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Congo (Kinshasa): Democracy Still Deferred
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Mar 29, 2012 (120329)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
African and world leaders have celebrated the democratic
election in Senegal this month, and moved quickly to condemn
the coup in Mali, urging a return to democratic rule. In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), however, there is
hardly any international attention to the post-election
crisis following last November's election. This despite
the prominent role of the United Nations and "donor"
countries in sustaining the government of this strategically
located country, the largest by area in sub-Saharan Africa.
When the DRC does attract international attention, it is
more likely for being one of the countries affected by the
attacks of the Lord's Resistance Army; for the multifaceted
ongoing conflict in the east of the country, with its high
frequency of conflict-related rapes, and the related debate
over "conflict minerals" exported from that area; for the
recent International Criminal Court conviction of Congolese
warlord Thomas Lubanga; or for the failure of impunity for
widespread violations of human rights by both Congolese and
foreign combatants in "Africa's World War" over the years
from 1993 to 2003 (see http://friendsofthecongo.org/united-nations-report.html
).
None of these serious issues is likely to be resolved,
however, without the missing prerequisite of a
democratically elected and accountable government. President
Joseph Kabila, the disputed incumbent, has not yet appointed
a new government, more than three months after the election.
And even when he does, as a coalition of Congolese civil
society organizations noted in February, the country will
still have two heads of government, one legal but
illegitimate (the incumbent) and the other legitimate but
not legal (the challenger Etienne Tshisekedi).
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the translation of a
letter from the Agir pour des Elections Transparentes et
Apaisées civil society coalition, as well as excerpts from a
longer article by Congolese scholar and pro-democracy
activist Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, focused on the need to resolve
the crisis of lack of democratic legitimacy. The full text
of that article is available at http://www.possible-futures.org/category/african-futures/ /
Direct url: http://tinyurl.com/d822wzv
Given the recognition of the Kabila government by African
states and regional organizations, the failure of the DRC's
Western partners to proffer more than pro-forma criticism of
the elections, and divisions even within opposition ranks in
the DRC, such proposals from Congolese pro-democracy voices
may stand little realistic chance of being adopted. The
consequences of this continued failure, however, will
continue to weigh heavily on the future of the Congo.
Other recent articles on democracy in the DRC found on the
new Possible Futures blog include "The Congo: A Revolution
Deferred" by Jason Stearns, March 8, 2012; "For Next Steps
in Congo, Listen to the Congolese" by Joshua Marks, February
15, 2012; and "Values vs. Interests: The US and African
Elections," by Anthony W. Gambino. The blog also includes an
incisive critique of the International Criminal Court
strategy in the Lubanga case: "The ICC and Lubanga: Missed
Opportunities," by Pascal Kambale. See http://www.possible-futures.org/category/african-futures/
For a report released this month by the UN Human Rights
Commission (http://www.ohchr.org) on serious human rights
violations during the election period in the DRC, see
http://tinyurl.com/7cpb7hr A summary news story on the
report is at http://allafrica.com/stories/201203231223.html
Reports from the UNO Stabilization Mission in the DRC,
including the latest from January 2012, are available at
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/monusco/reports.shtml
Testimony at the hearings on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo by the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
and Human Rights, on Feb. 2, 2012, from three U.S.
government officials, can be found at http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings.asp?committee=17
(click on the names of the witnesses for pdfs of the
testimony). There were no other witnesses at this hearing.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/congokin.php
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Letter from Congolese Civil Society to the Secretary General
of the United Nations about the Post-Electoral Crisis in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
February 9, 2012
[Original French at http://www.ingeta.com/ / Direct url:
http://tinyurl.com/79ocw9f English translation by
AfricaFocus.]
Kinshasa, February 7, 2012
Agir pour des Elections Transparentes et Apaisées
[Action for Transparent and Peaceful Elections]
Headquarters and Secretariat: 25, Av. Lubefu, Kinshasa/Gombe.
