Gazing in the Congo (DRC): the dark heart of Africa (2006-2017)

[Tom Odom]

There is a good documentary on HBO concerning mass rape in the Congo as a phenomenon that has its roots in the Rwandan genocide and organized rape campaign by the former Hutu hardliner government and militias.

The woman who directed, filmed, and wrote the program is an American who suffered a mass rape in Georgetown, Wash DC so she does openly bring her own suffering into the story. That for me did not weaken the impact of the program, to the contrary it made it more relevant and I have seen this first hand.

Interestingly enough some of the rape madness has transferred itself onto previous cultural inclinations in bizarre ways. In one set of interviews, the filmmaker spoke with some of the Mai Mai who had been consoldated in the new Congolese army. The Mai Mai originated in the early 1960s turmoils under Pierre Mulele. They believed that magic would turn bullets to water and they used "Mai Mai" or "Mulele Mai" (water water in Swahili and Arabic) when they charged. this was of course helped by the Congolese military habit of shooting in the air or closing their eyes whilst shooting so it did seem these warriors were indeed impervious to bullets. Later use of mercenaries, Belgian and American advisors, and close air support put paid to that theory.

But it has since remerged with a resurreccted Mai Mai. This time rape is considered to offer immunity from bullets as explained in the film.

I will admit I really felt the surge of pure hate come storming back last evening when they were interviewing some of the animals involved in this. Sometimes killing is not hard at hall; not being able to kill is far harder. I truly sympathize and empathize with the UN guys on the ground.

Best

Tom

See

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

[Stan]

By Mike Thomson
BBC News, Today programme

A very good article that looks into one of many lives destroyed.

Although Zawadi Mongane's horrific story shocked me - and later much of the world - it is not an unusual story for this part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Zawadi says that during those terrible days two of her children were killed in front of her and her brother was decapitated with a machete after he refused to obey a command to rape her.

Yet her most painful memory, which she says still haunts her dreams, is when she was forced to hang her own baby.

[Tom Odom]

By Mike Thomson
BBC News, Today programme

A very good article that looks into one of many lives destroyed.

Yep and it was our old friends who did it

Rwandan rebel soldiers known as the Interahamwe, many of whom fled over the Congolese border after their involvement in the genocide of 1994, came to Zawadi's village. Her description of what followed is a litany of terrible violence.

Good slide show here on life in the Congo

I really like the dirt bike stuck in the mud...reminds me of exploring with Stan


And then here is the latest from Goma. Lake Kivu is still bubbling:

Radio Okapi reported hundreds of fish found dead and floating on lake Kivu at ts south west shore (Minova) last Saturday. Environment minister warned ocals about the danger of eating such fish. Meanwhile samples are being nalysed in lab to tell the cause of that phenomenon. Gas released from the depth of the lake is suspected cause number one to be confirmed later. It akes lake Kivu a hazardous milieu.

Inflation in the Democratic Republic of Congo will probably accelerate as rising fuel costs offset the impact of reduced government expenditure, the central bank said. Side effects are locally perceived as prices go high, for example CELTEL dealers say their rate is 700 Fc for a dollar when selling airtime scratch cards in Goma. And so have the prices of basic items.

General strikes are announced in different towns including the capital city Kinshasa after deliberate errors were reported on February payrolls. Most of civil employees were omitted or demoted. Current negotiations at the ministerial level should prove conclusive tonight otherwise business may be seriously hampered tomorrow.

Security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province have intercepted a truck transporting radioactive mineral ore bound for export, local authorities said on Friday. The truck, carrying 30 tonnes of copper and cobalt ore for Chinese-run firm Hua-Shin Mining, was stopped at an inspection checkpoint near Kolwezi, one of Congo's biggest copper belt mining towns, on Wednesday. Ore mined in Katanga habitually contains trace amounts of uranium, which Congo is currently banned from exporting, Reuters News agency reported on 04 April.

On a different chapter, Alan Doss, the Secretary-General's Special Resentative in the DRC, told the opening of the mixed technical commission on peace and security in the Kivus - otherwise known as the 'Amani programme' - that it was time to move into the "realization phase" of
the peace process

[Rex Brynen]

By Mike Thomson
BBC News, Today programme

A very good article that looks into one of many lives destroyed.

Stan--excellent, and sobering, piece. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Stan]

Hey Tom !

