Here is a copy of a Reuters London report dated March 9, 2005, by Ruth Gidley:
Brutal conflicts in Congo, Uganda and Sudan are the world's three biggest "forgotten emergencies", each dwarfing the toll of the Asian tsunami but attracting scant media interest, a new Reuters AlertNet poll of experts shows.
War in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country two-thirds the size of Western Europe, has claimed at least 10 times as many lives as the December tsunami yet remains almost unheard of outside of Africa, key players in the aid world said.
"It's the worst humanitarian tragedy since the Holocaust," John O'Shea, chief executive of Irish relief agency GOAL, told AlertNet. "The greatest example on the planet of man's inhumanity to man."
AlertNet asked 102 humanitarian professionals, media personalities, academics and policymakers which "forgotten" crises they would urge the media to focus on in 2005.
Answers came back from across the spectrum, from royal connections, acting stars and a Nobel prize winner, as well as various U.N. agencies and dozens of NGOs.
Many experts accused the Western media of routinely ignoring emergencies in countries of low geopolitical importance for big powers despite the enormous scale of suffering.
"One television news producer we met in the U.S. summed up the situation since spring 2003 this way: 'Look, we've got three foreign news priorities these days: Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,'" said Gareth Evans, president of Belgian think tank Crisis Group.
Almost half of those polled -- including U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland and U.S. leftwing intellectual Noam Chomsky -- nominated Congo, citing the brutality of an ugly, tangled war that has killed 3.8 million people since 1998, according to the International Rescue Committee.
'AFRICA'S WORLD WAR'
"It’s Africa’s First World War," said British journalist Jon Snow, news anchorman for Channel 4 television. Read full story at
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/111038817665.htm
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Why the Democratic Republic of the Congo matters
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is of vital strategic importance, says a United Nations report.
Its size (2.5 million sq km), the fact that it is endowed with 50 per cent of Africa’s forests and is home to one of the world’s mightiest river systems - that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent - make the DRC the natural political center of gravity for Central Africa. No stability in Central Africa without a stable DRC, and conversely.
Here below is a copy of the UN's report that, thanks to Carine, I found at DRC, a website with useful information, maps, links and books on the DRC, a country that touches nine neighbors, including the Sudan:
A successful transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) offers more to Africa as a whole, than success in any other African conflict zone:
- Not only is the DRC five times larger than Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire combined, with twice their collective population, but it touches on nine different neighbors.
The DRC is one of the world’s largest living tragedies:
Note: Apologies, problems copying rest of text. Please click here to continue reading the report titled "Why the DRC matters (Summary by the UN)."
Its size (2.5 million sq km), the fact that it is endowed with 50 per cent of Africa’s forests and is home to one of the world’s mightiest river systems - that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent - make the DRC the natural political center of gravity for Central Africa. No stability in Central Africa without a stable DRC, and conversely.
Here below is a copy of the UN's report that, thanks to Carine, I found at DRC, a website with useful information, maps, links and books on the DRC, a country that touches nine neighbors, including the Sudan:
A successful transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) offers more to Africa as a whole, than success in any other African conflict zone:
- Not only is the DRC five times larger than Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire combined, with twice their collective population, but it touches on nine different neighbors.
The DRC is one of the world’s largest living tragedies:
Note: Apologies, problems copying rest of text. Please click here to continue reading the report titled "Why the DRC matters (Summary by the UN)."
Tens of thousands raped in East Congo
Sadly, here is another deeply distressing report about countless numbers of female rape victims aged from 4-months old to 80. From what I have gathered over the past 50 years about wars around the world, it seems that mass rape is considered part of war. I cannot stomach looking into the reasons why. Having spent the past year blogging almost daily about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan to try and understand the reasons for genocide and how it occurs, has been more than enough to bear.
Males are responsible for these terrible crimes against humanity. Men attacking, abusing, and murdering defenceless women and children while the men who are left do little to protect the women and children. Imagine if it was men raping men. Would men do more to put a stop to such crimes? My guess is, they would. Here is a copy of the report, in full:
BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - Government soldiers and rebels have raped tens of thousands of women and children in eastern Congo and are going unpunished as conflict simmers in the lawless region, a leading rights group said Monday.
Fighters on all sides of Congo's war have raped civilians on a massive scale since the conflict broke out in 1998 but only a handful have ever been tried, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
"Sexual violence has shattered tens of thousands of lives in Congo, but fewer than a dozen victims have seen their assailants prosecuted," Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to HRW's Africa division, said in a report.
Sheltering in a refugee camp protected by United Nations peacekeepers with tanks and machine guns, Therese Yeda, 32, described how a militia group gang raped her last week as she walked between two villages.
"One was at the checkpoint and the others were hiding in the bushes before they jumped out and pointed their weapons at me," she said. The people she was with ran away terrified but Yeda was unable to because of all the things she was carrying.
"Ten of them had guns, the other two had machetes. All 12 of them raped me ... I am eight months pregnant but the baby doesn't seem to be moving any more," she said. Her five children were also beaten by the gunmen.
An upsurge in clashes since January has displaced 70,000 civilians in Democratic Republic of Congo's remote northeastern Ituri district, and reports of rape are frequent.
Ethnic warfare has killed more than 50,000 people in Ituri since 1999. Children as young as eight have taken part in the most recent fighting, refugees say.
STIGMA Medecins San Frontieres says it has treated over 2,500 rape victims, from 4-months old to 80 years, at its hospital in the regional capital Bunia since June 2003. The true number could be 50 times higher as victims are afraid to speak out, it says.
"We have been here for two years and we have not seen any improvement. It is so systematic -- whenever there are attacks by armed groups, there is rape," said Patrick Barbier, head of the MSF mission in the region.
"Sexual violence is so stigmatized. The victims don't come and seek medical care ... It is not taken seriously by the authorities so there is complete impunity," he said.
Human Rights Watch said an increasing number of sexual abuse victims wanted justice, but said those rape trials that had taken place in Congo had fallen woefully short of international standards with support for victims virtually non-existent.
While the International Criminal Court may prosecute the occasional case, the vast majority would have to be tried in Congolese courts, the group said.
One woman told HRW how she watched her 13-year old niece being raped by fighters loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who launched a short-lived rebellion in the eastern town of Bukavu last June.
"Four men raped her. They had spread her arms and legs and held her down," the woman told HRW.
"I had been with her but hid in a banana tree and watched what happened. Afterward she started to vomit blood. We brought her to hospital and she died two days later."
Males are responsible for these terrible crimes against humanity. Men attacking, abusing, and murdering defenceless women and children while the men who are left do little to protect the women and children. Imagine if it was men raping men. Would men do more to put a stop to such crimes? My guess is, they would. Here is a copy of the report, in full:
BUNIA, Congo (Reuters) - Government soldiers and rebels have raped tens of thousands of women and children in eastern Congo and are going unpunished as conflict simmers in the lawless region, a leading rights group said Monday.
Fighters on all sides of Congo's war have raped civilians on a massive scale since the conflict broke out in 1998 but only a handful have ever been tried, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
"Sexual violence has shattered tens of thousands of lives in Congo, but fewer than a dozen victims have seen their assailants prosecuted," Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to HRW's Africa division, said in a report.
Sheltering in a refugee camp protected by United Nations peacekeepers with tanks and machine guns, Therese Yeda, 32, described how a militia group gang raped her last week as she walked between two villages.
"One was at the checkpoint and the others were hiding in the bushes before they jumped out and pointed their weapons at me," she said. The people she was with ran away terrified but Yeda was unable to because of all the things she was carrying.
"Ten of them had guns, the other two had machetes. All 12 of them raped me ... I am eight months pregnant but the baby doesn't seem to be moving any more," she said. Her five children were also beaten by the gunmen.
An upsurge in clashes since January has displaced 70,000 civilians in Democratic Republic of Congo's remote northeastern Ituri district, and reports of rape are frequent.
Ethnic warfare has killed more than 50,000 people in Ituri since 1999. Children as young as eight have taken part in the most recent fighting, refugees say.
STIGMA Medecins San Frontieres says it has treated over 2,500 rape victims, from 4-months old to 80 years, at its hospital in the regional capital Bunia since June 2003. The true number could be 50 times higher as victims are afraid to speak out, it says.
"We have been here for two years and we have not seen any improvement. It is so systematic -- whenever there are attacks by armed groups, there is rape," said Patrick Barbier, head of the MSF mission in the region.
"Sexual violence is so stigmatized. The victims don't come and seek medical care ... It is not taken seriously by the authorities so there is complete impunity," he said.
Human Rights Watch said an increasing number of sexual abuse victims wanted justice, but said those rape trials that had taken place in Congo had fallen woefully short of international standards with support for victims virtually non-existent.
While the International Criminal Court may prosecute the occasional case, the vast majority would have to be tried in Congolese courts, the group said.
One woman told HRW how she watched her 13-year old niece being raped by fighters loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who launched a short-lived rebellion in the eastern town of Bukavu last June.
"Four men raped her. They had spread her arms and legs and held her down," the woman told HRW.
"I had been with her but hid in a banana tree and watched what happened. Afterward she started to vomit blood. We brought her to hospital and she died two days later."
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
"Men and women are two wheels of a chariot"
Today is Women's Day. My thoughts on the following opinion piece by Margaret Vuchiri are about why there is such a thing as a "Women's Day" and why there appears to be no need for a "Men's Day." If there was such a thing, and you phoned a male friend to ask how he intended to spend Men's Day, what would you expect him to say? I'd expect most would treat it like some sort of Fathers Day, and give themselves a pat on the back and go eat, drink and play and make some more mess somewhere, or do a bit of wheeling and dealing, hooting and hollering, fighting, bombing, mugging, pillaging, looting, killing and raping ... Heh. You guys are something else [which is why you don't deserve a Men's Day!]
For Women's Day March 8, please click here to read an Op-Ed by Margaret Vuchiri in Kampala, titled "Has Feminism Failed to Feminise Society?"
- - -
The following three items are a copy of one of my favourite posts that blogged at Sudan Watch on September 14, 2004:
TUTU'S MESSAGE OF WISDOM: Women should rule the world
Desmond Tutu, in his message of wisdom, writes:
"When we heard the revelations of unspeakable atrocities committed during the apartheid era we were appalled at how low we human beings can sink, that we had this horrendous capacity for evil, all of us.
Then we heard the moving stories of the victims of those and other atrocities relating how despite all they had suffered they were willing to forgive their tormentors, revealing a breathtaking magnanimity and generosity of spirit, then we realised that we have a wonderful capacity for good.
Yes people are fundamentally good. They, we, are made for love, generosity, sharing, compassion - for transcendence.
We are made to reach for the stars."
Desmond Tutu.
[Source: Courtesy "Tutu's handwritten message of wisdom" Hands That Shape Humanity]
- - -
'WOMEN SHOULD RULE THE WORLD' -
Desmond Tutu suggests a "feminine revolution" takes place
Women should rule the world said Desmond Tutu speaking at a signing ceremony between the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and the City of Cape Town.
Former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu on Tuesday waxed lyrical about women, suggesting that a "feminine revolution" take place so that the fairer sex can rule the world.
Tutu was speaking at a signing ceremony between the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and the City of Cape Town which brought a step closer the erection of a building bearing his name in the city CBD.
"Some of the best initiatives are those that occur because women are involved... It is almost a tacit acknowledgement of the crucial role that women play in nurturing, nurturing life," said Tutu in his tribute to women a day after Women's Day.
Tutu, who was seemingly mentally spurred on by Cape Town's sobriquet "Mother City", said that men had been given centuries to rule the world, but "have made a heck of a mess of things".
Tutu said the revolution he referred was one of women who were not afraid to be feminine, and who did not ape men in, for example, the stereotypical aggression.
"This revolution... is the last, best chance for making this globe hospitable to peace, to make this globe hospitable to compassion, hospitable to generosity and caring," he said. [More]
- - -
Here's a snippet found on the internet:
" ... A billionaire media baron has taken a step to demonstrate his belief that women should run the world because men have "mucked it up" with too much warfare and military spending.
The United Nations Foundation Ted Turner established six years ago to distribute the £1 billion he pledged to UN causes has a new female-dominated board of directors.
"I've said for years and I'm really serious about it, I think men should be barred from holding public office for 100 years. The men have been running the world for too long and they've made a mess of it. ..."
For Women's Day March 8, please click here to read an Op-Ed by Margaret Vuchiri in Kampala, titled "Has Feminism Failed to Feminise Society?"
- - -
The following three items are a copy of one of my favourite posts that blogged at Sudan Watch on September 14, 2004:
TUTU'S MESSAGE OF WISDOM: Women should rule the world
Desmond Tutu, in his message of wisdom, writes:
"When we heard the revelations of unspeakable atrocities committed during the apartheid era we were appalled at how low we human beings can sink, that we had this horrendous capacity for evil, all of us.
Then we heard the moving stories of the victims of those and other atrocities relating how despite all they had suffered they were willing to forgive their tormentors, revealing a breathtaking magnanimity and generosity of spirit, then we realised that we have a wonderful capacity for good.
Yes people are fundamentally good. They, we, are made for love, generosity, sharing, compassion - for transcendence.
We are made to reach for the stars."
Desmond Tutu.
[Source: Courtesy "Tutu's handwritten message of wisdom" Hands That Shape Humanity]
- - -
'WOMEN SHOULD RULE THE WORLD' -
Desmond Tutu suggests a "feminine revolution" takes place
Women should rule the world said Desmond Tutu speaking at a signing ceremony between the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and the City of Cape Town.
Former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu on Tuesday waxed lyrical about women, suggesting that a "feminine revolution" take place so that the fairer sex can rule the world.
Tutu was speaking at a signing ceremony between the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust and the City of Cape Town which brought a step closer the erection of a building bearing his name in the city CBD.
"Some of the best initiatives are those that occur because women are involved... It is almost a tacit acknowledgement of the crucial role that women play in nurturing, nurturing life," said Tutu in his tribute to women a day after Women's Day.
Tutu, who was seemingly mentally spurred on by Cape Town's sobriquet "Mother City", said that men had been given centuries to rule the world, but "have made a heck of a mess of things".
Tutu said the revolution he referred was one of women who were not afraid to be feminine, and who did not ape men in, for example, the stereotypical aggression.
"This revolution... is the last, best chance for making this globe hospitable to peace, to make this globe hospitable to compassion, hospitable to generosity and caring," he said. [More]
- - -
Here's a snippet found on the internet:
" ... A billionaire media baron has taken a step to demonstrate his belief that women should run the world because men have "mucked it up" with too much warfare and military spending.
The United Nations Foundation Ted Turner established six years ago to distribute the £1 billion he pledged to UN causes has a new female-dominated board of directors.
"I've said for years and I'm really serious about it, I think men should be barred from holding public office for 100 years. The men have been running the world for too long and they've made a mess of it. ..."
Monday, March 07, 2005
In honour of International Women's Day, please take a stand for crimes against humanity
This March 8, International Women's Day, people around the world must take action on behalf of the thousands of women suffering from continued violence in places such as Darfur and DRC.
The following is an excerpt from a report at the Sudan Tribune, by Natalie Spicyn and Cathy Sweetser, Yale Daily News, March 5, 2005. [Note: when reading this, please bear in mind that rapists in Sudan, just before committing rape, have used razor blades to cut the clitoris and vaginas of their victims for easier penetration].
" ...The women fortunate enough to escape sexual violence during the destruction of their homes and military attack on their village face a tremendous risk of becoming victims even after fleeing to an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp. In the camps, women and girls have the responsibility of regularly venturing out to gather firewood for cooking, as men are likely to be killed for setting foot outside the camps. As nearby wood becomes depleted and the women wander further from the campground, militias that lurk just outside the camp often seize the opportunity to sexually assault them. The victims of rape in Darfur range from the very young (a 6-year-old has been a reported victim) to the elderly. There is no safety and security for females of any age in IDP camps.