E-mail: info@aeta-network.org
TEl.: 0999923152 - 0991008236 - 0991008239 - 0813330181
To His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General of the United Nations / New York
Subject: Letter of Congolese Civil Society on the postelection
crisis in DRC
Mr. Secretary General,
As your Special Representative in the DRC prepares to to
submit his periodic report, it seemed useful to share with
the assessment by Congolese Civil Society of the postelection
situation as it currently exists. The general
situation of the country is characterized by a profound
crisis in the political, institutional, and socio-economic
spheres and in terms of human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
Nevertheless, we want to focus on the political front,
particularly with regard to the post-election crisis. We
wish to bring to your attention that the Congolese are
living through an experience of having two head of the
country: "On one hand, a legal but not legitimate president
and another president who is legitimate president but not
legal."
Our conclusion is that if proper attention is not paid to
this situation, peace and security may be seriously affected
for many years to come, not only in the DRC but also in the
subregion.There would be no exaggeration to speak of a
future African War featuring the confrontation of several
African armies. From its founding, th UN has an institution
on which the peace and security of peoples and nations
depends. This is the context of the current mission of
MONUSCO, which the Congolese people fully appreciate. Now,
when financial crises impose austerity and disorganize world
economies, it is necessary to devote a little more money and
manpower for an extra effort to avoid facing a situation
that tomorrow may become uncontrollable and costly.
There is no need to revisit the serious findings of chaos
and the immeasurable magnitude of fraud that characterized
the preparation, organization, vote counting and declaration
/ publication of results of presidential and legislative
elections of 28 November 2011 in the DRC. The lack of
credibility of these elections has been recognized by all
observers: the European Union, the Carter Center, domestic
observers, and observers of the Catholic Church, to name
only a few.
The fact is that today the vast majority of the Congolese
people do not recognize the published results as those votes
which they participated. Witnesses do not recognize much of
the official minutes as being the same ones to which they
had affixed their signatures.
The results of these elections, presidential and
legislative-are now being challenged by the main opposition
parties and several candidates, including some members of
the governing coalition parties. The Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, failed in with its mission to
organize free, transparent and credible and no longer
deserves, therefore, the confidence of politicians and the
Congolese population.
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Congo (CENCO)
in its Declaration of the extraordinary plenary session of
January 2012 and Civil Society have called for a national
dialogue. To date, despite the seriousness and magnitude of
the situation, MONUSCO has called on the public not to
resort to violence and to pursue claims through
institutional channels, that is, the courts and tribunals
known for their lack of neutrality and transparency.
One can not confine some under house arrest, asking them to
follow an obsolete procedure, while others are already
planning to set up institutions based on the fraudulent
elections. Taking advantage of the report of your
Representative, we suggest you take this opportunity to
launch an effective initiative to help the DRC emerge from
its post-election crisis. To this end we submit foro your
attention the following proposals from Congolese Civil
Society:
The Security Council / General Secretary should:
- Give MONUSCO the mandate for election observation and
certification of results;
- Start with the prior established of a new office to give
credibility and integrity to the INEC, replacing the current
staff and including civil society;
- Apply a comprehensive solution to both the presidential
and parliamentary elections without separating them;
- Require disclosure by the INEC of all the minutes as they
were displayed on the night of the election;
- Clearly and strongly request the government to guarantee
free democratic expression of the Congolese people,
including freedom to demonstrate;
- Obtain a mandate for UN election monitoring and
certification of results;
- Decide between two options:
- recount the votes; or
- organize a second round of voting for
presidential and legislative elections, combined
with local and provincial. These could take place
within 6 months rather than in March 2012 so as not
to botch them again;
- Protect key opposition leaders through armed guards
selected by mutual agreement with the protected persons.
More specifically, the safety of Mr. Etienne Tshisekedi must
be ensured by a contingent of the UN;
- Ensure freedom of movement and expression for all
political leaders.
