DR Congo: putting lipstick on pigs at the trough

While the planet is running around screaming “don’t panic!”, the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the big one on the map, the small one is the Republic of Congo) continues to rapidly deteriorate. Unchecked vested interest groups are once again coming home to roost and it’s going to get real ugly, real soon.

At play in this strife torn African country are those with vested political interests, which extends to most of the DRC’s neighbours including primarily but certainly not limited to Rwanda and Uganda, as well as militias within the DRC featuring rebel Tutsis, Hutus and Ugandans and those with vested financial interests as is neatly captured by Catherine Philip in her article for the Times of London.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5110684.ece

Into that mixture must be added the largest UN peace keeping force on the planet right now, the DRC’s own army which is responsible for some of the worst atrocities being committed and the odd Mai Mai who are anti-foreigner groups banging heads with … foreigners I would imagine.

That is a short summary of the players available in and around the DRC at the moment. The focus however, at present is on Goma and surrounds in the eastern part of the country. Tutsi rebels under General Laurent Nkunda had ostensibly gone on the offensive against the million-odd Hutus who fled there after the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (a year after a ceasefire was declared in the Rwandan Civil War). However, within a short space of time Nkunda has upped the ante claiming that this exercise is not aimed at the Hutus but at the government who had best meet to negotiate with him or face all out war.

A bit of history — as you may or may not recall it was the Hutus who murdered roughly a million Tutsis while Clinton and the planet fiddled. Of course the Hutus blame the Tutsis who, having helped the Ugandans overthrow Obote and co, in Uganda formed their own army under the RFP and launched the Rwandan Civil War to reclaim the country from the Hutus, which they did in 1996.

Within a year the Rwandans, Burundi, Angola and Uganda assisted Laurent-Desire Kabila, the current president Joseph Kabila’s father, and the ADFL to oust then Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko who had ruled for a couple of decades in what is known as the First Congo War. No loss to the continent.

This was, however, soon followed by the Second Congo War which achieved the dubious distinction of having the highest casualties inflicted in a conflict since World War II. Known as the World War of Africa it pitted Kabila and a number of African states including Namibia, Chad, Zimbabwe, Libya and Angola, some Mai Mai and the Hutus against Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Nkunda’s rebel Tutsis, Jean Pierre Bemba’s MLC and the RCD (another rebel group receiving support from Rwanda).

This conflict led to the deaths of 5.4-million people and ran effectively from August 1998 until 2003. It ended with a ceasefire and a transitional government followed by a referendum in 2005 and elections in 2006 whereat Kabila was elected the president.

What it did not do was defuse the ticking time-bomb that is the DRC and its neighbours, nor eliminate the looters and plunderers described in Philip’s article.

The result is that in the North East you will find the Lords Resistence Army which is a band of Ugandan Rebels at war with Uganda but operating in the Sudan and DRC as well. Their ongoing activities are responsible for atrocities in that part of the DRC. In the East, which includes Goma right near the Rwandan border, are the Hutu militias — the cause of much concern for the Tutsi rebels under Nkunda.

Strangely enough it was agreed in Nairobi just over a year ago that the Hutu militias would disarm and begin repatriating to Rwanda. If anything Kabila is using the Hutu militias to bolster his forces against the Tutsi rebels, the Tutsi rebel leader is using them as an excuse to put pressure on the government via the instability in the eastern part of the DRC and Rwandan president Paul Kagame has so far baulked at increasing the size of his Hutu population.

At present the principal players in the conflict would appear to be the DRC (whose army is committing outrageous atrocities on civilians), Angola, MONUC(UN), Hutu militias and the Mai Mai against Nkunda’s CNDP (plus Rwanda who deny it). Of course the African leaders of the Great Lakes, SADC (heaven help us) EU and UN are all scratching their heads on how to bring this inferno under control once and for all.

Everyone appears to be calling for ceasefires, more humanitarian aid and bolstering the peace keeping force, which is like putting a plaster on a broken leg. As the medication prescribed after the Second Congo War it certainly hasn’t cured the patient up to now, perhaps put him into remission but no more than that.

What would be more helpful would be pro-active measures along the following lines :

Instructions that all militias other than MONUC and the DRC regular army disarm or face engagement.

Sanctions to be imposed against any country found to be supporting the rebel militias in the DRC.

Uganda and Rwanda be advised that unless they allow safe passage for their rebels to return home they will be facing sanctions. Immediately commence repatriating all Tutsis and Hutus to Rwanda and LRA rebels to Uganda.

DRC regular military who have been involved in attrocities to be prosecuted and the leaders responsible for these units dismissed and tried for war crimes.

Severe sanctions to be introduced against countries and companies that are directly or indirectly involved in purchasing illegal minerals or other resources from the DRC.

Unless all foreign and rebel militias are disarmed and sanctions imposed on those who illegally profit from the vast resources of the DRC, thereby removing the reason and the wherewithal to rearm time and again, the situation will remain highly volatile.

With the precedent set by the World War of Africa that’s not where you’d want to be about now.