Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveler

Humanitarian Mad Libs.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:39:24 GMT

Ganked from ticklethepear .

Humanitarian Mad Libs (fill in the blanks)

Yet again, bad times in _____ (country). Surprise, surprise. Given that _____ (number between five and ten) previous peace deals have fallen through, perhaps it was naive to assume that the _____ (name of random, medium-sized city in random third-world country) Agreements would hold.

(Then again, UN mediators and peace-building experts need work, too.)

In the meantime, renewed fighting between the _____ (four-letter acronym of rebel / insurgent group - extra point if it's MILF) and government forces threaten to push an already-precarious humanitarian situation over the edge.

In just the past _____ (number between one and four) weeks, as many as _____ (number between 500 and 5,000) civilians have been killed; another _____ (number between 50,000 and 500,000) people have fled their homes.

A UN spokesman in _____ (country) has described the situation as a "humanitarian _____ (catastrophe / crisis / disaster / shit-storm)". According to an aid worker with _____ (three or four letter NGO acronym):

"The camps are overwhelmed; the situation is even worse for those caught in the _____ (bush, inaccessible geographic feature, "no fire zone"). We're hearing that people have already started dying of _____ (cholera, hunger, thirst)."

Another aid worker added:

"The _____ (government forces, rebels, government and rebels) are shooting at anyone that tries to flee the area. We're seeing more and more civilians with _____ (gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, massive psychological trauma). It's a _____ (bloodbath / massacre / slaughter / shit-storm)."

The government has denied firing on civilians. According to a government spokesman: "These are our people, we are doing everything we can to save them."

Being ever-mindful of their public image, the rebels have also strenuously denied using civilians as human shields.

Those who have made it to the camps tell a different story. _____ (man's name - preferably African, Asian or Muslim), a _____ (carpenter, farmer, shopkeeper, taxi-driver) from _____ (name of completely insignificant village) reported seeing _____ (number between 5 and 10) bodies laying on the road as he fled.

"They are shooting everyone," he said. "The _____ (government, rebels) killed my _____ (family member) last week. It took us _____ (number between 1 and 5) days to reach the camp. My _____ (family member) is now very ill."

Another facet of the disaster

Mon, 18 May 2009 20:58:11 GMT

There is so much bad news in eastern DRC that I can't even keep up with it, and it's demoralizing to think about posting everything that I read. But this short article from the Atlantic shows a (perhaps simplified but relevant) causal relationship that is yet another negative manifestation of the conflict.

Here's how it works: Soldiers / rebel militia kill hippos --> hippo defecation reduced --> food supply (hippo shit) for plankton/larvae reduced --> fish food supply (plankton/larvae) reduced --> fish reduced --> fishermen permitted to fish reduced --> people can't eat. This is complicated by the fact that more refugees have settled in this area, and by the fact that European environmentalists have calculated the number of fishermen that should legally be allowed to fish based on the fish supply.

Results - fewer hippos, fewer fish, more arrests, and not many people are eating.

Final quote:

The environmental activist fires questions at the two, demanding to know why they were fishing without licenses.

“Because,” the wiry man says, “we were hungry.”

May 18 Kinshasa front page news

Mon, 18 May 2009 14:01:19 GMT

L’Avenir (pro-government), article, front page , “DRC Infiltrated, Joseph Kabila must Clean Up the Intelligence Agency.“

On May 15, Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalist Ghislaine Dupont disclosed an internal document of the DRC National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in an apparent attempt to discredit the chief of Domestic Security. The document provides information on corrupt ANR agents and release of some prisoners held by ANR. Infighting within the ANR is used to feed an ongoing conspiracy against the DRC institutions. Many people have infiltrated the ANR, which calls into question the ANR’s loyalty toward the GDRC. Those who use international media to damage the reputation of a rival not only weaken an individual, they also undermine the whole country as well as the institutions that depend on the ANR’s performance. The lingering question remains: who is manipulating whom-- RFI or the National Intelligence Agency?

Le Potentiel, (independent), editorial, front page, “Military and Intelligence Service Reform.“

Reforming the armed forces and the intelligence service is a priority, considering the Government’s need to restore peace and stability to the DRC’s troubled regions. During his visit to Kinshasa, AFRICOM Commander General Ward insisted on the need for reforming the Congolese army and for forming professional and efficient armed forces. He indicated that AFRICOM is ready to help the DRC reach these objectives. In the same spirit, the DRC foreign minister recently stressed that there is no viable State without strong armed forces and an effective intelligence service. The success of any military operation is contingent on covert and diligent intelligence gathering as well as on the effective processing and transmission of such intelligence. Future reforms should provide strict recruitment criteria to avert manipulation and leaks that may benefit enemies. Reforming the military and intelligence sectors is a major component in any national security strategy.

