Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo: historical roots and political instability

Conflict in DRC (Case Study)

Conflict in DRC

Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Background of DRC Conflict

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), otherwise also known as Republique Democratique du Congo from their French masters and formerly Zaire is a nation situated in Central Africa boasting of a very brief coastline that runs approximately 37 Kms. DRC is the third largest country in the entire Africa and stands at 12th position in terns of size in the world scale with 2,345 Square Kms (U.S. Department of State, 2010). It is the eight in the world in terms of population and fourth in Africa with the 71 million populations.

DRC is neighbored by Central Africa Republic and Sudan from the northern side, the Atlantic Ocean is on its West, to the south Zambia and Angola border it and Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are its neighbors to the East.

DRC has one of the poorest populace in the entire world with its GDP per capita being the second lowest. Ironically, DRC is taken to be the richest country in the world as concerns natural resources and untapped raw materials estimated at 24 trillion U.S. dollars, an equivalent of the GDP of the U.S. And Europe combined.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has a long history of conflicts all which have their root in the politics and political struggles of DRC. The country, like many African countries was once a colony of Belgium commonly referred to as the Congo Free State by King Leopold II. After 75 years of oppressive rule, the Belgians left in a rush relinquishing power to the people of Congo in 1960 under Patrice Lumumba as the prime minister. The irony however, was that there was no economic power and rights for the people to thrive upon.

It was around the same time that the cold war after World War II was at its peak and it was essential for nations to pick a side they supported. Apparently Lumumba was not intent to fully supporting the U.S.A. And their European counterparts in the cold war, this meant he fell out of favor with the West and consequently, a few months after he was officially inaugurated in 1961, he was overthrown by Mobutu Sese Seko, backed by the American forces, not only because he was pro -- the cold war, but because America and its allies had vested interests in the rich mineral deposits. Since his assumption of office in 1965 Mobutu secured an institutionalized form of corruption that saw a far reaching effect in Zaire.

The U.S. sustained the Mobutu regime by constant supply of multi-million dollar weapons and further millions in military training. On the other hand, Mobutu used the weapons and military to suppress the people of Zaire and further plunder the economy of the nation. This went on for three decades until his regime was brutally take over by Laurent Kabila in 1997.

With the arrival of Kabila, backed by the Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Burundi and Eritrea, there was much hope that things would turn out for the better, but instead things ran from bad to worse for the U.S. backed Kabila. He was accused by the rebels of resources mismanagement, corruption, supporting paramilitary clandestine groups and being a dictator. As a result the conflict heated up and the rebels controlled approximately a third of the DRC, particularly to the East. Kabila had to call for reinforcement which he got from Zimbabwean, Namibia and Angola.

The voices of discontent led to rebellions in the DRC, with various factions posing divergent interest culminating in the eventual assassination of Kabila in January 2001 with only Namibia supporting the DRC government at that moment. The earlier friends like Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi turned foe and gave their undivided support to the rebel groups. The thorny issues are complex and vary from basic communal resources, mineral deposits to politically driven agenda.

These conflicts, particularly those related to minerals have over time been fueled by different national and international organizations and corporations with vested interests in the results of the conflicts. The casualty and result of the conflicts and wars as stipulated by Anup Shah (2010) stand to be 5.4 million citizens dead, ranked the world's deadliest conflict apart from World War II, a large number has perished from non-violent causes such as pneumonia, malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria and other communicable infections. Another gross result is the 47% children deaths yet they only account for 19% of the total population, mass internal displacement of people to the tune of 1.5 million and a perpetual death of proximately 45,000 people every month.

Even through the five-year civil war that erupted in DRC came to a halt in 2003 having there been a formation of transitional government, the war crimes committed against the civilians and crimes against humanity, including and not limited to rape, sexual slavery/exploitation, murder and child soldier recruitment, abduction, torture and forceful displacement still are a wide spread situation in DRC. Indeed the Oxfaem (2011), indicate that since the beginning of 2009 there been an upsurge of fleeing civilians to the tune of 900,000 people particularly from Eastern Congo due to the rising conflicts in the region. Oxfam further indicates "Communities have been torn apart, homes have been burned to the ground, and thousands of women have been raped."

Women and sexual violence

The gender-based violence is always mentioned first by majority of the respondents when the costs of the DRC war are being numerated. And in order to fully comprehend the sexual violence acts, it is necessary to take into account the social condition and economic disposition of women in the post war DRC, the perception about gender relations and also most significantly, mens attitude to womens bodies.

(a). Position of women, which in DRC is highly characterized by 'feminization of poverty according to RFDA and RFDP (2005), that further stipulates that the lack of appropriate policies and mechanisms for the advancement of women doesn't help the situation in any way. Socio-culturally, the undying customs, legislations and practices that bias against women makes the women more vulnerable in war times and even give justification and legitimization in the eyes of the offenders.

