New Era in US-DR Congo Relationships?

Washington DC, September 14th 2009 -- Since the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, a new page was turned in the relationship between the United States and African Nations. The Obama administration committed and made it known on January 20, 2009 to make Africa a "priority" in foreign policy.

The State Department Focuses on the DR Congo

The new cabinet translated this will into action with the recent trips Mr. Obama made to the African nations of Egypt and Ghana. The new administration emphasized its position for a new era in US-Africa relationships during both much spotlighted speeches the President made at the University of Cairo, Egypt and before the chamber of the Ghana’s Parliament in Accra.

Meanwhile, Madam Secretary Hillary Clinton travelled for eleven days to seven African countries, -- the earliest trip any new cabinet had ever offered to Africa following any presidential inauguration. She seized the moment to articulate the position and the views of the Obama administration on the new diplomatic agenda with Africa to be conducted in years to come. This adds to the fact that as US Senator, Mr. Obama sponsored a bi-partisan bill on the security, the relief and the welfare in the DR Congo -- a bill he worked hard on, eventhough it didn’t get much coverage out of the well of the Capitol. The Obama Congo's bill, supported by 12 senators from both parties, was signed into law by President Bush, his predecessor in 2006.

A significant desire to deliver a diplomatic message is highlighted here when local and US embassy officials in the DR Congo expressed their concerns for Mrs Clinton's personal security, and still, she remained adamant to make an airplane trip over to the eastern Congo “war-torn” zone. The Secretary of State of the United States landed in the city of Goma and visited surrounding refugee camps and hospitals in the provinces of North Kivu where she eventually met there President Joseph Kabila.

The Senate's Democratic Republic of the Congo Bill S. 2125

This Obama-sponsored bill of 2006 stresses guidelines that should help the executive branch of the US government to measure up the progress the DR Congo has shown so far, and eventually to equate the aid and the logistic support that the US lends to any Congolese officials to the progress on the ground.

Key messages in the bill are US recommendations on good business practices made to empower the DR Congo in the areas of good governance, observance of human rights and security. The bill exhorts Congolese to break away from corruption and similar practices as ways to conduct public business.

Meanwhile, repetitive peddles by Congolese officials were being reported in the local and European media. Congolese who live in the DR Congo see their freedom of speech and the respect of their human dignity going diminished to the worst. The Bush Administration did not do enough to follow through this Congo's post-2006 election bill's recommendations to pressure the Kabila government on that important post-crisis foreign policy, therefore the new Admi istration would have to design a new policy implementation's path.

The core of the new era of diplomacy between the US and the DR Congo is laid out in significant signals the Obama administration telegraphed during Mrs. Clinton's visit to Congo-Kinshasa. The state department set a spotlight on the new generation of Congolese actors (the youth); seen as the hopefuls who can rebuild their own country.

Madam Secretary visited the newly built healthcare center, - Marie Biamba Mutombo Hospital in Kinshasa-Masina, built by a Congolese-American NBA star Dikembe Mutombo (a star in many Congolese circles —seen for more than fifteen years of success as a role model by Congo's youngsters). She attended later a student’s town hall at the University of Kinshasa, along with Ambassador Gaverlink and the American Kinshasa-born basket-ball player Mutombo.

In all my years of news analysis, I can testify without fear of being proven otherwise that " for the first time in the history of the two countries, as far as I can recall, a US higher official opted to meet with students for an open “harsh questions” session before being hosted by the Prime Minister and later to meet the President. This official State Department’s protocol tells it all about the desire of the new administration to first meet the Congolese people, regular citizens and the scholars enjoying free speech and engaging in a constructive national debate.

In that same order, Secretary Clinton delivered a strong message to President Joseph Kabila, when showing up (personally) in the hollowed city of Goma, Eastern Congo, asked him face-to-face to work towards putting an halt to a war and the violence that are embolding its actors to  “... use rape as a weapon of war in conflict zones in the eastern DR Congo” and Clinton wants Congo officials to deal once for all with these well identified cases of abuses on civilians and the “ illicit exploitation of minerals, which fuels the violence by armed forces on civilians.”

The US Senate sets a Path for the New Administration on DR Congo

No need to remind here that several preparation events took place in Washington DC prior to the African diplomatic tour. A Senate's foreign relations committee's hearing held last Spring 2009 on Capitol Hill shaped the draft of a letter to the state department done by, among many Senators, Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer to address key Senate's resolutions on Congo and Sudan conflicts.

An active follow up by Madam Secretary could be seen while the choice to visit the "unstable" DR Congo over the rwandan president's bid was part of the Secretary's travel plan. Two days before she landed in DR Congo, and for the first time since 2003, Congolese and Rwandan presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame met in Goma to normalize their diplomatic relations and to discuss on security in the eastern Congo. All of these facts mentioned above have helped to highlight a clear US government's message to Congo officials and other leaders in the Great Lakes region.