Compiled by John Kalonji, PD Section.

Cedric Kalonji's vignettes on religion in Kinshasa and the East

Wed, 13 May 2009 16:37:47 GMT

These entries are in French (sorry) but provide interesting observations on religion in present-day DR Congo. Click for photos.

1.Kinshasa : Commerce de prières et des bénédictions divines de plus en plus fructueux

Observations on pastors providing the word of God and benedictions for a donation, but without much success. The more "men of God" selling their word, the fewer buyers will be available.

2. La bible, arme congolaise pour arrêter la guerre

Soldier-Pastor Rams using the word of God to influence citizens to believe and pray, to prepare them for eternal life, and to pave the way for peace.

Cedric Kalonji's comment: "Ils sont déjà nombreux à choisir la prière à la place du travail ou des médicaments lorsqu’ils sont malades. Et lorsqu’un soldat soutient haut et fort qu’il vaut mieux prier plutôt que défendre sa patrie, ça fait froid dans le dos..."

["There are already many that choose prayer in the place of work or medicine when they are sick. And when a soldier argues loudly that it is better to pray rather than defend his homeland, it sends shivers down your spine..."]

ETA: 3. Lutte contre le VIH-SIDA, à chacun sa thérapie.

People turning to prayer and miracle cures for HIV.

"Problème : les discours des pasteurs ont visiblement plus d’écho que les campagnes de sensibilisation et de prévention contre le VIH. La population congolaise ayant perdu foi en ses gouvernants se tourne vers Dieu et la prière. L’utilisation du préservatif étant considérée comme un péché par les églises et le miracle comme solution pour les malades, le sida a encore de beaux jours chez nous."

["Problem: the speech of pastors have visibly more resonance than awareness-raising and HIV prevention campaigns. The Congolese people, having lost faith in their leaders, are turning to God and prayer. With the use of condoms being seen as a sin by the church, and a miracle as the solution for patients, AIDS will still have sunny days with us."]

Why are Somali pirates pirating?

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:24:06 GMT

Nuclear and heavy metal dumping, causing sickness in coastal populations
Looting and overexploitation of seafood/marine life
No intervention by local government (well, nonexistent government)

Links so you can read more:
From "Africa is a Country" : K'naan on the truth about Somali pirates (video); What the media’s not telling us about Somali pirates
From The Unapologetic Mexican: Spirit of the Resistance in Somalia
From The Huffington Post:

Follow up on some African news stories I've been following sporadically

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:55:19 GMT

Militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta region have kidnapped a Scottish oil worker and killed his police guard.

[Take a look at the site for Sweet Crude, a film that discusses the other side of Niger Delta militancy. MEND tried non-violent opposition for years but Shell is still trying to force residents off their land.]

Also this:
Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has said his government is considering granting amnesty to violent groups in the Niger Delta if they disarm. But "The most visible group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), said they would not give up their arms because of "a mere verbal statement" from the president."

Accountability for facilitating torture?

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:01:14 GMT

I'm currently reading Philippe Sands' Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, which I took out of the library after hearing him interviewed on NPR. I've only read the first chapter or two, but already Sands has set up the case that certain individuals within the Bush Administration are guilty not only of having allowed torture, but of having orchestrated it. The initial discussion is of the Geneva Conventions, and I wrote down this paragraph from the first chapter.

Indeed, any act on a detainee that amounted to torture, inhuman treatment, or that caused great suffering or serious injury to body or helath was considered to be so serious that it would be treated as a "grave breach" of Geneva. The person who violates COmmon Article 3 is an international outlaw, liable to prosecution in many parts of the world. There are no exceptions to the customary rule reflected in Common Article 3, not even necessity or national security (Torture Team, p9).

Now, Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, has written a piece in the New Yorker, discussing Sands' assertion that Donald Feith, the former Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer; and David Addington, the chief of staff and the principal legal adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney had violated the Geneva Conventions and should be arrested on international charges of torture. The conclusion is that while Sands' assertion may have seemed wild a year ago, it no longer does, now that a Spanish court has taken steps toward an investigation. During the NPR interview, Sands said that even if the US does not comply with extradition of these people, the current administration will be called to initiate its own investigation, a point that Mayer also makes.