Yep and it was our old friends who did it

Nasty bunch those Interahamwe. I'm kinda sorta relieved we left before cannibalism became popular again

Good slide show here on life in the Congo

I really like the dirt bike stuck in the mud...reminds me of exploring with Stan

Looks like time stood still in most of those pics. Just showed my better half; she nearly got sick. Abysmal how it looks to me like any other day in Goma or Kinshasa (I reckon one can adjust to nearly anything these days).

Can't make out the 'arrow' or 'R' on the motocross front fender clearly, but it looks very familiar... I think it was a mining company's emblem at one time. Looks like ownership has suddenly changed hands

And then here is the latest from Goma. Lake Kivu is still bubbling:

Seems the majority of the SITREP is situation normal. Love the being demoted part with subsequent salary decreases - that's a keeper. Funny those Chinese, they were far sneakier in the 80s and 90s with their activities in Zaire. Now getting caught with their pants down translates into slight discomfort just ahead of the Olympics and perhaps a more handsome back scratching at the Ministry of Mines this EOM

For the uninitiated, lake Kivu is one of three dead lakes containing high dissolved volumes of CO2. While most of the fruit cakes (volcanologists) that Tom hung out with in Goma didn't see the lake bed doing an overturn (roll over) anytime soon, which would have made the genocide and refugee crisis look like a picnic (as Tom once wrote... "God missed his chance on making a statement on genocide"), I often wondered about our existence at the lake house every evening watching Nyiragongo smoke and her fishers glow, and the lake dropping 4 feet over night

Stan--excellent, and sobering, piece. Thanks for pointing it out.

Hey Rex ! There's a few more links, but we collectively decided not to post last night. Kinda real sick Sierra.

Regards, Stan

[Norfolk]

What's the name of that volcano just north of Goma, with one of only three known permanent lava lakes in the world, lava tubes and fissures that run right under Goma itself, and the fastest-flowing lava on earth?

It makes you wonder just how much worse that region could get, with all the strikes against it already...then again, better not to contemplate that.

[Stan]

Hey Norfolk !

What's the name of that volcano just north of Goma, with one of only three known permanent lava lakes in the world, lava tubes and fissures that run right under Goma itself, and the fastest-flowing lava on earth?

It makes you wonder just how much worse that region could get, with all the strikes against it already...then again, better not to contemplate that.

That volcano is Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) and the nearby lake is Kivu.

Here ya go, everything you wanted to know about volcanoes. They even have a volcano of the month article

Regards, Stan

[Stan]

There have been two fatal attacks in Rwanda during a week of mourning for the victims of the 1994 genocide.

Police said armed men threw a grenade at the genocide museum in the capital, killing one policeman and injuring another.

In a separate incident, a car was driven at speed through a commemoration procession, killing one person.

A BBC reporter in Rwanda says tensions remain between survivors and the many people who took part in the killings.

"This act of terrorism was intended to frighten people away from coming to the Kigali Memorial Centre, but has had the opposite effect," said James Smith, head of the Aegis Trust which runs the museum.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says he saw more than 1,000 genocide survivors at the centre on Friday paying their respects to slain friends and relatives.

[Norfolk]

Hey Norfolk !

That volcano is Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) and the nearby lake is Kivu.

Here ya go, everything you wanted to know about volcanoes. They even have a volcano of the month article

Regards, Stan

Thanks Stan. I guess the volcano website may have run out of terrestrial volcanoes for its volcano-of-the-month feature; this month it's a cryo-volcano on the moon Titan.

[Stan]

KINSHASA, 11 April 2008 (IRIN) - A DRC human rights group has said mass graves with human remains have been found in the southwestern Bas-Congo Province where security forces recently clashed with followers of a religious sect.

"The most recent of these graves, containing the remains of 20 bodies, was discovered on 31 March in Materne, between Boma and Matadi towns," Amigo Gonde, coordinator of the NGO, African Association for Human Rights (Asadho), told IRIN.

"The other two graves - discovered further away and several days earlier - contained some 30 bodies."

Gonde, who demanded an independent inquiry, said one of the graves had apparently been dug up. "The grave at Materne had been dug up by unidentified persons and its contents taken to an unknown place, but there are indications to suggest the bodies were indeed there," he said.
The remains, the NGO quoted local residents as saying, were suspected to be those of Bundu Dia Kongo sect followers because shreds of cloth and flags used by its members were found at the site.

