Or Else What?

CNN reports that the DRC has convicted two Norwegian men of espionage and murder, and is sentencing them to death. But that's not all! "The court also ordered the pair to pay $60 million in damages."

I feel like, having already handed down the death sentence, much of the judiciary's leverage has been lost. But that's just me.

A Congo (and Rwanda) Roundup

I do Israel roundups all the time. Why can't I do a Congo roundup?

CNN reports on calls for rebels to lay down their arms and reintegrate into the national forces. So far, it seems like they're making some progress.

Meanwhile, the joint Congo/Rwanda offensive in the east seems to be going apace, though understandably the locals are very nervous about the prospect of more conflict (and particularly the presence of Rwandan troops -- Rwanda being quite unpopular for its role -- hopefully now in the past -- in destabilizing the region).

Unfortunately, there is growing nervousness that the arrest of rebel Gen. Laurent Nkunda is a facade and will not hold up on the Rwandan's end. The problem? Nkunda -- with deep ties to the highest levels of Rwandan politics and society -- might "know too much" about the going-ons of that nation's regional ambitions and practice.

And because of all the uncertainty, I agree with Dylan Matthews that some well-placed pushes by American diplomacy would be very well-received at the moment, to make sure everyone stays on the straight and narrow.

Congo Update, Part II

The UN Dispatch has more on the capture of Gen. Laurent Nkunda. This looks like a big breakthrough, less because of what Nkunda himself did (though he's a major negative influence) and more because it signals Rwanda is willing to break off it's destabilizing policies towards its western neighbor. The reason Nkunda's arrest is a bit surprising is because in general he's been viewed as a Rwandan front. The indicators now, however, is that Rwanda is willing to abandon Nkunda and the policies he represents in favor of engagement with the Congolese central government.

This New York Times article also gives some excellent context on what's going on, and really sounds a genuine note of optimism.

Congo Update: Nkunda Arrested

Rebel Congolese General Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwanda. I don't see any more information, but previously it appeared as if Nkunda had lost control over his rebel force, and the new leadership was prepared to reintegrate into the national government.

Progress in Congo?

I was a geography freak as a kid, and one country that has always inexplicably fascinated me is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (known when I was a child as Zaire). I'm not sure why that country in particular piqued my interest: maybe because it started with "Z", maybe because it was so big and smack in the middle of Africa. But it's always stuck with me, even to this day.

Unfortunately, the roughly two decades comprising my life have not been good times to be a member of the DRC/Zaire fan club. They've been locked into a devastating civil war for decades now, and the central government has been too weak to stop the violence, bloodshed, and human rights violations that have been running rampant. I genuinely think that President Laurent Joseph Kabila is a good guy -- a position I first came to after reading this CNN article on sexual assaults and rapes done by army and rebel soldiers in the country -- and after holding the first free and open elections (he became a transitional President after his father was assassinated, and held the election shortly thereafter), he has helped Congo slowly but surely build up its democratic institutions. But the overall pattern still was not looking good.

But we may be on the edge of a turnaround. Reuters reports that the Congolese government and rebel groups in the east are on the cusp of a peace agreement which may end the fighting once and for all. The forces formerly under the command of dissident General Laurent Nkunda (read about him here) are apparently no longer loyal to Nkunda, who was responsible for much of the fighting and war crimes in the east. Nkunda reportedly has been deposed by General Bosco Ntaganda, who claimed (accurately) that Nkunda was blocking peace efforts. Ntaganda, of course, is no picnic either -- he's wanted by the Hague for war crimes of his own. But as the mediators in the region have been saying, for Congo, the first priority has to be ending the fighting. We can worry about international law prosecutions afterward.

Former Congo Leader Indicted for War Crimes

CNN has the story. Jean-Pierre Bemba, a warlord who ruled over a large swath of northeastern Congo, then became a vice-president in Congo's transitional government, was accused of leading a militia which used rape as a primary tactic of war while intervening in the Central African Republic.

I certainly hope the victims in the CAR see justice done in this case. But I also hope that Bemba's arrest causes no disturbance or instability in Congo's shaky but burgeoning democracy.

Clean Government in The Congo

I have an unexplained interest in The (D.R.) Congo, of which I've blogged on before. Blessed (or cursed) with fabulous mineral wealth, there are few places in the world that deserve piece more than the Western Europe sized nation. Under Belgian rule, it endured one of the most brutal colonizations in Africa (not an easy title to win), followed by systematic plundering by the Mobutu Sese Seko, and then a horrific civil war that claimed the lives of millions.

But, under the leadership of Joseph Kabila, the country has just completed its first fair and open election. And the Washington Post reports that reforms are -- slowly and fitfully -- beginning to set in. A new rule posits that 40% of all governmental revenue shall flow outward to state legislatures (though the money has yet to arrive). Bureaucracies are slowly coming together and starting to work. And local lawmakers are beginning to put together reform packages -- and are worried about being voted out of office if they don't deliver.

The other day, 60 of the 102 salaried lawmakers showed up for a session that began about an hour late.

They were supposed to hear a report about the country's corrupt customs office, but that was postponed because the report was not yet typed. They were supposed to go over the details of a new property tax system, but that was also postponed, because the property tax expert was not around to explain.

The president of the assembly, Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza, seemed frustrated, but for a reason that has never really existed in Congo: fear of not being reelected.