The Bush Six
by Jane Mayer

About a year ago, a book came out in England that made a fascinating prediction: at some point in the future, the author wrote, six top officials in the Bush Administration would get a tap on the shoulder announcing that they were being arrested on international charges of torture.

If the prediction seemed improbable, the background of the book’s author was even more so. Philippe Sands is neither a journalist nor an American but a law professor and a certified Queen’s Counsel (the kind of barrister who on occasion wears a powdered horsehair wig) who works at the same law practice as Cherie Blair. Sands’s book, “Torture Team,” offers a scathing critique of officials in the Bush Administration, accusing them of complicity in acts of torture. When the book appeared, some scoffed. Douglas Feith, a former Pentagon official, dismissed Sands as “a British lawyer” who “wrote an extremely dishonest book.”

Last week, Sands’s accusations suddenly did not seem so outlandish. A Spanish court took the first steps toward starting a criminal investigation of the same six former Bush Administration officials he had named, weighing charges that they had enabled and abetted torture by justifying the abuse of terrorism suspects. Among those whom the court singled out was Feith, the former Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy, along with former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer; and David Addington, the chief of staff and the principal legal adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In Washington the other night, over a cup of camomile tea, Sands described the behind-the-scenes role he played in spurring the Spanish court to action. He paced his hotel room, seeming by turns proud and stunned at what he had done. “This is the end of these people’s professional reputations!” he said. “This is no joke. We’re talking about the serious potential deprivation of liberty.”

Sands said that he had “no personal vendetta” against the Bush Administration, but he does see a link between his family history and his chosen profession. His mother and her parents were Viennese Jews who barely survived the Holocaust; his mother spent the first seven years of her life in hiding, away from her family. “It inculcated a burning sense of being aggrieved at wrongdoing, and at the failure of people to take responsibility for their actions,” Sands said.

Sands got his first chance to demonstrate his convictions professionally in 1998. He was in Paris, for the unveiling of his grandfather’s gravestone, when he received a call asking him to represent Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator. He told his wife, Natalia Schiffrin, about the offer. “Philippe, if you do,” Sands recalls her saying, “I will divorce you!” (She is American, and the daughter of the book publisher André Schiffrin, a founder of Students for a Democratic Society.) Sands declined the case. Instead, he signed on to represent the other side, and helped pursue Pinochet for violations of international law. The case became a turning point in international law, establishing the principle that there is no immunity even for the highest-ranking former government officials when they are accused of torture. Pinochet spent some sixteen months under house arrest. A decade later, the same Spanish judge who initiated the legal proceedings against Pinochet, Baltasar Garzón, has been assigned to the case against the Bush Administration officials.

The current torture case began in the spring of 2004, when photographs of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib surfaced. Sands said that he read the protestations of innocence from Bush Administration officials, who blamed a few “bad apples” for the incidents, with the eye of a barrister. He recalled, “I could spot right away that they were speaking as advocates of a cause. So I decided to find out what really happened.” While keeping up his busy law practice, he travelled to America to interview the key players in what he described as “a writing project I am engaged in on international law and the war on terror.” Many Bush officials, including Feith and William J. Haynes II, the former Pentagon general counsel, who was also named in the Spanish lawsuit, agreed to meet with Sands, perhaps expecting a friendly chat. “I spent two years trekking around the country, finding out that they were manifestly untruthful,” Sands said. “I’ve got a particular bugbear about lawyers,” he added. “If not for lawyers, none of these abuses would have ever occurred.”

As Sands went about his research, he conferred with human-rights experts all over Europe on his findings. Word spread that he had the makings of a high-level war-crimes case. Sands won’t reveal exactly which human-rights authorities he consulted. But, in recent months, one of them was Gonzalo Boye, the Chilean-born Spanish lawyer who last week filed the criminal complaint against the Bush officials, on behalf of five former prisoners who were, they allege, tortured in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay. Boye said last week of Sands, “Let me just say that he played a very big role in my thinking. His book showed me who the targets were.” Feith, reached on the phone, called Sands’s book “wildly inaccurate.” He said, “It’s not a happy thing for the Spanish Court to think of prosecuting Americans for advice they gave to the President of the United States!”

