Heart of Darkness

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been cursed with natural disasters, poverty, exploitation, conflict, and all sorts of suffering for endless decades. I cannot begin to skim the surface of the complex issues of the Congo here, but I was shocked to see an article on the BBC a few weeks ago that said people are still "discovering" villages in Congo. When imagining remote villages described in the Poisonwood Bible, it was hard to believe that some villages were so isolated from the outside world, dominated by superstition, and existing in the same way they did hundreds of years ago. But after reading statements from the Rainforest Foundation, I'm starting to wonder. It appears that 190 villages have been found in one area of Bandundu province where the government had originally thought 30 villages had existed. The government is surveying the area as they hand out permits to logging companies in the area. The government has already allocated parts of the territory to 11 logging concessions and the lives of these villagers will be greatly affected as a result with little consideration from the government. Instantly after reading the news, I wondered: Do these people receive no protection or social services from the government? What if there is an outbreak of a serious disease (like Ebola) in one of the villages? Being oppressed is one thing, but not existing at all...that seems insulting on another level.

Interestingly, the Bandundu province is in the western region of the country not far from the capital city compared to the vast distance from Kinshasa to the Eastern Congo region. If the government doesn't know about their neighbors in their own backyard then how are they supposed to keep track of people who are almost a thousand miles away. The Congo is about one fourth the size of the US. Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, is from the East, which could be helpful, but his government has consistently proven that they cannot provide security for those in the East. According to the IRC, 5.4 million people have died in Congo due to conflict or preventable illnesses. And as many as 45,000 continue to die every month, despite a peace agreement that ended the war in 2002. For those of you not familiar with Congo's history, President Laurent Kabila took over after Mobutu in 1997 and then there was a five-year civil war with Zimbabwe and Namibia supporting the government and Rwanda and Uganda supporting rebels in the East. In 1999 a peace agreement was signed, but in 2000 fighting continued between all parties including clashes between Uganda-supported and Rwanda-supported rebels in the East. Many believe Uganda and Rwanda were fighting over control of Congolese resources being plundered by both groups. A peace agreement was signed in 2002 and Joseph Kabila headed the interim government. The last Uganda troops left in 2003 or shortly after that, but Rwanda's involvement in the East has remained. Today Eastern Congo is still in conflict. The government has failed to protect its citizens from constant rape, genocide, and children being forced into combat. A good friend of mine in grad school, who was very passionate about Congo, always complained about how evil Uganda and Rwanda were for exploiting Congo's resources and fueling rebel activities in the East. He was correct to some extent, but it is a fact that there were separate rebels groups organizing in Congo to overthrow the Uganda and Rwanda governments which is a good reason to invade a country (the US would have invaded). The Congolese government has no control over the area, therefore they cannot control who crosses their borders with weapons or prevent rebels groups from attacking neighboring countries. Uganda and Rwanda took advantage of the situation, but I would also argue that Congo is not such a great neighbor either. It is particularly horrific in the case of Rwanda. The militia that killed the most people during the Rwanda genocide were never brought to justice because they are still hiding in the Congo. Kagame wants to get them badly at any cost, which is understandable. Kagame is criticized for killing people in refugee camps in Congo, which was wrong, but the camps were not only harboring people who committed the genocide but they were empowering them. A brilliant book, Condemned to Repeat; The Paradox of Humanitarian Action, written by Fiona Terry (the head of the Medecins sans Frontieres in Goma) illustrates how humanitarian organizations empowered Hutu genocide leaders by having people in the camps elect them as camp leaders and allowing them to control supplies. There is no simple answer to what is going on in Eastern Congo, but it is a disaster and the Congolese government hasn't done enough for its people.

The story of the pygmies in Congo is particularly tragic. Since 2003, there has been several articles on the mass slaughter, rape, and torture of the pygmies. Many of tribes consider them "subhuman" and there is proof that the MLC rebel group regularly eats Pygmy body parts (the heart especially) in ceremonial rituals. While the UN carried out an investigation of the allegations, they collected testimony from 350 witnesses. The UN peace keeping force in Congo, MONUC, was urged by the Congolese government to help with the situation, but they claimed they had no mandate to use force to protect the pygmies. Now the Pygmy population has become dangerously low. Humanity wouldn't be the same without them. According to the BBC article, When humans faced extinction, genetic research has shown that Pygmies are genetically similar to the first modern humans making them one of the oldest group of people still existing today.

