From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2011
Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun casting ballots in presidential and legislative elections few hours a go. It is almost certain that Joseph Kabila is retaining the power despite reports of violence and accusations of fraud. At least three people were reported killed leading up to the election.
President Kabila has been in power since 2001, when he assumed the presidency after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila in mysterious circumstances. No one can say exactly why Laurent Kabiala was to be assassinated despite the fact that his son Joseph Kabila was the army general and in charge of the armed forces.
If it is true of what the Telegraph learnt, that the two men fell out dramatically during the last months of Kabila’s capricious rule, to the extent that Joseph was even briefly detained on his father’s orders following an attempted army mutiny at a barracks near the presidential palace in September, then this leaves a lot to be desired.
Only a week after Joseph Kabial was sworn in as president, George Bush invited him to visit Washington. Although the meeting is said to have focused on how to bring peace in Congo, the U.S. media are today blaming Kabila for failing to bring peace to the Congo.
To understand conflict in Congo and how to resolve it is complicated-we trace it back from Leopold II who was a very ambitious man and wanted to personally enrich himself and enhance his country’s prestige by annexing and colonizing lands in Africa.
When he succeeded his father, Leopold I in 1865, to the Belgian throne, and in 1876 when he commissioned Sir Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition to explore the Congo region, this was the beginning of the problem in DRC, especially when he proclaimed himself king-sovereign of Congo Free State at a time when France, Britain, Portugal, and Germany also had colonies in the area.
Even though in 1885 Leopold II secured U.S. recognition of his personal sovereignty over the Congo Free State, his rule was not only brutal that led to millions of Congolese death as a result, the problem intensified when Belgian state annexes Congo in 1908 amid protests over killings and atrocities carried out on a mass scale by Leopold’s agents.
Worse still was in 1960 June when Congo became independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president. It seemed as if the U.S. was not in favour of Lumumba that is why through their influence Kasavubu was forced to dismiss Lumumba as prime minister in September 1960 following his arrest in December 1960.
It explains why on January 17, 1961, the government of Moise Tshombe in Katanga, with the full support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Lumumba was murdered and two of his associates in cold blood according to documents released by the United States government in July 2006.
Besides the cold war rivalry, the other main reason for killing Lumumba and supporting the secession in the provinces of Katanga and Kasai was for Belgians to secure controlling interests in the rich mineral resources of the Congo of which the U.S.- as beneficiary.
Even after the assassination of Lumumba there was no peace in Congo yet. Thereafter many governments ruled Congo in rapid succession: Évariste Kimba, Joseph Ileo, Cyrille Adoula, and Moise Tshombe-although in 1965, after ruling from behind the scenes for four years, Mobutu Sese Seko finally overthrew Kasavubu in 1965 in a coup widely believed to be sponsored by the same CIA who were also behind the assassination of Lumumba.
Mobutu ruled for thirty-one years until he was forced out of power by Laurent Kabila in 1997 who accused him and his supporters as so corrupt and stole so much money from the Congolese people that his government was described as a kleptocracy, or government by thieves. When Kabila drove him from power, Mobutu’s wealth deposited in foreign banks was in excess of $4 billion.
Even with Laurent Kabila conflict in Congo continued and even now with his son, despite the fact that the new constitution has introduced president/prime minister power sharing and two-term presidential limit approved in December 2005 referendum, promulgated 18 February 2006.
In North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, violent conflict persists between government forces and an array of military groups. The frontlines constantly shift, and local people are trapped in the middle – often cut off from medical care.
Government and rebel militias fight to control Congo’s mines, which are rich with natural resources. Profits from conflict minerals fund horrific violence. Since 1996, over 5.5 million have died from war-related causes. Countless women and children have been raped.
Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer, third largest producer of industrial diamonds, fifth largest producer of copper, and is home to staggering reserves of uranium, oil, gold, tantalum, tungsten, niobium, and zinc. Beyond mineral resources, Congo contains vast amounts of other resources including the continent’s largest rainforests and ample amount of arable land.
Congo’s agriculture sector has the potential to feed 2 billion people—nearly a third of the world’s population—according to Jacques Diouf, former general director of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Congo.
Even though it could be argued that Congo’s wars ended in 2003 as Kabila claims, yet there are more than 2.5 million people live as refugees. Yet still, in conflict-prone North and South Kivu provinces, fear of a scenario in which Joseph Kabila is not reelected as president is growing is scaring.
Rumors abound that without Kabila as the head of state, the Tutsi-based National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, might attempt secession and declare independence for the two Kivu provinces.
Complaints have also arisen across North and South Kivu about incomplete voter registration lists. Civil society has reported that people in remote areas such as Idjwi Nord, an island in Lake Kivu, raised their voice when the names of about 20,000 eligible voters didn’t appear on the list at a polling station, when 42,500 people had registered to vote.
Similarly, in Pinga, in Walikale territory of North Kivu, civil society reported the disappearance of about 2,550 names from the voting list. Again apart from voters walking from far as 15 Kilometres to vote in bad whether, the presence of armed groups in the east of the country constitutes an obstacle to holding peaceful, free and fair elections in the country.
These groups are not only capable of destroying electoral materials to ensure that elections are not held in regions they control, they can do everything to ensure that they do not lose the privileges they currently enjoy, which include illegal exploitation and looting of the wealth in the east.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
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Nairobi
00800, Westlands
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E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
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Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org