Hope for End to the Killing of Millions in Congo?

July 25, 2006

While the world’s attention is focused on the Middle East, an event this weekend in Africa may hold the key to stopping the killing of civilians on the biggest scale since World War II.

Elections are being held on July 30 in the Congo, a country that has seen a staggering four million of its people die since 1998 due to combat. “Though the war in Congo officially ended in 2002, its deadly legacy of violence and decay will kill twice as many people this year as have died in the entire Darfur conflict, which began in 2003,” states the New York Times.

The magnitude of the killing just boggles the mind.

The conflict that has been termed “Africa’s First World War” is a part of the unresolved legacy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front chased the architects of this genocide from power, many of them found refuge in Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire. The new Rwandan government was so angry at Mobutu for tolerating these people’s activities that it orchestrated his overthrow. When his replacement, Laurent Kabila, proved little better, it continued its involvement in its neighbor’s affairs. “The rest of the world, wracked by guilt because it stood by as Rwanda bled, did not intervene in Rwanda’s Congolese conquests,” states the New York Times.

Various governments throughout the region took sides, and the war spiraled, with multiple rebel factions backed by different regimes battling for control. A U.N. peacekeeping force has not been able to do much to stop the violence, given the size of the country and the enormity of the carnage. (See backgrounder by Africa Action.)

But the Congo war is also a battle for the country’s resources, which include uranium, diamonds, gold, timber, and coltan, an essential component of cellphones. Many multinational corporations are involved in dealing with Congolese officials and various rebel factions, and have been condemned by the United Nations and a number of international groups. (See for example, the multiple reports by the Global Witness, which has done invaluable work on the subject.)

The ultimate beneficiaries of their dealings, sadly, are consumers like us.

“This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion,” Johann Hari writes in the Independent. “In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed four million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No, this is not only a story about them. This—the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded—is a story about you.”

Now the United Nations is organizing elections in a desperate attempt to halt the killing. It isn’t an easy task in “a country about a fourth the size of the U.S. with only 300 miles of paved roads,” as the Los Angeles Times points out. “It is the largest election the United Nations has tried to organize, with more than 26 million registered voters and 50,000 polling stations. It took 75 aircraft sorties to get the ballots—1,810 tons of them—into the country.”

And in spite of all the effort put in, there is no guarantee the endeavor will work, even if the exercise is free and fair. It is quite possible that the losers will not gracefully accept the results, especially in a nation so torn apart by violence and lacking a history of democratic give-and-take.

So, what needs to be done to stop the horror?

A group called the Friends of the Congo offers useful recommendations.

Neighboring countries should be internationally sanctioned for their continued interference in the country. Multinational corporations need to be held responsible for their role in perpetuating the conflict. The International Criminal Court should be used to haul the perpetrators of the carnage to justice. (The ICC has already arrested one of the faction leaders, Thomas Lubanga.) The global community should fully support the electoral process.

And might I add one of my own: Multilateral organizations and the West need to open up their coffers (with strict oversight on the expenditure of the money, of course) to help build the country from scratch.

If the killing of people on this scale doesn’t attract our attention, then what will?