose business connections sell to international markets. If this were happening in Europe or Asia, there certainly would be tremendous outrage in the international community. What Bhopal and Congo both point to is the ugly truth that we live in a world where corporate interests trump those of some of the poorest people in the world today.

There is another similarity between Bhopal and the situation in the Congo that is seldom publicized. It was obvious from the 60 Minutes broadcast that there are children working in the mines, which would never be allowed in any wealthy country. And, I understand that the mining taking place in Kantanga, the largest mining center in the Congo, also has a history of damaging the environment and is has had adverse health effects on the local population, which I will explore further in another blog posting. 

A United Nations report, scheduled for release in December, details "a vast, rebel-driven criminal network in eastern Congo with tentacles touching Spanish charities Ukranian arms dealers, corrupt African officials and even secretative North Korean weapons shipments," according to the NewYork Times. The report charges that the Congolese Army continues to funnel weapons to rebel groups that are smuggling millions of dollars in gold and other minerals out of Congo -- demonstrating wide-ranging violations of the arms embargo on Congo-Kinshasa by both Western and African states. The fact that the poorly paid,undisciplined Congolese Army is making matters worse by participating in the weapons trade, should comes as no surprise to those advocating for peace in the region. After all, it has been reported that the army has widely incorporated former militia members some from unfriendly countries.

More provocative are findings that killer militias in Eastern Congo have been receiving military orders from leaders based in Germany and France and getting finance from two Spanish-based charities, according to AfricaConfidential . According to this source, the report also accuses the governments of Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa of allowing serious breaches of sanctions and the illegal export of mineral wealth. The report shows that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), one of the most notorious rebel armies and among them former genocidaries in Rwanda, "has a far-reaching international diaspora network involved in the day-to-day running of the movement: the coordination of military and arms-trafficking activities and the management of financial activities." Several foreign mining houses continue t otrade with the FDLR. End buyers for this cassiterite reportedly include the Malaysia Smelting Corporation and the Thailand meltingand Refining Company (Thaisarco), held by the British-registered Amalgamated Metals Corporation.

Africa Confidential report sthat though not widely criticized in the report, "Rwanda will be embarrassed by revelations that Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the founder and former leader of the predominantly Congolese Tutsi CNDP who issupposed to be under detention in Rwanda, has been allowed to remain in contact with former associates and to exert a degree of control over the CNDP." Despite officially joining the Congolese national army in early 2009, the CNDP maintains many of its former command structures, and has extended its control over mining areas since its forces became integrated into the army, according to Global Witness.

The victims of this international minerals and arms racket are of course Congolese civilians, millions of whom have died from gun shot wounds and preventable diseases since the war broke out in the mid-nineties. The Congo Peace Network is joining Global Witness in urging countries to hold accountable thecompanies who trade in minerals from areas of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This report is but one in series that documents how armed groups in the Eastern Congo, with internationalbacking, are causing so much death and injury in the DRC.  Whilethis latest report identifies some of the primary actors, it will have limited impact unless the individuals and companies are held accountable by the countries in which they reside.

With their latest strategy paper, Enough is making headway on tracing the supply chain in conflict minerals from eastern Congo to our cell phones and other electronic devices. "From Mine to Mobile Phone: The Conflict Minerals Supply Chain,” describes in practical terms the six major steps that separate Congo’s mines from our cell phones, laptops, MP3players, and video game systems.

Enough points out: "The scramble for minerals did not spark the conflict in eastern Congo, but war profiteering has become the fuel that keeps the region aflame and lies beneath the surface of major regional tensions... Those who benefit from this deadly trade know full well that they are dealing with illegally exploited minerals, and they do so with a wink and a nod from governments and larger purchasers that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo."

John Prendergast, the paper's co-author and a co-founder of the Enough Project, concludes: "Because companies do not currently have a system to trace, audit, and certify where their materials come from, all cell phones and laptops likely contain conflict minerals from Congo. By demanding conflict-free products, consumers have a critical role toplay in ensuring that Congo’s minerals help to benefit its people rather than the armed groups that prey upon them."

A link to the full report and slide show.http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/mine-mobile-phone

The Voice of America reported  that the Congo Advocacy Coalition, a coalition of 84 aid groups, is calling the human costs of a government military offensive in eastern Congo unacceptable. View article. The group is urging the UN to suspend its support for the DRC army if civilians' lives and property cannot be safeguarded. The reports says that diplomats and UN officials of the Great Lakes Contact Group are due to meet in Washington today to discuss eastern Congo violence. Rather than promoting a U.N. pullout, the Congo Advocacy Coalition is urging Great Lakes participants to bring a temporary halt to the Congolese military operation.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to Congo spotlighted the ongoing human costs of the conflict , including the problem of rape. OXFAM's Marcel Stoessel, urged a more comprehensive approach to the FDLR, that emphasizes the protection of humans. He said, "Thousands of houses have been burned down. About a thousand civilians have been killed. According to U.N. figures, about 900,000 people have fled their homes. Rapes are reported at about 7,000 this year alone."

While the Congo Peace Network supports a temporary halt to the military operation in Eastern Congo, we are calling for greater exposure of the root causes of the conflict, including the role of the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Uganda that have backed militias in the country. It is clear from extensive research sponsored by the U.N. and The Enough Project that fueling the conflict are outside economic interests that benefit from the mineral wealth of the DRC. Given that President Obama will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, we encourage him to make peace in the DRC a higher priority for his administration, including a more truthful accounting for what is behind the conflict which has taken such an unimaginable human toll.