Washington seeks "new solutions to old challenges" in DR Congo

Here in Washington DC, the Nation's capital and along with the Congolese Diaspora, many things are being shuffled from a very recent past. The new Department of State’s philosophy to engage Congolese residents and Americans (journalists, activists, scholars, and NGO representatives) is translated in public forums and discussion sessions the State Department held on foreign affairs questions in connection to the DRC.

United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bill Garvelink hosted a discussion session to the public, last Tuesday Oct. 1, 2009 at the Jefferson Conference Room in Washington DC. This is a Town Hall gathering that was designed to enrich the US foreign affairs'cabinet to listening, discussing and really grasping the public opinion in America on the DR Congo's crisis. Mainly, the US military assistance to African countries, the pro and the cons in the opinion about the implementation of the "Africom" programme on the African continent, particularly in the DR Congo was discussed.

Meanwhile, at the higher level, the Obama’s newly appointed Assistant-Secretary of state for African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson --who happened to be the Africa’s veteran US diplomat with 37 years department's background in Security, Intelligence and Foreign Service, also called a meeting in the Nation’s capital. The purpose was to engage a discussion that would help the new cabinet to “encourage new solutions to old challenges."

The Center for American Progress in DC hosted a two hours discussion where non-profit organizations, citizens and natives Congolese had "one hour and half to listen the diplomat speak and only 45 minutes to enjoy responses to a few questions from the audience". Many DC's African Activists (for the most from other countries than the DR Congo) I spoke to at the conclusion of the meeting, told me they were a little bit disappointed the discussion session on the new "African Affairs strategy" did not meet the set goals they expected (based on what the invite had detailed). Three out of four African attendees think Ambassador Carson spoke longer than he listened to them, while he only took a few questions from selected journalists in the audience. That alone did not meet their expectations for a discussion of that importance.

 

To a broader picture, more questions should now be asked... Were these events by the new Clinton Affairs Office different from the ones we have seen for the past eight years under the past Rice and Powell's republican ones?

Would the Obama new administration's meetings (just in 9 months) help the US State Department to find "new solutions to old chalenges" in the DR Congo, as Ambassador Carson's invite had suggested about the event? 

Too early to tell. We will see...  

 

Franklin Katunda is Boston and DC-based Activist and Journalist,

Since 2001, he writes as web-chief editor of Congoboston.com 

 

(c) September 2009 

 

 

 

"End Ressource War", urge Congolese Activists

Kambale Musavuli

Guest Column

September 22, 2009 -- One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.

Although advocacy for the Congo has a rich and illustrious tradition dating back to the dawn of the 20th century, contemporary advocacy is faced with unprecedented obstacles: corporate interests, the humanitarian industry, geo-strategic battles, the devaluation of black lives, and media caricatures and misrepresentation of Africans.

In 1908, international advocacy resulted in Congo being taken from King Leopold II and given to the Belgian state as a colony. The ultimate aim of today’s advocacy is to see the Congo removed from the clutches of multi-national corporations, foreign governments, multi-lateral institutions, the humanitarian industry and local elites and placed in the hands of the people of the Congo. The challenge of 21st century advocacy is for the affairs of the Congo to be determined by the people of the Congo.

Corporate Interests

American business interest in the Congo is focused primarily on the mining of resources such as tin, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, tungsten and uranium – including minerals vital to the aerospace, military, automobile, electronics and technology industries. A number of American companies were listed in a 2002 United Nations document as being among companies accused of benefiting from the pilfering of Congo’s wealth.
Humanitarian industry

Unfortunately the humanitarian industry has been trapped in a “charity prism” in which Congo is viewed from the perspective of poverty, conflict, atrocities and depredation. One of the results is that the humanitarian industry is silent in the face of oppressive governments and often works in cahoots with exploitative corporations.

Probably the most deleterious effect of this way of viewing Congo is the military prescription that these institutions lobby for in Washington, DC. They often support policies that prolong conflict, prioritize military options and in the final analysis serve the propaganda of belligerent allies of the United States – such as Rwanda and Uganda – as well as U.S. corporate foreign policy interests.

In the final analysis, the humanitarian industry functions more as an instrument of Western soft power than as a genuine help to Africans. If they truly have the interests of the people of Africa and Congo at heart, their number one aim should be to put themselves out of business by calling for justice and not charity. When the people of Congo attain justice, charity will no longer be needed.