"The people of Katanga, they are pressuring me!" he said, rapping his gavel on the podium. "They want to see change, but they see I am only growing fat!"

Something else was notable about the session, which was broadcast on state TV: On a sunny Saturday afternoon, a couple of dozen people showed up to observe their government in action, and not all of them were the lawmakers' drivers.

They included a Congolese human rights activist, a few miners and Boniface Mbuya, a 28-year-old law student who regularly attends because, he said, "maybe someday I'll be a great man." He was getting used to the new system, he said, and was still trying to shake off a profound sense of repression and an almost cult-like reverence for the powerful.

Though the provincial governor recently installed a suggestion box outside the assembly, for instance, Mbuya said he hasn't used it yet.

"I always have this ambition to write something and drop it inside," he said. "But maybe the government would say, 'Oh, these students, look at what they've written.' I fear it." Still, he supported the new constitution, voted in the 2006 elections and said that he expected his representatives to deliver.
[...]
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.

It's that last part that makes me smile. Is it symbolic? Yes. But it's symbolic of change. It's symbolic of a government that feels it needs to show something to its people. And its symbolic of a society that -- after so many years of darkness -- may finally see hope for a better future.

The Future of the Nation

The Washington Post has a fascinating article on the so-called "Children's Parliament" of the Congo, an institution which makes my old Student Congress days seem like the mere extra-curricular that it was. Congo's civil service is in shambles, with untrained bureaucrats, a barely-existent infrastructure, no money to pay employees, and rampant corruption. So, in some areas of the country, local officials, in concert with the UN, have organized area teenagers into a "parliament" (really more of a quasi-judiciary) to help administer justice.

With government institutions, including the courts, hobbled by decades of corruption and neglect, one of the few bodies still reliably administering justice is a parliament run by, and mostly for, children.

Launched in 2002, the U.N. initiative has since taken on a life of its own, with 150 members and little day-to-day adult supervision.

One recent Friday, there were no adults in sight except those pleading for help from the children. The parliament's officers took a break from a busy schedule -- lobbying to free children from prison that morning, four cases in the afternoon -- to discuss their work.

"Mostly children bring cases here," said Arthur Omar Kayumba, 16, seated at a desk on which a folded piece of paper read "Vice-President."

"Sometimes they are accusing their parents of not taking care of them, or women are accusing their husbands of not supporting the children," he said. "Since January, we've had more than 105 cases."

The teenagers are elected by their peers, hear cases, negotiate with local officials, and issue decisions. The teenagers can't enforce laws on their own, but they can contact police forces, and even without formal authority they bring to bear a surprising amount of moral suasion. With access to resources and local radio stations, they host debates on a wide array of topics, such as gender discrimination. And many dream of a career in politics, to continue their work of rebuilding the strife-ridden nation.

The article notes that, in the Congo, children "grow up fast." Too many are forced to join militias, others are child laborers. In such a context, it is heartening that some children are "growing up", even if fast, by learning how to become civic leaders and statesman, not soldiers.

The Arrival of "Peace" in The Congo

This is truly depressing:

Eastern Congo is no stranger to violence, but ironically the latest surge in killing started with a deal designed to bring peace to this corner of the vast country nearly four years after a nationwide accord officially ended a 1998-2003 war.

Laurent Nkunda, a dissident Congolese army general, led his two brigades into the bush in 2004, vowing to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsis. He is under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes after his men occupied Bukavu, South Kivu.

After last year's historic polls saw President Joseph Kabila become Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began negotiations to bring Nkunda and his soldiers into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.

But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo.

Congo and Uganda are two of top places in the world whose residents, more than anybody else, deserve peace and stability. Congo is a particularly tragic tale on a variety of counts. It's colonial days under Belgian rule were considered the most brutal of any state in Africa--an impressive anti-title to hold. Furthermore, unlike many places Congo actually has a dazzling amount of natural resources, including some very rare materials which are going to become more and more necessary in the electronic age. If it ever was able to coalesce into a stable democracy, it could become a regional superpower.

Unfortunately, the country then known as Zaire spent most of its post-colonial days being systematically plundered by its tyrannical dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko (who, by and large, enjoyed warm relations from the US government as he pillaged hs country). A long-running civil war eventually lead to his ouster by Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated four years into his presidency by a member of his staff. Kabila's son, Joseph, took over upon his father's and lead the state to its first relatively free elections, which he won.

Joseph Kabila is quite young (he came to power at age 29), but I've been cautiously optimistic towards him. He appears to take the human rights violations occurring in his country quite seriously, and has worked very hard to integrate his government among the various warring factions to hold the country's shaky peace agreement together. Maybe I'm just desparate for good news from the region, but I do believe that Kabila is committed to getting his country on the right track. The question is whether it remains possible.

Nkunda, for his part, did fight alongside Kabila at one point during the civil war, but rather quickly turned on him and was still affiliated with the rebellion at the time of Kabila's election. It seems Kabila was trying to integrate Nkunda's forces into the national army as part of the peace plan, something which clearly backfired. But what else was Kabila supposed to do? Brutally purge Nkunda's people from his government? Can you think of a faster way to restart the fighting?

Of course, if Nkunda's soldiers are raping and killing the people they are supposed to protect, then Kabila must remove him from command--forcefully, if necessary. But let's not delude ourselves--such an action just brings us back to square one.