In Sudanese society, many married women who are raped find themselves abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by their communities. Unmarried survivors of rape are considered soiled and unmarriageable. Some Darfurians maintain the belief that women cannot become pregnant through unwanted intercourse, which makes life even harder for many rape victims. The deep stigma of rape prevents many women from seeking appropriate medical attention. Physical injuries resulting from sexual abuse often include damage to the reproductive system, as well as fistula, a tearing of the wall between the vagina and bladder which causes incontinence. Such women, unable to bear children or unable to hold their urine, are likewise often shunned by their communities. Fistula can be repaired by surgery if the woman has access to and freedom to seek out proper medical attention -- which is unlikely. The dearth of adequate medical facilities and taboo against seeking medical attention mean that most rape victims will never be checked or treated for infection or the spread of HIV. ..."
- - -
Note, the next post here below features a report by Reuters today titled "Tens of thousands raped in East Congo" that highlights the plight of Congolese rape victims aged between 4 months and 80.
Men do not seem to be listening or helping enough. Perhaps the most effective way to get the message across real quick to the men of this world that they must protect women and children from such horrific violence, is for females to silently protest by withholding love and sex from their male partners. Heh. Listen up guys, I'm serious. In the olden days there were eunuchs you know ...
The following is an excerpt from a report at the Sudan Tribune, by Natalie Spicyn and Cathy Sweetser, Yale Daily News, March 5, 2005. [Note: when reading this, please bear in mind that rapists in Sudan, just before committing rape, have used razor blades to cut the clitoris and vaginas of their victims for easier penetration].
" ...The women fortunate enough to escape sexual violence during the destruction of their homes and military attack on their village face a tremendous risk of becoming victims even after fleeing to an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp. In the camps, women and girls have the responsibility of regularly venturing out to gather firewood for cooking, as men are likely to be killed for setting foot outside the camps. As nearby wood becomes depleted and the women wander further from the campground, militias that lurk just outside the camp often seize the opportunity to sexually assault them. The victims of rape in Darfur range from the very young (a 6-year-old has been a reported victim) to the elderly. There is no safety and security for females of any age in IDP camps.
In Sudanese society, many married women who are raped find themselves abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by their communities. Unmarried survivors of rape are considered soiled and unmarriageable. Some Darfurians maintain the belief that women cannot become pregnant through unwanted intercourse, which makes life even harder for many rape victims. The deep stigma of rape prevents many women from seeking appropriate medical attention. Physical injuries resulting from sexual abuse often include damage to the reproductive system, as well as fistula, a tearing of the wall between the vagina and bladder which causes incontinence. Such women, unable to bear children or unable to hold their urine, are likewise often shunned by their communities. Fistula can be repaired by surgery if the woman has access to and freedom to seek out proper medical attention -- which is unlikely. The dearth of adequate medical facilities and taboo against seeking medical attention mean that most rape victims will never be checked or treated for infection or the spread of HIV. ..."
- - -
Note, the next post here below features a report by Reuters today titled "Tens of thousands raped in East Congo" that highlights the plight of Congolese rape victims aged between 4 months and 80.
Men do not seem to be listening or helping enough. Perhaps the most effective way to get the message across real quick to the men of this world that they must protect women and children from such horrific violence, is for females to silently protest by withholding love and sex from their male partners. Heh. Listen up guys, I'm serious. In the olden days there were eunuchs you know ...
The ethnic conflict in Ituri was one of ICEG's first Genocide Alerts on February 20, 2000
The following editorial appears at the website of Inforce [International Forensic Centre of Excellence for the Investigation of Genocide], a registered charity based at Bournemouth University in England, UK.
Inforce UK assists in the DR Congo
At the request of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc), a successful preliminary forensic mission organised by the OHR and the DPKO was carried out in December 2002. This was a joint mission between EAAF and Inforce. Inforce was represented by experienced forensic archaeologist Ian Hanson.
The assessment located a number of mass graves in Kisangani and preliminary tests have shown that the corpses were buried between 1994 and 2001. Since 1992, Kisangani, a long-term seat of government, has been controlled by many different groups, including supporters of the late President of Rwanda (Mobutu Sese Seko) and the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie.
The ethnic conflict in Ituri province was the subject of one of the ICEG's first Genocide Alerts on February 20, 2000
Since that time, there have been many more massacres, and there is still no international peacekeeping force because the members of the U.N. Security Council are unwilling to spend the money necessary to send one. The UN Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) has an inadequate mandate and personnel to serve as a police force in Ituri province. Instead the armed force on the ground has been Uganda, which has its own agenda in the region and has not been even-handed.
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have made appeals about the situation, though they have so far not called the massacres what they are: genocidal massacres. Like the State Department in 1994, they're unwilling to use the G word. So they have generally just called for adherence to international human rights law and an end to impunity. They will undoubtedly continue to issue reports, as will the International Crisis Group.
The sometimes unstated background for every report is the Rwandan genocide, where a group closely related to the Hema (Tutsi) were victims of genocide organized by a group closely related to the Lendu (Hutu). Even the claims of the Lendu to be the "original inhabitants" of the area, which was "invaded" by Nilotic cattle-herders, the Hema, has a chilling resemblance to the so-called Hamitic theory in Rwanda. But the lesson that a robust international police presence is required (furnished with a strong mandate and adequate armed resources) does not seem to have been learned. Instead, the UN and leading powers have again put their faith in negotiations plus a few international troops without the mandate to use force to stop massacres and capture those who commit them.
The timing of these massacres, just as Uganda is due to withdraw its forces, and while the Ituri Pacification Commission is considering its report, indicates that Lendu Power forces are attempting to polarize the population to make a settlement impossible. Ugandan military forces that profit from their occupation of Ituri may be aiding them so the Ugandans will be called upon to remain.
- - -
Also, Inforce points out that killings in the DRC have been reported by many Associated Foreign Press reporters. Below are two examples:
966 Congolese Are Killed in Attacks on Villagers
NAIROBI, April 6 (AP) - At least 966 people were killed in attacks on more than a dozen villages in northeastern Congo last week, United Nations officials said today after a preliminary investigation. It is not clear who carried out the attacks, which occurred in Ituri Province, the scene of some of the worst battles in Congo's 4 1/2-year civil war. Rival fighters, rebel factions and Ugandan troops all have been involved in the fighting in the mineral-rich province.
Witnesses told the United Nations investigators that the attackers included women and children, while others were men in military uniforms, said Manodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Congo.
"This is the worst single atrocity since the start of the civil war," he said.
Officials said the killing occurred over a period of just a few hours on Thursday in the Roman Catholic parish of Drodro and 14 surrounding villages. "The attack started with a whistle blow and lasted between five and eight hours," Mr. Mounoubai said.
United Nations military observers visited the area on Saturday and spoke to witnesses, survivors and local leaders who led them to 20 mass graves, he said.
Another spokesman for the United Nations mission, Hamadoun Touré, said the mass graves had "fresh blood on them." Investigators said some of the survivors were seriously wounded, mostly by machetes but also by bullets.
On Saturday, a Congolese rebel leader, Thomas Lubanga, accused Ugandan troops and fighters from an allied Congolese ethnic group, the Lendu, of carrying out the killings.
A Ugandan military spokesman, Capt. Felix Kulayigye, denied that any Ugandan troops were involved. He said 400 people had been killed in ethnic fighting.
An aid worker and a local leader in Bunia said that Ugandan forces were in the area when civilians were killed, but that they could not say whether the troops took part.
The rebel group draws its support from the Hema, who have traditionally fought with the Lendu for control of land and other resources.
- - -
April 6 (AFP) - Inter-ethnic massacres have claimed "hundreds of lives" in DR Congo's troubled northeastern Ituri region, sources said Sunday.
"They're talking about several hundred dead," General Kale Kaihura, commander of Ugandan troops in the region bordering Uganda, told AFP by telephone from the Ituri town of Bunia.
The casualties were found in the towns of Drodro and Largo and were said to be members of the Hema community. They died in an attack by members of the Lendu ethnic group, Ugandan officers said.
One of them, Capitain Felix Kulayigye, told AFP from Bunia that "between 350 and 400 members of the Hema community" had died. Kulayigye had gone to Drodro and Largo on Saturday as part of a fact-finding commission of Ugandan officials and members of the UN Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC).
The head of the rebel Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), Thomas Lubanga, later confirmed the massacres but said more than 900 people had died. Lubanga, who recently fought Ugandan troops in Ituri, accused the Ugandan army of having joined the Lendu fighters in their attack. But General Kaihura denied this and said he had sent his men to Drodro and Largo after having been informed by local chiefs.
Church officials told AFP they had received conflicting reports from their representatives in Drodro about what was going on in the two towns and said they would speak to the press once further information was coming in.
Ituri is rich in gold, oil, lumber and uranium resources. The region is inhabited by a large number of ethnic groups but nearly all side with either the majority Lendu or the minority Hema. Some 2,000 Ugandan troops, based in the Ituri region at the request of the United Nations to stop interethnic fighting, were to leave the area on April 24 when the mission of the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) ends.
The UN Observer Mission in Congo said the team had started its work in Bunia, dividing up into sub-committees dealing with different aspects of the province's difficulties and administration. The IPC is due to work on the issues of reconstruction, security, establishing the rule of law, and humanitarian assistance until April 12.
Two days later, parties involved were scheduled to sign an Ituri Peace and Reconstruction Accord.
Inforce UK assists in the DR Congo
At the request of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc), a successful preliminary forensic mission organised by the OHR and the DPKO was carried out in December 2002. This was a joint mission between EAAF and Inforce. Inforce was represented by experienced forensic archaeologist Ian Hanson.
The assessment located a number of mass graves in Kisangani and preliminary tests have shown that the corpses were buried between 1994 and 2001. Since 1992, Kisangani, a long-term seat of government, has been controlled by many different groups, including supporters of the late President of Rwanda (Mobutu Sese Seko) and the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie.
The ethnic conflict in Ituri province was the subject of one of the ICEG's first Genocide Alerts on February 20, 2000
Since that time, there have been many more massacres, and there is still no international peacekeeping force because the members of the U.N. Security Council are unwilling to spend the money necessary to send one. The UN Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) has an inadequate mandate and personnel to serve as a police force in Ituri province. Instead the armed force on the ground has been Uganda, which has its own agenda in the region and has not been even-handed.
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have made appeals about the situation, though they have so far not called the massacres what they are: genocidal massacres. Like the State Department in 1994, they're unwilling to use the G word. So they have generally just called for adherence to international human rights law and an end to impunity. They will undoubtedly continue to issue reports, as will the International Crisis Group.
The sometimes unstated background for every report is the Rwandan genocide, where a group closely related to the Hema (Tutsi) were victims of genocide organized by a group closely related to the Lendu (Hutu). Even the claims of the Lendu to be the "original inhabitants" of the area, which was "invaded" by Nilotic cattle-herders, the Hema, has a chilling resemblance to the so-called Hamitic theory in Rwanda. But the lesson that a robust international police presence is required (furnished with a strong mandate and adequate armed resources) does not seem to have been learned. Instead, the UN and leading powers have again put their faith in negotiations plus a few international troops without the mandate to use force to stop massacres and capture those who commit them.
The timing of these massacres, just as Uganda is due to withdraw its forces, and while the Ituri Pacification Commission is considering its report, indicates that Lendu Power forces are attempting to polarize the population to make a settlement impossible. Ugandan military forces that profit from their occupation of Ituri may be aiding them so the Ugandans will be called upon to remain.
- - -
Also, Inforce points out that killings in the DRC have been reported by many Associated Foreign Press reporters. Below are two examples:
966 Congolese Are Killed in Attacks on Villagers
NAIROBI, April 6 (AP) - At least 966 people were killed in attacks on more than a dozen villages in northeastern Congo last week, United Nations officials said today after a preliminary investigation. It is not clear who carried out the attacks, which occurred in Ituri Province, the scene of some of the worst battles in Congo's 4 1/2-year civil war. Rival fighters, rebel factions and Ugandan troops all have been involved in the fighting in the mineral-rich province.
Witnesses told the United Nations investigators that the attackers included women and children, while others were men in military uniforms, said Manodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Congo.
"This is the worst single atrocity since the start of the civil war," he said.
Officials said the killing occurred over a period of just a few hours on Thursday in the Roman Catholic parish of Drodro and 14 surrounding villages. "The attack started with a whistle blow and lasted between five and eight hours," Mr. Mounoubai said.
United Nations military observers visited the area on Saturday and spoke to witnesses, survivors and local leaders who led them to 20 mass graves, he said.
Another spokesman for the United Nations mission, Hamadoun Touré, said the mass graves had "fresh blood on them." Investigators said some of the survivors were seriously wounded, mostly by machetes but also by bullets.
On Saturday, a Congolese rebel leader, Thomas Lubanga, accused Ugandan troops and fighters from an allied Congolese ethnic group, the Lendu, of carrying out the killings.
A Ugandan military spokesman, Capt. Felix Kulayigye, denied that any Ugandan troops were involved. He said 400 people had been killed in ethnic fighting.
An aid worker and a local leader in Bunia said that Ugandan forces were in the area when civilians were killed, but that they could not say whether the troops took part.
The rebel group draws its support from the Hema, who have traditionally fought with the Lendu for control of land and other resources.
- - -
April 6 (AFP) - Inter-ethnic massacres have claimed "hundreds of lives" in DR Congo's troubled northeastern Ituri region, sources said Sunday.
"They're talking about several hundred dead," General Kale Kaihura, commander of Ugandan troops in the region bordering Uganda, told AFP by telephone from the Ituri town of Bunia.
The casualties were found in the towns of Drodro and Largo and were said to be members of the Hema community. They died in an attack by members of the Lendu ethnic group, Ugandan officers said.
One of them, Capitain Felix Kulayigye, told AFP from Bunia that "between 350 and 400 members of the Hema community" had died. Kulayigye had gone to Drodro and Largo on Saturday as part of a fact-finding commission of Ugandan officials and members of the UN Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC).
The head of the rebel Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), Thomas Lubanga, later confirmed the massacres but said more than 900 people had died. Lubanga, who recently fought Ugandan troops in Ituri, accused the Ugandan army of having joined the Lendu fighters in their attack. But General Kaihura denied this and said he had sent his men to Drodro and Largo after having been informed by local chiefs.
Church officials told AFP they had received conflicting reports from their representatives in Drodro about what was going on in the two towns and said they would speak to the press once further information was coming in.
Ituri is rich in gold, oil, lumber and uranium resources. The region is inhabited by a large number of ethnic groups but nearly all side with either the majority Lendu or the minority Hema. Some 2,000 Ugandan troops, based in the Ituri region at the request of the United Nations to stop interethnic fighting, were to leave the area on April 24 when the mission of the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) ends.
The UN Observer Mission in Congo said the team had started its work in Bunia, dividing up into sub-committees dealing with different aspects of the province's difficulties and administration. The IPC is due to work on the issues of reconstruction, security, establishing the rule of law, and humanitarian assistance until April 12.
Two days later, parties involved were scheduled to sign an Ituri Peace and Reconstruction Accord.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
UN to replace Congo mission head
Thousands of people have fled ethnic violence in Ituri. The following is a copy of a BBC report, 5 March, 2005:
The head of the UN mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo is to leave his post. Top envoy William Lacy Swing will be replaced by a new special representative later in the year.
The UN mission in DR Congo has faced criticism after allegations that UN peacekeepers sexually exploited refugees in their care. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Mr Swing would remain in the job for the time being to allow for a smooth transition.
Violence has flared in the turbulent north-eastern Ituri region of DR Congo, where the UN has one of its largest missions, with more than 13,000 troops.
In late February, nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers died when they were ambushed whilst on patrol in the area and, on Tuesday, 50 militiamen were killed during a UN operation against the militia in the same area.
"The secretary general noted that Mr Swing evidently had his hands full across all these fronts and would need to show strong leadership in all these areas," Mr Eckhard said.
"They concluded that with his plate so full, this was not the moment for a sudden change of special representative," he added.
