Why Don't We Care About Congo's Dead?
Truthdig - 19 hours ago
Posted on May 15, 2014
By Sonali Kolhatkar
A doctor shouts as he carries a Congolese soldier after she and others
were attacked during a patrol near Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo,
in January. AP/Joseph Kay Is it true that atrocities in Africa garner
little international attention because the victims are black?
The recent kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls has generated
empathy and outrage worldwide, undermining such a claim. The
international shame and guilt over Rwanda's genocide, despite coming
too late, also proves that global concern for African lives is not
negligible. Indeed the news media often cover stories like the hunt
for Joseph Kony and his exploitation of child soldiers in Uganda, the
killings in Darfur, Sudan, or the armed attack on a mall in Nairobi,
Kenya.
But what happens when millions of Africans die in a conflict in which
some of the world's most desired natural resources are at stake? Very
little, it turns out. The massacres that have taken place in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have surpassed genocidal proportions
but rarely spur the outrage they deserve in the media or public.
Since 1996, 6 million Congolese have been killed in a series of
invasions and violent conflicts often instigated by armies and
militias from neighboring countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, which
are both U.S. allies. The battles have centered on access to Congo's
vast mineral deposits. According to lauding Congo's riches on The
Washington Post's website, "In terms of its untapped mineral wealth,
the DRC is one of the richest countries in the world. Its soil is
reputed to contain every mineral listed on the periodic table and
these minerals are found in concentrations high enough to make metal
analysts weep."
Maurice Carney, the co-founder and executive director of Friends of
the Congo, in an interview on Uprising, told me, "Congo has been at
the center of the unfolding of the drama ... as it relates to the
geostrategic pursuit to control the riches of the African continent."
He thinks the media fail to adequately cover Congo's conflict because
"if you look at Darfur, the bogeymen were the Arabs, the Muslims and
the Chinese. In Congo, the bogeyman is the West. From the
assassination of Patrice Lumumba, to the imposition of Mobutu on the
Congolese people, to the backing of the invasion of the Congo by
Rwanda and Uganda, the West is complicit." In fact, Carney said, "The
United States has been on the wrong side of history [in the Congo]
from day one."
Congo has never really been allowed to control its own destiny, save
for the brief leadership of the visionary Lumumba in 1960. But
Lumumba's tenure and life were cut horribly short with the help of the
CIA just months after he was democratically elected, only to be
replaced by a Western backed dictator, Mobutu, who remained in power
with U.S. backing for three decades. Even then, the stakes centered
around Congo's mineral wealth.
Today U.S. policy in Congo is part of its continent-wide AFRICOM
project, which the military says works "in concert with interagency
and international partners, builds defense capabilities, responds to
crisis, and deters and defeats transnational threats in order to
advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security,
stability, and prosperity." Carney told me that the project's real
goal is for the U.S. "to protect its strategic interests [in order to]
compete with the Chinese" for Africa's resources.
U.S. policy on Congo also includes propping up Presidents Paul Kagame
of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. With respect to Kagame
especially, despite the fact that several multinational bodies like
the International Criminal Court have warned the Rwandan president
that he could face prosecution for crimes in the Congo, "the U.S. has
run diplomatic and political interference to protect its allies,"
according to Carney, as this report maintains.
Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo on two separate occasions in 1996
and 1998, and fought one another on Congolese soil in 2000. But the
vast majority of the millions who have died in Congo were either
killed outright in armed clashes instigated by foreign-backed
militias, or were driven out of their villages and died of starvation
and disease after being displaced into the forests.
Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped as a
systematic tool of mass shame to break the will of entire villages.
"Militia groups terrorize villages, particularly the women," Carney
said. He hesitated, adding, "I can't even say they 'rape' the women.
They will inflict a form of sexual terrorism on the women, destroy
their reproductive systems, humiliate them by raping them in front of
their husbands and their children, or even force the children to rape
their mother." Such unspeakable horror has led entire villages to be
physically and psychologically destroyed and displaced. The invading
militias then have easier access to the mineral resources such as
gold, coltan or tin under the land where the villagers once lived.
Meanwhile, Congo's government under the leadership of President Joseph
Kabila is too weak to defend itself and to adequately rule the more
than 70 million strong population. According to Carney, Kabila's
government "lacks legitimacy among its people." Because of that,
different groups, even from outside Congo, simply enter the land and
claim precious minerals. Congo's borders are porous, even leading to
serious questions of who exactly are defined as citizens.
Coltan, one of Congo's most sought-after minerals, is used in the
making of tantalum capacitors, which are ubiquitous in today's
electronic devices. Gold, tin and tungsten are also traded by armed
militias for profit. Carney paraphrased Museveni, who likened Congo to
a "banana plantation," meaning that "everybody goes in and grabs what
they want."
