Forgotten wars series: Featuring the DR Congo

Forgotten wars: feat. the
DR Congo

Facts one would rather ignore:

• over 4 million people have been killed during the conflicts in DRC (formerly knows as Zaire) since 1996 due to fightings; millions had to flee


• in 2005 still more than 2.4 million refugees are 'living' within the country's borders, 400 000 managed to flee to neighbouring countries


• over 16 million Congolese have critical food needs


• the size of the DRC is comparable with the size of Western Europe


• Severe malnutrition rates among children under five have reached 30 per cent


• over 55 per cent of people have no access to safe drinking water; in some rural areas this figure goes up to 97 per cent


• there are more than 10,000 child soldiers; over 15 per cent of newly recruited combatants are children under the age of 18; a substantial number are under the age of 12


• reasons for the ongoing battles: control over resources (and why? cos (mainly) the West pays big money for them or (mainly) western corporations employ so called 'rebels' directly to defend 'their' reources and interests

"For too long, people in the One-Third world have known about Africa chiefly through "famine pornography" and atrocities such as the Rwandan genocide. As a result, Westerners have stereotyped Africa as a continent of savages. The story that Westerners need to hear, however, is that the atrocities committed in Congo are being funded, at least indirectly, by large Western corporations. There is a direct relationship between the suffering of women in Congo and the prices we pay for cell phones and laptops here in the United States [and elsewhere]."
~ Thank you CPT Africa

• Congolese security forces trained by the EU are being accused of numerous human rights violations


• a few months after Lumumba became head of state in 1960, he was overthrown with US and European support for a Cold War ally, Mobutu Sese Soko, (and for the rich resources that would then be available cheaply, rather than used for Congo's own people and development)


• fightings were and still are the heaviest in the east of the country, where approx. over 3.3 million individuals like you and me, like your parents and friends, became victims of war


• especially in a district called Ituri - one of the areas richest in gold reserves on the face of this planet - fightings have been horrendous between the Hema and Lendu tribes


• inside the small town of Mongbwalu, within the Kilo-Moto-area, and its immediate surrounding alone 2,000 civilians were murdered; thousands more have been mutulated and abused


• fightings within the Ituri district in May 2003 between Lendu and Hema militias caused a gruesome massacre; during that month within the Kilo-Moto area alone 60,000 people lost their lives


• since we (in the West) are so altruistic UN 'blue helmets' were sent to the DRC in April 2003 to finally teach the Africans some peace; with currently 17,000 soldiers fighting under the UN flag - some call them 'peacekeepers' - the most expensive UN mission was kicked off, costing 1 billion US$ per year (CongoWatch)


• being surrounded by lower beings the noble UN peacekeepers themselves started to commit crimes: in the town of Bunia, in the district of Ituri, the UN troops were found guilty of sexual abuse and child prostitution

Even the BBC reports that:
"Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the world over the past 60 years," said Richard Brennan, health director of the New York-based International Rescue Committee and the study's lead author.
"Ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal and international engagement remains completely out of proportion to humanitarian need."

• soldiers fighting for the Congolese government hardly get paid, which encourages them to plunder towns


• fighting still continues and the UN estimates that in the year 2005 120,000 new refugees in the region of Kentanya alone have been trying to flee the country

These shocking figures would usually be more than enough to get media attention the world over.

In December 2005 a new constitution was implemented and elections are planed to be held on July 30 this year.

To get an impression of what life is like in DR Congo, take a look at this video by abcNEWS.
And check out what Human Rights Watch has to report about The Curse of Gold in DR Congo.

European troops in DR Congo to 'protect' democracy

How wonderful. Aren't we (the Europeans) a great nation?! Always ready to help others. This time we'll make sure that these poor Congolese are able to enjoy their free and fair elections. And Germany being so neutral is a great candidate to help out. I am so proud of my Europe.

Well, not quite right, although the media is trying hard to make us believe this nonsense.

'Almost every observer IRIN ((UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks) encountered said the same thing: "Kabila [the current president] has the money, so he will win." [Well, that's how democracy works everywhere, isn't it?!]
"Voting for one's ethnic group will be the biggest factor in the elections, money the second," said Baise, a member of the local majority Matoke community. "Already some tribal chiefs have received bicycles from candidates. For $100 you can buy the chief of a tribe."
There may be numerous political parties backing candidates in the upcoming elections, but one single force is likely to be more influential than the rest: the Catholic Church.' (AllAfrica.Com)

Even Human Rights Watch criticizes the upcoming elections by silently voicing out that "The Climate of Fear Threatens Elections".