It is hard to predict what will happen next, but, if arrest warrants are issued, the Obama Administration may be forced either to extradite the former officials or to start its own investigation. Sands, who admires Obama, said, “I regret that I have added to his in-box when he has so much else to sort out. But I hope he does the right thing. There’s not much dispute anymore: torture happened, and the law is clear—torture must be punished.”

Meanwhile, Sands reiterated a warning that he made in his book. “If I were they,” he said, referring to the former officials in question, “I would think carefully before setting foot outside the United States. They are now, and forever in the future, at risk of arrest. Until this is sorted out, they are in their own legal black hole.” ♦

Bonobos dying of flu

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:04:00 GMT

A MYSTERIOUS flu-like disease is sweeping through the imperilled bonobo apes in their last havens in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Six of the rare primates have died in the past month and another 10 have fallen seriously ill at a sanctuary close to the capital, Kinshasa. With chimpanzees, they are mankind’s closest living relatives.

Vanessa Woods, a researcher at Lola Ya Bonobo, said it was heartbreaking to watch. “It starts with a cough and then they get bunged up with mucus which runs down their faces. They end up lying on their stomachs because it’s the only way they can breathe,” she said.

“When they get really bad they disappear into the forest, fall down and there’s no way we can find them.”

The sanctuary was home to 60 of the endangered apes before the disease struck. Most had been found as babies after their parents were killed for bush meat.

This year the sanctuary lost one of its major donors because of the financial crisis, and there is little money for food, medicine or tests that might explain the cause of the illness.

Staff believe the outbreak is linked to a flu epidemic that swept through Kinshasa earlier this year. For now all they can do is feed the bonobos tea, just like human patients, and hope for the best. “We watched them grow up,” said Woods. “One of them, Lodja, reminded me of my niece, so to watch her clench up and die was awful.”

Last week volunteers cradled three-year-old bonobo Masisi and fed him sips of tea laced with honey and lemon from a cup.

Bonobos live in cooperative, peaceful groups, unlike chimpanzees which display a streak of violence, and scientists believe they may hold the key to understanding how human societies evolved.

About 10,000 bonobos are thought to exist in the wild although no one knows for sure. They live only in the war-torn Congo, where their habitat is under threat.

Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of WildlifeDirect, which runs an online conservation community, said the sanctuary was £22,000 in the red: “We desperately need donations to keep these bonobos alive.”

www.friendsofbonobos.org

Has anyone read Africa's World War?

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:01:59 GMT

Another book about DR Congo and the Great Lakes region has come out. Read Gettleman's review in the NYTimes of Gerard Prunier's AFRICA’S WORLD WAR: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe.

Yeah the FDLR is back.

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:04:13 GMT

"[On] Monday and Tuesday [16 and 17 March], the FDLR [Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda] attacked a FARDC [national army] position and burned some villages … causing massive population displacement," Joseph Malikidogo, president of the North Kivu civil society, said. The FDLR comprises militias, some of whom are blamed for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Everything has to erupt in Congo, even calm?

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:50:36 GMT

In Congo, With Rebels Now at Bay, Calm Erupts

March 4, 2009

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

BUKIMA, Congo — Jean-Marie Serundori’s eyes light up when he sees his old hulk of a friend Kabirizi.

War, displacement and bloodthirsty rebels had gotten between them.

But for the first time in years, this section of a venerated Congolese national park is rebel-free. Government wildlife rangers, like Mr. Serundori, are firmly in control — for the moment. And Kabirizi, a 500-pound silverback gorilla with a head as big as an engine block, seems to be flourishing in his kingdom of leaves.

“Haa mmm,” Mr. Serundori says, emitting a special gruntlike gorilla greeting that miraculously stops Kabirizi in midcharge. “Haa mmm.”

If the endangered mountain gorillas are any sign, things may finally be looking up in eastern Congo. In the past several weeks, Congo and its disproportionately mighty neighbor, Rwanda, have teamed up to sweep this area clear of rebels who had been at the center of a vicious proxy battle between the nations.

The enmity of Congo and Rwanda has been one of the most stubborn drivers of the bloodshed here, which has claimed millions of lives in the past decade. But if these two countries continue to cooperate, it could represent a significant step toward ending one of Africa’s most vexing wars.

“This is really good news, that there’s a serious improvement in relations,” said Koen Vlassenroot, a professor at Ghent University in Belgium who specializes in eastern Congo. “But it’s still rather confusing.”