The "feminization of poverty" was systematized by the long brutal regime of Mobutu that deprived the people of basic state services like schools, hospitals, civil servants salaries. This drove the civilians to come up with alternative ways to make these amenities run in the society. With this situation, the responsibility of finding alternative ways and tactics of survival fell more directly on women who were often left with the children and old people. This was more prevalent in the rural and semi-urban areas where women are the main motivating force of subsistence farming and constitute up to 70% of the rural population.

Contrarily, the war had totally devastated the social and economic activities that women had engaged in to bridge the deficit domestically. Their small resources were destroyed alongside their organization which further exacerbated the poverty among women. The available land was over exploited and/or over populated. This situation crowned with the patriarchal made it absolutely impossible for women to effectively cater for their families.

(b).The war resulted into a big number of widows who live below the poverty level. This created a recipe for prostitution in a grand scale. Many women and girls resort prostitution as a way of survival which in turn made then more susceptible to sexual violence.

There was yet another form of sexual harassment that women in DRC faced from the fighting troops that used force, violence and coercion to get sex since they fought for months over far away from home. Some troops used sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Ironically, domestic violence also increased during these times of war due to the increased unemployment and the haunting uncertainty of the political future of the country, which resulted in sexual violence used as a means to suppress and violate women at home by their male counterparts, this trend seems never to end ad is fed by the impunity that is prevalent in DRC.

The violence against women was found to be more deeply rooted than thought with the rampant implications of the International Actors, UN troops and personnel. Armed actors continuously violated women and girls in DRC, both at home and in the streets (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

The gender-based violence took a range of means such as sexual slavery, forced recruitment, rape, forced prostitution and kidnapping. More baffling is that the victims of the violence included men and boys who were largely raped, faced genital mutilation and even sexual humiliation.

Many people died after these heinous acts of gender-based violence. Thos who survived suffer to a great extent psychologically and physically health wise, which goes to the extent of traumatic fistula and/or HIV. This was worsened by lack of medical infrastructure (Human Rights Watch, 2002).

The survivors rarely wanted to make known their situation for fear of ostracism hence suffered in silence and for the few who break this stigmatization and try to bring the perpetrators to justice face numerous barricades in the judicial system. Ironically the UNHCHR (2007) noted that the perpetrators of these crimes did not face any humiliation or stigma in the DRC.

The gender-based violence is so widespread that it is not possible to accurately account for it but just estimated. For instance in the province of South Kivu, Rodriguesz (2007) estimates that on a daily count 40 women are raped. The rape and sexual violence in DRC is grossly underreported due to insecurity, inaccessibility to several areas where victims are unable to travel to report to authorities, let alone fear of reprisals from offenders if they dared reported. Indeed, sexual violence by 2006 was taken to be the most prevalent form of crime in DRC.

Power of the UN in combating sexual violence

The UN through it affiliate branches and members has long been known to play a pivotal role in normalizing situations in war torn countries with a lot of neutrality in doing so. The UN is always looked at a non-partisan no-violent resort in diffusing tension between nations, warring factions, communities and rebel groups.

In DRC, the UN was equally charged with the challenge of ensuring the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of the DRC (UN Security Council, 2010). In a bid to uphold the mandate that the UN has been charged with, it is mandatory that the women rights and welfare is catered for and this is, with no doubt, one of the greatest concerns that the UN has. Indeed while renewing the arms embargo on DRC, the UN Security Council (2010) state that "Noting with great concern the persistence of human rights and humanitarian law violations against civilians in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo & #8230; widespread sexual violence, stressing that the perpetrators must be brought to justice…"

In order to have the desired effect and change in DRC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has been entrusted with the mandate of achieving the aforementioned. MONUC being an affiliate of the UN enjoys the security of tenure and involvement among the UN signatory countries. It operates within DRC to help alleviate the lives of the rape survivors and try stamp out the vice. Just like other UN bodies, MONUC executes its mandate and those of the UN Security Council (UNSC) as provided for in the UN charter. MONUC is further entrusted with the implementation of the Lusaka which was aimed at stabilizing the DRC politically and economically. This culminated into the democratic elections in 2006 held with the aid of MONUC and international observers.

Though the representation of women in the government still turned out to be low, it was a good start that is envisioned to have better results come the next general elections. It is worth noting that at the time women are only 9 of 60 Ministers in the government, 42 women out of 500 of the National Assembly members, 5 women senators out of 108 and 43 women of a magnitude of 690 Provincial Assembly members.