The UDPS (Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social, the main opposition party) is considering to boycott the 2006 elections; the voter registration exercise conducted last year it claimed was fraught with irregularities.
In July last year, UDPS supporters held protests against the administration, which was initially suppose to step down in favour of a democratically-elected government by Jun. 30, 2005.

All these aren't indications that fair elections are really coming up in DR Congo, are they.
But why is Europe -or at least the political elite- so keen to be present militarily in DR Congo during elections then?

I believe as the German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung rightly says: "It's in Europe's interest to support 'Democracy' in Congo. (...) And of course there are German interests at stake here." (DW-World.De) How nice! Sounds like the European Elite learned something from the White House; starting to send armies around the world to spread peace and democracy! I assume with 'European/German interests' he means interests of European/German transnational corporates.

Hmm... so what could corporate interests have to do with DR Congo and its politics?
Exactly, there are many resources and minerals etc being exploited, including (but not limited to):

• Water


• Diamonds


• Coltan


• Cassiterite


• Tin


• Copper


• Timber

A number of major human rights groups have charged that some multinational corporations from rich nations have been profiting from the war and have developed “elite networks” of key political, military, and business elites to plunder the Congo's natural resources. (US.OneWorld.Net) How rediculous, ey Mr. Jung?!

A classic example of what fuels the conflicts:

"In 1999 and 2000 a sharp increase in the world prices of tantalum occurred, leading to a large increase in coltan production in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Part of that new production involved rebel groups and unscrupulous business people forcing farmers and their families to leave their land, or chasing people off land where coltan was found and forcing them to work in artisanal mines. As a result, the widespread destruction of agriculture and devastating social effects occurred, which in a number of instances where akin to slavery."
Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations Security Council, S/2003/1027, October 28, 2003

National Parks that house endangered gorillas and other animals are often overrun to exploit minerals and resources. Increasing poverty and hunger from the war, as well as more people moving into these areas to exploit the minerals results in hunting more wildlife, such as apes, for bush meat. Gorillas, for example are already endangered species. Wars over resources like this makes the situation even worse.

The leading candidates who defend a central government - as propagated by the West - are hardly advocates of democracy. They include the former chief of the central bank, Pierre Pay-Pay, as well as former prime minister Etienne Tshisekedi (leader of the UDPS). As mentioned above the latter has called for an election boycott and might not play a roll in the poll. Both men, like Kabila (the current ruler), have strong military contingents — Pay-Pay in the form of an alliance between various military leaders and politicians based in the capital, and Tshisekedi through the support of the military in Kasai province, which he controls.

Before the war, the country was devastated by three decades of rule by the dictator Sese Seke Mobutu. Mobutu came to power after independence leader Patrice Lumumba was murdered in 1961 with Western compliance.
The operation will be the largest by the German military on the African continent since the capitulation of Hitler’s Afrika Korps in May 1943.
What is the reason for its leap into this utterly uncertain and insecure terrain? Why does the Grand Coalition [Christian Democratic Union & Social Democratic Party] regime consider this military presence so important?

To me the official justification — to ensure a “peaceful, democratic development” in the Congo — is a plain lie.
Somehow this EU mission seems to be an attempt to support an authoritarian regime and prove the military intervention capability of the EU. Declarations such as that of the German Defence Minister Jung, that the mission will serve to guarantee the interests of the German economy, are scandalous.

Even if the upcoming elections run smoothly, they will not solve the fundamental problems afflicting the country. The election result will, at most, rearrange the cards between the competing ethnic cliques and the imperialist powers that stand behind them. It is for this exact reason that the German government is absolutely committed to taking part. For Germany, it is about establishing a foothold in the DR Congo and on the African continent as a whole, whose enormous natural wealth is once again set to be carved up among the major powers.

The background to the civil war in the Congo lies in the raw materials in the region. The country’s provinces contain large quantities of gold, diamond, copper, cobalt, oil, and, of importance to the production of digital technologies, the mineral coltan. The exploitation of these immense resources is the reward for those powers able to maintain the dominant hand in the region’s multitude of conflicts. The enormous economic importance of the region for various industries can be garnered from the involvement of the large transnational corporations in the conflict. It is their lust for profits that lies behind the increased engagement of the European Union in Central Africa.

