The Catholic Standard & Times - Congo elections: Africa's new hope

Congo elections: Africa's new hope

By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent

Hope is returning to the wounded heart of Africa.

On July 30, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will hold its first democratic elections in 40 years, an event that could signal a new beginning for a nation that should be the hope of the continent.

“Congo is the heart of Africa,” said Dorothy Madison Seck, regional director for Central Africa for Catholic Relief Services (CRS). “Because of its importance to the full region, if we could stabilize Congo, we would have a spill-over effect for the whole region. It could serve as a model for other countries.”

The DRC contains some of the world’s richest lodes of diamonds, gold, copper and tantalum, which is used in cell phones and laptops. Situated in the center of the African continent, it lays claim to fertile farmland and the second largest rainforest in the world. The DRC has everything it needs to be a rich and successful member of the world community, with the exception of one thing — peace.

Warring factions have been tearing the country apart for 40 years, ruining the infrastructure and causing its people to live in such substandard conditions that the average life expectancy for adult males is only 42 years. Almost 11 percent of all Congolese children die before their first birthday. In fact, an estimated 1,200 people die every a day, mostly from treatable diseases such as measles, malaria and diarrhea. The unemployment rate is off the charts, and more than 200,000 people are still displaced after a six-year war that ended in 1998 . That war left four million people dead.

While much of the world’s attention has been focused on neighboring Sudan, the long-suffering Congolese are trying to rise out of the rubble of that war, and build a new nation. Voter turnout was 60 percent for a December 2005 referendum on the nation’s new constitution, and the turnout for the July elections could be even higher.

“This is a country that has lived under a dictatorship for the last 40 years,” Seck said. “For them to be able to choose their own leader — that’s what they want to see happen. They just want to see the country move forward.”

Fifty five percent of the country’s 60 million inhabitants are Roman Catholic, and because the war destroyed the nation’s infrastructure, the Church has become the strongest institutional network capable of providing healthcare and education. Now it is helping to register and prepare the people for the upcoming election.

“The Catholic Church has played a very big role in registering Congolese for the vote,” Seck said. “CRS has been supporting the Congolese in civic education programs that help the people to understand what it means to be a Congolese, what is their civic responsibility, what role they have to play in changing the government, and how they must engage government to insure that they are responsible and accountable to us. The Church has played a very, very significant role in that process.”

Although no one believes the vote, and nation’s transition to a transparent democracy will come off without a hitch, hopes are high that this may be the start of a new day for the Congolese people.

They have been struggling to survive under corrupt governments since winning independence from Belgium in 1960.

After Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965, the country was forced into 30 years of a corrupt and self-serving dictatorship. Meanwhile, the country’s vast mineral wealth was plundered by international mining companies and the local Congolese elite.

In 1997, the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Uganda backed a rebellion that chased Seko out of power and handed the reins to Laurent Kabila. But within a year, Kabila had a falling out with Rwanda, and turned to neighboring Zimbabwe, Angola and Nimibia for help, leading his nation into six years of war.

A peace agreement in 2000 brought in U.N. peacekeepers. But they were not able to prevent the December 2001 assassination of Kabila. His 29-year-old son, Joseph, succeeded him, and managed to negotiate an agreement in 2002 that led to the withdrawal of most foreign troops.

A transitional government was established with Joseph Kabila as president and four vice presidents representing major rebel groups.

Joseph Kabila is considered the man most likely to become the DRC’s first democratically-elected leader, but the United Nations is taking no chances. The election is so crucial to security in the region, that the U.N. is deploying 18,000 peacekeeping troops to maintain order.

According to Seck, the people just want to move on: “Your average Congolese, from my observation, are just tired. They want the country to move forward and come out of this stagnant political limbo that the country has been experiencing for the past 10 years. They just want to be able to live in peace, and be able to support their own families.”

Even if the elections do occur, and are accepted by the general population, she said, the country still has many challenges to face, such as social, economic and government reform. Not to mention its chronic health problems.

“When I left Congo about two weeks ago,” Seck said, “we had just sent out a team of church partners, as well as our staff, to a location where people were living in a swamp. The biggest need that we saw were non-food items like mosquito nets. In a swampy area [with] young children, pregnant women, we’re seeing high incidence of malaria.

“A couple days ago, the bubonic plague reappeared in the east of Congo,” she said. “This is a disease we all thought had been eradicated but has reappeared because of the [poverty] and lack of infrastructure in the DRC.”

The Church and CRS have been working in the country since 1961, and manage an assortment of large-scale assistance programs, from community health projects to emergency assistance programs for displaced communities. If the Congolese people are going to take back their country and begin to thrive, they’re going to need all the help they can get.

If Americans want to help, Seck is asking them to contact their senators and ask them to support The Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act (S.2125).

That legislation has bipartisan support. It is co-sponsored by Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio). The proposed bill calls on the United States to work in close partnership with the Congolese people to promote a fair democratic election process, and to assist the government in better meeting the needs of its people.

“What we want to do is [call] the attention of the international community [and] and our Catholic brothers and sisters in America to this ongoing crisis that is just making life impossible for these people,” Seck said.

“I know we’re not here to save the whole world. We can’t do that,” she said. “But if we could, at least, make life a bit better for those who are marginalized, we will have fulfilled a big part of our responsibility as human beings.”

Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615