Congo: The Bleeding Heart of Africa

Just when you think it might be over and the people of Eastern Congo stop holding their breath tragedy strikes again. As CNN recently put it “history seems destined to repeat itself.” Another reporter from BBC said it “looks like heaven but it feels like hell.” I will attempt to fill you all in on the most recent chaos occurring in Congo.

First, the Prime Minister of Congo, Antoine Gizenga, resigned in September due to old age and failing health. Unlike most parliamentary systems, the prime minister is appointed by the president and holds no significant power. In the recent Congolese elections the top 3 presidential hopefuls were Kabila, Bemba, and Gizenga. When a run off election between the top 2 was announced Kabila offered Gizenga the position of Prime Minister in exchange for his party’s support. Many people were nervous that Kabila would select a replacement who was from his own party, but thankfully he selected the Budget Minister who is also from the PALU. Adolphe Muzito Seems like a good choice. He has received international praise for being strong with budget reforms, but regardless his position holds little power anyway.
Now to try to explain the conflict, I’ll do my best. First of all where is all of this taking place? The conflicts are only occurring in the Eastern provinces of Congo namely Sud Kivu and specifically the Goma area. When did it all start? A sort of loaded question because I could argue it started 1000 years ago, but for all practical purposes it began in 2003 after “peace” came to Congo and the Second Congo War had ended. This round of fighting began on August 28. In order to answer the other questions I will do my best to give you the information I know. General Laurent Nkunda is a former military leader for the Congolese Government Army who started his own rebel group in order to defend the rights of Congolese Tutsi people or as they are also known the Banyamulenge people. He claims Kabila fought along side Rwandan Hutu rebels (the one’s who performed the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsi people) and encouraged the killing of Congolese Tutsi. He claims he will not stop fighting until Congolese Tutsi are protected. The Congolese Tutsi people are a big problem because most people in Congo hate them saying they are not in fact Congolese but Rwandan and blame them for much of Congo’s violence. Rwanda also doesn’t seem happy to accept them back. It is a difficult fight because many of them did come to Congo after the genocide as uninvited refugees who never left, but historically the general area including that part of Congo was controlled by the Tutsi people. It all sounds ok at first like Nkunda is standing against injustice, standing for the rights of the weak, unless you know that Nkunda is notorious for kidnapping children to force them to join his army, raping women, burning villages, stealing crops and food, and any other human rights violation possible. Because his so called purpose is to help the Tutsi people it is suspected he receives support from Rwanda which is likely considering Rwanda’s long involvement and medaling in Congo during the first and second Congo wars. So what is going on right now is, after months of hiding and preparing Nkunda is back in action from a dramatic kidnapping of children in August to hard core fighting everyday. He is gaining group and securing whole area under his control. It is rumored there has been hiring across the border near Goma between Congo’s government forces and Rwanda. This has left 50,000 Congolese civilians fleeing for their lives with no where to go. CNN and BBC interviewed a lady with a crying baby who said for 3 days she and her children had eaten nothing and were running away as fast as they could. BBC showed a shot of refugees fleeing with bomb blasts behind them. Since 2003 millions have been displaced. They have no place to go. Now is the beginning of the growing season and being forced from their homes now almost guarantees starvation. The UN sets up refugee camps, but because of the vast number of people and squalid living conditions thousands or even tens of thousands die of disease.

The UN drama. First of all MONUC as it is known by its French acronym in Congo is the UN’s largest peace keeping mission, but clearly has been unable to solve the problems in Congo. The UN has occasionally in Congo under extreme circumstances fired upon rebel forces and successfully secured land previous rebel controlled. Since Korea this has not been an acceptable practice for the UN but like in Bosnia is occasionally allowed. Lieutenant General Vicente Diaz de Villegas of Spain recently resigned from being the head of the largest UN peace keeping mission in Congo for personal reasons after only 7 weeks on the job. There has been rioting going on from civilians targeting the UN because they are so discontent over what the UN is doing. How can all the turmoil continue to happen with such strong UN presence? Why are they even there if they are not protecting the common people? Theoretically, in the recent situation the UN is supposed to break up the fighting between the rebels and government forces come in between them and talk to each side separately and negotiate a peace agreement. Of course easier said than done. This time around the UN has done very little leaving civilians very angry. The leaders of the UN in Congo are begging the UN to send more troops. The Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s response was we cannot send soldiers to hide behind every tree, and the situation is too dangerous for the UN. I miss Kofi Annan is all I can say to that. All that I can say for this round of the violence is it is far from over.

Congo is bleeding and has been for such a long time, and desperately needs your prayers. Like the woman in the Bible who spent all of her money on doctors who failed to help her but took all she had, Congo has tried it all to stop the violence but to no avail. We have to stand on the truth of the Word of God, that with just one touch of the hem of His garment the bleeding can stop and all will be forced to say “nothing is impossible for God.” Prayer remains our most powerful weapon to combat the evil and injustice in this world.









Most of the pictures seen above were taken from the yahoo news slide show which displays a compilation of photos mostly from AFP and Reuters. A few other photos including the map were taken from BBC news.

It's Election Day in Zambia

First of all on a personal level a virus is going around at our orphanage in Zambia so please keep the children and house mothers in prayer.