Last month, a UN team investigated 72 allegations of abuse by UN peacekeepers and civilian staff. According to its report, published in January, 26 of these claims were substantiated and included cases of girls as young as 12 being given small sums of money or food items in exchange for sex with soldiers based around the north-eastern town of Bunia.
In response, the UN introduced a strict non-fraternisation policy, banning its peacekeepers from having sex with local people. Six Moroccan soldiers were also arrested following the investigation.
The head of the UN mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo is to leave his post. Top envoy William Lacy Swing will be replaced by a new special representative later in the year.
The UN mission in DR Congo has faced criticism after allegations that UN peacekeepers sexually exploited refugees in their care. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Mr Swing would remain in the job for the time being to allow for a smooth transition.
Violence has flared in the turbulent north-eastern Ituri region of DR Congo, where the UN has one of its largest missions, with more than 13,000 troops.
In late February, nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers died when they were ambushed whilst on patrol in the area and, on Tuesday, 50 militiamen were killed during a UN operation against the militia in the same area.
"The secretary general noted that Mr Swing evidently had his hands full across all these fronts and would need to show strong leadership in all these areas," Mr Eckhard said.
"They concluded that with his plate so full, this was not the moment for a sudden change of special representative," he added.
Last month, a UN team investigated 72 allegations of abuse by UN peacekeepers and civilian staff. According to its report, published in January, 26 of these claims were substantiated and included cases of girls as young as 12 being given small sums of money or food items in exchange for sex with soldiers based around the north-eastern town of Bunia.
In response, the UN introduced a strict non-fraternisation policy, banning its peacekeepers from having sex with local people. Six Moroccan soldiers were also arrested following the investigation.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
UN troops strike back in DR Congo
Here is a copy of a report from the BBC 2 March, 2005 that says the UN is determined to find those who killed nine UN peacekeepers:
United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed more than 50 militiamen in a gun battle in the east, the UN says. The battle was part of a major offensive against the FNI militia, accused of killing nine Bangladeshi UN soldiers in Ituri province last week.
Earlier the Congolese government said three FNI commanders had been detained. The three include the militia's leader, Floribert Ndjabu. The FNI denies any involvement in the attack on UN forces.
Tuesday's clash took place 30 km (19 miles) north of Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital.
"While on operation we were fired upon, so we immediately responded," said Col Dominique Demange, a spokesman for UN forces in DR Congo.
There are some 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, following a 2002 deal to end five years of civil war. But bitter ethnic fighting continues in Ituri. Violence between rival militias resumed in the mineral-rich province in December, and aid workers say tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting - many fleeing to neighbouring Uganda.
Bangladesh, which is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations around the world, has 1,300 troops in DR Congo.
Last week's attack was the deadliest against the UN mission since it was set up in the country in 1999.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4310593.stm
United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed more than 50 militiamen in a gun battle in the east, the UN says. The battle was part of a major offensive against the FNI militia, accused of killing nine Bangladeshi UN soldiers in Ituri province last week.
Earlier the Congolese government said three FNI commanders had been detained. The three include the militia's leader, Floribert Ndjabu. The FNI denies any involvement in the attack on UN forces.
Tuesday's clash took place 30 km (19 miles) north of Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital.
"While on operation we were fired upon, so we immediately responded," said Col Dominique Demange, a spokesman for UN forces in DR Congo.
There are some 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, following a 2002 deal to end five years of civil war. But bitter ethnic fighting continues in Ituri. Violence between rival militias resumed in the mineral-rich province in December, and aid workers say tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting - many fleeing to neighbouring Uganda.
Bangladesh, which is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations around the world, has 1,300 troops in DR Congo.
Last week's attack was the deadliest against the UN mission since it was set up in the country in 1999.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4310593.stm
Congo warlords live high life
The following is a copy of a report by David Lewis courtesy Reuters Mar 2, 2005:
KINSHASA (Reuters) - On a humid night in Kinshasa, six men sit at a table littered with beer bottles.
This is no ordinary group of drinkers.
At the head of the table sits a government official, putting away beers at an impressive rate. The men either side are five of the most feared warlords from Congo's lawless Ituri district, celebrating new jobs as generals in the national army.
Some in Democratic Republic of Congo saw their appointment as an important step towards dismantling the plethora of armed militias in the mineral-rich district, where 50,000 people have died since 1999 and gunmen killed nine U.N. soldiers last week.
Others were appalled. They want Congo's fragile transitional government, or an international court, to investigate and prosecute several of these men for war crimes -- not reward them with high-ranking jobs in the fractious army.
"Appointments like these raise serious questions about the Congolese government's commitment to justice and human rights," said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa division of the international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW).
When years of ethnic clashes in Ituri came to world attention in early 2003, a European intervention force was rushed to the main town Bunia and the United Nations now has nearly 5,000 peacekeepers, a third of its Congo force, in the district.
Since then, the U.N. and the government have been trying to pacify Ituri, bringing the militias into the wider peace process, which is struggling to stabilise Congo after a five-year war that sucked in six neighbouring countries.
But the killing of nine Bangladeshi blue helmets on February 25 has thrust the mayhem in Ituri back into the international spotlight, as well as the lack of progress in finding peace.
SMART SUITS AND CROCODILE SHOES
HRW said four of the generals appointed on January 10 -- Jerome Kakwavu, Bosco Taganda, Floribert Kisembo and Germain Katanga -- should be investigated for their roles in Ituri violence.
"Hundreds of witnesses have told Human Rights Watch these four commanders ordered, tolerated or personally committed ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape, mutilation and the recruitment of child soldiers," the group said in a statement.
Ituri's warlords have instead come to the capital Kinshasa, where they sport gleaming new uniforms, live alongside U.N. chiefs and visiting dignitaries in the city's smartest hotel and say they are serving the government.
Never far from his cane, pistol or bodyguards, and dressed immaculately in Italian suits and crocodile shoes, Kakwavu says he is in the process of handing all his weapons over to the government and is ready to serve the country.
"I'm here in Kinshasa, working with the army and following orders from superiors on where I will be deployed," Kakwavu, head of a 5,000 strong, well-armed militia on Congo's border with Uganda and Sudan, told Reuters in Kinshasa.
The government hopes to disarm or incorporate fighters from Ituri -- where battles for control of diamond and gold mines and lucrative border crossings fuel the conflicts between ethnic militias -- into a cohesive national army.
But HRW says Kakwavu's FAPC militia is responsible for "widespread and serious human rights abuses, including summary executions, torture and rape", saying that in some cases, the newly-appointed general carried out the executions himself.
"These people are given false information. This is all propaganda -- the areas I controlled were peaceful. I have not been part of the ethnic war -- I was just protecting people," said Kakwavu, angrily rejecting the accusations.
CIVILIANS BEAR BRUNT
A costly disarmament programme kicked off in Ituri in September. Just under 2,500 fighters have handed in weapons -- far short of an ambitious target of 15,000 in three months.
And the conflict in the district is still simmering, with civilians continuing to bear the brunt of it.
Photographs of a massacre at a town called Lengabo, just outside Bunia, where 14 people were killed in September, show the charred corpses of small children, many of whom have had their arms or legs hacked off by machetes.
Nor is it difficult to find other pictures taken in Ituri of gunmen from various militias, high on drugs, coming back from a raid sporting their trophies -- the decapitated heads and limbs of neighbours they had just attacked.
The International Criminal Court is collecting evidence on crimes in Ituri and hopes to begin trials within a year -- a move organisations such as HRW support.
Some international officials have argued that bringing the warlords into state structures was the only way to pacify Ituri. But even they appear to be losing patience after the upsurge in violence and the killing of the peacekeepers.
"It was foreseen that taking these people out of Ituri would accelerate the disarmament and integration process but it seems that they have been sending the wrong message to their people on the ground," said U.N. mission spokeswoman Eliane Nabaa.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle
KINSHASA (Reuters) - On a humid night in Kinshasa, six men sit at a table littered with beer bottles.
This is no ordinary group of drinkers.
At the head of the table sits a government official, putting away beers at an impressive rate. The men either side are five of the most feared warlords from Congo's lawless Ituri district, celebrating new jobs as generals in the national army.
Some in Democratic Republic of Congo saw their appointment as an important step towards dismantling the plethora of armed militias in the mineral-rich district, where 50,000 people have died since 1999 and gunmen killed nine U.N. soldiers last week.
Others were appalled. They want Congo's fragile transitional government, or an international court, to investigate and prosecute several of these men for war crimes -- not reward them with high-ranking jobs in the fractious army.
"Appointments like these raise serious questions about the Congolese government's commitment to justice and human rights," said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the Africa division of the international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW).
When years of ethnic clashes in Ituri came to world attention in early 2003, a European intervention force was rushed to the main town Bunia and the United Nations now has nearly 5,000 peacekeepers, a third of its Congo force, in the district.
Since then, the U.N. and the government have been trying to pacify Ituri, bringing the militias into the wider peace process, which is struggling to stabilise Congo after a five-year war that sucked in six neighbouring countries.
But the killing of nine Bangladeshi blue helmets on February 25 has thrust the mayhem in Ituri back into the international spotlight, as well as the lack of progress in finding peace.
SMART SUITS AND CROCODILE SHOES
HRW said four of the generals appointed on January 10 -- Jerome Kakwavu, Bosco Taganda, Floribert Kisembo and Germain Katanga -- should be investigated for their roles in Ituri violence.
"Hundreds of witnesses have told Human Rights Watch these four commanders ordered, tolerated or personally committed ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape, mutilation and the recruitment of child soldiers," the group said in a statement.
Ituri's warlords have instead come to the capital Kinshasa, where they sport gleaming new uniforms, live alongside U.N. chiefs and visiting dignitaries in the city's smartest hotel and say they are serving the government.
Never far from his cane, pistol or bodyguards, and dressed immaculately in Italian suits and crocodile shoes, Kakwavu says he is in the process of handing all his weapons over to the government and is ready to serve the country.
"I'm here in Kinshasa, working with the army and following orders from superiors on where I will be deployed," Kakwavu, head of a 5,000 strong, well-armed militia on Congo's border with Uganda and Sudan, told Reuters in Kinshasa.
The government hopes to disarm or incorporate fighters from Ituri -- where battles for control of diamond and gold mines and lucrative border crossings fuel the conflicts between ethnic militias -- into a cohesive national army.
But HRW says Kakwavu's FAPC militia is responsible for "widespread and serious human rights abuses, including summary executions, torture and rape", saying that in some cases, the newly-appointed general carried out the executions himself.
"These people are given false information. This is all propaganda -- the areas I controlled were peaceful. I have not been part of the ethnic war -- I was just protecting people," said Kakwavu, angrily rejecting the accusations.
CIVILIANS BEAR BRUNT
A costly disarmament programme kicked off in Ituri in September. Just under 2,500 fighters have handed in weapons -- far short of an ambitious target of 15,000 in three months.
And the conflict in the district is still simmering, with civilians continuing to bear the brunt of it.
Photographs of a massacre at a town called Lengabo, just outside Bunia, where 14 people were killed in September, show the charred corpses of small children, many of whom have had their arms or legs hacked off by machetes.
Nor is it difficult to find other pictures taken in Ituri of gunmen from various militias, high on drugs, coming back from a raid sporting their trophies -- the decapitated heads and limbs of neighbours they had just attacked.
The International Criminal Court is collecting evidence on crimes in Ituri and hopes to begin trials within a year -- a move organisations such as HRW support.
Some international officials have argued that bringing the warlords into state structures was the only way to pacify Ituri. But even they appear to be losing patience after the upsurge in violence and the killing of the peacekeepers.
"It was foreseen that taking these people out of Ituri would accelerate the disarmament and integration process but it seems that they have been sending the wrong message to their people on the ground," said U.N. mission spokeswoman Eliane Nabaa.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle
Monday, February 28, 2005
Murder of nine United Nations peacekeepers in the DRC
Here is a copy of a February 26, 2005, report by the United Nations Mission for Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc) about the murder of nine UN peacekeepers in the DRC.
What happened?
During the morning of 25 February, 20 peacekeepers belonging to the Bangladeshi contingent of MONUC, and their UN civilian national staff interpreter, were ambushed 5 kilometers west of Kafe, in the district of Ituri, DRC by one of the armed groups that refused to participate in the international community sponsored Disarmament and Community based Reintegration process. During this ambush, nine MONUC peacekeepers lost their lives.
What were the peacekeepers doing?
The peacekeepers were on a mission to secure the immediate surrounding areas of an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp at Kafe, in order to protect its population of 8000 IDPs against the exactions by militias
of which they were the victims a few weeks before.
What was MONUC's reaction?
The commander of the Ituri Brigade immediately launched a helicopter operation composed of transport and attack helicopters providing air support to two additional platoons of troops engaged in securing the zone in order to evacuate causalities and recover the bodies. Some of these troops were also engaged by fire from remaining militias when arriving on the site. Peacekeepers sustained no additional casualties.
Who is responsible?
MONUC holds responsible for these assassinations the armed groups' political and military leaders, who continue to refuse the disarmament and reintegration process - put in place by the National Commission for Disarmament and Reintegration (CONADER), UNDP, UNICEF, MONUC and other international donors. MONUC calls for their immediate arrest.
Why did they do it?
This premeditated attack comes in the wake of several actions conducted by MONUC (including the arrest of 30 militia members on 24 February) in Ituri aimed at neutralizing the militias who prey on, and terrorize the local population.
What are the next steps?
MONUC is undertaking a series of robust military measures including on-going reinforcement in the area (adding two additional companies and a tactical HQ); intensification of cordon and search operations in the area of the attack; and disarmament actions. MONUC is continuing its activities aimed at neutralizing criminal groups and protecting the civilian population. The Secretary-General has called on the Transitional Government of the DRC to make every effort to find and hold accountable those responsible for this reprehensible and criminal attack.
Photo (Rachel Eklou-Assogbavi/Monuc) Memorial service for the nine deceased peacekeepers in Bunia.
http://www.monuc.org/Story.aspx?storyID=405
What happened?
During the morning of 25 February, 20 peacekeepers belonging to the Bangladeshi contingent of MONUC, and their UN civilian national staff interpreter, were ambushed 5 kilometers west of Kafe, in the district of Ituri, DRC by one of the armed groups that refused to participate in the international community sponsored Disarmament and Community based Reintegration process. During this ambush, nine MONUC peacekeepers lost their lives.
What were the peacekeepers doing?
The peacekeepers were on a mission to secure the immediate surrounding areas of an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp at Kafe, in order to protect its population of 8000 IDPs against the exactions by militias
of which they were the victims a few weeks before.
What was MONUC's reaction?
The commander of the Ituri Brigade immediately launched a helicopter operation composed of transport and attack helicopters providing air support to two additional platoons of troops engaged in securing the zone in order to evacuate causalities and recover the bodies. Some of these troops were also engaged by fire from remaining militias when arriving on the site. Peacekeepers sustained no additional casualties.
Who is responsible?
MONUC holds responsible for these assassinations the armed groups' political and military leaders, who continue to refuse the disarmament and reintegration process - put in place by the National Commission for Disarmament and Reintegration (CONADER), UNDP, UNICEF, MONUC and other international donors. MONUC calls for their immediate arrest.
Why did they do it?
This premeditated attack comes in the wake of several actions conducted by MONUC (including the arrest of 30 militia members on 24 February) in Ituri aimed at neutralizing the militias who prey on, and terrorize the local population.
What are the next steps?
MONUC is undertaking a series of robust military measures including on-going reinforcement in the area (adding two additional companies and a tactical HQ); intensification of cordon and search operations in the area of the attack; and disarmament actions. MONUC is continuing its activities aimed at neutralizing criminal groups and protecting the civilian population. The Secretary-General has called on the Transitional Government of the DRC to make every effort to find and hold accountable those responsible for this reprehensible and criminal attack.