Mr. Vlassenroot and other Congo hands are warning that all the years of cross-border meddling and intrigue as thick as the Congolese jungle make it extremely difficult to tell whether the new Rwanda-Congo relationship is a genuine and lasting change, or simply more maneuvering.

The joint military operation has been somewhat successful, at least by eastern Congo’s depressingly low standards. The two former enemy armies fought side by side without massacring each other. They killed dozens of rebels, including some commanders, and exerted pressure on several hundred to leave the bush. They arrested Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese rebel leader and former general whose brutal tactics and Congo-size ambitions had threatened to plunge this entire region back into war.

But at least 100 villagers were killed, too, either in the cross-fire or by fleeing rebels bent on revenge. And there may be more bloodletting to come.

Over the past several years, most of Congo has wearily climbed out of war. Large tracts of the country, despite all the headlines, are peaceful. But it is these very hills along the Congo-Rwanda border that have remained a lush green killing field, with Rwanda supporting one rebel force and Congo supporting another.

The ensuing violence has sucked up so many of Congo’s political and military resources that the so-called wild, wild east has been like an intractable weight around the entire country’s neck.

Today, the hills are quiet, which has allowed the wildlife rangers back into Virunga National Park, home to 200 of the last 700 or so mountain gorillas on the planet. Thousands of villagers around the park have trudged home from displaced persons camps, another vote of tentative confidence.

“Business is picking up,” said Bahati Banyele, who fixes radios in a little town called Kibumba, which had emptied out during last fall’s fighting.

Nobody is celebrating yet.

People here remember all too well the Sun City peace treaty reached in South Africa in 2002, which was supposed to rein in marauding militias but did not.

They recall the democratic elections in 2006, which cost more than $500 million and raised hopes but did not end the war.

And they remember the countless cease-fires and conferences at fancy hotels that spelled more fighting even before the delegates jetted home.

One of the biggest points of uncertainty right now is Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, who has gone out on a limb by inviting in the Rwandans, in the hope that this could break the deadlock between the countries.

Several former allies of Mr. Kabila among top lawmakers in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, are now denouncing him as a traitor. They are demanding investigations.

Indeed, his precarious toehold on power could slip further if the Rwandan government, as many people here suspect, has not truly severed ties to the rebels.

The presence of Rwandan troops in eastern Congo makes a lot of Congolese nervous. The little country next door invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, ostensibly to secure its own borders, though human rights groups have accused Rwandan troops of plundering Congo’s rich trove of minerals and massacring civilians.

Mr. Serundori, the wildlife ranger, who is 50, said Rwanda-backed troops killed his wife in 1997. She was mentally ill and did not flee town when the troops stormed in.

His life, like so many others around here, has been circumscribed by conflict. He started working as a wildlife ranger in 1989, when Congo was dysfunctional, famously corrupt but relatively stable.

“There were so many tourists who wanted to see the gorillas,” he said. “Sometimes you had to wait a whole week.”

But in 1994, all that changed. More than a million refugees from Rwanda’s genocide poured into eastern Congo, which promptly exploded from many of the same tensions over ethnicity and land that tore Rwanda apart. The Congolese war dragged in a half-dozen other African countries, eager to settle their own scores and cart off Congo’s tin, timber, diamonds and gold.

The gorilla park became a battlefield. And a poacher’s paradise. Armed groups used their automatic weapons on hippos, chimps, gazelles, elephants and the gorillas.

Some of the rangers have been implicated in various criminal activities, most recently involving charcoal, which is illegally made from the rapidly disappearing hardwood trees in the park.

Mr. Serundori says he was never tempted, although his salary is only $35 a month.

“My culture is to respect the forest,” he said. He has even called the gorillas his “cousins.”

This past October, the fighting peaked. The Rwanda-backed rebels led by Mr. Nkunda smashed government troops and stormed army bases and the rangers’ headquarters. Mr. Serundori and hundreds of other rangers were instantly homeless. In November, he was stuck with his 10 children in a camp of plastic sheeting where cockroaches nibbled on his dwindling pile of food.

But after Mr. Nkunda’s surprise arrest in January, many of the rebels agreed to join government forces. The only sign these days of the once formidable rebel army in Virunga National Park is a trail of tin cans.

A new battle is raging in the jungle, though. The Kabirizi gorilla family has been trying to fight back the advances of the Humba gorilla family, and sometimes you can hear the screeches and hoots from miles away.

“It’s over the usual stuff,” Mr. Serundori explained. “Territory and females.”