Geo-strategic Battle

Congo is a storehouse of geo-strategic minerals vital to the industrialization of great powers in the east, mainly China, and to the west’s efforts to maintain their economic and military dominance in the world. Apart from Western investment, China has invested U.S. $9 billion in the Congo in a mineral for infrastructure swap with the Congolese government. Congo’s location, size and mineral wealth are far too valuable to be left alone: it will be the playground of great power interests for the foreseeable future.

Devaluation of Black Lives

Nowhere outside Africa could the deaths of an estimated six million people in a 12-year period not cause a global outcry. The United Nations says the conflict is the deadliest in the world since World War II, and the former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said the Congo is “the worst killing field of our generation.”

Yet, the world community is silent. “Doctors without Borders” has reported that Congo is one of the top 10 most underreported stories. We live in a world where black lives are undervalued and underappreciated. But things do not have to remain this way. We can break the silence and change the attitudes and beliefs that have trapped the world in a mindset that undervalues a fellow member of the human family.

Pathological Media Prism

The mainstream media have presented the Congo crisis as an internecine tribal conflict with no discernible beginning or hope of ending, leaving people of goodwill hopeless, despondent and disempowered. If more stories were presented that clearly articulate the true nature of the conflict – that of a resource war and that there are major identifiable players in Western backyards that we can hold accountable – we would see if a dramatically different response from consumers of the mainstream media.

We almost never see a Congolese scholar, thinker activist or intellectual articulating the issues of the Congo. Our people are almost always presented as hapless and in need of saving by Western do-gooders, usually a Hollywood star. Slain gorillas usually get more sympathy and in-depth analysis than the Congolese people.

Prescriptions

A global Congo movement is as important today as the anti-apartheid movement was yesterday. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has presciently noted, “There cannot be a new Africa without a new Congo.” Contrary to presentations by Western scholars and thinkers, the conflict in the Congo is not intractable. If the correct policies were implemented, the conflict could end quickly or at least be mitigated.

The two basic goals of today’s global movement in support of the people of the Congo are:
• To bring an end to the resource war being waged on the backs of the Congolese people, particularly women and children, and• To ensure that the people of the Congo take control of their own future so they can determine how best to use their enormous resources for the benefit of their people and Africa at large.

Global pressure must be mobilized to call for a diplomatic and political approach to ending the conflict as opposed to the military heavy policies favored by the U.S. government, think tanks and humanitarian institutions in Washington, DC. There is a growing global grassroots movement around the Congo.

Thanks to the Internet, the Congolese can speak to the world uncensored. Inside the country, Congolese are organizing teach-ins and rallies. Congolese women are staging sit-ins, artists are using their talent to break the silence, and civil society is rallying to reconstruct our nation. Next month, from October 18 to 24, Friends of Congo and its allies will hold “Congo Week II,” a repeat of last year’s awareness-raising campaign.

As more people get involved, it is critical that the integrity of the movement be safeguarded. The last thing the people of the Congo need is for the movement to be “darfurized” – a process in which people are objectified and their struggle emptied of cultural and historical context. We must press for justice, not charity, and the Congolese must assert their role as agents of their own destiny.

Mr. Kambale Musavuli is the spokesperson
and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo,
an advocacy group based in Washington DC.

The 1980s: A Very Recent History of The Republic of South Africa

Cape Town-South Africa, September 3, 2009 -- I recently took a 10 days trip (September 09') to South Africa's cities of Pretoria, Johanesburg, and Cape Town where I enjoyed the freedom of a desegregated society, a nation that moved to become the world's largest multiracial one in Africa. Well in shape economically, South Africa is preparing with the help of its modernized cities and the impressive infrastructure therein  to host the 2010 World's Cup.

But, as world's witnesses, we are far from forgeting where this nation came from and the progress that has been made by the intrepid people who fought for the liberation of the oppressed, and those who decided courageously to give up that evil philosophy. Even so, South Africans are a nation that aspired to becomel a "new" multi-racial democracy where the generation of those who lived under a taught/practiced segregation are still alive.

South Africa flag's multi-colors seem to be freshly painted over a very recent history of segregationist and racist philosophies. This is a 1980s letter by former Prime Minister Peter W. Botha to his Cabinet. Please, be ready to learn the hard thruths about this reprehensible thinking within one among letters the "racist" leader of the Republic of South Africa, under the "Apartheid" regime, wrote to his cabinet members and followers.

This reprint was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper dated August 18, 1985. Back then, it was alright for an "Afrikaneer" to live as a white segregationist, with one of duties in mind, was to hate, patronize, disciplined, terrorize and eventually kille " black" South Africans.

Letter

------

"Pretoria has been made by the white mind for the white man. We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking.

We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines? Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Niggers in the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade?