A bitter struggle has raged for years over these resources. France for a long time took advantage of the fact that French is spoken in the former Belgian colony to cultivate a relationship with the dictator Mobutu. When Mobutu was overthrown by Laurent Kabila in 1997, the US saw its chance. It supported Kabila and later his son Joseph, when he took over the reins after the murder of his father in 2001.

This support has paid dividends. For example in August of last year (2005), the US company Phelps Dodge was granted the licence to start extracting the largest untouched deposits of copper in the world. For the right to mine reserves estimated at around US$90 billion, Phelps Dodge paid just US$15 million.

"Similarly, while the U.N. Panel of Experts have investigated and reported on certain illegal criminal networks and activities in Congo, they never attend to the top-level deals brokered behind closed doors by executives from Adastra, Anglo-American, the companies of Sweden's Adolph Lundin (a close friend of George H.W. Bush), who have control of mining concessions in Lubumbashi, Kolwezi and Mbuji Mayi areas in the Katanga (Shaba) and Kasai provinces. U.S.-based Phelps Dodge is partnered in Katanga copper/cobalt mining projects with Lundin's Tenke Mining. Phelps Dodge director Douglas C. Yearly is also a director of Lockheed Martin, and the World Wildlife Fund-partnered with USAID and CARE in "conservation"-read: acquisition-projects all over Congo while CARE's "humanitarian" agenda is also funded by Lockheed Martin."
GlobalPolicy.Net

However, the interest of the German government on the African continent is not an innovation of the new Grand Coalition government. The former government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (Green Party) laid much of the groundwork in expanding the diplomatic and military engagement of Germany in different areas of Central Africa.

Germany and France fear that the US, and above all China, will push them to the side in the DR Congo and in Africa as a whole. Walther Stützle, the former state secretary in the German defence ministry, explicitly stated this on Deutschlandradio Kultur and in the Berliner Tagesspiegel. (Archiv.Tagesspiegel.De)

“The competition for the exploitation of African raw materials has been fiercely underway for a long time, including in the Congo. (...) The Americans and Chinese have planned their strategies much more than the Europeans (...). It was only late that the European Union placed the question on the table about whether it will leave Africa to others, like the US and China, who have fought hard to exert their policies. Europe, according to the French way of thinking, can no longer just be a destination for African refugees, but must prosecute its African interests in Africa. It is not ‘democracy’ that is the order of the day, but political stability.”

A further indication of the apprehension of the German government toward the encroachment of China in Africa was revealed in an article published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on May 11, under the heading “China Rolls Out the African Continent.” (FAZ.Net)

“China is not just fiddling around in Africa, it is slogging it out. (...) In Sudan, China has now become the largest consumer of oil. In Angola, which is the second-largest oil producer in Africa after Nigeria, the Chinese have long raised fears among its established competitors from Europe and the US. In the Congo, the Chinese are demanding under outlandish circumstances massive amounts of copper and cobalt, in Zimbabwe platinum, and South African mining companies can hardly ship enough black coal, platinum and iron ore to meet Chinese orders.”

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had to concede that African trade with China is also bringing advantages. “China waived debts of $10 billion for the African countries. It sends medicine to the continent and each year invites thousands of African students and workers to study in China or for further education seminars. At the same time the roads, bridges, hospitals and schools which the Chinese build are affordable and of acceptable quality.”

Similar articles were recently published by The Guardian and various other papers as well. 

Against this background, it becomes clear why Germany is rushing headlong toward Africa with all its might. Even though it is always accompanied by arguments proclaiming “a peaceful and democratic development” (as Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung puts it) and “stability,” these cannot be taken at face value. What is meant is the ability to exert influence on regimes that will act in the interests of German business. This is the aim being pursued by the Bundeswehr operation in the Congo.

This entry is suppose to give some idea of what all the fuss with DR Congo is about and why Europe -especially Germany (being such a neutral party)- is so keen to send its troops over there.

So, please Mrs. Merkel & Co., please stop lying to us!! We are not as stupid as we might pretend to be!
Thank you!!

If you are interested in further facts on DR Congo and the West I recommend to you: WorldPolicy.Org, CrisisGroup.Org, Oxfam.Org.UK.

And if you still don't have enough of this topic I recommend the following entry: The Scramble for Africa

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~peace&solidarity~

tags: corporate crimes africa  eu soldiers congo  dr congo  

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