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