Photo links for eastern DRC

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:18:39 GMT

If your bandwidth can handle it, please take a few moments to check out these amazing photographs.

1. My friends that have seen this exhibit have told me that it's amazing. You can see many of the photos here. If you're connected to any institution that can host this exhibit, I would encourage you to contact them. I'm brainstorming to see what I can do near me.

Congo / Women .org

2. And at Boston.com, Portraits from the Congo:

"In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), fighting continues among various rebel armies, tribes, the Congolese army and U.N. forces. The dire situation has prompted the government of DR Congo to ask for help, and invite the armies of neighboring South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda to enter their territory on several joint operations, to hunt down and pacify or dismantle at least two major rebel armies operating in the lawless border region. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was captured in January by Rwandan forces, but his army is still active - and Ugandan troops are seeking out the rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, which has taken refuge in eastern DR Congo. Once more, caught in all of this are the local civilians, terrorized by fleeing and advancing troops of all kinds. Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly has been traveling through the area, capturing some amazing photographs of the people involved."

UN leader shocked by sexual abuse in Congo

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:42:44 GMT

[Emphasis mine]

Goma - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrapped up a two-day visit to war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, repeatedly lashing out at those responsible for the epidemic of sexual violence and rape in the vast Central African country.

Standing in the Kibati II refugee camp, 10km outside the provincial capital Goma, Ban expressed his anger and pledged that the UN would prioritise the issue.

"(This visit) has allowed me to meet with many sexually abused and internally displaced people and it has given me resolve," he said.

As many as five million people have died in the wars that have ravaged the region since 1998. Humanitarian organisations estimate that millions have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands raped.

The Kibati II camp is home to 20 000 Congolese displaced during recent fighting in North Kivu.

On Saturday, the secretary general visited the Heal Africa hospital in Goma, the site of thousands of fistula repair surgeries for rape victims.

"I am humbled, saddened and shocked by what I have just seen," a visibly-shaken Ban said, moments after meeting rape victims inside the hospital.

The visit came mid-way through the UN leader's five nation African tour, which began in South Africa and concludes March 2 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Last Monday alone there were ten cases of rape (treated at the hospital). I am shocked and angered by this. Rape is a crime against humanity."

The Kibati II camp is home to 20 000 Congolese displaced during recent fighting in North Kivu.

On Saturday, the secretary general visited the Heal Africa hospital in Goma, the site of thousands of fistula repair surgeries for rape victims.

"I am humbled, saddened and shocked by what I have just seen," a visibly-shaken Ban said, moments after meeting rape victims inside the hospital.

The visit came mid-way through the UN leader's five nation African tour, which began in South Africa and concludes March 2 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Last Monday alone there were ten cases of rape (treated at the hospital). I am shocked and angered by this. Rape is a crime against humanity."

Ban said that he had discussed the issue with Congolese president Joseph Kabila during a private meeting Saturday, urging him to confront the "culture of impunity", that he said was rampant in the country. "Offenders must be prosecuted," he declared.

Those suspected of rape should be barred from serving in the army or the police and government leadership is required to address the crisis, he argued.

Both the army and the police have been accused of widespread sexual abuse throughout the war. Prosecutions have been virtually non-existent.

Sunday's visit ended a eventful week in the troubled North Kivu province.

On Wednesday, nearly five weeks after quietly slipping over the border to fight Hutu militias in the region, Rwandan troops withdrew.

The Rwandans had been at the fore of the joint military operation against rebels who fled over the border during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and regrouped under the banner of the Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR).

War-weary Goma residents cheered as thousands of Rwandan troops marched through the border city, marking the end of a secretive and controversial campaign.

"All we want is the war to end," Julia Wandimoyi, a Goma resident said as she followed the troops in to the buffer zone between the two countries' borders. "With the Rwandans in our country, there would never be peace."

Rwanda has invaded the DRC twice since 1994, ostensibly to attack the FDLR, whose leadership has vowed to return and overthrow the Rwandan government, restoring political power to the Hutu majority in the country.

Several UN reports examining the war, the latest in December 2008, have accused Rwandan officials and businessmen of profiting from the invasions to secure concessions in the Eastern Congo's lucrative mining industry, a charge Kigali strongly denies.

FDLR fighters, many of whom participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, have staged numerous attacks over the border since they arrived in the DRC.

The group allegedly has 6 000 soldiers and are financed by their own control of mines throughout the DRC.