Photo (Rachel Eklou-Assogbavi/Monuc) Memorial service for the nine deceased peacekeepers in Bunia.
http://www.monuc.org/Story.aspx?storyID=405
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Strike over DR Congo poll delay - UN says about 1,000 people are dying every day in DR Congo
According to a report from the BBC today, the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, says about 1,000 people are dying every day in DR Congo - many from disease and malnutrition.
Alos, a strike has brought the Democratic Republic of Congo capital, Kinshasa, to a standstill, with shops closed and bus drivers not working. The following is an excerpt from the BBC report:
The strike was called to commemorate the deaths of four people killed in protests at hints that elections due in June might be postponed. Pamphlets have been circulated, calling the dead "martyrs of democracy".
A 2002 deal to end five years of war set June as the deadline for elections, while allowing for limited delays. However, elections chief Apollinaire Malu Malu last week indicated the poll will probably take place in October, before heavy rains make parts of the country inaccessible.
But the BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in Kinshasa says that Congolese, who have not elected their leader since independence in 1960, do not want any delay. He says that the strike is reminiscent of attempts by veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi to put pressure on former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko to introduce democratic reforms.
Like in the old days, the government provided free transport to the population in an attempt to break the protest but it has not worked, our correspondent says.
Mr Tshisekedi's party denies calling the strike but those trying to enforce the strike called on people to vote for him.
A five-year civil war in the huge country left nearly three million people dead from hunger and disease.
The war is supposed to have ended in 2002 but fighting has persisted in the east, involving soldiers who were once rebels backed by Rwanda.
Under the peace deal signed by all the main factions at the end of the war, a power-sharing government was tasked with organising elections.
However it does allow for two delays of up to six months each, if approved by parliament.
Logistical problems
In a New Year's Eve address, President Joseph Kabila said he was determined to hold the election this year. "Only credible elections will bring about political stability in our country," he said.
The UN has expressed concerns about the logistics of holding an election in such a large country which lacks basic infrastructure, such as roads and railways.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4175277.stm
Alos, a strike has brought the Democratic Republic of Congo capital, Kinshasa, to a standstill, with shops closed and bus drivers not working. The following is an excerpt from the BBC report:
The strike was called to commemorate the deaths of four people killed in protests at hints that elections due in June might be postponed. Pamphlets have been circulated, calling the dead "martyrs of democracy".
A 2002 deal to end five years of war set June as the deadline for elections, while allowing for limited delays. However, elections chief Apollinaire Malu Malu last week indicated the poll will probably take place in October, before heavy rains make parts of the country inaccessible.
But the BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in Kinshasa says that Congolese, who have not elected their leader since independence in 1960, do not want any delay. He says that the strike is reminiscent of attempts by veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi to put pressure on former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko to introduce democratic reforms.
Like in the old days, the government provided free transport to the population in an attempt to break the protest but it has not worked, our correspondent says.
Mr Tshisekedi's party denies calling the strike but those trying to enforce the strike called on people to vote for him.
A five-year civil war in the huge country left nearly three million people dead from hunger and disease.
The war is supposed to have ended in 2002 but fighting has persisted in the east, involving soldiers who were once rebels backed by Rwanda.
Under the peace deal signed by all the main factions at the end of the war, a power-sharing government was tasked with organising elections.
However it does allow for two delays of up to six months each, if approved by parliament.
Logistical problems
In a New Year's Eve address, President Joseph Kabila said he was determined to hold the election this year. "Only credible elections will bring about political stability in our country," he said.
The UN has expressed concerns about the logistics of holding an election in such a large country which lacks basic infrastructure, such as roads and railways.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4175277.stm
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Congo wonders about world's priorities
Copied here below is an Associated Press report by Bryan Mealer published in The Washington Times, 9 January, 2005. One line in the article sums up one of the reasons why countries like Uganda and Congo receive less money from the general public than the victims of the Asian tsunami that affected eleven countries. Here's the line:
"No one gives Congo any money, because every time they do, the government just steals it."
As Africa has such a long standing reputation for terrible corruption, it seems (to me anyway) Africa cannot be helped in a meaningful and lasting way until it has leaders who are educated and intelligent. Africa needs proper leaders who can govern competently, fairly and command admiration and respect, not leaders who are thugs stealing power through brute force and murder. When psychos steal countries through the barrel of a gun and then proceed to build armies to rape, kill and starve its people along with stealing their money and natural resources, the rest of the world needs to band together and deliver a way out for such sociopaths who mistakingly believe themselves to be fit to govern. Money can't solve everything.
Here's looking forward to news of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, and the long awaited publication of the commission's first report due next month.
KINSHASA, Congo — Even now, as thousands of children die each week from drinking dirty water and not having enough food, and the people of once-thriving communities hide like the hunted in the forests, the Congolese expect little from the world's big spenders.
But as Congo watches the global scramble to raise billions in aid for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, many here wonder why Asian suffering stirs action while African suffering is greeted largely with apathy.
The New York-based International Rescue Committee says nearly 4 million people have been killed in Congo since the start of war in 1998, most from war-induced disease and starvation. Fighting persists in the county's east — the epicenter of the war — and 1,000 are dying each day, half of them younger than 5.
The Asian tsunami, in comparison, has killed over 150,000. The disaster was a sudden scourge of nature, while Congo's toll has accumulated slowly, at the hands of man.
"Over the last six years, millions of people have died here from this war," said Kudura Kasongo, spokesman for President Joseph Kabila. "In Asia, they're dying too, and getting money. Why is this?"
"In Asia, Westerners are also dying alongside them, perhaps that's why," Mr. Kasongo said.
Led by $810 million from Australia, the victims of the Indian Ocean tragedy have received a total of nearly $4 billion in pledges.
According to the IRC, international humanitarian aid for Congo was $188 million — roughly $3 per person — in 2004.
"Asia's crisis is temporary, but here we have a permanent catastrophe," said Ingele Ifoto, a government minister who recently headed a program to return 32,000 displaced people from Congo's dense northern Equateur province. Many were found roaming naked through the wilds, their clothing rotted off.
On Thursday, British Treasury chief Gordon Brown called on the world's richest nations to contribute an additional $50 billion to the world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa.
The same day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the dire humanitarian situation in Africa as "the equivalent of a man-made, preventable tsunami every week."
"Outside of the tsunami areas, I would say Congo is the one area in the world where most people die of neglect and lack of attention and lack of presence of the international community," U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said.
In Congo's hardscrabble capital, Kinshasa, decades of government corruption and broken promises have taught its people a thing or two.
"I'll tell you why no one gives Congo any money," said Ponce Mondano, a mason at a market near the Congo River. "Because every time they do, the government just steals it."
Africa has had its share of the world's sympathy.
In 1984, Live Aid brought significant attention to victims of Ethiopia's famine, and world leaders have recently spoken out on behalf of Sudan's western Darfur region, where ethnic conflict has displaced an estimated 2 million people since early 2003 and killed tens of thousands. The world response to Ethiopia helped prompt long-term improvements in famine-warning and food-reserve systems, international officials say.
The U.S. Agency for International Development spent $54 million on Congo in 2004. The request for 2005 is $32 million. The decline mostly reflects an elimination of food aid.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20050108-113647-8104r.htm
"No one gives Congo any money, because every time they do, the government just steals it."
As Africa has such a long standing reputation for terrible corruption, it seems (to me anyway) Africa cannot be helped in a meaningful and lasting way until it has leaders who are educated and intelligent. Africa needs proper leaders who can govern competently, fairly and command admiration and respect, not leaders who are thugs stealing power through brute force and murder. When psychos steal countries through the barrel of a gun and then proceed to build armies to rape, kill and starve its people along with stealing their money and natural resources, the rest of the world needs to band together and deliver a way out for such sociopaths who mistakingly believe themselves to be fit to govern. Money can't solve everything.
Here's looking forward to news of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, and the long awaited publication of the commission's first report due next month.
KINSHASA, Congo — Even now, as thousands of children die each week from drinking dirty water and not having enough food, and the people of once-thriving communities hide like the hunted in the forests, the Congolese expect little from the world's big spenders.
But as Congo watches the global scramble to raise billions in aid for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, many here wonder why Asian suffering stirs action while African suffering is greeted largely with apathy.
The New York-based International Rescue Committee says nearly 4 million people have been killed in Congo since the start of war in 1998, most from war-induced disease and starvation. Fighting persists in the county's east — the epicenter of the war — and 1,000 are dying each day, half of them younger than 5.
The Asian tsunami, in comparison, has killed over 150,000. The disaster was a sudden scourge of nature, while Congo's toll has accumulated slowly, at the hands of man.
"Over the last six years, millions of people have died here from this war," said Kudura Kasongo, spokesman for President Joseph Kabila. "In Asia, they're dying too, and getting money. Why is this?"
"In Asia, Westerners are also dying alongside them, perhaps that's why," Mr. Kasongo said.
Led by $810 million from Australia, the victims of the Indian Ocean tragedy have received a total of nearly $4 billion in pledges.
According to the IRC, international humanitarian aid for Congo was $188 million — roughly $3 per person — in 2004.
"Asia's crisis is temporary, but here we have a permanent catastrophe," said Ingele Ifoto, a government minister who recently headed a program to return 32,000 displaced people from Congo's dense northern Equateur province. Many were found roaming naked through the wilds, their clothing rotted off.
On Thursday, British Treasury chief Gordon Brown called on the world's richest nations to contribute an additional $50 billion to the world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa.
The same day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the dire humanitarian situation in Africa as "the equivalent of a man-made, preventable tsunami every week."
"Outside of the tsunami areas, I would say Congo is the one area in the world where most people die of neglect and lack of attention and lack of presence of the international community," U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said.
In Congo's hardscrabble capital, Kinshasa, decades of government corruption and broken promises have taught its people a thing or two.
"I'll tell you why no one gives Congo any money," said Ponce Mondano, a mason at a market near the Congo River. "Because every time they do, the government just steals it."
Africa has had its share of the world's sympathy.
In 1984, Live Aid brought significant attention to victims of Ethiopia's famine, and world leaders have recently spoken out on behalf of Sudan's western Darfur region, where ethnic conflict has displaced an estimated 2 million people since early 2003 and killed tens of thousands. The world response to Ethiopia helped prompt long-term improvements in famine-warning and food-reserve systems, international officials say.
The U.S. Agency for International Development spent $54 million on Congo in 2004. The request for 2005 is $32 million. The decline mostly reflects an elimination of food aid.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20050108-113647-8104r.htm
Thursday, December 02, 2004
War fears after Rwanda 'invasion' - first of 5,000 extra UN peacekeepers arrived in DR Congo
Here is a copy in full of BBC report War fears after Rwanda 'invasion' out today, 2 December, 2004. Note how quickly 5,000 UN peacekeepers were deployed - but none for Darfur.
The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency session to discuss the reported incursion of Rwandan troops into eastern DR Congo.
Rwanda's president has assured the African Union that Rwandan military action in DR Congo will target ethnic Hutu rebels and not Congolese forces.
But there are fears growing insecurity could threaten peace across the region.
Ugandan troops are reported to have deployed troops along their border with DR Congo as a precautionary measure.
UN peacekeepers say they have seen about 100 soldiers they believe are Rwandan.
The Congolese government said 6,000 Rwandan troops had crossed the border and attacked villages.
It has asked the Security Council to condemn Rwanda's action and impose sanctions against Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame.
In a letter to Nigeria's leader, who chairs the African Union, Mr Kagame said he expected his troops to finish their mission in two weeks.
Mr Kagame has not said whether the operation had started.
He sent the letter last week, but its contents have only just been revealed.
The United States and European Union have urged Rwanda and DR Congo to solve their dispute peacefully.
A senior US diplomat, Donald Yamamoto, is travelling to the region in the next few days in an effort to persuade the two sides to solve the crisis peacefully.
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing renewed fighting in the north-east, according to a UN humanitarian agency.
Last week, the UN warned Rwanda not to use military force, saying such a move could undermine international efforts to stabilise the region.
Rwanda has consistently said it is prepared to take military action because of the threat it says is posed by the group which include fighters who took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The Congolese government says Rwanda's action has little to do with any rebel threat but is part of their efforts to dominate and exploit eastern DR Congo economically - as the region is full of valuable minerals such as gold and diamonds.
But the BBC's Mark Doyle, who has just returned from the region, says the wider significance of any Rwandan military action is that it could unravel tentative moves towards peace throughout central Africa.
The DR Congo authorities say they will send more than 6,000 troops to the border area within the next two weeks.
Rwanda has twice invaded its much larger neighbour - in 1996 and 1998 - accusing successive Congolese governments of backing the Hutu rebels.
It withdrew its troops in 2002, under a regional deal to end five years of war in DR Congo, in which some three million people died.
The armies of at least six foreign nations - and countless rebel groups - were embroiled in "Africa's first world war".
Under that deal, the Hutu rebels were supposed to have been disarmed but progress has been slow.
Rwanda says the rebels are now attacking its territory under the noses of the international community.
Last week, the first of 5,000 extra UN peacekeepers arrived in DR Congo.
There are already more than 10,000 UN peacekeepers in DR Congo; troops have been placed on alert and patrols have been despatched to check for any Rwandan incursion.
The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency session to discuss the reported incursion of Rwandan troops into eastern DR Congo.
Rwanda's president has assured the African Union that Rwandan military action in DR Congo will target ethnic Hutu rebels and not Congolese forces.
But there are fears growing insecurity could threaten peace across the region.
Ugandan troops are reported to have deployed troops along their border with DR Congo as a precautionary measure.
UN peacekeepers say they have seen about 100 soldiers they believe are Rwandan.
The Congolese government said 6,000 Rwandan troops had crossed the border and attacked villages.
It has asked the Security Council to condemn Rwanda's action and impose sanctions against Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame.
In a letter to Nigeria's leader, who chairs the African Union, Mr Kagame said he expected his troops to finish their mission in two weeks.
Mr Kagame has not said whether the operation had started.
He sent the letter last week, but its contents have only just been revealed.
The United States and European Union have urged Rwanda and DR Congo to solve their dispute peacefully.
A senior US diplomat, Donald Yamamoto, is travelling to the region in the next few days in an effort to persuade the two sides to solve the crisis peacefully.
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing renewed fighting in the north-east, according to a UN humanitarian agency.
Last week, the UN warned Rwanda not to use military force, saying such a move could undermine international efforts to stabilise the region.
Rwanda has consistently said it is prepared to take military action because of the threat it says is posed by the group which include fighters who took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The Congolese government says Rwanda's action has little to do with any rebel threat but is part of their efforts to dominate and exploit eastern DR Congo economically - as the region is full of valuable minerals such as gold and diamonds.
But the BBC's Mark Doyle, who has just returned from the region, says the wider significance of any Rwandan military action is that it could unravel tentative moves towards peace throughout central Africa.
The DR Congo authorities say they will send more than 6,000 troops to the border area within the next two weeks.
Rwanda has twice invaded its much larger neighbour - in 1996 and 1998 - accusing successive Congolese governments of backing the Hutu rebels.
It withdrew its troops in 2002, under a regional deal to end five years of war in DR Congo, in which some three million people died.
The armies of at least six foreign nations - and countless rebel groups - were embroiled in "Africa's first world war".
Under that deal, the Hutu rebels were supposed to have been disarmed but progress has been slow.
Rwanda says the rebels are now attacking its territory under the noses of the international community.
Last week, the first of 5,000 extra UN peacekeepers arrived in DR Congo.
There are already more than 10,000 UN peacekeepers in DR Congo; troops have been placed on alert and patrols have been despatched to check for any Rwandan incursion.
Friday, October 01, 2004
UN to boost DR Congo peace force by 5,900 troops
BBC report today confirms that UN is to boost DR Congo peace force.
UN Security Council unanimously agreed to expand the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo by 5,900 troops.
A rapid reaction force is expected to be based in the east.
The mandate of the force, currently 10,800-strong, has also been extended until the end of March 2005. Here below is a copy of the rest of the report, for future reference.
