Guest Editorial: The Congolese Dilemma

The Congolese journalist Fidel Bafilemba Bienda reports live from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the context of the intense civil strife, economic collapse, corruption, and serious human rights violations.

by Fidel Bafilemba Bienda

September 18, 2007

Goma Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

My name is Fidel Bafilemba Bienda. I’m 36 years old, married and the father of 4 children. I was born and raised here in Goma, where I still live. If you aren’t familiar with it, Goma is the capital city of the North-Kivu Province in DR Congo. But before I continue with this essay, let me first express my appreciation to the editor of this site. I don’t often get the chance to voice my opinion about what has been going on in my country. And there is so much that needs to be said.

It’s been exactly forty-seven years since the Congo gained independence back in 1960. What had been such a hopeful time has turned into forty-seven years of corruption, greed and power struggles, as different political cliques squandered public funds and wasted so many opportunities. Now our nation has plummeted to a condition of indescribable misery, and as one who dreamed of a better life for my family, I feel that dream is becoming more elusive.

It shouldn’t have turned out this way. My country should have been prosperous and successful. We were known worldwide for our natural resources– thirteen percent of the world’s forest reserves, ample supplies of copper, diamonds, gold, coltan, cassiterite. We were supposed to have a thriving tourist industry because of our national parks with rare animal species like okapis, mountain gorillas, elephants and hippos. But even our natural resources have been plundered. Minerals and gem stones have been looted. And the wild life which should be our national treasure is hunted and killed. An on-going civil war, as well as numerous poachers, resulted in the savage execution of elephants and gorillas. Conservation groups are trying desperately to raise funds to provide more protection, but what good will that do when there is no safe place for the animals to be relocated?

Of course, it’s not just the animals who lack a safe place to live. As the rainforest is destroyed by loggers and other industries, tribes like the Pygmies have been driven out, leaving them stranded, with no way to support themselves.

They are competing with a lot of people who are in the same circumstances — one recent estimate says that as much at 80% of Goma is unemployed. And yet, back in the 60s and 70s, it was expected that Congo would develop faster than South Africa. Today, however, South Africa has far more social and economic infrastructure, and Congo still lags behind, with large portions of our country lacking access to education, clean water or electricity. There was supposed to be investment. There was supposed to be modernisation. But while many promises were made to us, we haven’t seen much progress.

What we really need seems so obvious. If only we had rational and ethical leaders whose first concern was the wellbeing of the Congolese people, rather than maintaining power or defeating their rivals.

Unfortunately, that sort of government is not in sight at the moment. Too many government officials seem to care more about filling their own pockets and protecting their overseas bank accounts, even if it’s the public’s money that goes into those accounts. Our leaders fail to look at the bigger picture. They keep spending the money that isn’t really theirs to spend, even if they are sawing off the branch they are sitting on. Meanwhile, the citizens who trusted them are left to struggle against diseases, hunger and the endless civil wars. Educated people sit at home idle, with nowhere to work. Schools are closing because teachers are not being paid. And despite the chaos, our government officials don’t feel inspired to make any changes. Of course, at some point, there will be nothing left for them to plunder. I wonder what will happen then.

As for the world community, somehow the problems in Congo don’t make the news very often. I wish we would get more journalists to come here and see for themselves. But as fighting continues and innocent people die, the countries that should be helping don’t seem to have much interest.

There have been occasional articles in newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times, and the BBC has covered the conflict, but I doubt the average person in North America or even much of Europe has any idea how conditions here have worsened. They should be more interested, since their governments are supposedly sending foreign aid and supporting a UN peacekeeping force, MONUC. But that too is a mystery to me. MONUC has not been able to stop the killing.

In fact, despite having an imposing arsenal of weapons, helicopter gun ships, etc they have often seemed more like passive observers than peacekeepers. It is not surprising that some Congolese have thrown stones at the MONUC convoys — there is growing frustration about why they have not brought peace. Perhaps their mission is not to participate in the fighting, but can’t they at least prevent it? Isn’t that what they are being paid to do? It’s bad enough that some of the MONUC troops have committed acts of depravity, sexually assaulting Congolese women. But the fact that this well-trained UN force has often stood by while innocent people were killed is something many of us cannot accept.