Since late January, Rwandan and Congolese forces have attacked the FDLR throughout Eastern DRC, attempting to disperse them and eliminate their financing network.

MONUC, the United Nations peace keeping mission in the country, was initially excluded from the planning, but later joined, providing logistics and equipment.

Congolese and Rwandan authorities report that 90 FDLR fighters have been killed and over 5 000 Rwandan exiles have been repatriated.

But others fear that the new stage of the operation, led by the Congolese and supported by MONUC, will allow space for retribution killings in FDLR occupied areas - not unlike those which have occurred in the Northern DRC where Congolese, Ugandan and South Sudanese troops are currently pursuing Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Over 900 civilians have been slaughtered by LRA fighters since mid-December.

Earlier in the week, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees warned that FDLR reprisal killings were on the rise, reporting that 32 people have been killed and 3 000 displaced during recent attacks.

On Sunday, Ban supported the ongoing operation. "The biggest concern in the DRC is the lack of security. Even though the displaced want to return, they know they may be attacked by the FDLR. We must ensure this does not happen." - Sapa-dpa

Congotex

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:41:19 GMT

I'm sure I've written about Congotex before, which used to be UTEX-Africa. The business was taken over by a Hong Kong businessman, who has changed the store to include some ready made clothes (see scary mannequins) and a cantine (limited grocery).

The products have also changed. UTEX always had prints that the mamas down by Hotel Fontana did not, and vice versa, which still holds true.

But now Congotex has an entirely different set of prints that I have to say I'm not that wild about. The exception to this rule would be the products that they are currently making in the name of Bleu Orange, a label out of Brussels that is also donating a tiny portion of each sale to MSF in their fight against AIDS in Africa. Check out the teapots and the sushi for a sample.

Two portraits

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:46:30 GMT

I don't often take photos of people especially if I don't know them, because I don't have the journalist approach and typically feel shy about it. I don't like to invade people's space. But here are two that I took of people that I do know, and I hope they don't mind my sharing. They each capture a very particular and fleeting moment in their expressions, and I like the contrast.

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Gigantic satellite dish at the neighbors

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:39:54 GMT

Look at this! If only I lived next door, I'd have thousands of TV channels...

On the drive out of Kinshasa toward Maluku or Bombo Lumene, there is an even more gigantic satellite dish. I've never been able to capture a photo of it, but it's completely overgrown with vines and other greenery. The big question is, who needed a dish that large, and what did they use it for???

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A peaceful spot by the river near Nsele. Also deserted.

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:58:04 GMT

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Pain Victoire

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:29:24 GMT

If you drive through the right area of town, you'll see a proliferation of women carrying large blue plastic basins on their heads, filled with loaves of baguettes. I've posted about this before, because for some reason I have a fascination with the panification of Kinshasa. I think it's the fact that these women are such a fixture around the city, and I'm amazed that their reach covers so much territory.

Recently I've noticed more Pain Victoire trucks and signs around town, such as this one.

I can't read the Lingala, but the French says, "A new factory, a new bread, new values." I'm wondering if they are under new management? I did find out what the management does on the weekends. They work on their race car and take it to the outskirts of town for the yearly rally!

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Serge PHOTO

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:15:22 GMT

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Sunset out the back window

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:36:45 GMT

Not stitched, but not edited, either - I think I actually caught the color of the sky this time.

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Ready, set, go!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:24:59 GMT

Lifted from yiskah:

Friday the 13th today, Valentine's Day tomorrow: seems like a perfect opportunity for anonymous comments!

Have at it, chaps, but keep it kind.

[Anonymous commenting now possible...]

The "Ile de Salem," anchored at Nsele, near Kinshasa

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:44:58 GMT

ps. I have the phone number if you want to rent it.

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SA accidentally announces Bush's death

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:55:01 GMT

A South African TV station mistakenly broadcast that former US President George Bush had died during one of its news bulletins.

Apparently it was only on the banner for 3 seconds...

Past Ndjili, on the way to Kinkole

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:53:26 GMT

drc kinshasa congo

Teaching Jujitsu to Aketi Police

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:32:57 GMT

In case you are interested in work to save orphaned chimps, or, perhaps, say, adventures that ensue in between caring for chimps, you should check out Laura and Adam's Tales from the DR Congo blog.

In particular, you might want to see photos of Adam teaching the local police some jujitsu moves!

Also - lots of chimp photos in general.