UN Security Council has unanimously agreed to expand the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo by 5,900 troops. A rapid reaction force is expected to be based in the east. The mandate of the force, currently 10,800-strong, has also been extended until the end of March 2005.
But the boost in numbers is less than half the amount requested by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Most of the new troops will be deployed to the volatile east of the country, the scene of continuing instability.
After the Security Council's vote, Mr Annan said he still believed a force of 23,900 was the "minimum required to meet the current challenges in the DRC" - a country recovering from five years of war in which some three million people died..
He said he hoped the council "will favourably" consider the full request at a later date.
United States envoy to the UN, Stuart Holliday, had defended the numbers of peacekeepers being deployed.
"We think that keeping the numbers in that range is what's necessary to meet the actual mission task," he said.
Correspondents say the US has not been alone in expressing concern about the growing challenges of UN peacekeeping missions, with cost as much an issue as finding nations willing to contribute forces.
A battalion of some 700 soldiers is expected to be based in the east of the country as a rapid reaction force.
In June, anti-UN protests swept the country after the UN failed to prevent the brief capture of the eastern town of Bukavu by rebels.
Meanwhile, a report says an arms embargo in the east has been violated and is undermining the peace process, reports Reuters news agency.
"Lack of state control in the east of the country means few border controls, no airspace control, and no administrative control," the British parliamentary group report says.
A resident in the eastern town of Goma, where armed groups have recently been vying for control of mines, says more peacekeepers are needed.
"I think it isn't enough because of the problems we have, especially in Kivu province. They should double the troops, even triple them. That would be good for peace," Alan Awasi told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
However, he said the integration of the army need to be speeded up "to reduce the flow of weapons and reduce the possibility of conflict".
UN Security Council unanimously agreed to expand the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo by 5,900 troops.
A rapid reaction force is expected to be based in the east.
The mandate of the force, currently 10,800-strong, has also been extended until the end of March 2005. Here below is a copy of the rest of the report, for future reference.
UN Security Council has unanimously agreed to expand the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo by 5,900 troops. A rapid reaction force is expected to be based in the east. The mandate of the force, currently 10,800-strong, has also been extended until the end of March 2005.
But the boost in numbers is less than half the amount requested by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Most of the new troops will be deployed to the volatile east of the country, the scene of continuing instability.
After the Security Council's vote, Mr Annan said he still believed a force of 23,900 was the "minimum required to meet the current challenges in the DRC" - a country recovering from five years of war in which some three million people died..
He said he hoped the council "will favourably" consider the full request at a later date.
United States envoy to the UN, Stuart Holliday, had defended the numbers of peacekeepers being deployed.
"We think that keeping the numbers in that range is what's necessary to meet the actual mission task," he said.
Correspondents say the US has not been alone in expressing concern about the growing challenges of UN peacekeeping missions, with cost as much an issue as finding nations willing to contribute forces.
A battalion of some 700 soldiers is expected to be based in the east of the country as a rapid reaction force.
In June, anti-UN protests swept the country after the UN failed to prevent the brief capture of the eastern town of Bukavu by rebels.
Meanwhile, a report says an arms embargo in the east has been violated and is undermining the peace process, reports Reuters news agency.
"Lack of state control in the east of the country means few border controls, no airspace control, and no administrative control," the British parliamentary group report says.
A resident in the eastern town of Goma, where armed groups have recently been vying for control of mines, says more peacekeepers are needed.
"I think it isn't enough because of the problems we have, especially in Kivu province. They should double the troops, even triple them. That would be good for peace," Alan Awasi told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
However, he said the integration of the army need to be speeded up "to reduce the flow of weapons and reduce the possibility of conflict".
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Congo troops end refugee protest - Eastern DR Congo is tense
Today, the BBC reports that troops have been deployed in Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo following protests at the return of hundreds of refugees from Burundi. Excerpt:
Barricades set up by the protesters on Friday have been removed and roads have re-opened.
The refugees - who are ethnic Tutsis - are still in Burundi, while officials discuss whether it is safe enough for them to return home.
Some 160 refugees were massacred in the border town of Gatumba last month.
The refugees, who are known as Banyamulenge, had refused an offer to move to camps further inside Burundi, away from Gatumba.
About 350 of them had arrived at the DR Congo-Burundi border, after the Burundi authorities said they wanted to re-open the schools in which they had been staying in time for the beginning of the new academic year.
"They say that since they feel unsafe in Gatumba, they'd prefer to feel unsafe at home, in their own country," said Refugees International's Andrea Lari, who is in Uvira.
"And from the DR Congo government's point of view, they've given an undertaking that they cannot prevent Congolese coming back."
The reasons behind the protests remain unclear.
One possible explanation is that the residents of Uvira resent the idea of returning refugees receiving preferential treatment.
Another is that as ethnic Tutsis, they are distrusted after the offensive launched by dissident troops in June to prevent what they described as the planned massacre of Banyamulenge civilians.
A peace deal intended to end DR Congo's five-year war in which an estimated three million people died was signed in 2002.
But rising tensions in the east of the country have led to fears the fragile peace may begin to unravel.
Barricades set up by the protesters on Friday have been removed and roads have re-opened.
The refugees - who are ethnic Tutsis - are still in Burundi, while officials discuss whether it is safe enough for them to return home.
Some 160 refugees were massacred in the border town of Gatumba last month.
The refugees, who are known as Banyamulenge, had refused an offer to move to camps further inside Burundi, away from Gatumba.
About 350 of them had arrived at the DR Congo-Burundi border, after the Burundi authorities said they wanted to re-open the schools in which they had been staying in time for the beginning of the new academic year.
"They say that since they feel unsafe in Gatumba, they'd prefer to feel unsafe at home, in their own country," said Refugees International's Andrea Lari, who is in Uvira.
"And from the DR Congo government's point of view, they've given an undertaking that they cannot prevent Congolese coming back."
The reasons behind the protests remain unclear.
One possible explanation is that the residents of Uvira resent the idea of returning refugees receiving preferential treatment.
Another is that as ethnic Tutsis, they are distrusted after the offensive launched by dissident troops in June to prevent what they described as the planned massacre of Banyamulenge civilians.
A peace deal intended to end DR Congo's five-year war in which an estimated three million people died was signed in 2002.
But rising tensions in the east of the country have led to fears the fragile peace may begin to unravel.
Monday, September 06, 2004
HERE IS A "VIRTUAL" MEETUP - Today, for Sudan, in the blogosphere
Today, Monday September 6, is monthly International Sudanese Peace Meetup Day.
Meet ups are for people interested in peace for Sudan (and other topics).
You can sign up and get together - in person - with others in your locality. And even start your own Meet up.
Because I am unable to attend a Meet up, I have created a "virtual" Meet up via this post.
Below are links to bloggers - mostly regular reads from my sidebar - who have written about the Sudan.
Here's sending you all a warm hello - and a big thank you for your posts on the Sudan.
See you at the next virtual Meet up here in October :)
Bye for now. With love from Ingrid and Ophelia xx
PS Special thanks to Nick for alerting me to the Meet up date that enabled me to complete this, and the following two posts, in time.
- - -
POEM FOR SUDAN
By Virginia Barros in Portugal
This poem was composed in English by Virginia Barros (blogging under the name of Monalisa) - of Sítio da Saudade - especially for today's Meet Up.
Virginia is a Portuguese blogger who lives in a small town in Portugal. See her beautiful locality in the photo of a bridge - here below. She kindly emailed me this poem for Sudan, in response to my previous post publicising the Sep 6 International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day. Warm thanks to Virginia for her poem for Sudan:
In my comfortable
And warm room I sleep
I sleep quietly
And you die
Suffering horrors that my brain
Does not obtain to imagine
Because all of us sleep tranquil
And in the same minute
The great pain of the planet
Doesn’t affect us
We pass by lifeless
Indifferent and silently
and we wake up
Thinking to be happy
But the happiness
is spotted of blood and barbarity
Because we let the heartless
Take the world
and we do nothing.
[Photo courtesy of Osterreich Hilft Darfur ORF ]
- - -
SUDAN: INTERNATIONAL MEETUP DAY
Sep 6 Labor Day - Sudan Campaign
Eugene Oregon at Demagogue received this email from Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International and the Sudan Campaign:
This Labor Day, Monday, September 6, the Sudan Campaign is inviting everyone to take a “day on” rather than a “day off” to protest the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Demonstrations have been held at the Sudan embassy everyday since June 29th, and they will continue. Over 50 persons have offered themselves for arrest by committing non-violent acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the urgency and seriousness of the issue. Radio personality and activist, Joe Madison, has been a hunger strike for six weeks. In light of the UN findings that the Khartoum regime has not fully complied with the UN mandate issued over 30 days ago, it is time to move to a new level of pressure, economic.
The Sudan Campaign hopes to accomplish 3 goals at the Monday protest:
(1) To thank the Red Cross and other humanitarian aid organizations that have begun massive operations to feed the displaced and starving people of Darfur (celebrating the end to the fast of the Black Eagle, Joseph Madison)
(2) To decry the weakness of the response of the United Nations to the failure of the government of Sudan to comply fully with the mandate given them by the UN thirty days ago
(3) To announce and to launch a bold new strategy of our drive to bring peace to all of the people of the Sudan: Demand that U.S. citizens, their pension funds and their corporations divest themselves of all investments of money in their names in corporations doing business in the Sudan.
Please join us and/or distribute flyers available at the Sudan Campaign and Passion of the Present and encourage others to do the same.
- - -
DOWNLOAD GENOCIDE POSTER AND FACTSHEET
At www.blockstreet and building.com
Please feel free to download Sudan poster and factsheet - courtesy Passion of the Present at www.blockstreet and building.com
PARTNER UP:
Join with others to take creative action and blog about it.
REACH OUT:
Blog about contacting the media and elected officials.
GET LINKED: Join Save Darfur to moblise national action.
GIVE: For a list of aid organisations working in Sudan go to InterAction or DEC UK or download Songs for Sudan album (see link in next post here below)
COME TO: Passion of the Present for daily news and community.
SPREAD THE WORD: on the latest - Sep 12 Rally at the U.N. in New York - to Stop Sudan Genocide.
- - -
THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL
For blogging the plight of Sudanese in Darfur and Chad
Sudanese women are silhouetted at Abu Shouk camp in North Darfur, Sudan, where more than 40,000 displaced people are receiving food and shelter from international aid agencies. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) (September 01, 2004)
ENGLAND
Alistair Coleman (kudos to the BBC + Caversham for great coverage on Sudan)
The UK Today - thanks to Clive for the info on EDMs and how to make contact by fax and email with our MPs
Norman Geras - great weekly postings on Sudan
IRELAND
Gavin Sheridan - oil and China posts (btw great work being done in Sudan by Ireland's GOAL aid agency)
SCOTLAND
Scottish Webring members (and kudos to Scotsman.com for great reporting on Sudan)
WALES
Bob Piper - always kindly posted on Sudan
Doug Floyd lyrics of Sudan Song and list of the album's tracks
Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
CANADA
Jim Elve at BlogsCanada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
Officially Unofficial - BlogsCandada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
BlogsCanada E Group Blog Multi-partisan Political Punditry
Jim Elve another awesome post on aid links courtesy BBC
E Group Blog - Multi-partisan Political Punditry - Arjun's great discussion thread on: "Should Canada Intervene?"
Boris Anthony another neat post on A failure of will
Allseasons
Lost Below the 49th: Darfur, ReDux - check out link to great piece on Romeo D'allaire (and his book)
Lost Below the 49th Crazy Canuck returns
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Arjun Singh Sudan Genocide: UN finds No Significant Progress...
Arjun Singh has written great posts on Sudan at CanadaBlogs e-group.
Sébastien Paquet - real neat posts as usual
FRANCE
Loic Le Meur (has not posted on Sudan, as far as I am aware, but Loic has many links in his sidebar for anyone wishing to connect up with French bloggers)
AUSTRALIA
Robert Corr - Time for action (best Sudan intro in the blogosphere)
Jonathan Rowbottom hosted interesting discussion thread
PORTUGAL
Virginia Barros' Sítio da Saudade: Sudão powerful post on Sudan (also see above Poem for Sudan)
Nelson
HOLLAND
Ado (who is Dutch and works in Tokyo at Joi Ito's)
JAPAN
Joi Ito re Images of genocide
Joi Ito's list of posts on Sudan
finalvent on China, Japan, Russia and oil
finalvent on Darfur
finalvent re Sudanese FM visit to Japan Sept 5-9 for talks on Darfur
finalvent - more on oil
MALAYSIA
Rajan's first of the great round ups on Sudan
Rajan's second great Sudan Genocide roundup
Rajan's third and, for the Sep 6 meetup, his latest Sudan Genocide roundup
Aiseh, man thoughtful post on Compassionate Infidels
USA
Jim Moore's Journal - April 22, 2004 post that started it all (here at this blog I mean!)
Jim Moore's Journal - April 23, 2004 post that I picked up on and have been blogging about ever since (*yawn*)
Sudan Day of Conscience
Ethan Zuckerman Top Ten Worst Dictators
Ethan Zuckerman Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower
ChaiTeaLatte Madhu kindly linked to several posts and got my blog Instalanched
Instapundit - regular posts on Sudan and esp re oil
Nicholas Genes has written some super posts - his doc buddy Jonathan Spector is now safely back home in the US after working with MSF in Darfur
Pauly's Side of the Truth - has just written another great post on Sudan
Jonathan Broad "Dallaire on Darfur: It is happening...again" (a must-read)
Gary Silberberg - regular postings on Sudan
Patrick Hall - exclusively Sudan posts - neat finds
Allied - one of the few great female bloggers writing about Sudan
Squirrel in DC - link to Samantha Power's great piece in New Yorker on her travels in Sudan
Cheers to The Register for publicising Oxfam's "Songs for Sudan" download album for Darfur.
[Note: sincere apologies to those I've missed out, I've not checked through four months of archives in my main blog. If I have missed you, please email me or comment and I will add your link here - or write a special post later on. Thanks.]
- - -
Note to Jim: Sorry, unable to post image of Passion of the Present's poster. Flickr is superb but for some reason I couldn't get it to show. Instead, I've posted a link to the download at www.blockstreet and building.com
Here is a photo of the town in Portugal where Portuguese blogger Virginia lives. Virginia kindly volunteered to compose, in English, a poem for Sudan, especially for today's "virtual" meet up.
[Photo - with thanks to Sítio da Saudade - courtesy of Rui Vale de Sousa - apologies to photographer, this transmission has cropped right side of picture, full image avail at www.ruivaledesousa.com or copy and paste it into a page in your computer and whole image should appear]
- - -
UPDATE September 8, 2004:
Seems there is no accurate way of knowing who is all blogging about Darfur. Technorati's lists are invaluable (blogosphere would not be the same without it) as you can also search on key words Sudan and Darfur and read blogs that have published using those words during previous 7 days.
Trouble is, the list changes every week, and sometimes there are hundreds to click through. It takes too much time to keep up with. As much as we'd like, we can't visit every blog posting on Sudan. Also (but not too often) links to this site, and others, do not show up in Technorati's listings.
So, if you have posted on the Sudan and are not linked here or at Passion of the Present, please do please make contact in comments or by email - even if it is just to say the word hi - with your blog URL to link here for readers interested in seeing what others are saying, doing and thinking about the Sudan. Thanks. Don't be shy. These two writers took the time and trouble to comment:
AUTHOR OF SUDAN POSTS AT WAVEFLUX BLOG
Is the best sousaphone player in South Carolina
Hello and thank you to the author of Waveflux in St Louis, USA for his neat posts on the Sudan that include Who will save the people of Darfur? - and:
- contact info on officials who may have influence
- copy of a reply received from Sen. Jim Talent's office
- great post for the Day of Conscience
- and Passion of the Present's poster.
In his "about" section, Waveflux writes that a band director once called him the best sousaphone player in the state of South Carolina - and says "that's saying something, because those things are heavy" (but, to be fair he admits, the ones he played way back when were mostly made of fiberglass).