It is envisioned that with increased representation of women in the parliament and sensitization and civil education, there will be a significant reduction of prejudice and bias against women and consequently the gender-based violence will also go down as postulated in the UN Security Council resolution 1325 in 2000 (Security Council, 2000).

How the UN ensures women's protection.

In a bid to help women get out of the cycle of poverty, the UNIFEM formed an International Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women which it tried to distribute among the women who were encouraged to invest and support the family.

The UN also carried out a mapping exercise and published a mapping report on the most heinous human rights violations through agency UNHCHR. The report documented the crimes against humanity and crimes contravening the international humanitarian law in DRC from March 1993 to June 2003. It is the most credible and well detailed document taking into account the extensive research by a team of around 20 Congolese and International human rights professionals in a time span of 12 months (UN News Centre, 2010).

The report zeros down on 617 incidents deemed to be the most serious in the 10 years window and divulges details of mass killings, attack and forced recruitment of children, sexual violence, abuses by armed actors ranging from rebel groups, International Actors and even the Congolese forces and their allies like Alliance des forces democratiques pour la liberation du Congo-Zaire (AFDL).

The report says that women and children were the prime target of the greater proportion of the violence. In fact it dedicates particular chapters to crimes of sexual violence aggression towards girls, women and children.

The mapping exercise was not geared towards apportioning blame on an individual but as a first step towards the painful but nevertheless important process of truth telling on the violent conflict that there was. It was intended for the observation of the future prospects by identifying the various ways and means that could be followed by the DRC in general as it comes to terms with the past it had trodden, to fight anarchy in a way that it would not give room to repeat of the same vices which were epitomized by gender-based violence.

MONUC has also been involved in the stabilization process in DRC, they went to an extent of creating a greater presence in the region so that their presence is felt on the ground. They even gave escort to women going to the market places, fetching firewood or even looking for water. They developed strategies to create early warnings on an eminent disaster in collaboration with the local mayors.

Generally, MONUC with the trained soldiers has played pivotal role of marginalizing potential chaos creators and spoilers. This they achieve by presenting a sober backdrop for political stability whose absence may mean sliding back to the state of anarchy. MONUC can also participate in the rebuilding of the state security which is a dire need in the DRC. A force that is well trained, professional, loyal to the government and DRC people and above all, a force that gets paid at the end of the month (United States Institute of Peace, 2010).

On the other hand the Security Council in 2010 adopted the resolution 1925, and decided that United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) soldiers would be sent to DRC until 30th June 2011, to keep the military forces in check which would include use of reasonable force to suppress such militants (MONUSCO, 2010).

The Security Council further stressed that civilians must be granted the priority and gave MONUSCO the legal mandate to enforce the protection mandate which included effectual security of humanitarian personnel and the civil agitators for human rights respect as well as the UN staff, property, developments, supplies and the equipment.

MONUSCO would also assist the government in fighting impunity and rampant corruption and guide the government towards eradication of violation of the basic human rights including the gender-based violence and sexual violence.

MONUSCO was also entrusted with monitoring and implementation of the hitherto passed embargo under resolution 1896 in 2009 (MONUSCO, 2010). They are to seize and collect any ammunitions, small arms, firearms and related artillery that came into or were found in the country in absolute contravention of the embargo.

The Security Council also gave the MONUSCO the mandate of availing logistical support and the technical know-how to the election body at national level and local level, though this would only be availed following an official request from the Congolese government and will only be supplied to the extent to which the MONUSCO resources allow. With the elections set for 27th November 2011 (Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, 2011), one of the most crucial mandates of this organization is yet to be put to test. If called upon, they will strive to make is as peaceful as possible and avoid the Kenyan situation in 2007 contested election results and its consequences. If all goes as expected, then the uncertainty of the female population of plunging back to war and going through the gender-based violence erupting again would fade away, replaced by an optimistic and secure population.

Conclusion

The war in DRC has had devastating repercussions on the country and its people as recorded by the different humanitarian organizations and UN agencies. The war has claimed millions of lives to the tune of 5.4 million. More than 2 million people stand displaced and a continuing death toll of rolling into tens of thousands every month. Girls and women have not been left behind as well with tens of thousands of then subjected to sexual violence and abuse. At this level, it is a call to all humanity to rise to the occasion and help intervene against such a threshold.

The NGOs and the international community have played their due part to bring to halt the war and rebuild the nation once more. The implementation of the peace process and making better the humanitarian crisis has been slowly but surely and steadily picking up. MONUSCOs scorecard and reports have impelled more and more participants in the deployment and call for capacity building louder than before. As these progress is experienced at home, the trials at the ICC of the perpetrators of the heinous crimes has begun with hopes that this will go a long way to end impunity and culminate into respect for rule of law and justice for the DRC and its people.

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