Eye on Africa

**Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Displaced family at the Tchomia Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp, Ituri

Congolese Army Troops in Ituri
****Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele

Congo’s Conflict: What the United States Can do

Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele – Congolese Flag

In the spirit of transparency, which is needed in moving Congo to the next step in its long march to stability and security, a copy of the preliminary findings from MONUC’s special investigation into the Kinshasa events of March 2007, which led Jean-Pierre Bemba into exile, is attached below.

For the past few years, MONUC has played a criticical role in keeping a semblance of order in DRC. This is particularly true for eastern Congo, where only God knows what would have happened had it not been for a strong United Nations military presence.

Despite the many problems that plague peacekeeping operations in DRC — sexual abuses, gun smuggling, mineral trafficking – the blue helmets have done more than just deter the escalation of conflict. The UN has helped run and manage Congo through these tumultuous years.

****Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Outdoors Child IV Perfusion, Medical Center, Bunia

Copyright 2007 Economist Newspaper
July 28, 2007
Issue 950
Section: The Economist 28 Jul 2007

Congo: Only just staying in one piece

Congo threatens to slide back into chaos. Since last year’s historic elections, political and economic progress has stalled, while war drums are rumbling in the country’s east.

IF EVER there were an urgent case for change in Congo after years of neglect and war, it is Kinshasa’s general hospital. The emergency room reeks of stale urine. The sick lie outside, while relatives collect money for treatment. Life-threatening cases are accepted but nothing happens until someone stumps up the cash–even if the patients die.

Nine months after Congo’s elections (the first for more than 40 years), which were meant to mark a fresh start after a war that left some 4m dead, Dr Mbwebwe Kabamba, a surgeon in the hospital, is expecting no miracle overnight. But, like millions who walked miles, risked attacks by gunmen or simply stood in the rain to vote, he is looking for signs that those in power might improve the situation.

*** Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Uruguayan Peacekeepers, Kasenyi, Ituri

The United Nations, or should I say UN peacekeepers, are in the news again. Check the headlines. You have got to love these guys — not. As a kid growing up in Zaire, I dreamed of working for the UN — but no more. The sad thing is that these peacekeepers make the headlines for the same old abuses, sexual misconduct, gold and gun smuggling.

Still, when it happens UN officials tend to act as if they were seeing these things for the first time. Never mind they have dealt with these types of abuses in different parts of the world. The real problem here lies with the civilian leadership, which always places politics above the underlying principles encapsulated in the UN charter.

In fairness to the peacekeepers, I reckon that most of them are professionals and dedicated to their assignment. I speak from experience. Last year I was embedded with peacekeepers in the conflict areas of Ituri and South Kivu. The Moroccan, Uruguayan and Pakistani troops I worked with discharged their duty with a high level of professionalism and commitment. In short, I was impressed with them. Then again, there is always a bad apple in the bag.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Pakistani Peacekeepers Praying, Tubimbi, South Kivu

July 23, 2007 
 
Mr. Jean-Marie Guéhenno 
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations 
Department of Peacekeeping Operations 
United Nations 
New York, NY 
 

We welcome your recent announcement about the conclusion of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigation into alleged gold smuggling and arms trading by Pakistani peacekeepers working with the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We believe that such investigations are a useful part of the process of establishing accountability for peacekeepers alleged to have been involved in illegal acts.

****Photo MONUC

When my friend Mzee in Washington told me Jean-Pierre Bemba’s partisans had set the Supreme Court offices on fire, I did not believe it. I thought it was a joke, bad humor. He said he had called Kinshasa and confirmed with his contacts in town, and it was true. I still refused to believe it.

“How could anyone set the Supreme Court on fire?” I asked. “I cannot understand it.”

See, if you had visited Kinshasa recently, then you would understand my disbelief. Primo, the neighborhood around the Supreme Court, which is close to Bemba’s residence, has been protected by MONUC troops, guarded with UN armored vehicles and heavily armed Uruguayans and EUFOR elements stationed every so many meters. One could not help, but feel under siege when driving around the court. The area felt like a war zone. I remember seeing one or two armored vehicles parked right outside the court.

So how did a crowd of partisans force its way to the building and set it on fire? I know the Congolese do not like facing the barrel of a gun, let alone armored gunships. Perhaps I miss something.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Pakistani troops, Tubimbi, South Kivu

When Nelson Mandela was released from jail in 1990 and during the subsequent 1994 independence and elections in South Africa, the United States displayed a dramatic commitment to the democratic movement in Africa that has not been in evidence since. That seemed to change, however, with the U.S.-sanctioned arrest of Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, on March 29, 2006, for human rights violations in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The United States, which helped broker the 2003 political arrangement that offered Taylor safe haven in Nigeria and shielded him from prosecution, reversed its position and demanded his extradition to Sierra Leone. In a rare departure, the United States held itself and its African allies, such as Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, to Jeffersonian standards and ideals of justice and freedom.

Africans have fought for the respect of human rights for the past 50 years with limited success. During the last two decades, however, they have instigated several initiatives to end impunity, including special tribunals in Ethiopia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha), attempts to prosecute Chad’s former president, Hissen Habré, and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. With the exception of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Sudan peace accord, which benefited from American activism, the United States has shown little enthusiasm or support for these initiatives.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele. Uruguayan peacekeepers on patrol on Lake Albert, Ituri.

In its October 2 Report, the International Crisis Group reviews what went wrong during the first round of the elections and the ensuing fight between Kabila’s and Bemba’s troops, and offers policy recommendations for the upcoming presidential runoff.

The overview:

Hours before the first-round results of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential elections were to be announced in Kinshasa on 20 August 2006, violence erupted between troops loyal to Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and those loyal to the incumbent, Joseph Kabila, providing dramatic proof of the fragility of the electoral process. Because both Kabila and Bemba will be tempted to use violence should they lose the second round, and the former in particular is very strong militarily, the Congolese government and the international community must move quickly to make secure the run-off as well as the provincial assembly elections on 29 October. Militias also threaten stability elsewhere in the country, notably in North Kivu and Ituri, but the capital is likely to be the most sensitive location again. A three-pronged strategy is required: improving security in Kinshasa, promoting a more responsible approach to the media and resolving some basic problems in the electoral process.

***Bemba (forefront) and Kabila (left) meet after a bloody fallout.

A month ago, President Joseph Kabila’s forces pounded Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba’s residential compound with heavy weaponry for three days. In the process, they also destroyed his helicopter. In an unprecedented and bold move, republican guards forced 14 ambassadors meeting with Bemba to seek shelter in the vice-president’s basement as they lobbed artillery shells on the residence.

A week ago, the two nemeses met behind close doors, posed for the cameras and made no statement to the world. What a pity. But then again, what did we expect Mr. Kabila to say? “I am sorry I pounded your nice villa?” I don’t think so. Or Perhaps Mr. Bemba should have jumped on this opportunity and told the Congolese, “Now you all know that he did it.” That is not presidential either. So, what works?