Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Kinshasa for a two day visit in Congo that will take her to Goma. The city of lava and points north are the epicenters of sexual violence and civilian "collateral" damage that has exponentially intensified since the start of joint military operations between Congo and Rwanda in January 2009. Operation Umoja Wetu was dubbed a spectacular failure. UN peacekeepers (MONUC) have since been backing Congolese military operations, known as Kimia II, against the Rwandan Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Umoja Wetu was intended to eliminate Rwandan Hutu rebels (FDLR), but failed miserably when Rwanda abandoned the operation due to negative public opinion and open, bitter hostility from a Congolese parliament that was in opposition to Congolese President Joseph Kabila's pact with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame.
MONUC north of Goma in 2007
In interviews with the African press and in her State Department blog, Clinton says that she will urge Congo's Joseph Kabila and his government to address the "root causes" of the conflict in the war-ravaged eastern Kivu Provinces and stop the use of women and children as "weapons of war."
Not much has changed since I took this photo in 2007 in Goma. There are hundreds if not thousands of broken and dead babies in eastern DRC
This is why I supported Clinton for President. My feeling has always been that she understands foreign policy and especially Africa, more than anyone. Her popularity ratings are currently above those of President Obama's and there is no better time than now for her to finally get the message across to Americans about the "root causes." Unfortunately, she is in talks with Joseph Kabila today, and he has been cited time and time again by human rights groups as the source of the current disaster. (I at first typed "holocaust" and then changed it to "disaster"...take your pick.) I hope she has the stamina to put diplomacy aside and tell it like it is to Kabila.
I will be pressing very hard not just for assistance to help those being abused and mistreated ... particularly the women who are being turned into weapons of war through the rape they experience ... but also for ways to try to end this conflict.
I am going to Goma to speak out against the unspeakable violence against women and girls in eastern Congo. It is the worst example of man's inhumanity to women, and women are being used in conflicts.
We are going to press on working for ways to create broader political legitimacy and credibility by his government across the country.
I hope she remembers and heeds Kabila's words which have been quoted in a Human Rights Watch Report that he will "crush" his political opponents. Hillary Clinton should be more than a match to Kabila's violent rhetoric and actions, but will she step up to the plate?
Torture victim of Kabila's secret police in 2007...crushing fingers is one way to send a message.
A note came in yesterday from a former Congolese rape Counselor who is now out of country and recovering from extreme post traumatic stress.
I was just thinking about writing to you, just two sentences to encourage you when I saw the letter you just sent to Mme Hilary (sic) before she travels to the Congo. I almost jump in the sky... I am thinking about all these people passing hard time in camps and all of these hundreds thousands of refugees in their own home land. I know that the situation is still worse in the Congo but I am with hope. Please, can you also investigate about the collateral damage that the joint military operation FARDC and RPA is conducting actually on the civilian population? Again, children and women are the ones paying the hard price.
He had come across our Huffington Post blog and really thinks Clinton is listening to the human rights pleas, such as this one from Marcel Stoessel of OXFAM:
The UN-backed offensive that was supposed to make life better for the people of eastern Congo is instead becoming a human tragedy.
Secretary Clinton needs to make it very clear that U.S. support for the UN's efforts in Congo is not a blank check and that civilians should be protected.
Human Rights Watch issued an extensive plea today to Clinton. I wonder if she reads this stuff? Here is a good portion of it.
Killings and brutal sexual violence against women, girls and also men have massively increased in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of military operations in January 2009, the Congo Advocacy Coalition, a group of 88 humanitarian and human rights organizations, said today. The coalition urged Hillary Clinton, the United States secretary of state, who arrives in Congo today, to press the Congolese government and United Nations peacekeepers for more effective measures to protect civilians and to pursue justice for serious crimes.
Since the start of military operations in January, more than 600 civilians have been killed and thousands of women and girls raped by armed rebel groups and government forces. According to UN estimates, the violence has forced more than 800,000 people from their homes, including some 56,000 who fled from Uvira territory, South Kivu, in July.
But, HRW has been saying this for years, and things just keep getting worse. Will Clinton really listen now? Since the death of Alison Des Forges in the Continental Airlines crash outside of Buffalo New York, HRW's senior Africa researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg has picked up Des Forges' standard with a vengeance.
So far, these military operations have brought nothing but horrible suffering for the people of eastern Congo. Secretary Clinton should offer high-level US diplomatic engagement to figure out how to address the problem of the FDLR and other armed groups without causing even more harm.
Congolese army soldiers have committed widespread and serious abuses during the military operations, including rape. The majority of sexual violence cases reported in North Kivu since January have been attributed to government soldiers. On July 4, the Congolese government announced a policy of "zero tolerance" for abuses committed by army soldiers and said that commanders who permit their troops to commit such crimes will be held responsible. To date, only a handful of officers have been arrested.
Widespread impunity, the recent integration of 12,000 militia fighters into the army's ranks, and problems with salary payments have all compounded the discipline problems that have plagued the army for many years.
Why hasn't Kabila arrested Bosco Ntaganda, a war criminal wanted by The Hague on extreme human rights violations, murder and rape? Instead, Kabila put Bosco in charge of the troops in eastern Congo! Maybe we should not worry too much about Bosco. My sources tell me he is hanging around the bars in Goma, drinking away his salary in between smuggling operations in Cyanaki and the "back door" of Bunagana.
HRW addresses Bosco obliquely here even though they have openly called for Bosco to be brought to justice in past press comments.
Since the start of military operations, the FDLR rebels have carried out widespread retaliatory attacks, brutally killing and raping Congolese civilians. In one recent reprisal attack, on July 20, the rebels killed more than 20 civilians in the village of Manje, in Walikale territory, North Kivu province. As in previous similar attacks, the rebels hacked some victims with machetes, shot others, and burned a number to death in their homes.
The Congolese Advocacy Coalition urged Clinton to press the Congolese and Rwandan governments, the UN and its member states to urgently review their strategy against the FDLR rebels and to plan for a new and more comprehensive approach emphasizing protection of civilians.
There we have it. Kabila's army is committing a majority of the atrocities, and Hillary is going to be face to face with the butcher. Her husband's inattention in Rwanda in 1994 contributed to the murder of one million. This will be the test as to whether the United States can really exert influence in central Africa. Can Clinton offer a moral compass in this humanitarian tragedy, or will we once again turn our back on humanity?
The innocents cannot afford to wait much longer. The eyes of the innocents, pictured above, are on us.
HRW just published this excellent fact sheet on who is fighting whom in DRC.