Although the war in Congo officially ended in 2003, two million people have died since. One of the reasons is that the international community's peacekeeping efforts there have not focused on the local grievances in eastern Congo, especially those over land, that are fueling much of the broader tensions. Until they do, the nation's security and that of the wider Great Lakes region will remain uncertain.
Submitted by Afro V. (Apr. 15, 2009) on April 15, 2009 - 3:25pm.
What Ms Autessere argues here is partially true. There are land disputes in the Congo, just like there are at the border regions of most African, European, Latin-American, Asian countries. These often lead to ethnic/tribal tensions in societies where villages, families, local customs, languages and traditions are still strong. That was true not so long ago (and in some ways still is) in Alsace-Lorraine for instance. In that case the Congo is not unique.
What is unique in the Congo, is how the greedy need by some interest groups, mostly foreign, but also domestic, for cheap access to the vast mineral resources of the Congo, have maneuvered to stir, fuel and escalate these tensions, ultimately even funneling funds to warlords using the sexual terrorism of systematic rape, to guarantee a perpetuation of the situation of lawlessness, fear and chaos that they deem good for their business.
If one really wants to solve the issues of the DRC, those interests have to be targeted first. Only then would we have a chance to bring the Congo out of chaos.
People need an international system for security of many kinds. But the United Nations today is precariously funded, stretched thin by an unprecedented number of peacekeeping missions, and generally underequipped to deal with the rising demand for its services. Reform is necessary for the middle-aged organization. States touchy about sovereignty and interest groups pushing their agendas must sink their differences and work out a plan to revitalize the world body. They might consider giving it an independent source of income and some standing troops for enforcement power.
The difference between the factions in Bosnia is not morality, as the Bosnian Muslims and Western press insist, but power and opportunity. All have the same goal: to avoid living as a minority. All have committed crimes against other ethnic groups. Despite its claims of neutrality and preaching against military solutions, the United States has favored the Bosnian Muslims, keeping silent as they launched offensives from U.N.-guarded safe areas. Since air strikes cannot resolve the conflict, the United States must discourage violence by all sides and let Russia--the one country Serbs trust--take the lead in negotiations.
The intervention in Somalia was not an abject failure; an estimated 100,000 lives were saved. But its mismanagement should be an object lesson for peacekeepers in Bosnia and on other such missions. No large intervention, military or humanitarian, can remain neutral or assuredly brief in a strife-torn failed state. Nation-building, the rebuilding of a state's basic civil institutions, is required in fashioning a self-sustaining body politic out of anarchy. In the future, the United States, the United Nations, and other intervenors should be able to declare a state "bankrupt" and go in to restore civic order and foster reconciliation.
Washington's repeated attempts to bring peace to Somalia with state-building initiatives have failed, even backfired. It should renounce political intervention and encourage local development without trying to improve governance
Comments
Putting the cart before the horse
What Ms Autessere argues here is partially true. There are land disputes in the Congo, just like there are at the border regions of most African, European, Latin-American, Asian countries. These often lead to ethnic/tribal tensions in societies where villages, families, local customs, languages and traditions are still strong. That was true not so long ago (and in some ways still is) in Alsace-Lorraine for instance. In that case the Congo is not unique.
What is unique in the Congo, is how the greedy need by some interest groups, mostly foreign, but also domestic, for cheap access to the vast mineral resources of the Congo, have maneuvered to stir, fuel and escalate these tensions, ultimately even funneling funds to warlords using the sexual terrorism of systematic rape, to guarantee a perpetuation of the situation of lawlessness, fear and chaos that they deem good for their business.
If one really wants to solve the issues of the DRC, those interests have to be targeted first. Only then would we have a chance to bring the Congo out of chaos.