The contrasting political and security trends of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are difficult to tease out and assess. The last WAR Report article which focused on this country, the size of Western Europe, discussed a range of security challenges facing the 17,000 soldiers and policemen deployed by the UN as well as a discussion of a few of the more significant militant groups. More recently in a June 2006 press article, Forces Arm?es de la Republic Democratic du Congo (FARDC)?DRC’s national army?Brig-Gen Mbuyamba Nsiona suggested dozens of militias had already disarmed but estimated that at least 4,000 ethnic Ituri militiamen had defied the UN mandated disarmament deadline of April 30, 2006. Preparations for a series of national elections continues apace, but has been postponed from late 2005, to spring 2006, and now again to July 30, 2006. The UN has already spent at least $430 million and succeeded in registering nearly 26 million of an estimated 58 million people, but by some estimates President Joseph Kabila has systematically concentrated political power jeopardizing the prospects for an open and impartial election. Inexplicably buried amidst the conflicting news reports of the political posturing and the UN improprieties in DRC lies the greatest obstacle to lasting peace in the Congo?the institutionalized callous disregard for protecting basic human rights.
Numerous humanitarian and aid workers are reporting back that degradation, humiliation and terror are increasingly becoming commonplace tools of political power. Acknowledging that control of minerally rich territory is the key to building an economic and political powerbase, increasingly warlords are using systematic rape as a tool of suppression and control of mining regions. Canadian aid worker Eric Schiller reported in March 2006 that the tactic of rape is used to control vulnerable populations noting “It is very extensive, it is ongoing, it seems to have become a modus operandi. All groups use this to terrorize the populations they want to control. Women are often raped in front of their families, in front of their children and husbands. When the woman is raped she is most often rejected by her husband and by her own family.” Another Canadian humanitarian worker, Denis Tougas reports that warlords “Take power on a piece of land where the [mining] sites are, they organize their power there, and rape is part of maintaining the terror (RealNews article).” Rape is so rampant in DCR, even senior UN workers have been accused of the crime in the capital city of Kinshasa. Further, basic tenants of human rights protection are ignored by warring factions such as militias using civilians as human shields against counterattacks by UN and government forces (RealNews article) and kidnapping of UN peacekeepers (RealNews article). It is difficult to see how civilians, let alone former militiamen, can feel safe and secure in an emerging democracy in which allies and enemies alike violate such basic tenants of human rights.
The devastation is indeed staggering. Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, estimates that more than 1,200 people die every day in the DRC from violence, starvation and dislocation stemming from the legacy of the 1998-2003 civil war. He notes that the estimated four million Congolese who have died as a result of the struggle mark it as the bloodiest conflict since World War Two. It comes as little surprise, then, that Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace listed DRC as number two on its “failed states” index released in May 2006?second only to Sudan and worse than both Iraq which registered at number four and Afghanistan at number 10.
Nonetheless, perhaps the $1 billion a year that the UN is spending on the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUC) is beginning to yield positive results. As alluded to above, last year’s national referendum which approved the new constitution is widely viewed as a success paving the way for the rescheduled elections. The UN will position election staffers and observers to 121 polling stations?over five times as many locations covered during the referendum across the spectrum of 53,000 voting stations around the country. Further, the international community will pay over 300,000 electoral workers and more than 50,000 police during the course of the polling. Currently 33 candidates are listed on the presidential ballot and 9,650 candidates from 213 parties are competing for 500 seats in the National Assembly. Additional electoral rounds will handle executive and senate seats and provincial representatives. While the logistics for such an enterprise are daunting, cautious optimism is beginning to creep into the tone of UN announcements. Although numerous militias will likely continue to ravage vulnerable communities in the near term, it is hoped that nation-wide participation in the upcoming polls will finally give a decentralized federal authority a comprehensive mandate to finally disburse and disband the remaining armed groups and ultimately launch Congolese onto the road to recovery.