Today is Election Day in Zambia. Our president unfortunately passed away on August 19 and according to Zambia's constitution there must be an election to elect a new president within 90 days of the death of a president. I consider this a ridiculous policy because this makeshift election is costing us $75 million which Zambia can't afford anyway but especially for something that wasn't in the budget. Donor nations including the US have given a total of $11 million to help but because of the global economic crisis there is no chance of anyone but Zambia covering the full amount. The election is also only for the remaining 3 years of the late president Mwanawasa's term so in 2011 we will be coughing out over $100 million for a full Parliament and presidential elections.

There are 4 candidates running. To be brief Sata is crazy he wants to kick out the Chinese, start a war and other outrageous plans. Then there is Rupiah Banda the acting president who has been using corrupt practices and trying to buy votes from people as well as using his control of the media to tell lies and try to scare the people. Then there is HH as he is known a wealthy business man and economist who I prefer. And finally, a former general who is expected to get less than 1% of the votes. A Zambian said it best "I will not recycle leaders who have failed us for over 30 years." Zambia's democracy was born in 1992. Regardless of the differences between the candidates in the current US elections or how anyone might feel about them in 4 years neither of them can destroy completely what Americans have built in over 200 years, on the contrary in Zambia one leader, as anyone can see from African history, can easily destroy everything good in less than a term.

Additional problems include the appreciation of the dollar making prices go up for Zambians, and the falling price of copper has caused depreciation in the local currency not to mention serious problems with the economy. We had a bad year agriculturally last growing season. In Zambia systems are in place to deal with one bad year but if there is a bad year again Zambia will be begging for foreign assistance which may not be available in a difficult global economic time.

Furthermore, accusations about election rigging have been widespread. It is documented that Zambia ordered 6,000 more ballots than they have registered voters for "contingency purposes". The practice of printing too many ballots is frequently used in Africa to rig elections. Additionally, a truck bringing the ballots to Zambia from South Africa was ransacked or something we don't know the whole story but there are fears some of the ballots have already been corrupted. Sata has already said he will encourage rioting and violence if he thinks the elections have been rigged. Zambia is a peaceful nation but there are people this time around who are upset so as we saw in Kenya anything could happen. Please pray for Zambia.

delays

So It is Friday and I am still in Zambia. I got a phone call Wednesday night saying don't come. I wasn't able to understand why. Trying to understand swahili with a really bad phone connection is really difficult. I'm waiting for the email now with more information. I figure everything has a purpose but I am anxious to get back. I would hope you have already seen this on the news but knowing how American news can be I will inform everyone that violence has come to Congo once again. It all began August 28 and has been escalating since then. Nothing too serious just the normal rebel groups fighting as they have been since the war officially ended. They are killing people, stealing children, and of course Rwandan troops are coming over to "help" much to the dislike of Congo. Pray for things there. Don't worry about me because all of these problems are taking place in Kivu which is only accessible to Katanga where I live through airplanes so my area is still completely safe. Thanks for your prayers!

As for life in Zambia it is very different but very wonderful. I was able to sleep semi outside and watch the stars which were few because of the brightness of the moon. Thankfully there were few mosquitoes. After eating amazing Zambian food (Why can't the Congolese cook like the Zambians?) all the orphans gathered around and we sang songs while some of the kids played the drums. Then the little ones went to sleep and the older ones came outside and played with me and a girl named Elizabeth until "late" 9:30. They played with my phone and asked all kinds of questions and were such a joy. I'm not that great with kids but these orphans are incredible. They came from such sad situations and it is incredible to see what a little love can do!

A Little Trip To Zambia

I concluded my time in Lubumbashi Monday without applying for my visa. The paperwork was finally ready but some additional complications were brought to my attention. First,I still had to purchase another temporary visa which I learned is 3 times as expensive in Congo than it is in Zambia. Then I was reminded that although the government promises no longer than 30 days to get the visa after you apply during which time they hold onto your passport, this is Congo and nothing happens quickly. One man who has lived in Congo 15 years said he once waited a year and a half to get his passport back. The average seems to be about 3 months though. The new information caused me to take a quick trip to Zambia. I went to Lubumbashi Thursday and arrived in Zambia on Friday where I have been for the last week. It has been wonderful as usual to be here. I'm going up to Lusaka Wednesday to get my last (hopefully) temporary visa and will be back in Congo on Friday. Saturday please pray I will be able to finally send in everything for my missionary 2 year visa. Also pray it comes back quickly. if all goes according to plan I'll be back in Likasi Monday.

Tomorrow I will be going on for a couple of days to the village where our orphanage is here in Zambia. I don't know where we (me and 2 other Americans) will be sleeping but I'm rooting for outside under the stars. We have over 20 children now and they are all wonderful. I got the chance to meet the new children but look forward to getting to know them. Now my big challenge is to stop mixing in Swahili when I'm trying to speak Tonga to the kids. Since I've been back I have so many times taken a few minutes to construct an intelligible sentence using French and or Swahili and then realized I could just ask in English. Its a great feeling knowing you can easily and effectively communicate with people. In the villages its mostly Tonga which I speak incredibly poorly but at least I know some and there are plenty of translators around.