The only solution that makes sense to me is not an option - Congo should split into smaller states. The government obviously can't manage such a large state. What is the Congolese solution - Chinese Companies. Congo just signed a huge deal with Chinese companies (CREC and Sinohydro) where Congo agreed to give them "10m tonnes of copper and 400,000 tonnes of cobalt" and they will in turn build "6 billion dollars of infrastructure including 2,400 miles of road, 2,000 miles of railway, 32 hospitals, 145 health centres and two universities." The Congolese government likes the deal because there are no strings (western governments usually use aid to promote democracy and capitalism) and it is said that the government doesn't have the technology, capacity, and knowledge to build its own infrastructure. Critics say CREC and Sinohydro are going to make tremendous profits on the deal (about 42 billion at current market prices) and the Congolese people are going to loose out. One of the main concerns is that this deal was signed in secret and there weren't provisions for regulation or taxation of the companies. I can't wait to see how this works out. Are there no better options out there? Not only is the Kinshasa government not looking out for its people on so many levels, but they are still discovering communities they had no idea existed.

Sweet Justice

There is nothing better than sweet justice. As African governments slowly democratize, I have always argued that the development of independent, efficient, effective judiciaries is the most important aspect of democratic progress. The courts in various countries on the continent pose the only significant balance of power to Prime Ministers and Presidents dominating political systems. There are several important trails that either are currently taking place or will take place that could change Africa forever. Charles Taylor is currently on trial in the Hague and Hissene Habre will likely be going to trail soon. They are two of Africa's worse dictators still alive. Habre is dubbed Africa's Pinochet and Charles Taylor is famous for hacking off the limbs of innocent civilians in western Africa. Even Uganda's Joseph Kony is scared of the International Criminal Court's indictments (he is East Africa's most ruthless rebel leaders in recent history known for abducting more than 20,000 children that were forced to mutilate and kill northern Ugandans.) Leaders of governments and rebel movements will now have to think twice before killings, mutilating, and torturing people in large numbers.

Charles Taylor caused havoc in west Africa for at least a decade (1989-1999) by controlling rebel forces, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, that committed some of the world’s worst atrocities and he was widely known as a gun runner and diamond smuggler. He’s currently on trial for 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for supporting Sierra Leon’s Revolutionary United Front Rebels by buying them weapons and selling diamonds. “Ten of thousands of people died in the interlinked conflicts in Sierra Leon and Liberia. Instability also spread into neighboring parts of Ivory Coast and Guinea.” Below is an exert from the trial to truly understand the brutality of Taylor’s rebels:
“Describing himself as Mr. Taylor's former chief of operations and commander of a death squad in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Marzah said the former leader ordered militias to eat the flesh of enemies in Liberia, including African and UN peacekeepers. ‘He said we should eat them. Even the UN white people - he said we could use them as pork to eat,’ Mr. Marzah said, adding that it was to ‘set an example for the people to be afraid.’ He said repeatedly that nothing was done without an explicit order from Mr. Taylor and that anyone who violated his commands would be executed. ‘We slit your throat, butcher you... throw away the head, take the flesh and put it in a pot... Charles Taylor knows that,’ he added. Mr. Marzah also described how he had killed so many men, women and children that he had lost count, and also slit open the stomachs of pregnant women on Mr. Taylor's orders. Earlier in his testimony, Mr. Marzah told the court he had taken weapons, some stored at Mr. Taylor's presidential mansion, to Sierra Leone and returned to Liberia with diamonds which he then delivered to Mr. Taylor.”