Sousaphone (SOO-zah-fone) is a brass instrument invented by John Philip Sousa which was adapted from the tuba. The Sousaphone has a forward bell which coils around to rest upon the player's shoulder thus allowing the instrument to be carried with greater ease while marching.
[Photo - with thanks to Waveflux - courtesy of G. Leblanc Corporation]
- - -
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
Hello to founder Cameron Sinclair
Hello to Cameron and thank you for commenting at my virtual meet up post at Passion of the Present.
Cameron is the the founder of Architecture for Humanity and was trained as an architect at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
During his studies, he developed an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design. His postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York's homeless population through sustainable, transitional housing.
After completing his studies, he moved to New York where he has worked as a designer and project architect. Since 1996, Cameron has worked on projects in more than 20 countries including England, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. [read more ...]
Meet ups are for people interested in peace for Sudan (and other topics).
You can sign up and get together - in person - with others in your locality. And even start your own Meet up.
Because I am unable to attend a Meet up, I have created a "virtual" Meet up via this post.
Below are links to bloggers - mostly regular reads from my sidebar - who have written about the Sudan.
Here's sending you all a warm hello - and a big thank you for your posts on the Sudan.
See you at the next virtual Meet up here in October :)
Bye for now. With love from Ingrid and Ophelia xx
PS Special thanks to Nick for alerting me to the Meet up date that enabled me to complete this, and the following two posts, in time.
- - -
POEM FOR SUDAN
By Virginia Barros in Portugal
This poem was composed in English by Virginia Barros (blogging under the name of Monalisa) - of Sítio da Saudade - especially for today's Meet Up.
Virginia is a Portuguese blogger who lives in a small town in Portugal. See her beautiful locality in the photo of a bridge - here below. She kindly emailed me this poem for Sudan, in response to my previous post publicising the Sep 6 International Sudanese Peace MeetUp Day. Warm thanks to Virginia for her poem for Sudan:
In my comfortable
And warm room I sleep
I sleep quietly
And you die
Suffering horrors that my brain
Does not obtain to imagine
Because all of us sleep tranquil
And in the same minute
The great pain of the planet
Doesn’t affect us
We pass by lifeless
Indifferent and silently
and we wake up
Thinking to be happy
But the happiness
is spotted of blood and barbarity
Because we let the heartless
Take the world
and we do nothing.
[Photo courtesy of Osterreich Hilft Darfur ORF ]
- - -
SUDAN: INTERNATIONAL MEETUP DAY
Sep 6 Labor Day - Sudan Campaign
Eugene Oregon at Demagogue received this email from Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International and the Sudan Campaign:
This Labor Day, Monday, September 6, the Sudan Campaign is inviting everyone to take a “day on” rather than a “day off” to protest the ongoing genocide in Sudan. Demonstrations have been held at the Sudan embassy everyday since June 29th, and they will continue. Over 50 persons have offered themselves for arrest by committing non-violent acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the urgency and seriousness of the issue. Radio personality and activist, Joe Madison, has been a hunger strike for six weeks. In light of the UN findings that the Khartoum regime has not fully complied with the UN mandate issued over 30 days ago, it is time to move to a new level of pressure, economic.
The Sudan Campaign hopes to accomplish 3 goals at the Monday protest:
(1) To thank the Red Cross and other humanitarian aid organizations that have begun massive operations to feed the displaced and starving people of Darfur (celebrating the end to the fast of the Black Eagle, Joseph Madison)
(2) To decry the weakness of the response of the United Nations to the failure of the government of Sudan to comply fully with the mandate given them by the UN thirty days ago
(3) To announce and to launch a bold new strategy of our drive to bring peace to all of the people of the Sudan: Demand that U.S. citizens, their pension funds and their corporations divest themselves of all investments of money in their names in corporations doing business in the Sudan.
Please join us and/or distribute flyers available at the Sudan Campaign and Passion of the Present and encourage others to do the same.
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DOWNLOAD GENOCIDE POSTER AND FACTSHEET
At www.blockstreet and building.com
Please feel free to download Sudan poster and factsheet - courtesy Passion of the Present at www.blockstreet and building.com
PARTNER UP:
Join with others to take creative action and blog about it.
REACH OUT:
Blog about contacting the media and elected officials.
GET LINKED: Join Save Darfur to moblise national action.
GIVE: For a list of aid organisations working in Sudan go to InterAction or DEC UK or download Songs for Sudan album (see link in next post here below)
COME TO: Passion of the Present for daily news and community.
SPREAD THE WORD: on the latest - Sep 12 Rally at the U.N. in New York - to Stop Sudan Genocide.
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THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL
For blogging the plight of Sudanese in Darfur and Chad
Sudanese women are silhouetted at Abu Shouk camp in North Darfur, Sudan, where more than 40,000 displaced people are receiving food and shelter from international aid agencies. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) (September 01, 2004)
ENGLAND
Alistair Coleman (kudos to the BBC + Caversham for great coverage on Sudan)
The UK Today - thanks to Clive for the info on EDMs and how to make contact by fax and email with our MPs
Norman Geras - great weekly postings on Sudan
IRELAND
Gavin Sheridan - oil and China posts (btw great work being done in Sudan by Ireland's GOAL aid agency)
SCOTLAND
Scottish Webring members (and kudos to Scotsman.com for great reporting on Sudan)
WALES
Bob Piper - always kindly posted on Sudan
Doug Floyd lyrics of Sudan Song and list of the album's tracks
Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
CANADA
Jim Elve at BlogsCanada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
Officially Unofficial - BlogsCandada - The Suffering Continues Unabated
BlogsCanada E Group Blog Multi-partisan Political Punditry
Jim Elve another awesome post on aid links courtesy BBC
E Group Blog - Multi-partisan Political Punditry - Arjun's great discussion thread on: "Should Canada Intervene?"
Boris Anthony another neat post on A failure of will
Allseasons
Lost Below the 49th: Darfur, ReDux - check out link to great piece on Romeo D'allaire (and his book)
Lost Below the 49th Crazy Canuck returns
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Arjun Singh Sudan Genocide: UN finds No Significant Progress...
Arjun Singh has written great posts on Sudan at CanadaBlogs e-group.
Sébastien Paquet - real neat posts as usual
FRANCE
Loic Le Meur (has not posted on Sudan, as far as I am aware, but Loic has many links in his sidebar for anyone wishing to connect up with French bloggers)
AUSTRALIA
Robert Corr - Time for action (best Sudan intro in the blogosphere)
Jonathan Rowbottom hosted interesting discussion thread
PORTUGAL
Virginia Barros' Sítio da Saudade: Sudão powerful post on Sudan (also see above Poem for Sudan)
Nelson
HOLLAND
Ado (who is Dutch and works in Tokyo at Joi Ito's)
JAPAN
Joi Ito re Images of genocide
Joi Ito's list of posts on Sudan
finalvent on China, Japan, Russia and oil
finalvent on Darfur
finalvent re Sudanese FM visit to Japan Sept 5-9 for talks on Darfur
finalvent - more on oil
MALAYSIA
Rajan's first of the great round ups on Sudan
Rajan's second great Sudan Genocide roundup
Rajan's third and, for the Sep 6 meetup, his latest Sudan Genocide roundup
Aiseh, man thoughtful post on Compassionate Infidels
USA
Jim Moore's Journal - April 22, 2004 post that started it all (here at this blog I mean!)
Jim Moore's Journal - April 23, 2004 post that I picked up on and have been blogging about ever since (*yawn*)
Sudan Day of Conscience
Ethan Zuckerman Top Ten Worst Dictators
Ethan Zuckerman Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower
ChaiTeaLatte Madhu kindly linked to several posts and got my blog Instalanched
Instapundit - regular posts on Sudan and esp re oil
Nicholas Genes has written some super posts - his doc buddy Jonathan Spector is now safely back home in the US after working with MSF in Darfur
Pauly's Side of the Truth - has just written another great post on Sudan
Jonathan Broad "Dallaire on Darfur: It is happening...again" (a must-read)
Gary Silberberg - regular postings on Sudan
Patrick Hall - exclusively Sudan posts - neat finds
Allied - one of the few great female bloggers writing about Sudan
Squirrel in DC - link to Samantha Power's great piece in New Yorker on her travels in Sudan
Cheers to The Register for publicising Oxfam's "Songs for Sudan" download album for Darfur.
[Note: sincere apologies to those I've missed out, I've not checked through four months of archives in my main blog. If I have missed you, please email me or comment and I will add your link here - or write a special post later on. Thanks.]
- - -
Note to Jim: Sorry, unable to post image of Passion of the Present's poster. Flickr is superb but for some reason I couldn't get it to show. Instead, I've posted a link to the download at www.blockstreet and building.com
Here is a photo of the town in Portugal where Portuguese blogger Virginia lives. Virginia kindly volunteered to compose, in English, a poem for Sudan, especially for today's "virtual" meet up.
[Photo - with thanks to Sítio da Saudade - courtesy of Rui Vale de Sousa - apologies to photographer, this transmission has cropped right side of picture, full image avail at www.ruivaledesousa.com or copy and paste it into a page in your computer and whole image should appear]
- - -
UPDATE September 8, 2004:
Seems there is no accurate way of knowing who is all blogging about Darfur. Technorati's lists are invaluable (blogosphere would not be the same without it) as you can also search on key words Sudan and Darfur and read blogs that have published using those words during previous 7 days.
Trouble is, the list changes every week, and sometimes there are hundreds to click through. It takes too much time to keep up with. As much as we'd like, we can't visit every blog posting on Sudan. Also (but not too often) links to this site, and others, do not show up in Technorati's listings.
So, if you have posted on the Sudan and are not linked here or at Passion of the Present, please do please make contact in comments or by email - even if it is just to say the word hi - with your blog URL to link here for readers interested in seeing what others are saying, doing and thinking about the Sudan. Thanks. Don't be shy. These two writers took the time and trouble to comment:
AUTHOR OF SUDAN POSTS AT WAVEFLUX BLOG
Is the best sousaphone player in South Carolina
Hello and thank you to the author of Waveflux in St Louis, USA for his neat posts on the Sudan that include Who will save the people of Darfur? - and:
- contact info on officials who may have influence
- copy of a reply received from Sen. Jim Talent's office
- great post for the Day of Conscience
- and Passion of the Present's poster.
In his "about" section, Waveflux writes that a band director once called him the best sousaphone player in the state of South Carolina - and says "that's saying something, because those things are heavy" (but, to be fair he admits, the ones he played way back when were mostly made of fiberglass).
Sousaphone (SOO-zah-fone) is a brass instrument invented by John Philip Sousa which was adapted from the tuba. The Sousaphone has a forward bell which coils around to rest upon the player's shoulder thus allowing the instrument to be carried with greater ease while marching.
[Photo - with thanks to Waveflux - courtesy of G. Leblanc Corporation]
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ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
Hello to founder Cameron Sinclair
Hello to Cameron and thank you for commenting at my virtual meet up post at Passion of the Present.
Cameron is the the founder of Architecture for Humanity and was trained as an architect at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
During his studies, he developed an interest in social, cultural and humanitarian design. His postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York's homeless population through sustainable, transitional housing.
After completing his studies, he moved to New York where he has worked as a designer and project architect. Since 1996, Cameron has worked on projects in more than 20 countries including England, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. [read more ...]
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Scramble for Resources in DRC Leads to Massive Deaths, But Scant Attention
August 17, 2004, Congo-Kinshasa [interview], copied here in full:
"With an estimated 3.5 million Congolese dead over the last six years due to war, starvation and disease, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the world's worst long-running humanitarian disasters. About 3.3 million people are out of reach of relief organizations.
Clashes between rebel groups and government forces continue to ravage eastern Congo. Many observers say the conflict is now a struggle over resources. Learned Dees, Senior Program Officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy, testified before Congress last month that forces from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda are stealing the DRC's resources.
Dees has been a freelance journalist in Africa, covering political events in Congo from 1990-1991 and filing stories for NPR, BBC, and Voice of America. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1980s in then-Zaire and is fluent in Kikongo and Lingala, two of the most widely spoken local languages in the Congo. Recently returned from a trip to the DRC, he shared his views about the conflict there.
Dees talked about his analysis of the eastern Congo situation and the lack of media attention to the crisis to AllAfrica's Milen Yishak.
What are some of the major challenges to restoring peace in the DRC?
The situation in eastern Congo has remained volatile. One of the shortcomings has been a lack of focus on ending violence.
I think the strategy seems to have been [that] progress in the political situation in the west of the Congo would bring peace to the east of the Congo. That clearly has not happened.
What are your thoughts on the 2005 national elections?
Elections are at the end of the process. Clearly right now, we are facing a short-term crisis having to do with the violence in the east. Unless those short-term issues are prioritized, it would make it difficult for elections. But having said that, there is no reason that the focus can't be shifted in order to deal with the short-term issues first and the longer-term issue of elections.
It can happen. But it can only happen if the focus changes to deal with the obstacles that would prevent the elections from happening. The first obstacle is the politically related violence in the east. The other issue is the technical organization of the elections, [which] are less of a challenge than the political violence that presents the major challenge.
Why is Rwanda helping the rebels in the Eastern DRC?
The reason put forward most commonly is that they have a security interest in the Congo. And those security interests involve keeping the FDLR (Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda) away from the border. That seems to be the security interest argument.
Other than that, I am not sure what their motivation is other than the well-established facts related to economic pillaging that were in the report that the UN has done over the years in eastern Congo and Congo.
MONUC (U.N. Organization Mission in the DRC) did not gain access to uranium mine sites, which had recently collapsed. How does the DRC's collapsed uranium mines affect workers and the international community?
Obviously, if uranium is in the mine, there are levels of radiation, which the workers and their families might not be aware of. It's a danger to them, and probably unbeknownst to them how much of a danger.
There is a great concern by the international community about the mine in general. There hasn't been much oversight over the activities at the mine. Because it is unregulated, anyone can have access to the mine. Therefore, there is the potential that uranium can be mined -- and who knows who will get that uranium. I think it is incumbent on the government of Congo to react accordingly and make sure that the mine is secure. Because attention is being focused, that will probably happen in the short term.
Do you see any similarities between the coverage of the crisis in Darfur and the DRC?
What happened in Darfur started happening seven, eight, nine, ten months ago. Not much attention was paid when the crisis was building. When the crisis exploded -- when the humanitarian issues arose -- then nine to ten months later, there was a crescendo of attention focused exclusively on this issue.
You could compare this to the situation in eastern Congo. The problem in Bukavu started in February. Fighting started in May and June. We are looking at the potential for more fighting in Goma anytime. The humanitarian consequences will be similar to what we see in Darfur - a million people displaced and in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
It seems to me that media attention is often focused on a single crisis, as if the world can't deal with more than one crisis in Africa at a time. But over the long term, Congo represents a greater humanitarian crisis, because we have more people displaced, more people killed, and you have the potential for another level of violence.
Do you think the media spotlight in Darfur is taking away from the coverage of DRC?
I think Darfur deserves attention. There will be responses as a result, and that's a good thing.
The challenge in the Congo is focusing on what's causing the violence. If the media were to focus on what's causing the violence currently and what could be done to stop violence, that would be an enormous contribution rather than waiting until the violence has erupted and following the result.
The humanitarian consequences have occurred over a long period of time. Media attention has been fleeting. There has been some attention, and then it sort of disappears. In part, it is a result of the nature of the media, which focuses on one crisis or one set of bad news and then goes on to the next. There's not really a sustained amount of attention.
What do you think would attract more attention to the DRC?
I think a visit by Kofi Annan as he did in Darfur brought attention to the problem. A visit by Colin Powell or a high-ranking American official would focus attention. I think those are the sorts of things that the media responds to.