Consider this. My country has lost over four million of its sons and daughters in ten years of wars. The population in the east overwhelmingly voted for peace, but we didn’t get what we voted for. The politicians who promised they would put an end to the ethnic violence that plagues this country have not done what they said they would do. Meanwhile, armed militias are still a presence, and people keep being displaced, driven from their homes, left with nothing. Sometimes my children are frightened by the sound of gunfire. This is certainly not the life I want for them.

Early in June, French troops were seen in military jeeps in Goma. This may or may not be good news, since there have long been allegations about France’s role in the Rwandan genocide.

In 1994, France was accused of, at best, doing very little to intervene and prevent the mass murders, and at worst arming and even protecting the Hutu perpetrators - the “Interahamwe.” I don’t know what France’s intentions are. But I do know that some of the Hutu militias that participated in the conflict in Rwanda are now in Congo, and unfortunately, some government officials have allowed them to join the Congolese regular army, so they can fight against the rebel forces of Laurent Nkunda, who seeks to protect the Tutsi minority. And as if nobody learns from history, once again, there is potential for another Rwanda. Nkunda wants to be seen as a hero and a liberator, but his fighters are just as brutal as those of the Hutu militias. And rather than having a vision for ending the hostilities and seeking reconciliation, Nkunda seems just as interested in power as any of the other groups who have dominated our country. In the territory under his control, people have been submitted to ideological training so that they will profess loyalty to him and his movement. He even has a political party now - the National Congress for Democracy and Peace– and it has its own website. It seems everyone involved in the conflict has some hidden agenda, and it’s usually about advancing themselves rather than making the country more stable.

I decided to write this essay because I see how the Congolese people are suffering, and I fear for our future. Some diplomats have suggested that maybe a partition plan is the answer, separating the warring factions into their own territories; but with so many long-standing and deep hatreds, I wonder if such a plan would be successful.

Would people stay in their own territory? There is no guarantee of it, and our country has more ethnic groups than just Hutus and Tutsis, so wouldn’t it be a matter of time before fighting would break out again? But more than partition plans, we really do need leaders. While Nkunda and his rebel forces struggle against the army of President Kabila, there isn’t any plan for disarming all the fighters and creating a unified and prosperous country. And while the war drags on, while innocent civilians are caught in the cross-fire, Congo remains divided, with its enormous potential still unfulfilled.

Some of our local journalists are paying a high price for trying to report about the conditions here. News editor Serge Maheshe Kasole of “Radio Okapi,”the UN radio station, was gunned down last June 13 in Bukavu, and his death remains unsolved. Freelance photographer Patrick Kikuku Wilungula was shot in the head and killed last August 9. He was accosted by gunmen near his home in Goma. And then there is Noella Mwambikwa, who was arrested several weeks ago by officers of the military intelligence service as she prepared to board a UN helicopter to report on the current fighting in Sake and Rutshuru North-Kivu province. Getting the word out is becoming increasingly dangerous, but there are still courageous reporters and I don’t want them to be overlooked. If only the world community would decide that we are a country worthy of more attention. Perhaps an influx of journalists would stop the various factions from intimidating and murdering those who want to report on the atrocities.

It makes me angry the more I think about it. The UN peacekeepers haven’t brought peace. The politicians have brought neither progress nor security. And meanwhile, so many of my friends and neighbours, myself among them, are unable to find work, even though we are educated and eager to make our country better. Some days, I can’t even get an internet connection, but that’s not as frustrating as the fact that lately I can’t send my kids to school, and the civil war has caused food prices to soar. But I didn’t write this just to complain. I wrote it because I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I have spent my life advocating for human rights, and when I see so much poverty and suffering all around me, I want to find a solution. My hope is that some of you who will read this essay will want to find one too, and perhaps we can exchange ideas. Perhaps there is a foundation that wants to create some strategies for improving our economy, to help us to get funding for some schools, to modernise the infrastructure here; in other words, to rise above the politics and move this country forward. That may sound idealistic. But in spite of its problems, I still believe in my country. I still believe we have the resources to succeed, if only some ethical and humane leadership can set the right example.