But Congo is not just swimming in minerals crucial to today's
technological toys--it is also home to one of the world's largest rain
forests, second only to the Amazon in South America. The central
African country also has enormous water resources with hundreds of
rivers including the great Congo running through it. But the
systematic pillaging of minerals without proper enforcement of
environmental regulations has resulted in serious environmental
devastation. Carney told me, "Congo is where John Perkins'
'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' meets Naomi Klein's 'Shock
Doctrine.' For example, the mining laws of the Congo are written by
the World Bank and are written in such a way as to benefit private
corporations; the forestry laws are also written by the World Bank."
So, Carney concluded, "you have these multinational institutions
having undue influence in the Congo."
Global oil company Soco International is planning a major drilling
operation in Congo's Virunga National Park, home to endangered
gorillas famously studied by Dian Fossey, author of "Gorillas in the
Mist." Virunga is Africa's oldest national park and a World Heritage
site. Despite legal challenges by environmental groups, Soco is moving
forward with its pre-exploration development. Another undertaking,
called the Grand Inga Hydroelectric Project, is a massive dam slated
for the lower end of the Congo River in the DRC. It would be the
largest dam project on the river and is expected to generate twice the
power of China's Three Gorges Dam. Advocacy organization International
Rivers warns that the project is expected to have "huge ecological
impacts ... affecting local agricultural lands and natural
environments; and may cause huge methane emissions that will
contribute to global warming. The effect of reduced flow in the Congo
River may cause loss of biodiversity and a shift in the dominant
species."
Carney lamented that "in a sovereign nation, the government through
its laws is supposed to protect the environment." But multinational
corporations, taking advantage of Congo's weak government, are
"exploiting the resources of the Congo to the point where it destroys
the environment. It's not just a question of local Congolese
engagement, but it's a global collaboration that winds up depleting
and affecting the second lung of the world."
But is it really necessary for Congo's people and environment to
suffer so tragically to satiate corporate greed and U.S. strategic
interests? Despite a dearth of media coverage, there has been
tremendous grass-roots activism around the world pressuring Western
leaders to play a constructive role in Congo. As a result, Carney is
hopeful that President Obama is taking what he called "incremental
steps" in the right direction. "For the first time in 15 years,"
Carney said, "the United States withheld military aid from Rwanda in
2012 and 2013." Additionally, U.S. and U.K. officials
personally called Kagame, urging him to stop backing M23, the main
Rwandan militia responsible for much of the violence in Congo. Carney
credits such actions for resulting in M23's recent defeat.
Even more heartening are Congo's own social movements that are
attempting to organize for justice and peace. Carney's eyes lit up
when telling me about Congo's dynamic youth activists, who cite the
slogan "I do whatever is necessary," an English translation of a
popular French slogan. Congo is a very young country, with a median
age of 17. "Young people throughout the country are organizing to
transform the society," Carney said. "They believe there is a
fundamental change that is needed--a new society where leaders
represent the interests of the people." Like the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee in the American civil rights era, Congo's youth
are "going into communities and rural areas, speaking with pastors,
educating their peers, training people about the responsibility and
the role of Congolese as citizens, letting people know about the
geostrategic game that is being played, letting people know what is at
stake in the Congo."
Excitingly, Congo's youth are also reigniting the vision of their own
hero, Patrice Lumumba, by reading his works and hearing his speeches
to inform their activism. Hip-hop artists are incorporating Lumumba's
speeches into their music.
Congolese activists are also harnessing the very technological tools
containing the minerals for which their land is being ravaged in order
to strengthen their work. American and Canadian students have been
sending BlackBerry phones, laptop computers and digital cameras
through groups like Friends of the Congo so that Congolese activists
can communicate with like-minded people in other parts of the country
and beyond. Carney told me this sort of solidarity is crucial for
young people to be able "to broaden their vision of the world, tap
into different ideas, engage in dialogue and exchange in a way that's
going to empower them." Most importantly, Carney said, "By virtue of
them being able to connect with young people outside the country, it
lets them know they're not alone."
It is past time for the world to give Congo the attention it deserves,
and to send a strong message that its people are not alone or
forgotten.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_dont_we_care_about_congos_dead_20140515&source=s&q=Why+Don%27t+We+Care+About+Congo%27s+Dead%3F
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
Access full archives with Google Chrome!
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Online Time:15H30-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire domestique:
heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada (GMT-05:00)***
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
.To post a message: RwandaLibre@yahoogroups.com; .To join: RwandaLibre-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
RwandaLibre-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________
More news: http://www.amakurunamateka.com ; http://www.ikangurambaga.com ; http://rwandalibre.blogspot.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer environnement avant toute impression de cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsors:
http://www.rencontressansfrontieres.com
http://www.intimitesafricaines.com
http://www.foraha.net
-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.