Signatory Member Groups [list of 40 groups available with
original French at http://tinyurl.com/79ocw9f]
Congolese Vote, but Who Decides?
by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
March 14, 2012
African Futures
Possible Futures: A Project of the Social Science Research
Council
http://www.possible-futures.org/category/african-futures/ /
Direct url: http://tinyurl.com/d822wzv
In his excellent contribution to this blog on 15 February
2012, Joshua Marks writes that "It is difficult to make
sense of the reaction of many Western governments and
international actors to the disastrous elections in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on November 28,
2011." To those of us who have followed the actions of
Western governments and international actors since their
complicity in the illegal removal of Patrice Lumumba from
his position as the democratically elected prime minister of
the Congo in September 1960 and his assassination on orders
of the US and Belgian governments in January 1961, their
total contempt for the democratic right of the Congolese
people to choose their own leaders is perfectly
understandable. It is symptomatic of the hypocrisy and
double standards governing the foreign policies of these
self-appointed promoters of democracy and human rights.
In a presentation to the 2009 annual meeting of the African
Studies Association in New Orleans, I made the following
critique of President Barack Obama's foreign policy, based
on his 4 June 2009 speech in Cairo:
"The hope in Africa is that governments claiming to have the
interests of the African people at heart, as Obama's
administration does, will support the continent's popular
struggles for democracy. That implies holding the same
yardstick for all regimes, and not employing double
standards or playing favorites with strategic allies. For
example, the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is
notorious in its violation of human rights and its conduct
of fraudulent elections, and yet Washington is extremely
timid in pressuring its ally on this matter. In his Cairo
address to the Muslim world, President Obama had little to
say about democracy in Egypt."
...
In the DRC, the Obama administration has disappointed all
those who had expected a return to the principled policies
of democracy and human rights promotion of the Carter
administration. As a Senator, Barack Obama is credited with
one major piece of legislation, which then Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton supported as well. It is Senate Bill 2121,
the "Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and
Democracy Promotion Act." It has been enacted into law as PL
109-456. One of the provisions of this law requires the US
government to impose sanctions on countries engaged in
plundering the DRC. Obama as President and Clinton as
Secretary of State have done nothing to implement this law,
in the face of several UN reports on the plunder of
Congolese natural resources and other forms of wealth by
Rwanda and Uganda. The reason for this failure is crystal
clear: Rwanda and Uganda are major US allies from the Great
Lakes region in the fight against international terrorism,
the number one threat of the post-communist age for the
United States, with Rwanda having troops in Darfur, and
Uganda leading the peacemaking role in Somalia.
The role of President Jimmy Carter in the democratization
process is all the more important because it took place
before the end of the Cold War. In the wake of the First
Shaba War of 1977, Carter sent Ambassador Donald McHenry on
a mission designed to read the riot act to then Zairian
President Mobutu Sese Seko. The gist of McHenry's brief was
the liberalization of the system, and Mobutu responded
positively by appointing a prime minister to take care of
the day-to-day running of the government, and the holding of
the freest parliamentary elections that the country ever
experienced under a one-party system. Individuals were free
to stand for Parliament on their own, instead of being
handpicked by the politburo of the ruling party, the
Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR). The result was a
parliament full of independent voices, and one that had the
courage to stage fairly brutal interpellations, or questions
and answer sessions during which cabinet ministers had to
explain their policies and justify their expenditures.
It was out of the Parliament elected in the wake of Shaba I
that Etienne Tshisekedi and the Group of Thirteen emerged in
December 1980 with their fifty-two page letter to Mobutu
demanding multi-party democracy. Repeatedly arrested,
tortured and jailed under Mobutu's reign of terror,
Tshisekedi and a diminishing number of his comrades
persisted in their defiance of Mobutu's externally backed
kleptocracy. Despite the ban on opposition parties, they
founded the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social
(UDPS) in February 1982, making the latter the oldest prodemocracy
political party in the DRC today. Tshisekedi's
exemplary courage in the face of adversity and his
commitment to the ideals of democracy and social progress
are qualities that ordinary Congolese find admirable in a
person who has come to incarnate their deepest aspirations
for freedom and material prosperity. As a delegate to the
Sovereign National Conference in 1992, I still remember the
hugs and applauses we received from the people of Kinshasa
when we came out of the People's Palace in the early morning
of August 15 following our nightlong election of Tshisekedi
as prime minister of the transition to democracy. We were
congratulated for having voted for the "people's candidate."