Where is the Black man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their "Sus" law is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their discrimination too. Why in the hell then is so much noise made about us? Why are they biased against us? I am simply trying to prove to you all that there is nothing unusual we are doing that the so called civilized worlds are not doing.

We are simply an honest people who have come out aloud with a clear philosophy of how we want to live our own White life. We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings.. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles simply because they look alike.

If God wanted us to be equal to the Blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years.

I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that behind the scenes, Europe, America, Canada, Australia-and all others are behind us in spite of what they say.

For diplomatic relations, we all know what language should be used and where. To prove my point, Comrades, does anyone of you know a White country without an investment or interest in South Africa? Who buys our gold? Who buys our diamonds? Who trades with us? Who is helping us develop other nuclear weapon?

The very truth is that we are their people and they are our people. It's a big secret. The strength of our economy is backed by America, Britain, Germany. It is our strong conviction, therefore, that the Black is the raw material for the White man. So Brothers and Sisters, let us join hands together to fight against this Black devil.

I appeal to all Afrikaners to come out with any creative means of fighting this war. Surely God cannot forsake his own people whom we are. By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex.

Let us all accept that the Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn't it plausible? therefore that the White man is created to rule the Black man? Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and on the throne sat a "Kaffir"! Can you imagine what would happen to our women?

Does anyone of you believe that the Blacks can rule this country? Hence, we have good reasons to let them all-the Mandelas-rot in prison, and I think we should be commended for having kept them alive in spite of what we have at hand with which to finish them off. I wish to announce a number of new strategies that should be put to use to destroy this Black bug.

We should now make use of the chemical weapon. Priority number one, we should not by all means allow any more increases of the Black population lest we be choked very soon. I have exciting news that our scientists have come with an efficient stuff. I am sending out more researchers to the field to identify as many venues as possible where the chemical weapons could be employed to combat any further population increases.

The hospital is a very strategic opening, for example and should be fully utilized. The food supply channel should be used. We have eveloped excellent slow killing poisons and fertility destroyers. Our only fear is in case such stuff came in! ! to their hands as they are bound to start using it against us if you care to think of the many Blacks working for us in our However, we are doing the best we can to make sure that the stuff remains strictly in our hands. Secondly, most Blacks are vulnerable to money inducements.

I have set aside a special fund to exploit this venue. The old trick of divide and rule is still very valid today. Our experts should work day and night to set the Black man against his fellowman. His inferior sense of morals can be exploited beautifully. And here is a creature that lacks foresight. There is a need for us to combat him in long term projections that he cannot suspect.

The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year: that stance, for example,should be exploited. My special department is already working round the clock to come out with a long-term operation blueprint. I am also sending a special request to all Afrikaner mothers to double their birth rate. It may be necessary too to set up a population boom industry by putting up centres where we employ and support fully White young men and women to produce children for the nation.

We are also investigating the merit of uterus rentals as a possible means of speeding up the growth of our population through surrogate mothers. For the time being, we should also engage a higher gear to make sure that Black men are separated from their women and fines imposed upon married wives who bear illegitimate children. I have a committee working on finding better methods of inciting Blacks against each other and encouraging murders among themselves.

Murder cases among Blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them. My scientists have come up with a drug that could be smuggled into their brews to effect slow poisoning results and fertility destruction. Working through drinks and manufacturing of soft drinks geared to the Blacks, could promote the channels of reducing their population.

Ours is not a war that we can use the atomic bomb to destroy the Blacks, so we must use our intelligence to effect this. The person-to-person encounter can be very effective. As the records show that the Black man is dying to go to bed with the White woman, here is our unique opportunity. Our Sex Mercenary Squad should go out and camouflage with Apartheid Fighters while doing their operations quietly administering slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to those Blacks they thus befriend...

We are modifying the Sex Mercenary Squad by introducing White men who should go for the militant Black woman and any other vulnerable Black woman. We have received a new supply of prostitutes from Europe and America who are desperate and too keen to take up the appointments. My latest appeal is that the maternity hospital operations should be intensified.

We are not paying those people to help bring Black babies to this world but to eliminate them on the very delivery moment. If this department worked very efficiently, a great deal could be achieved. My Government has set aside a special fund for erecting more covert hospitals and clinics to promote this programme.

Money can do anything for you. So while we have it, we should make the best use of it. In the meantime my beloved White citizens, do not take to heart what the world says, and don't be ashamed of being called racists. I do not mind being called the architect and King of Apartheid. I shall not become a monkey simply because someone has called me a monkey. I will still remain your bright star...

His Excellency Peter W. Botha.

From "Sunday Times" A South African NewsPaper, August 1985.

End of the Letter

***

(This note was reproduced in its entirety from the author's English version's script, Oct. 2009)