The DR Congo’s had the largest conflict since WWII. 5.4 million have died, at one point 1000 civillians a day from starvation/disease. It’s been egregiously under-covered by media, but even if everyone wished to cover it, it’s a hard task. There are so many parties, militias, alliances that even reading a basic Wikipedia summary made my head spin. There’s the DR Congo government and about 6 “rebel” groups. Countries that give military support to one side or another are: Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad, Namibia and Libya.
There’s a paradox in the war. On the one hand, the UN is failing spectacularly. The situation in Goma is dire. UN forces (on the side of the Congo government army) have been fired on by said army. Other UN forces have recently fled the battlefield. (Source)
On the other hand, what can the UN do? There are no good guys to support. The government the UN is supporting funds Hutu militias that participated in the Rwanda genocide. The international groups are in it to steal Congo’s rich natural resources (and doing a great job of it). All parties have killed, maimed and raped on a mind-boggling scale (over 40,000 rapes over 6 years). And hunted pygmies for food. How many soldiers would it take to secure a country 4 times the size of France, that has a guerilla conflict across 100s of front-lines? It would mean guarding every village at gunpoint.
I think the best moves now are: (1) improving aid distribution a LOT and (2) immediate reprisals for all war crimes. Because to be honest if all militias leave the civillians alone and just kill each other, that would be a tremendous improvement. The broken window theory states that violence can come from the mere feeling that nobody’s in charge (which can be conveyed by something trivial like a broken window). Alas, here the broken window is non-trivial: the fact that you can get away with rape and murder. However it’s not all gloom. Rape convictions are up 600%.
See this interview for a description of how matter-of-fact the soldiers’ attitude about their raping is. It goes against some very deep principles. But I wonder if publicly executing a few hundred rapists/torturers/murderers would lead to a sharp drop in atrocities? If it so then I’d have a hard time justifying why it shouldn’t be done. Maybe that makes me an act utilitarian (or a de-facto supporter of the PATRIOT act). What do you think: would it work? Should it be done?
4 comments ↓
Nice to hear some coverage of the conflict in Congo.
I always think of what my grandmother said when we went to see Hotel Rwanda. “Nobody cares, because it’s a black-on-black crime.”
I’ve listed a few reasons the LRA in Africa hasn’t been getting coverage — but yes ultimately that would be a huge part of what it’s about.
[...] Move over a little to the east to flickers of the Congo, where the surrounding darkness holds multiple armies of genocidal rapists/torturers who can come into your town at any time and do things [...]
[...] worst-hit is the DR Congo because of World War Three. But to counter a stereotype: although Africa has more countries affected by hunger, the continent [...]
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