By Togba-Nah Tipoteh
Madam President, the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reminds us yet once again about how unfair or undemocratic elections lead to violence. Let us examine how the crisis came about in the DRC and then look at elections-related violent crises in other counties. Then, this Commentary will close with a position on the way forward.
Prior to the 1960s, the King of Belgium considered the DRC (then Belgium Congo) to be his private property, exploiting the human, natural and financial resources of the country at will. Then, the Wave of Independence in Africa touched the shores of the DRC through the nationalist leadership of the Patriot Patrice Lumumba. As the leadership of Lumumba was directed at fulfilling the aspirations of the people rather than those of the Belgium royalty, a Belgium Proxy was found, in the person of Mobutu, who assassinated Lumumba. United Nations Troops, including some from Liberia, had to go to the DRC to help in bringing stability to the country.
But the struggle for the raw materials of the DRC continued, as Mobutu was supported by powerful western countries to remain in state power through militaristic undemocratic rule. Yet once again, the bastions of democracy persisted in their support of militarism and dictatorship because the DRC had huge commercial quantities and reserves of industrial diamonds and uranium. And so, the great irony of our times continued.
The worsening mass poverty of the DRC in the midst of the six billion dollar wealth of Mobutu alone became the pretext for the violent over throw of his regime by the forces of Laurent Kabila, late Father of the present President of the DRC. When Laurent Kabila was assassinated by the merchants of raw materials and their local allies, powerful western powers began to give enormous diplomatic, political and financial support to Laurent Kabia’s son, Joseph, thereby paving the way for the representatives of these powers to declare that the son was elected ‘fairly or democratically”.
The violence which has followed the elections provides the best evidence of the unfairness or undemocratic nature of the elections that usher President Joseph Kabila into power. Despite the fact that the largest (17,000) United Nations Force is in the DRC, it has failed, to date, to stop the massive violence under which 5 million people have died and over a million people remain displaced. The present fighting, in the East of the DRC near Goma, has already led to thousands of deaths and displaced a quarter million people. The struggle to have control over vast raw materials remains central to the present violent crisis which the international media insists on calling a struggle to protect the Tutsis against the Hutus. Thus, the perennial greed to western powers and their local allies for the benefits of raw materials has been dwindled and manufactured by the international media into an ethnic calamity. With all of the United Nations military presence in Rwanda, the same role of the media was played and history recorded the massacre of some one million people. Now, the United Nations has moved next door, to the DRC, having abandoned the Rwandan people, making space for the massacre, where 5 million people have already perished in a clear genocide. What a deadly game the international powers that be and their local proxies continue to play!
Let us look elsewhere in Africa to see the playing of this deadly game of elections and violence. Remember Algeria, where the last election were won by the Non-ruling political coalition, but the state and its international supporters used military means to crush the winners of the elections. Moving South, we remember Nigeria when the elections under the military ended up with the mysterious death of Chief Obiola, widely believed to have won the elections.
Most recently, we have the cases of Kenya and Zimbabwe. In the absence of the final determination of the elections results for the Presidential race in Kenya, international supporters of the ruling party made a rushed conclusion of victory for its candidate. This rushed conclusion of victory was the catalytic event that led to the deaths of some 2000 Kenyans. As for Zimbabwe, the saga continues with the ruling party holding on to state instruments of violence to rob the people of their democratic imperative. Zambia has to be watched very closely because it is highly likely that yet another rushed induction of the new President, from the ruling party, within two hours after elections announcements, will lead to violence in the near future. With the tendency of the African Union to behave like an “old boys club”, civil society must continue to be vigilant and mobilize the resources to act in the interest of the African people.
Madam President, the Security Council of the African Union must be pro-active in operationalzing measures that ensure fair elections. With the tendency of the African Union to behave like an “old boys club”, civil society must continue to be vigilant and mobilize the resources to act in the interest of the African people.
Culled from the Agenda’s 13 November 2008 Edition.
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