For most of the Congolese people today, there is no doubt in
their minds that faced with a choice between the neoliberal
policies of the dominant centers of world capitalism and the
best interests of the Congolese people, he will not hesitate
to side with his people.
The same cannot be said of Joseph Kabila, a very weak leader
who, after eleven years in power, is still unsure as to what
his job is all about. He is more at ease behind the steering
wheel of a vehicle (a fast car, a jeep) or on a motorcycle
than he is at playing the game of head of state. For someone
who had been named major general at twenty-five years of age
and without officer training or significant military
experience, he is deficient in both military science and the
art of governance. ...
Given the strategic importance of the DRC as a land of
considerable natural wealth located in the center of Africa,
with world-class resources in fresh water, tropical rain
forest, hydroelectricity, arable land and numerous minerals,
the major powers in the international community do prefer
leaders with no national constituency who are easy to
manipulate like Joseph Kabila over those like Etienne
Tshisekedi, who are unapologetically nationalist and
committed to serving their peoples. In eleven years in
office, Kabila has failed to fulfill his mandate in
restructuring the state and the security forces. Ours is
probably the only country in the world with general and
superior military officers who cannot read a map, as some of
them are illiterate. Instead of a professional and
disciplined national army, we have units made up of former
rebels and militia groups, who continue to harass the
civilian population and engage in heinous crimes such as
rape and forced labor. It is also the only army in the world
to incorporate an independent militia loyal to a foreign
country (Rwanda), the Congrès National pour la Défense du
Peuple (CNDP), which has been commanded by a general who
refused orders to deploy to a part of the country other than
his own region of origin (Laurent Nkunda), or one for whom
there exists an arrest warrant from the International
Criminal Court (Jean-Bosco Ntanganda). The presidential
guard, which is the best equipped, trained and paid unit, is
rumored to include mercenaries from Angola, Burundi, Rwanda,
South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
In the economic and social field, the country's enormous
wealth in natural resources has not been used to benefit the
mass of the people. Instead, it has gone to enrich the
country's rulers and their business and political partners
at home and abroad. In the 2011 UNDP Human Development
Report, the DRC is ranked the last of 187 nations surveyed
in terms of the Human Development Index, a measure of wellbeing
based on life expectancy, personal income, health and
education. In this context of a failed state, Congolese
people would be unlikely to vote for a man who had done
nothing for them in more than ten years in power. Kabila and
his external backers were surely aware of this in devising
his electoral strategy.
The constitution was changed by his loyal parliament to
remove the requirement for a run-off election in case no one
had received an absolute majority of the votes cast;
eighteen new judges were named to the Supreme Court in the
middle of the electoral campaign, to make sure that they
would ensure Kabila's victory; and Pastor Daniel Ngoy
Mulunda, a close political ally of the President, was
selected as chair of the so-called Independent National
Electoral Commission (CENI). In addition to these measures,
a formidable machine of violence and intimidation,
corruption, and electoral fraud was established to make sure
that Kabila would come out as a victor. Now that the
Catholic bishops of the DRC have called on the CENI to
correct their lies or resign, I wonder what US State
Department officials who rejected our complaints about Ngoy
Mulunda and defended his integrity would say today.
...
Moreover, why did the CENI refuse to allow the technical
teams from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the
International Federation of Electoral Systems (IFES) sent by
the US to help them recount the votes? Recounting the votes
on the basis of results from each polling station is the
only way of establishing the truth of the ballot box.
Figures in the possession of the Catholic Church, which had
deployed 30,000 observers or close to half of all polling
stations, should be able to help in this process. The
bishops must show their commitment to the truth by
publishing the results obtained by their observers.