Gonde denounced a continuing crackdown on the sect, saying security personnel were trying to apprehend some followers who had escaped into nearby forests.

It was barely a year ago that MONUC declared the situation in the port city of Matadi "back to normal", with shops, schools and businesses functioning. MONUC did however caution unconfirmed killings of BDK political religious sect members involved in the 2007 unrest and the inability to confirm a death toll for the province. It would now appear that issue has been laid to rest (no pun intended) and/or removed .

[Tom Odom]

This one was on the SWJ media round up. It is difficult for me not to laugh when I read this stuff. Consider:

"The report must be in order," said Yangala, 62, a meticulous man in a khaki suit who explained how different things were when he worked for Mobutu's government. "In the old system, I would just take the public money and go drinking with women. When I moved to a different job, I would take the typing machine, the lamps, even the curtains -- I would put them in my house. Now there is no way. Now there is shame."

and

Attempting to satisfy the rising expectations since the 2006 elections, the governor of Katanga, Moise Katumbi -- who presides over an area the size of France -- has made several symbolic gestures.

Though he has no official power to do so, he decreed a new minimum wage of $150 a month. He bought several ambulances and hearses with his own money. He levied new property taxes, planted roses at the airport and painted downtown shops in shades of salmon.

But provincial lawmakers here worry that such efforts will remain symbolic unless a culture of reform takes root, which they say would begin with the implementation of the new constitution.

More at Congo's 'Change of Mentality'
Provincial Officials Seek to End Graft, Mismanagement

[Stan]

Kinshasa

The full extent of the threat posed by landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the Democratic Republic of Congo is unknown but the deadly weapons are a daily concern for tens of thousands of displaced people in the east.

According to Mine Advisory Group (MAG) country director Marc Angibeaud, de-mining efforts through international NGOs such as MAG, Handicap International and DanChurchAid, have cleared the countryside of thousands of anti-personnel mines and UXO, especially in Equateur, Maniema, Katanga and South Kivu provinces.

Work has also been done by the commercial de-mining company, Mechem.

From June 2007 to January 2008, more than 28,000 sqkm of land was cleared; over 3,500 weapons, 5,000 UXO and 35,000 items of ammunition destroyed, and mine education sessions conducted for over 10,000 people. De-miners have also been trained.

"Clearance activities have not only prevented accidents from explosions but also freed land for agriculture and rendered safe many roads and a water source crucial to the villagers' daily activities," MAG noted in a 31 January statement.

"The destruction of the ammunition also means it will not be available for trafficking - a significant problem in the Great Lakes region - thus contributing to regional peace-building."

[Stan]

Major General Patrick Cammaert is optimistic as to the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he served as deputy commander in chief of the Peace Mission until February last year.

The Dutch general says that the DRC armed forces should be careful with their attacks on insurgent general Laurent Nkunda and the FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group also operating in the Eastern part.

Cammaert admits that military pressure is needed, but adds that it should prepare the ground for political talks both with Nkunda and the FDLR.

A relatively short video which from the start concludes UNAMIR was a failure and UN actions in the DRC were more successful, concluding optimism in the DRC's future with democracy and strong will

[Stan]

UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels

"The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned."

- Pakistani peacekeepers in the eastern town of Mongbwalu were involved in the illegal trade in gold with the FNI militia, providing them with weapons to guard the perimeter of the mines.

- Indian peacekeepers operating around the town of Goma had direct dealings with the militia responsible for the Rwandan genocide, now living in eastern DR Congo.

- The Indians traded gold, bought drugs from the militias and flew a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.

The UN looked into the allegations concerning the Pakistani troops in 2007.

It concluded that one officer had been responsible for dealing in gold - allowing traders to use UN aircraft to fly into the town, putting them up at the UN base and taking them around the town.

[Stan]

Jeez, nabbed my neighbor and former VP of the DRC! How many folks could claim to have a .50 cal. nest in their front yard? He kept our neighborhood safe, often anything but quiet, and the Italian restaurant 'round the corner was booming with business during uprisings and civil wars

ICC Arrest Jean-Pierre Bemba – massive sexual crimes in Central African Republic will not go unpunished The Hague, 24 May 2008

Jean-Pierre Bemba, charged by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Central African Republic, was today arrested in the suburbs of Brussels, Belgium.

