23rd June 2011 - Congolese Women Speak Out:
The political economy of rape reporting

About 100 women raped in Congo?

According to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the attacks took place between June 10 and 11, 2011.

Congolese women have paid a heavy price through their bodies where the current marathon to power has been run, defiled only few have been pacified with humanitarian assistance instead of policies and actions to eradicate the evil. These women suffer and die in the name of "border security," mineral exploitation, and geopolitical ambitions. They suffer because world powers consistently ignore their cries for help.

The DRC needs more than humanitarian aid.

The International Community should not only take stock of the horrific human rights abuses occurring in the region, but to take action as well. They should put more pressure on Rwanda to play a constructive role next door in Congo (it has, inexcusably, backed one militia and bolstered others by dealing extensively in the conflict minerals trade). Unless the International Community exercises meaningful pressure on Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, our Great Lakes region will not see peace in the near future.

In the absence of a serious push for a political solution to the crisis by the international community and the UNSC in particular, the situation could quickly spiral out of control. The only way out of the crisis is a coherent political strategy, implemented through consistent and concerted help from the Security Council and influential member-states from the region.

This is no time to hesitate, or to play double games, sending mixed signals to warring factions and their sponsors.

The US and the UK are the principal powers backing the two main sponsors of this war - Rwanda and Uganda. Both of these countries continue to support militias in eastern Congo. They fuel the conflict even while they sign peace agreements. They use military assistance and economic aid to support warlords within our borders.

With this proliferation of arms, the already crippled Congolese government is unable to secure its borders, and both Rwanda and Uganda have used border insecurity as a pretext to invade Congo.
Without a viable national army, the government can neither protect its citizens nor defend the nation's territorial integrity. The lack of a unified army and police force is the primary conflict driver. The security vacuum has created the right conditions for the continuation of the war, especially in the postelection period because some former rebel leaders will no longer have access to power or immunity from prosecution.

The struggle for control over natural resources and mineral wealth is at the core of the conflict. Groups with access to mineral-rich areas generate large sums of revenue through illegal exploitation and trade of resources, and they have no interest in the return of law and order.

Without a robust army and law enforcement structures, the country will never be able to hold long-awaited elections. Such a failure will continue to keep the Great Lakes region in chaos, with dire consequences for millions of innocent civilians.

In the words of the late Patrice Lumumba, without a strong defence and law enforcement system, Congo will remain “a house without a door, a door without a key.”

Beyond the elections, Congo needs help to rebuild the national economy by revamping infrastructure and encouraging foreign investment. Congo is rich in natural and human resources. Indeed, the desire for this wealth is at the core of the conflict. Without IC support in protecting and developing these resources, the peace process will certainly fail.

Victoria speaking about the 100 Congolese women raped from the 11/06 – 12/06/2011 in Eastern Congo

Congo and Libya

One has to question why the International Community has pursued a military path to “protect” civilians in Libya especially, considering that there is a far greater humanitarian crisis unfolding in the heart of Africa.

For the past 15 years, nearly 10million people have perished in the DRC, due to the ongoing conflict, which was triggered by the U.S. and UK allies, Rwanda and Uganda when they invaded Congo in 1996. As the world focuses on the Western intervention in Libya under the guise of moral responsibility to protect the vulnerable, the global community must question the lack of action on the part of the International Community when it comes to the millions dead in the Congo.

The world apathy towards the DRC, where the humanitarian crisis is far greater than in Libya, leads one to question why the double standard in applying the principle of the responsibility to protect, considering that the Congo situation does not require a military solution but rather robust diplomatic and political action.

The suspicion many analysts share is that the International Community is quick to act against its enemies while covering for its allies, even if its allies are clearly culpable for committing mass atrocities, crimes against humanity and possible genocide, according to the recently published U.N. report called “U.N. Mapping Exercise Report.”

The DR Congo risks Ivorian-style Poll violence


The vast and mineral-rich central African country is due to hold presidential elections on 28/11/ 2011. These elections could plunge the country into open conflict similar to that in Ivory Coast. The financial and logistical problems threaten to lead to a 'botched' poll that could all too easily become as violent as the Ivory Coast. The government is already struggling to stamp out rebel groups in the eastern provinces.
The electoral dilemma the authorities face could spread to the streets. Popular disaffection has grown as a consequence of endemic corruption and a failure to provide broad and sustained economic growth.
However, every person concerned should probe very seriously the critical question: Would the 2011 elections create the conditions that would establish the basis for the best possible future for the Congolese people?
The International Community is supporting these elections, even though the conditions do not exist to conduct democratic elections. The objective reality is that the Congolese presidential elections should not be held within the current environment. What happened few years ago in Kosovo, and recently in Sudan, is not different from what is brewing in the DR Congo.
The country is governed from outside, Congolese people do not have the control over their country. Its corrupt political elite prefer to betray the privileged interests of the country to preserve their personal benefits. It is perfectly foreseeable that these elections would further entrench the very conflict it is supposed to end.


Victoria Dove Dimandja - Congolese Human Right Campaigner
Liberation Congolese Women Group