Another comment from external observers is that people have
remained largely passive in the face of the election being
stolen by Kabila and his cronies, and this might be an
indication that they have accepted the current outcome.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. All over the world,
the Congolese diaspora has proclaimed Tshisekedi the winner
of the presidential election and demonstrated against the
fraudulent results and their apparent acceptance by the
international community. South Africa, Belgium, France and
the UK are now deporting Congolese immigrants without
appropriate documents in retaliation for their participation
in sometimes violent protests. Were the DRC a country in
which the rulers and the security forces respected the rule
of law, millions of Congolese would also descend in the
streets of our cities and towns to enact what their
compatriots living in liberal democracies are doing. During
the electoral campaign, when it was relatively easier to
manifest their political sentiments, Tshisekedi was the
single candidate to draw the largest number of people at his
rallies all over the Congo, in each of its eleven provinces,
including supposedly hostile areas like Katanga and Maniema.
On 26 November, the last day of campaigning, the police held
him hostage for nearly six hours at the airport, and
prevented him for holding his final rally in Kinshasa. Over
ten opposition supporters were killed on that day by the
security forces.
The DRC is a country in which approximately six million
people have been killed as a result of the Congo wars of
1996-97 and 1998-2003, together with their economic and
social consequences in the affected areas. Other parts of
the country have also known episodes of state-sponsored
terrorism, notably the brutal repression of the politicoreligious
group Bundu-dia-Kongo (BDK) in Lower Congo, ethnic
cleansing of peoples from KasaÃ&hibar; in the Katanga province, and
retaliatory killings for anti-state and communal violence in
Equateur. A comprehensive record of the most important of
the crimes committed between 1993 and 2003 has been compiled
in the mapping report published on October 1, 2010 by the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights. State responsibility for
some of the criminal acts is well established, and this
includes the wanton killing of BDK adherents, and the
assassinations of journalists such as Bapuwa Mwamba in 2006
and of human rights activists such as Floribert Chebeya in
2010.
...
By recognizing Kabila as DRC president after fraudulent
electoral results, Western powers and the international
community are showing that their strategic interests are
more important than their avowed commitment to democracy and
justice. Recently, the international community did recognize
Alassane Ouattara as president of Côte d'Ivoire in spite of
the decision of that country's Constitutional Court in favor
of the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo. Following a UN
Security Council resolution calling for the protection of
Libyan civilians against the regime of the late Muammar
Qaddafi, major Western powers led by NATO recognized the
Libyan rebels as legitimate representatives of the Libyan
people and their aspirations for change. Refusal to
recognize Tshisekedi as the winner of the presidential
election and the legitimate representative of the deepest
aspirations of the Congolese people for democracy and social
progress amounts to both hypocrisy and double standards,
particularly for those states claiming to stand for
democracy and human rights. It will at least let us know who
our true friends and enemies are in the world today.
In remaining in office based on fraudulent electoral
results, Kabila has usurped power in the DRC. He is
therefore in violation of both our country's constitution
and the African Union's Resolution against unconstitutional
change of government. In accordance with Article 64 of the
DRC constitution, which recognizes the right and the duty of
Congolese citizens to resist the usurpation or seizure of
power by unconstitutional means, peaceful manifestations of
resistance will continue at home and in the diaspora against
the illegal Kabila regime. To prevent further violence and
unnecessary loss of life due to the current impasse, Kabila
must be pressured to accept an honorable exit similar to the
way that Fredrick De Klerk did in post-apartheid South
Africa, by becoming President of the Senate, which is the
second highest office in the country. He must accept the
verdict of the ballot box and the people's choice of
Tshisekedi as the person who must preside over the process
of change and reconstruction in the Congo. A power sharing
formula similar to those in Kenya or Zimbabwe is simply not
workable, given the history of the last twenty years since
the National Conference. Sharing cabinet posts, state
enterprises, and ambassadorships among the different
political groupings is not necessarily a way of solving the
most important issue facing our country today, namely, the
restructuring of the state to strengthen its capacity for
order and security, revenue mobilization internally, service
delivery, and economic development.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic
publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on
African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and
international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by
William Minter.
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