The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire)

2. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire)

3. Roots of the conflict:Colonization • 1880s: Belgium’s King Leopold II takes personal control of the Congo territory • 8-10 million people die as a result of violence, forced labor, and starvation • 1908: Leopold transfers control of the “Congo Free State” to the Belgian government

4. Roots of the conflict:Decolonization & the Cold War • 1960: Independence • 1961: Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba assassinated • Congo as a U.S. ally • Strategic minerals • A central location for projecting military power

5. Roots of the conflict:Mobutu Sese Seko • 1965: Becomes President through military coup

6. Zaire: The Mobutu Regime • Mobutu: 1960-1990 • US Support as a leader Against Socialism in Africa. • End of Cold War Ends US Financial Support. • Economic Collapse • GDP growth negative since 1989, estimated at -8.0 % in 1992. • Collapse of Political Authority Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu waza Banga, or, “The all-conquering warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake”

7. The “Mobutu Effect” Per Capita Income Source: World Bank. World Development Indicators on CD-ROM

8. War in Zaire • Precipitating Causes Lie in 1994 Rwandan Conflict. • Refugees and Hutu Extremists in Zaire. • Rwanda and Uganda join Forces with Zairian Tutsis to Overthrow Mobutu

9. Ripples of genocide • 1994: Mobutu shelters genocidal leaders exiled from neighboring Rwanda • 1997: Rebellion sponsored by Rwanda & Uganda ousts Mobutu

10. Install Laurent Kabila as President of Democratic Republic of Congo. • Kabila Alienates Domestic Support, and Does Not Control Hutu Extremists. • Rwanda and Uganda Begin to Support Congolese Union for Democracy (RCD) Against Kabila. Laurent Kabila

11. Angola Supports Kabila. Kabila had supported Angola against RCD

12. Namibia: Allied with Angola, thus Fighting in support of Kabila. • Zimbabwe: Rivalry with Rwanda and Uganda, thus Fighting in support of Kabila

13. War in the DRC, 1998-present • Africa’s “First World War” – the deadliest in the world since World War II • 45,000 deaths per month (2008, Int’l Rescue Committee) • Estimated 5.4 million deaths (IRC)

14. An increasingly localized battle for control of natural resources • Sexual violence used by all sides to displace, control, and traumatize • The UN’s largest peacekeeping operation (2000-present) • Thousands continue to die

15. Getting Current • January 2001, Kabila Assassinated by Bodyguard • Kabila’s Son Installed as President • Fighting Continues • 2.3 million Refugees • Est. 4 Million Dead • Read and discuss: • Refugee account from MONUC.org

16. Overview In August, 1998 Tutsi troops from Rwanda and Uganda invaded Congo. Their aim, this time around, was to overthrow President Kabila. The invaders have taken over most of eastern Congo where they are conducting mass murders of innocent people: men, women and children.

17. The killing of the Congolese population by the rebels and the Tutsi soldiers... In Mobi, rebels and Tutsi soldiers walked down the street with a human head in their hands, in some other places children where forced to look at the mutilated corpses of their families members.

18. The people of Kisangani are getting ready to remove and bury the bodies of 3 persons killed in a clash between the Rwandan and Ugandan armies.

19. The International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 4 million lives have been claimed by the war.

21. The “Resource Curse” • Natural resources finance armed groups committing sexual violence in eastern Congo  • Diamonds, tin, and25% of world’s tantalum minerals • columbite-tantalite • Consumers in the United States unknowingly contribute to the conflict by purchasing these products • The Congo’s vast resources have never benefited its people (coltan)

22. The suffering continues Despite 2003 ceasefire… • Systematic and widespread crimes against humanity continue • 1,500 Congolese die daily from hunger, preventable disease, and other consequences of violence and displacement • Half of deaths are children • 1.3 million displaced

23. Humanitarian crisis • More than 200,000 women and girls raped since the beginning of the conflict • More than 33,000 children taken by armed groups • child soldiers • sex slaves • Sexual violence continues at horrific rates

24. Violence against women in the DRC • Eastern Congo is the most dangerous place in the world for women and girls • Rape on a scale seen nowhere else in the world • Sexual violence to subjugate and humiliate populations they seek to control • Unparalleled physical as well as emotional trauma

25. “Nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly, terrifying and complete as the sexual torture and attempted destruction of the female species here. The violence is a threat to all; young girls and village elders alike are at risk. It is not too strong to call this a femicide, to say that the future of the Congo’s women is in serious jeopardy,” –Eve Ensler, founder and artistic director of V-Day (www.vday.org)

26. Violence against women:the numbers • Approximately 3,500 reported incidents of rape in North and South Kivu in the first six months of 2008 • 50% of survivors were under the age of 18 • Doctors Without Borders says 75 percentof all rape cases it deals with worldwide are in eastern Congo

27. The latest cycle of violence • Since August 2008, fighting has intensified between the Congolese army and rebels loyal to a renegade general named Laurent Nkunda (arrested Jan. 2009) • 250,000 people displaced by recent fighting • Sexual violence against women and girls and forced recruitment of men and boys remain daily threats IDP camp in Kibati, November 2008