I was elated a few days ago to hear that Chad’s Hissene Habre might be going to trail. He was the ruthless dictator of Chad from 1982-1990 who was responsible for countless disappearances. It has been documented that he is responsible for 40,000 politically motivated murders and 200,000 cases of torture. Habre came to power with the help of the French and CIA and is currently living in exile in Senegal. There has been several attempts to bring Habre to justice. In 2006, “a Belgian court issued an arrest warrant, based on its universal law which lets Belgium try those accused of human rights abuses wherever they are committed.” However, the Senegalese refused to extradite him to Belgium. As a result, human rights organizations asked Senegal to try Habre, but they said they didn’t have the jurisdiction. Now the Senegalese have changed their constitution so they can try Habre and France has offered financial and technical assistance for the trail. This is the first significant step to bringing the oppressive dictator to trial.

Lastly, the BBC had an interesting article called "'Ex-slave' takes Niger to court" that is worth commenting on. Hadijatou Mani was sold into slavery when she was 12 years old for $500 in Niger. She was a sex slave and was forced to domestic and agricultural work. Several years later, she was released and decided to marry a man of her choosing and her master said she was his wife. He took her to court and she was found guilty of bigamy and sentenced to 6 month imprisonment. A local human rights group, Timidria, says there are 43,000 living as slaves in Niger. In 2003, Niger finally passed a bill making slavery a criminal offence (its about time!), but Ms. Mani says the law is not being enforced. She decided to bring her case before the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) in Nigeria and argues "the government continues to legitimise the practice of slavery through customary law, which discriminates against women in direct conflict with the constitution and criminal code." This case is very important because it is the first of its kind and reminds us that slavery is still a reality for thousands of Africans, particularly women and children. For example, there was a story in Uganda's New Vision newspaper about a woman that was kidnapped 26 years ago when she was a child and taken to Yemen as a sex slave. She finally made contact with her family in 2005, but they have no money to bring her home. Also, while living in northern Uganda, many locals in Lira would tell me they thought children that were being abducted by the LRA were sold to Arabs through Sudan to the gulf as sex slaves. Many of the abducted boys were either killed or forced to fight with the rebels; however, many kidnapped girls seem to be unaccounted for. There is no proof to this claim but it cannot be technically dismissed until all LRA abductees are accounted for or until mass graves of little girls are discovered.

Parts of Africa stricken with conflict and poverty are not only difficult for the people that live in those areas, but many individuals are left very vulnerable and could be forced into slavery or conflict. This article is only a brief snapshot of some court cases recently in the news that can truly change Africa for the better. Slave owners, evil rebel leaders, and ruthless heads of state have rarely been held accountable in the past, but hopefully that will change. Strong independent judicial systems is Africa's greatest hope for sweet justice.

Kenya’s Reality Revealed

In 2002, my senior project for college was a comparative study of Uganda and Kenya politics and my thesis in graduate school (2005) discussed the development of democracy in Kenya, Uganda, and Botswana. Since then, Uganda and Botswana have faced various democratic challenges; however my argument on Kenya hasn’t changed since I lived there in 2001. Democracy is unlikely to flourish in Kenya as long as ethnic conflict remains at the heart of political, social, and cultural issues. Ethnic or tribal differences in Kenya are not necessary historically engrained in Kenyan society, but a result of British colonial rule and the politics of elites in the post-colonial era. On 1/29/08 Professor Elkins from Harvard was on BBC America arguing that ethnic divisions sharpened during the colonial period given their divide and rule tactics. She described how tribal identity was used to determine access to the state and that the Kenyan ruling elites have continued to use the politics of ethnicity for political support. The Akiwumi report which was made public in October 2002, “confirmed that prominent ruling party politicians have fueled multiple incidents of so-called ethnic clashes in Kenya since 1991.”