Mr. Bemba is chairman of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC), an armed group which intervened in the 2002-2003 armed conflict in Central African Republic (CAR) and pursued a plan of terrorizing and brutalizing innocent civilians, in particular during a campaign of massive rapes and looting. Mr Bemba had already used the same tactics in the past, in CAR, in the DRC, always leaving a trail of death and destruction behind him.

He is the first person arrested in the context of the ICC investigation in CAR which was opened by Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May 2007. Further investigation are proceeding.

“This arrest was a complex and well-prepared operation’’ said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo. “We are grateful to all countries involved, including Belgium which immediately executed the Arrest Warrant in accordance with their obligations under the Rome Statute. I am thankful to all those who assisted in tracing Mr. Bemba, to avoid any possibility of his escaping international justice”

The number of rapes carried out with shocking brutality is a particular feature of this case. “He had done it before in CAR, he had done it before in the DRC. He had to be stopped.” said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo.

More at the link...

[Stan]

Kenyan police have confirmed they are carrying out DNA tests on a man suspected of being the most wanted criminal from the Rwandan genocide.

... it could be Felicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman accused by the International Criminal Court of being a key financier of the Rwandan genocide.

They are seeking to establish whether the man they are holding is Mr Kabuga, a man with a $5m (£2.4m) bounty on his head.

He is accused of being one of the key figures behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

In the past the Kenyan authorities have been accused of harbouring alleged war criminals and have been threatened with action from the UN security council.

[Stan]

all kinds of problems...

When 7.6 million dollars just isn't quite enough

The politicians here are not going to saw off the branch they are sitting on. Mobutu's money is the fruit of corruption, but politics haven't changed that much. When the government awards mining contracts to the Chinese without calling for tenders, it means commissions have been paid.

A Swiss court has ordered eight million Swiss francs to be unblocked in favour of the heirs of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire. The Swiss are trying to convince the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to send an envoy to collect the money in the name of the Congolese people, but Kinshasa doesn't seem to care.

When the sum in what appeared as only Mobutu's Swiss piggybank came up at a press conference concluding Calmy-Rey's visit, Kabila could hardly conceal his disappointment. "Unfortunately it is only eight million Swiss francs, not the tens of billions we expected." So, does Congo's current leader think that the game isn't worth the candle?

[Stan]

Ex-vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba of the DR Congo has been extradited to The Hague to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the CAR.

Hmmm, justice comes to Africa ? If they could catalog or even imagine what my neighbor did in his own country... he'd have been hung by the short and curlies several times... decades ago

Mr Bemba went into exile after being accused of high treason in his home country for refusing to disarm his militia after his defeat in presidential elections in 2006.

He was leader of the rebel group (and one of four vice-presidents in a transitional government), the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which later became a political party.

[Stan]

UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels

"The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned."

Three Indian army officers have been let off with a warning over allegations of gold trafficking while they were UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo.

A UN report said there was evidence that Indian troops in eastern Congo had traded gold and drugs with a militia involved in the Rwandan genocide.

Some Indian soldiers were alleged to have traded gold with the militia, bought drugs from them and even flown a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.

Those soldiers have been let off with a warning.

Critics of the UN will argue that this is exactly what they expected and proves that allegations, no matter how serious, seldom result in the disciplining of the troops under its command.

[Tom Odom]

Three Indian army officers have been let off with a warning over allegations of gold trafficking while they were UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo.

Stan,

Never forget our friends from the 700 Club and their Op Blessing facade.

In any case, the problem is that the UN has no enforcement authority over these troops--that remains in national hands. The Nigerian contingent in UNAMIR 2 in 1995 had a soldier murder a local--in the UN compound--and the contingent commander helped cover it up. They were sent home at the insistence of the new Rwandan government; my friend the RPA G3 did the investigation.

Plus UN civilian leaders have engaged in similar escapades. Remember that dear old Boutrus Boutrous-Ghali was in bed with the French in supporting the former government on Rwanda during the run up to trhe genocide. His successor Kofi Anan helped set up the oil for food program with Iraq (the one his son used to get rich). I am unaware of anyone who screwed up on a UN mission actually paying for such transgressions in jail time.

Rex, do you have any insights?

Tom