Home  >>  Analysis  >>  September 18, 2008, Ripples of Genocide: An Update on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Part One.

TOOLS PRINT E-MAIL SEPTEMBER 18, 2008, RIPPLES OF GENOCIDE: AN UPDATE ON THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, PART ONE. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: This is Bridget Conley-Zilkic. With me today is Colin Thomas-Jensen who’s a Policy Advisor with the Enough Project, and Candice Knezevic who is the Congo Campaign Manager for the Enough Project. Thank you both for joining me today. COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: Thanks for having us. CANDICE KNEZEVIC: Thank you. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: We’re going to be speaking today about Congo, and specifically about providing an update for a project we did together with John Prendergast, who is now with the Enough Project, in 2003. That project was called Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo, and it documented a trip that John and Angelina Jolie -- the actress who was there as part of her work as a Goodwill Ambassador with UNICEF --took through eastern Congo. We want to update that information and find out where things stand today. To begin, can you help us understand what are some of the major political developments since 2003? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: The biggest political development since 2003 was the really the monumental effort of the international community to help the Democratic Republic of the Congo hold its first election in 40 years. These elections by and large went peacefully. There was some post-election violence, but given the ferociousness of the conflict and the fragile nature of the Congolese state, I think a successful election was as much or more than anyone in the international community could have hoped for. However, despite the election there continues to be a low intensity conflict that often flares up into a much higher intensity conflict in the eastern part of the country. This is largely due to the nature of conflict in the Congo, the nature of governance where you have a state that essentially is unable to control its own borders and filling that vacuum are armed militias, armed groups who exploit natural resources for commercial gain, who engage in daily atrocities against local civilian populations jockeying for power in the east. And it’s this conflict that is continuing the high levels of displacement, the high levels of mortality, and the continuing humanitarian situation in Eastern Congo. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: In 2003 John and Angelina witnessed and spoke about the affects of displacement on the civilian population, they emphasized that one of the major affects was hunger and malnourishment, which was costing millions of lives. Has that situation improved at all? CANDICE KNEZEVIC: Unfortunately, no. I was just there a few weeks ago, and one of the things that really struck me was the desperation of the people in the internally displaced camps. Actually since the Goma Peace Agreement was signed in January, 150,000 more people have had to flee their homes because of the violence. So that has added to the already 1,000,000 people who have been displaced in Congo. The hunger is palpable, because more recently because of the global food crisis, food rations have been cut in most of the IDP camps by 50 percent. The people that we saw there were starving and the children were malnourished. They’re definitely feeling increasingly desperate, particularly in the IDP camps. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: Can you help us understand: Congo is an extraordinarily rich, lush country where agriculture should be possible. How is it that people are having trouble getting just the basics of enough food to keep their bodies alive? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: Eastern Congo has been the epicenter of tremendous violence over the past decade, and the number of people that have been driven from their homes, the amount of destruction the towns and villages have undergone, has led to a complete collapse in the ability of local people to sustain themselves. The coping mechanisms that people would have in a period such as now when we have this major global food crises with escalating prices and escalating delivery costs – there would have been 10 or 15 years ago the ability at a local level to deal with that. You have food stocks, you have surpluses. But now the fact that people have been driven from their homes, the fact that they’re relying many of them almost exclusively on the efforts of UN agencies and international nongovernmental organizations to meet their basic needs, means that when there are shocks to the system such as what we have now with the food crisis, it hits those people particularly hard. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: You’ve spoken a little bit about the affects of malnutrition, malnourishment on children, but I also wanted to talk about what has happened to children who have been forcefully or even voluntarily recruited as soldiers. John in 2003 stated “Childhood is an abstract concept in many parts of Congo.” Is this true today? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: I think it’s absolutely still very true. Children in Congo especially in eastern Congo are growing up in an extremely violent environment, witnessing violence, experiencing the affects of displacement and in the worst case scenario being forced to fight for one of the many militias and armed groups that are operating in eastern Congo. There is still a grave problem of child soldiers. The FDLR militia, which is one of the most violent and virulent militias in eastern Congo, is known for recruiting children and teenagers to fight on their behalf along with many other militias who engage in similar practices. Childhood is still as John said, an abstract concept. Most of the deaths that occur because of the displacement in eastern Congo and, according to the International Rescue Committee, that is 5.4 million and counting since 1998, are children under 5. Even the kids that are lucky enough to reach 5, 6 years old still have a very difficult road to look forward to. CANDICE KNEZEVIC: If I could just add, even driving around and some of the northern villages where the CNDP have control- BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: And the CNDP is? COLIN THOMAS-JENSEN: The CNDP is one of the rebel groups, Congolese rebel groups that are currently occupying some territory in the province of North Kivu. It’s a renegade Congolese general who’s broken away from the Congolese army stating that his goal is to protect the local Tutsi population, his ethnic group, which has for years been under threat in the region. The CNDP is also known for committing atrocities against civilians as well. BRIDGET CONLEY-ZILKIC: And Candice, what did you see when you were there? CANDICE KNEZEVIC: Even just driving around in some of those areas, we would see CNDP soldiers standing on the side of the road who looked like they couldn’t be any more than 16 years old. I want to highlight some of the amazing work that organizations like UNICEF working in partnership with Congolese organizations such as BVES [Bureau pour le Volontariat au Sevice de l'Enfance et de la Santé], which is based in Bukavu in South Kivu. They’re doing amazing work to demobilize child soldiers and reintegrate them into Congolese society and reunite them with their families. An organization like BVES certainly struggles because there are so many more children than they have the capacity to be able to demobilize and reintegrate, because the need is so great, but they’re doing amazing work. The children that I met with, the child soldiers, who they were working with, were incredible -- amazing children who just want to be kids. They were playing games and joking around and having fun. They want to have a normal childhood like everyone else in the world, but the circumstances that they’re growing up in a place where, as John mentioned “Childhood is an abstract concept.” These kids have a lot of hope for their future and a lot of them that I spoke to wanted to work in human rights, and be a part of the positive future of the country. It was definitely heartwarming and hopeful to meet these kids and see the amazing work that organizations Congolese organizations and UNICEF is doing with them, but also the capacity that they have to really be a part of a better future for the country. NARRATOR: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 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