Given the historical context and current political situation, Kenya’s present crisis in which 1000 people have been killed is no surprise. Kibaki and the government are to blame for rigging the election and police violence against innocent civilians, primarily in Kibira. But there is stronger evidence that Raila Odinga and his party have been the primary instigators of ethnic cleansing. In the BBC article, Odinga denies ‘ethnic cleansing, Justice Minister, Ms. Karua said the government had suspected that Mr. Odinga's ODM party was "planning mayhem if they lost". But she said they had not expected "the magnitude [of the violence] and for it to be ethnic cleansing". Asked whether she was accusing the ODM leadership of "calculatedly planned ethnic cleansing", she answered: "Absolutely yes, that's what I'm saying categorically." In another interview with the BBC's HARDtalk, Mr. Odinga called these allegations "outrageous... She knows where the truth lies - that all that we are having is as a result of the order that the government has given to the police: to shoot particularly members of certain ethnic communities…. So what we have been seeing is basically a response by members of the public to the police action, which has resulted in the killing of very many people who are members of other communities than the one that she comes from.” It is ironic that Odinga makes a reference to Karua’s ethnic identity. The article goes on to say, “Mr. Odinga said his party had condemned one of the most notorious incidents - the torching of a church in the western town of Eldoret on 1 January. But he said the attack on the church had been an attempt to avenge earlier attacks.” The burning of the church in Eldoret was the first of its kind and remains one of the darkest moments in Kenya’s history. Any statement or apology that ever begins with a “but” never seems sincere. In a Human Rights Watch Report released on January 24, 2008, HWR states that opposition party officials and local elders planned and organized ethnic-based violence in the Rift Valley. “Opposition leaders are right to challenge Kenya’s rigged presidential poll, but they can’t use it as an excuse for targeting ethnic groups,” said Georgette Gagnon, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “We have evidence that ODM politicians and local leaders actively fomented some post-election violence…” Human Rights Watch interviewed members of several pro-ODM Kalenjin communities who described the ways in which local leaders and ODM party agents actively fomented violence against Kikuyu communities. A Kalenjin preacher in a village in Eldoret North constituency told Human Rights Watch that on the morning of December 29, 2007, a local ODM party mobilizer “called a meeting and said that war had broken in Eldoret town, so the elders organized the youth into groups of not less than 15, and they went to loot [Kikuyu] homes and burn them down.” The report goes on to explain several accounts of ODM mobilizers arranged frequent meetings following the election to organize, direct and facilitate the violence unleashed by gangs of local youth and encouraged them to purchase semi-automatic weapons. Many Kalenjin community leaders told Human Rights Watch that if the area’s ODM leadership or the local Kalenjin radio station KASS FM told people unequivocally to stop attacks on Kikuyu homes, then they believe the violence would stop. “If the leaders say stop, it will stop immediately,” said one Kalenjin elder.

Based on media reports, the general trends of violence appears to be that the police began attacking people who were protesting for Odinga (it is unclear whether they were targeting certain ethnic groups) and as a result Odinga supporters attacked Kukuyus and then we saw the reemergence of the Kikuyu extremist gang, Mungiki. From an outsiders view, it is difficult to confirm whether this chain of events is accurate, but one thing that is clear is women from all tribes have been the worst victims. Rape has doubled and we know that rape has been severely under reported in Kenya. It is important to note that Kibaki was the first president to make an effort to dismantle Mungiki and challenge their authority. I remember the days when they controlled many matatu routes in Nairobi during Moi’s time. They regularly robbed and rapped people adding to Nairobi’s lawlessness. But with the win of the opposition in 2002, there was new hope in the city with police, government, and citizen cracking down on Mungiki’s control over the public transport system. Odinga now claims that Kibaki is using Mungiki against him when Odinga was the one that let the beast out of its cage. BBC’s article, Kenya Militia Strike Back, details Mungiki’s attacks on people. They are an extreme, violent group that likes to behead and hack people to death.

It is clear that Kibaki isn’t fit to rule. He has provided the public no leadership at this difficult time. I doubt Odinga would be any better and could be worse for the country. In 2003, he united with Kenyatta, which led to the split of the one party system changing Kenya’s democratic future forever. He offered Kenya great hope, but has proven to be a greedy leader willing to do anything for power. Although the violence has been stopped for the most part, Kenyans cannot deny the ethnic hatreds that exist in their society. Kenya must have true reconciliation and equality for its citizens to make a real political and social change.