Darfur got into the news because Kofi Annan was there. Darfur got into the news because Collin Powell was there. I think that sort of attention by the UN and the U.S. Department of State and the Secretary of State would bring the same amount of attention." [end of interview]
[via Exegesis]
- - -
DANIEL KREISS OF EXEGESIS BLOG
Questions media coverage of Darfur -v- Congo
Daniel Kreiss authors Exegesis blog that he describes as "Comment and Analysis on the Press, Politics, and Digital Culture from New York City." - and himself as a proud unofficial blogger of the Democratic Convention.
On August 23, 2004, Daniel authored the following post:
"The situation in the DR Congo has taken another turn for the worse, with the main rebel group pulling out of the power-sharing government.
As a recap, the governments of Rwanda and Burundi have threatened to retaliate after the massacre of 160 Congolian refugees in Burundi last week.
All eyes are on Darfur, but this conflict has the potential to dwarf Sudan in terms of humanitarian needs."
- - -
Here is a copy of Daniel's August 18, 2004, post:
Here is a good overview of the DR Congo instability in the form of an interview with Learned Dees, Senior Program Officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy. With 3.5 million killed over the last six years, it is hard to fathom the lack of press attention. Dees says:
----------------------------------------------------------------
I think a visit by Kofi Annan as he did in Darfur brought attention to the problem. A visit by Colin Powell or a high-ranking American official would focus attention. I think those are the sorts of things that the media responds to.
Darfur got into the news because Kofi Annan was there. Darfur got into the news because Collin (sic) Powell was there. I think that sort of attention by the UN and the U.S. Department of State and the Secretary of State would bring the same amount of attention.
----------------------------------------------------------------
One of the things I have been fascinated by is how much the Christian Right has made the genocide in Sudan an issue, resulting in the attention it has received from the Bush Administration, including Colin Powell's visit, and the national press.
Here is a sampling of Jerry Falwell's statements on Sudan:
"Over 2 million Christians have died in the Sudan in recent years at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. The press to their discredit have failed to maximize the international tragedy that is underway."
"If a massacre were being conducted against people of color, God forbid, or groups like gays and lesbians, there would be an understandable outcry that would demand change," Falwell told Baptist Press. "It is a tragedy that Christian lives do not seem to have the same value to the national media."
Meanwhile, groups like Christian Aid, Servants Heart, and Christian Solidarity International have been involved in not only relief efforts, but also forcing the issue on the press.
This from Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services:
"Well, the situation is tragic. As we visited the camps of the displaced people we saw desolation and fear, and in some cases, a lack of hope. There's an awful lot of people -- almost 1.5 million people -- who have been forced to flee their homes because of attacks from militia gangs who have raped, who have burned their homes, who have killed. And these people are now living in the most desolate of conditions in just terrible circumstances."
Now it seems to me a little ironic that the same attention is not being lavished on the DR Congo, either because it is less symbolically and ideologically clear cut, or because it has been a protracted and much more complicated war.
Either way, followers of Christ are being killed. The DR Congo is over 70 percent Catholic or Protestant. Contrast the 1.5 million who are internally displaced in the Sudan with the 3.8 million in the DR Congo.
From Amnesty International:
--------------------------------------------------------------
In July 2003, an AI research mission visited IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in North Kivu Province who had fled Bunia, Ituri's capital. AI researchers documented IDP accounts of rapes, beatings, and killings as they fled their homes. "The precarious security situation and relative or total lack of humanitarian assistance place the displaced in an even more vulnerable position in terms of human rights violations," their October report said.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I am not faulting Christian organizations for being involved in Sudan; indeed, I think the DR Congo is more a failure of the press, US leadership, and the UN security council. However, if we are going to bat for the cause of human rights, then the same amount of attention needs to be placed on all conflicts and not just those where it is easy to contrast a Muslim Janjaweed vs. Christian refugees to the American and European publics.
[Note -- this post is work - in - progress : apologies to Daniel for copying his two posts here without explanation: I must leave this post for now, just wanted to get this blog set up and the details posted so I can work on a draft post here that will explain the rationale for this new blog]
"With an estimated 3.5 million Congolese dead over the last six years due to war, starvation and disease, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the world's worst long-running humanitarian disasters. About 3.3 million people are out of reach of relief organizations.
Clashes between rebel groups and government forces continue to ravage eastern Congo. Many observers say the conflict is now a struggle over resources. Learned Dees, Senior Program Officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy, testified before Congress last month that forces from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda are stealing the DRC's resources.
Dees has been a freelance journalist in Africa, covering political events in Congo from 1990-1991 and filing stories for NPR, BBC, and Voice of America. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1980s in then-Zaire and is fluent in Kikongo and Lingala, two of the most widely spoken local languages in the Congo. Recently returned from a trip to the DRC, he shared his views about the conflict there.
Dees talked about his analysis of the eastern Congo situation and the lack of media attention to the crisis to AllAfrica's Milen Yishak.
What are some of the major challenges to restoring peace in the DRC?
The situation in eastern Congo has remained volatile. One of the shortcomings has been a lack of focus on ending violence.
I think the strategy seems to have been [that] progress in the political situation in the west of the Congo would bring peace to the east of the Congo. That clearly has not happened.
What are your thoughts on the 2005 national elections?
Elections are at the end of the process. Clearly right now, we are facing a short-term crisis having to do with the violence in the east. Unless those short-term issues are prioritized, it would make it difficult for elections. But having said that, there is no reason that the focus can't be shifted in order to deal with the short-term issues first and the longer-term issue of elections.
It can happen. But it can only happen if the focus changes to deal with the obstacles that would prevent the elections from happening. The first obstacle is the politically related violence in the east. The other issue is the technical organization of the elections, [which] are less of a challenge than the political violence that presents the major challenge.
Why is Rwanda helping the rebels in the Eastern DRC?
The reason put forward most commonly is that they have a security interest in the Congo. And those security interests involve keeping the FDLR (Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda) away from the border. That seems to be the security interest argument.
Other than that, I am not sure what their motivation is other than the well-established facts related to economic pillaging that were in the report that the UN has done over the years in eastern Congo and Congo.
MONUC (U.N. Organization Mission in the DRC) did not gain access to uranium mine sites, which had recently collapsed. How does the DRC's collapsed uranium mines affect workers and the international community?
Obviously, if uranium is in the mine, there are levels of radiation, which the workers and their families might not be aware of. It's a danger to them, and probably unbeknownst to them how much of a danger.
There is a great concern by the international community about the mine in general. There hasn't been much oversight over the activities at the mine. Because it is unregulated, anyone can have access to the mine. Therefore, there is the potential that uranium can be mined -- and who knows who will get that uranium. I think it is incumbent on the government of Congo to react accordingly and make sure that the mine is secure. Because attention is being focused, that will probably happen in the short term.
Do you see any similarities between the coverage of the crisis in Darfur and the DRC?
What happened in Darfur started happening seven, eight, nine, ten months ago. Not much attention was paid when the crisis was building. When the crisis exploded -- when the humanitarian issues arose -- then nine to ten months later, there was a crescendo of attention focused exclusively on this issue.
You could compare this to the situation in eastern Congo. The problem in Bukavu started in February. Fighting started in May and June. We are looking at the potential for more fighting in Goma anytime. The humanitarian consequences will be similar to what we see in Darfur - a million people displaced and in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
It seems to me that media attention is often focused on a single crisis, as if the world can't deal with more than one crisis in Africa at a time. But over the long term, Congo represents a greater humanitarian crisis, because we have more people displaced, more people killed, and you have the potential for another level of violence.
Do you think the media spotlight in Darfur is taking away from the coverage of DRC?
I think Darfur deserves attention. There will be responses as a result, and that's a good thing.
The challenge in the Congo is focusing on what's causing the violence. If the media were to focus on what's causing the violence currently and what could be done to stop violence, that would be an enormous contribution rather than waiting until the violence has erupted and following the result.
The humanitarian consequences have occurred over a long period of time. Media attention has been fleeting. There has been some attention, and then it sort of disappears. In part, it is a result of the nature of the media, which focuses on one crisis or one set of bad news and then goes on to the next. There's not really a sustained amount of attention.
What do you think would attract more attention to the DRC?
I think a visit by Kofi Annan as he did in Darfur brought attention to the problem. A visit by Colin Powell or a high-ranking American official would focus attention. I think those are the sorts of things that the media responds to.
Darfur got into the news because Kofi Annan was there. Darfur got into the news because Collin Powell was there. I think that sort of attention by the UN and the U.S. Department of State and the Secretary of State would bring the same amount of attention." [end of interview]
[via Exegesis]
- - -
DANIEL KREISS OF EXEGESIS BLOG
Questions media coverage of Darfur -v- Congo
Daniel Kreiss authors Exegesis blog that he describes as "Comment and Analysis on the Press, Politics, and Digital Culture from New York City." - and himself as a proud unofficial blogger of the Democratic Convention.
On August 23, 2004, Daniel authored the following post:
"The situation in the DR Congo has taken another turn for the worse, with the main rebel group pulling out of the power-sharing government.
As a recap, the governments of Rwanda and Burundi have threatened to retaliate after the massacre of 160 Congolian refugees in Burundi last week.
All eyes are on Darfur, but this conflict has the potential to dwarf Sudan in terms of humanitarian needs."
- - -
Here is a copy of Daniel's August 18, 2004, post:
Here is a good overview of the DR Congo instability in the form of an interview with Learned Dees, Senior Program Officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy. With 3.5 million killed over the last six years, it is hard to fathom the lack of press attention. Dees says:
----------------------------------------------------------------
I think a visit by Kofi Annan as he did in Darfur brought attention to the problem. A visit by Colin Powell or a high-ranking American official would focus attention. I think those are the sorts of things that the media responds to.
Darfur got into the news because Kofi Annan was there. Darfur got into the news because Collin (sic) Powell was there. I think that sort of attention by the UN and the U.S. Department of State and the Secretary of State would bring the same amount of attention.
----------------------------------------------------------------
One of the things I have been fascinated by is how much the Christian Right has made the genocide in Sudan an issue, resulting in the attention it has received from the Bush Administration, including Colin Powell's visit, and the national press.
Here is a sampling of Jerry Falwell's statements on Sudan:
"Over 2 million Christians have died in the Sudan in recent years at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. The press to their discredit have failed to maximize the international tragedy that is underway."
"If a massacre were being conducted against people of color, God forbid, or groups like gays and lesbians, there would be an understandable outcry that would demand change," Falwell told Baptist Press. "It is a tragedy that Christian lives do not seem to have the same value to the national media."
Meanwhile, groups like Christian Aid, Servants Heart, and Christian Solidarity International have been involved in not only relief efforts, but also forcing the issue on the press.
This from Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services:
"Well, the situation is tragic. As we visited the camps of the displaced people we saw desolation and fear, and in some cases, a lack of hope. There's an awful lot of people -- almost 1.5 million people -- who have been forced to flee their homes because of attacks from militia gangs who have raped, who have burned their homes, who have killed. And these people are now living in the most desolate of conditions in just terrible circumstances."
Now it seems to me a little ironic that the same attention is not being lavished on the DR Congo, either because it is less symbolically and ideologically clear cut, or because it has been a protracted and much more complicated war.
Either way, followers of Christ are being killed. The DR Congo is over 70 percent Catholic or Protestant. Contrast the 1.5 million who are internally displaced in the Sudan with the 3.8 million in the DR Congo.
From Amnesty International:
--------------------------------------------------------------
In July 2003, an AI research mission visited IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in North Kivu Province who had fled Bunia, Ituri's capital. AI researchers documented IDP accounts of rapes, beatings, and killings as they fled their homes. "The precarious security situation and relative or total lack of humanitarian assistance place the displaced in an even more vulnerable position in terms of human rights violations," their October report said.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I am not faulting Christian organizations for being involved in Sudan; indeed, I think the DR Congo is more a failure of the press, US leadership, and the UN security council. However, if we are going to bat for the cause of human rights, then the same amount of attention needs to be placed on all conflicts and not just those where it is easy to contrast a Muslim Janjaweed vs. Christian refugees to the American and European publics.
[Note -- this post is work - in - progress : apologies to Daniel for copying his two posts here without explanation: I must leave this post for now, just wanted to get this blog set up and the details posted so I can work on a draft post here that will explain the rationale for this new blog]
Darfur, Congo seen test for Africa peace-Straw
CAPE TOWN, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Africa must not allow the spectre of genocide to rise again and should increase efforts to end conflicts and encourage economic growth, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday.
Straw, on an official visit to South Africa, said the crisis in Darfur in western Sudan was Africa's biggest immediate challenge and would test the African Union's ability to promote peace via dialogue.
The U.S. Congress has declared the violence in Darfur, in which Arab militias are accused of attacking black villagers, to be genocide although the European Union has not gone so far.
Africa's last genocide was in Rwanda, where 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists in 1994.
Britain, as chief financier of Africa's military mission in Darfur, would provide more cash if asked, Straw told a public lecture in Cape Town. Britain was also awaiting a report from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on what he considered to be the next steps in addressing the crisis.
"The stakes are high...Africa needs to meet the test," said Straw, who visited Darfur earlier this week. "We are ready to do more (to help) if asked."
A million people have been driven from their homes and up to 50,000 killed in the Darfur conflict, the U.N. says. The AU has proposed sending some 2,000 AU troops to confine rebels to their bases while Khartoum disarms pro-government Janjaweed militia.
Straw said Africa needed to consolidate peace deals worked out by South Africa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi -- where militant Hutu rebels slaughtered 160 Congolese refugees earlier this month.
In a reference to this troubled Great Lakes region Straw said:"If Africa is to thrive, we cannot allow a conflict to smoulder at its heart, across an area the size of Europe ... Nor can we allow the spectre of genocide to hover again over the continent."
"Addressing these challenges will will help entrench stability and boost growth and development."
PEACE ENFORCEMENT
Straw said Britain was looking to enhance the role of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC. African leaders say MONUC should be given an Article Seven UN mandate, which allows peace enforcement.
He said a key challenge in the Congo was to disarm what are known as "negative forces", which refers to Hutu militias or former soldiers who served in the Rwandan army before the 1994 slaughter.
The Burundi massacre by the rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) has sparked concern that Burundi's peace process could collapse and led to fresh tensions between Rwanda and Burundi on one side and Congo on the other.
Regional leaders have branded the FNL a terrorist organisation but chief Burundi mediator and South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma said this week FNL could return to peace talks if it renounced terror activities.
Straw, on an official visit to South Africa, said the crisis in Darfur in western Sudan was Africa's biggest immediate challenge and would test the African Union's ability to promote peace via dialogue.
The U.S. Congress has declared the violence in Darfur, in which Arab militias are accused of attacking black villagers, to be genocide although the European Union has not gone so far.
Africa's last genocide was in Rwanda, where 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists in 1994.
Britain, as chief financier of Africa's military mission in Darfur, would provide more cash if asked, Straw told a public lecture in Cape Town. Britain was also awaiting a report from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on what he considered to be the next steps in addressing the crisis.
"The stakes are high...Africa needs to meet the test," said Straw, who visited Darfur earlier this week. "We are ready to do more (to help) if asked."
A million people have been driven from their homes and up to 50,000 killed in the Darfur conflict, the U.N. says. The AU has proposed sending some 2,000 AU troops to confine rebels to their bases while Khartoum disarms pro-government Janjaweed militia.
Straw said Africa needed to consolidate peace deals worked out by South Africa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi -- where militant Hutu rebels slaughtered 160 Congolese refugees earlier this month.
In a reference to this troubled Great Lakes region Straw said:"If Africa is to thrive, we cannot allow a conflict to smoulder at its heart, across an area the size of Europe ... Nor can we allow the spectre of genocide to hover again over the continent."
"Addressing these challenges will will help entrench stability and boost growth and development."
PEACE ENFORCEMENT
Straw said Britain was looking to enhance the role of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC. African leaders say MONUC should be given an Article Seven UN mandate, which allows peace enforcement.
He said a key challenge in the Congo was to disarm what are known as "negative forces", which refers to Hutu militias or former soldiers who served in the Rwandan army before the 1994 slaughter.
