Congo Teach In: Educate and Activate

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(No Transcript)
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly
known as Zaire)
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Roots of the conflictColonization

• 1880s Belgiums King Leopold II takes personal
  control of the Congo territory
• 8-10 million people die as a result of violence,
  forced labor, and starvation
• 1908 Leopold transfers control of the Congo
  Free State to the Belgian government

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Roots of the conflictDecolonization the Cold
War

• 1960 Independence
• 1961 Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba assassinated
• Congo as a U.S. ally
• Strategic minerals
• A central location for projecting military power

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Roots of the conflictMobutu Sese Seko

• 1965 Becomes President through military coup

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Zaire The Mobutu Regime

• Mobutu 1960-1990
• US Support as a leader Against Socialism in
  Africa.
• End of Cold War Ends US Financial Support.
• Economic Collapse
• GDP growth negative since 1989, estimated at
  -8.0 in 1992.
• Collapse of Political Authority

Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu waza Banga, or,
The all-conquering warrior who, because of his
endurance and inflexible will to win, will go
from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his
wake
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The Mobutu Effect
Per Capita Income
Source World Bank. World Development Indicators
on CD-ROM
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War in Zaire

• Precipitating Causes Lie in 1994 Rwandan
  Conflict.
• Refugees and Hutu Extremists in Zaire.
• Rwanda and Uganda join Forces with Zairian Tutsis
  to Overthrow Mobutu

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Ripples of genocide

• 1994 Mobutu shelters genocidal leaders exiled
  from neighboring Rwanda
• 1997 Rebellion sponsored by Rwanda Uganda
  ousts Mobutu

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• Install Laurent Kabila as President of Democratic
  Republic of Congo.
• Kabila Alienates Domestic Support, and Does Not
  Control Hutu Extremists.
• Rwanda and Uganda Begin to Support Congolese
  Union for Democracy (RCD) Against Kabila.

Laurent Kabila
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• Angola Supports Kabila.
• Kabila had supported Angola against RCD

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• Namibia Allied with Angola, thus Fighting in
  support of Kabila.
• Zimbabwe Rivalry with Rwanda and Uganda, thus
  Fighting in support of Kabila

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War in the DRC, 1998-present

• Africas First World War the deadliest in the
  world since World War II
• 45,000 deaths per month (2008, Intl Rescue
  Committee)
• Estimated 5.4 million deaths (IRC)

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• An increasingly localized battle for control of
  natural resources
• Sexual violence used by all sides to displace,
  control, and traumatize
• The UNs largest peacekeeping operation
  (2000-present)
• Thousands continue to die

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Getting Current

• January 2001, Kabila Assassinated by Bodyguard
• Kabilas Son Installed as President
• Fighting Continues
• 2.3 million Refugees
• Est. 4 Million Dead

• Read and discuss
• Refugee account from MONUC.org

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Overview
In August, 1998 Tutsi troops from Rwanda and
Uganda invaded Congo. Their aim, this time
around, was to overthrow President Kabila. The
invaders have taken over most of eastern Congo
where they are conducting mass murders of
innocent people men, women and children.
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The killing of the Congolese population by the
rebels and the Tutsi soldiers... In Mobi, rebels
and Tutsi soldiers walked down the street with a
human head in their hands, in some other places
children where forced to look at the mutilated
corpses of their families members.
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The people of Kisangani are getting ready to
remove and bury the bodies of 3 persons killed in
a clash between the Rwandan and Ugandan armies.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross says
more than 4 million lives have been claimed by
the war.
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The Resource Curse

• Natural resources finance armed groups committing
  sexual violence in eastern Congo 
• Diamonds, tin, and 25 of worlds tantalum
  minerals
• columbite-tantalite
• Consumers in the United States unknowingly
  contribute to the conflict by purchasing these
  products
• The Congos vast resources have never benefited
  its people

(coltan)
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The suffering continues

• Despite 2003 ceasefire
• Systematic and widespread crimes against humanity
  continue
• 1,500 Congolese die daily from hunger,
  preventable disease, and other consequences of
  violence and displacement
• Half of deaths are children
• 1.3 million displaced

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Humanitarian crisis

• More than 200,000 women and girls raped since the
  beginning of the conflict
• More than 33,000 children taken by armed groups
• child soldiers
• sex slaves
• Sexual violence continues at horrific rates

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Violence against women in the DRC

• Eastern Congo is the most dangerous place in the
  world for women and girls
• Rape on a scale seen nowhere else in the world
• Sexual violence to subjugate and humiliate
  populations they seek to control
• Unparalleled physical as well as emotional trauma

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• Nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly,
  terrifying and complete as the
• sexual torture and attempted destruction of the
  female species here. The
• violence is a threat to all young girls and
  village elders alike are at risk. It is
• not too strong to call this a femicide, to say
  that the future of the Congos
• women is in serious jeopardy,
• Eve Ensler, founder and artistic director of
  V-Day (www.vday.org)

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Violence against womenthe numbers

• Approximately 3,500 reported incidents of rape in
  North and South Kivu in the first six months of
  2008

• 50 of survivors were under the age of 18
• Doctors Without Borders says 75 percent of all
  rape cases it deals with worldwide are in eastern
  Congo

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The latest cycle of violence

• Since August 2008, fighting has intensified
  between the Congolese army and rebels loyal to a
  renegade general named Laurent Nkunda (arrested
  Jan. 2009)
• 250,000 people displaced by recent fighting
• Sexual violence against women and girls and
  forced recruitment of men and boys remain daily
  threats

IDP camp in Kibati, November 2008