The Burundi massacre by the rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) has sparked concern that Burundi's peace process could collapse and led to fresh tensions between Rwanda and Burundi on one side and Congo on the other.
Regional leaders have branded the FNL a terrorist organisation but chief Burundi mediator and South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma said this week FNL could return to peace talks if it renounced terror activities.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Africa: A scar on the conscience of the world
August 21, 2004, Independent UK news report copied here in full:
Three years ago, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the world to heal the wounds of Africa. As Foreign Secretary Jack Straw prepares to fly to the Sudan tomorrow, the continent is still riven by strife, war and famine.
"The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier" - Tony Blair, 2 October 2001.
IVORY COAST: REBELLION
What is going on? The country, which produces 40 per cent of the world's cocoa, is effectively split between north and south following a rebellion two years ago by Muslim northerners over national identity and land ownership.
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is taking a low profile with no direct aid. The African Union, is attempting to organize elections in October to end the standoff.
What is the solution? No signs of early resolution to stalemate
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WAR
What is going on? Sporadic fighting continues despite 2002 peace agreement. Congolese Tutsi rebel soldiers occupied eastern town of Bukavu for a week in June
What is Britain doing to help? Britain backs the UN peacekeeping mission and is also pressing Uganda and Rwanda to end any involvement, which they deny
What is the solution? Conflict expected to continue
ZIMBABWE: TYRANNY/FAMINE
What is going on? Political crackdown continues ahead of elections next year
What is Britain doing to help? Britain hopes South Africa will intercede with President Mugabe to resolve standoff
What is the solution? Stalemate will only be removed when Mugabe leaves power - quietly, it is hoped
SUDAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING/FAMINE
What is going on? Rebellion in Darfur provoked government crackdown leaving 1.2 million homeless and 50,000 dead
What is Britain doing to help? Largest single cash donor having provided £63m in humanitarian aid. Backs African Union efforts and UN
What is the solution? No easy answer. Sanctions could prove disastrous
UGANDA: REBELLION/AIDS
What is going on? Mystical Lord's Resistance army has terrorised northern Uganda for years with vicious campaign that has forced 1.5 million people from their homes
What is Britain doing to help? Britain has supported President Museveni with £740m in development aid since he came to power
What is the solution? Negotiations with Sudan-based leader Joseph Kony doomed to failure, miltary solution seems inevitable
RWANDA: ETHNIC STRIFE
What is going on? Rwanda continues to deny Congolese accusations that it has its soldiers in Congo in violation of a peace agreement. Ethnic tensions in Rwanda still strong after 1994 genocide.
What is Britain doing to help? UK is largest single donor, providing nearly £33m last year. But government rejects calls to use aid to pressure President Kagame
What is the solution? Peace in Rwanda depends on solution for Congo
BURUNDI: CIVIL WAR
What is going on? 160 Tutsis were the victims last week of low level civil war
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is stepping up aid with £8m budgeted for 2004-5. UN just set up political mission
What is the solution? Solution depends on settlement in DR Congo
- - -
On the trail of the killers who harvest child body parts for muti medicine
21 August 2004, Independent UK news report by Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent, copied here in full:
They first hit 10-year-old Sello Chokoe with a blunt instrument, causing a gash on his head. They then chopped off his penis, his hand and his ear. They were harvesting his body parts for "muti" - the murderous practice of traditional African medicine
Yet it is far from a normal part of such medicine. "In my many years of service in the South African police, I have not encountered this sadistic taking of a young innocent life," said police inspector Mohlahla Moshane as he led us to the spot.
The murder site is a few kilometres away from Sello's village, Moletjie, in northern Limpopo province. There stands a distinct and lonely hill in a vast grass and shrub veld.
The unsuspecting Sello was lured to the spot after being asked to look for a neighbour's donkeys. After a carefully planned ambush, his killers wedged him between the two large rocks to performed their macabre ceremony.
Sello seems to have dragged himself from the rocks where he had been abandoned. A woman collecting firewood found him and he was taken to hospital, but died a few days later. He was buried last Sunday in his fear-wracked village.
The practice of muti provides a disconcerting counterpoint to the contemporary image of the new South Africa. Dr Gerard Lubschagne, who heads the investigative psychology unit of the South African police service, conservatively estimates lives lost to ritual murders at between 50 to 300 every year. "We don't have accurate figures because most murders here are recorded in our records as murders irrespective of motive," he says. "Most people might also not regard a murder as a muti matter but just dismiss it as the work of some crazy killers."
Dr Lubschagne admits the rate of murders signals a very worrying trend in South Africa. Despite South Africa being the most developed African economy, a huge chunk of its population still believes power and wealth are better stoked by witch-doctors than stockbrokers and market analysts. "People who want to do better, people who want to be promoted at work, gamblers and politicians who want to win and even bank robbers who seek to get away with their criminal acts turn to muti," Dr Lubschagne said.
How the body parts are used varies with what customers want to achieve. They are eaten, drunk or smeared over the ambitious person. Various parts are used for different purposes. A man who had difficulty in producing children killed a father of several children and used his victim's genitals for muti. In another case, a butcher used a severed human hand to slap each of his products every morning before opening as a way of invoking the spirits to beckon customers.
Mathews Mojela is the head teacher at Sello's primary school. He has worked in rural areas for nearly a quarter of a century and says muti is founded in the archaic belief that there is only a limited amount of good luck around. If one wants to increase his wealth or luck, then it should come at another's expense.
The screaming of a child while his body parts are being chopped off is also regarded as a sign calling customers to the perpetrator's business, Mr Mojolela said. It is also believed that magical powers are awakened by the screams. Eating or burying the body parts "capture" the desired results. Robert Thornton, an anthropology professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg , who has done research in traditional healing, says children like Sello are targeted because it is believed that the power of the virgin is greater than that of a sexually active adult.
The main motivating idea is what Professor Thorntorn describes as "symbolic logic", the idea that another person's penis will strengthen the perpetrator's, or that the perpetrator's far-sightedness will be improved by devouring the victim's eyes. Blood is thought to increase vitality.
Professor Issack Niehaus of the University of Pretoria fears that muti killings will increase as the inequalities of wealth become more entrenched. He said: "I would expect the occult economy - that is the belief in using magical means to gain prosperity - to increase as poverty worsens."
At the spot where Sello was murdered, Inspector Mashane said "A young kid is carefully lured into this bush and mutilated without any witnesses. If he survives, perhaps he is the only person who could help identify his killers."
One of the few victims who lived to tell his story was Jeffery Mkhonto, who six years ago was mutilated by an organised gang set to harvest body parts. He had been lured to the house of a neighbour for food and ended up being castrated.
Dr Lubschagne says muti killings are difficult to investigate because there is no clear relationship between perpetrator and victim. Yet other reports have also suggested that the muti victim is often known to the perpetrators and is easily lured and murdered in the process. Communities themselves are often too afraid to come forward with evidence because of fears of a magical retaliation.
At Sello's homestead, even the elders were too afraid to point any fingers directly at a neighbour, a traditional healer, although many villagers implicated him in Sello's murder in muffled tones. The neighbour had allegedly sent Sello to fetch his donkeys without Sello's mother's permission. Peter Kagbi, who is in his late sixties, was questioned for four days by the police over Sello's murder before being released pending further investigations. Mr Kgabi confirmed that he had sent Sello to fetch the donkeys, but he denied taking part in the murder.
He said he saw nothing wrong in sending Sello without the mother's permission as he had done that on similar errands before, a point hotly disputed by the boy's family. Mr Kgabi said he had been threatened by the community and told they planned to burn him alive because he was a wizard.
"Some are accusing me of killing Sello but I did not," he said. "I have not fled my home despite the threats because if I do, the community will regard that as an admission of guilt."
Even the eventual capture and conviction of Sello's killers would do little for his brokenhearted single mother, Salome, 39, who lives with her two remaining children on a £15 a month social grant from the government.
"Anything that does not bring back my son is hardly of any importance to me now. No mother wants to lose a child this way," she said.
Her emotional state will not be helped when she learns that Sello's body parts probably were sold for no more than £200 each, the price normally charged for a child's body parts in the muti industry.
- - -
This blog is dedicated to Dr James Moore [more later -- this weblog is in the process of being set up]
Three years ago, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the world to heal the wounds of Africa. As Foreign Secretary Jack Straw prepares to fly to the Sudan tomorrow, the continent is still riven by strife, war and famine.
"The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier" - Tony Blair, 2 October 2001.
IVORY COAST: REBELLION
What is going on? The country, which produces 40 per cent of the world's cocoa, is effectively split between north and south following a rebellion two years ago by Muslim northerners over national identity and land ownership.
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is taking a low profile with no direct aid. The African Union, is attempting to organize elections in October to end the standoff.
What is the solution? No signs of early resolution to stalemate
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WAR
What is going on? Sporadic fighting continues despite 2002 peace agreement. Congolese Tutsi rebel soldiers occupied eastern town of Bukavu for a week in June
What is Britain doing to help? Britain backs the UN peacekeeping mission and is also pressing Uganda and Rwanda to end any involvement, which they deny
What is the solution? Conflict expected to continue
ZIMBABWE: TYRANNY/FAMINE
What is going on? Political crackdown continues ahead of elections next year
What is Britain doing to help? Britain hopes South Africa will intercede with President Mugabe to resolve standoff
What is the solution? Stalemate will only be removed when Mugabe leaves power - quietly, it is hoped
SUDAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING/FAMINE
What is going on? Rebellion in Darfur provoked government crackdown leaving 1.2 million homeless and 50,000 dead
What is Britain doing to help? Largest single cash donor having provided £63m in humanitarian aid. Backs African Union efforts and UN
What is the solution? No easy answer. Sanctions could prove disastrous
UGANDA: REBELLION/AIDS
What is going on? Mystical Lord's Resistance army has terrorised northern Uganda for years with vicious campaign that has forced 1.5 million people from their homes
What is Britain doing to help? Britain has supported President Museveni with £740m in development aid since he came to power
What is the solution? Negotiations with Sudan-based leader Joseph Kony doomed to failure, miltary solution seems inevitable
RWANDA: ETHNIC STRIFE
What is going on? Rwanda continues to deny Congolese accusations that it has its soldiers in Congo in violation of a peace agreement. Ethnic tensions in Rwanda still strong after 1994 genocide.
What is Britain doing to help? UK is largest single donor, providing nearly £33m last year. But government rejects calls to use aid to pressure President Kagame
What is the solution? Peace in Rwanda depends on solution for Congo
BURUNDI: CIVIL WAR
What is going on? 160 Tutsis were the victims last week of low level civil war
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is stepping up aid with £8m budgeted for 2004-5. UN just set up political mission
What is the solution? Solution depends on settlement in DR Congo
- - -
On the trail of the killers who harvest child body parts for muti medicine
21 August 2004, Independent UK news report by Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent, copied here in full:
They first hit 10-year-old Sello Chokoe with a blunt instrument, causing a gash on his head. They then chopped off his penis, his hand and his ear. They were harvesting his body parts for "muti" - the murderous practice of traditional African medicine
Yet it is far from a normal part of such medicine. "In my many years of service in the South African police, I have not encountered this sadistic taking of a young innocent life," said police inspector Mohlahla Moshane as he led us to the spot.
The murder site is a few kilometres away from Sello's village, Moletjie, in northern Limpopo province. There stands a distinct and lonely hill in a vast grass and shrub veld.
The unsuspecting Sello was lured to the spot after being asked to look for a neighbour's donkeys. After a carefully planned ambush, his killers wedged him between the two large rocks to performed their macabre ceremony.
Sello seems to have dragged himself from the rocks where he had been abandoned. A woman collecting firewood found him and he was taken to hospital, but died a few days later. He was buried last Sunday in his fear-wracked village.
The practice of muti provides a disconcerting counterpoint to the contemporary image of the new South Africa. Dr Gerard Lubschagne, who heads the investigative psychology unit of the South African police service, conservatively estimates lives lost to ritual murders at between 50 to 300 every year. "We don't have accurate figures because most murders here are recorded in our records as murders irrespective of motive," he says. "Most people might also not regard a murder as a muti matter but just dismiss it as the work of some crazy killers."
Dr Lubschagne admits the rate of murders signals a very worrying trend in South Africa. Despite South Africa being the most developed African economy, a huge chunk of its population still believes power and wealth are better stoked by witch-doctors than stockbrokers and market analysts. "People who want to do better, people who want to be promoted at work, gamblers and politicians who want to win and even bank robbers who seek to get away with their criminal acts turn to muti," Dr Lubschagne said.
How the body parts are used varies with what customers want to achieve. They are eaten, drunk or smeared over the ambitious person. Various parts are used for different purposes. A man who had difficulty in producing children killed a father of several children and used his victim's genitals for muti. In another case, a butcher used a severed human hand to slap each of his products every morning before opening as a way of invoking the spirits to beckon customers.
Mathews Mojela is the head teacher at Sello's primary school. He has worked in rural areas for nearly a quarter of a century and says muti is founded in the archaic belief that there is only a limited amount of good luck around. If one wants to increase his wealth or luck, then it should come at another's expense.
The screaming of a child while his body parts are being chopped off is also regarded as a sign calling customers to the perpetrator's business, Mr Mojolela said. It is also believed that magical powers are awakened by the screams. Eating or burying the body parts "capture" the desired results. Robert Thornton, an anthropology professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg , who has done research in traditional healing, says children like Sello are targeted because it is believed that the power of the virgin is greater than that of a sexually active adult.
The main motivating idea is what Professor Thorntorn describes as "symbolic logic", the idea that another person's penis will strengthen the perpetrator's, or that the perpetrator's far-sightedness will be improved by devouring the victim's eyes. Blood is thought to increase vitality.
Professor Issack Niehaus of the University of Pretoria fears that muti killings will increase as the inequalities of wealth become more entrenched. He said: "I would expect the occult economy - that is the belief in using magical means to gain prosperity - to increase as poverty worsens."
At the spot where Sello was murdered, Inspector Mashane said "A young kid is carefully lured into this bush and mutilated without any witnesses. If he survives, perhaps he is the only person who could help identify his killers."
One of the few victims who lived to tell his story was Jeffery Mkhonto, who six years ago was mutilated by an organised gang set to harvest body parts. He had been lured to the house of a neighbour for food and ended up being castrated.
Dr Lubschagne says muti killings are difficult to investigate because there is no clear relationship between perpetrator and victim. Yet other reports have also suggested that the muti victim is often known to the perpetrators and is easily lured and murdered in the process. Communities themselves are often too afraid to come forward with evidence because of fears of a magical retaliation.
At Sello's homestead, even the elders were too afraid to point any fingers directly at a neighbour, a traditional healer, although many villagers implicated him in Sello's murder in muffled tones. The neighbour had allegedly sent Sello to fetch his donkeys without Sello's mother's permission. Peter Kagbi, who is in his late sixties, was questioned for four days by the police over Sello's murder before being released pending further investigations. Mr Kgabi confirmed that he had sent Sello to fetch the donkeys, but he denied taking part in the murder.
He said he saw nothing wrong in sending Sello without the mother's permission as he had done that on similar errands before, a point hotly disputed by the boy's family. Mr Kgabi said he had been threatened by the community and told they planned to burn him alive because he was a wizard.
"Some are accusing me of killing Sello but I did not," he said. "I have not fled my home despite the threats because if I do, the community will regard that as an admission of guilt."
Even the eventual capture and conviction of Sello's killers would do little for his brokenhearted single mother, Salome, 39, who lives with her two remaining children on a £15 a month social grant from the government.
"Anything that does not bring back my son is hardly of any importance to me now. No mother wants to lose a child this way," she said.
Her emotional state will not be helped when she learns that Sello's body parts probably were sold for no more than £200 each, the price normally charged for a child's body parts in the muti industry.
- - -
This blog is dedicated to Dr James Moore [more later -- this weblog is in the process of being set up]
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