Mass rapes in DR Congo.

curlzy

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101015/twl-dr-congo-troops-accused-in-new-rape-696b303.html

"DR Congo government troops are raping and killing women in remote villages where hundreds were the victims of mass rapes by militias just a few weeks ago, a top UN envoy has said.
Margot Wallstrom, UN special envoy on sexual violence against women in conflict, said it was "unimaginable" that the same communities in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were again the target of sexual assaults.


She said the UN mission, MONUSCO, had reported new attacks in the Walikale region where in late July and August militias and Rwandan rebels rounded up women and raped them in front of their villages and families.
Wallstrom has in the past called DR Congo the "rape capital" of the world.
"I am gravely concerned about the ongoing military operations by FARDC (DR Congo army) in the Walikale territory and the implications for the protection of civilians," she told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
"Thousands of FARDC troops have now been deployed to the territory in an operation to implement the president's moratorium on mining in the area and to reassert government control.
"There is already some information from MONUSCO peacekeepers on the ground that rapes, killings and lootings have been perpetrated by FARDC soldiers.
"The possibility that the same communities that were brutalized in July and August by FDLR and Mai-Mai elements are now also suffering exactions at the hands of FARDC troops is unimaginable and unacceptable."
Wallstrom called on the DR Congo government to quickly investigate the new attacks and "hold any perpetrators to account."
She had blamed the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Mai-Mai militia for the mass rapes in July and August.
A Mai-Mai leader, Lieutenant Colonel Mayele, was arrested in an operation by Indian peacekeepers with the MONUSCO mission on October 5.
Wallstrom praised the Indian soldiers and called the arrest of Mayele an "important precedent".
"When commanders can no longer rest easy in the certainty of impunity, when it begins to cross their mind that they may be turned in by their own, for commissioning or condoning rape, this is the moment when we open a new front in the battle to end impunity," she said.
She said the Security Council should "escalate" the focus of the DR Congo sanctions committee on sexual crimes.
Wallstrom identified a militia leader, Lieutenant Colonel Seraphim, of the FDLR, and said he should be added to the list of those facing international sanctions, alleging that he was also to blamed for the mass rapes in July and August.
Wallstrom said the arrests sent a strong signal to the thousands of victims of rape in DR Congo each year, calling it: "A moment of solace, that the world is not blind to their plight."
But also highlighted what she called the "nexus" between the pattern of rapes and attacks and the presence of the huge mineral and natural resource wealth in eastern DR Congo.
"The mineral wealth that should be the source of their great prosperity is instead the source of their greatest suffering," she declared.
Wallstrom said that UN peacekeepers in DR Congo are "overstretched and under-resourced" with a "widening gap" between the expectations made of the force and the means it is given.
"They are demoralized by the sheer scale of the problems and constant barrage of criticism from all quarters."
MONUSCO has about 20,000 staff and troops from more than 50 countries. Costing more than 1.3 billion dollars a year, it is one of the world's biggest UN security operations."




Anyone else glad they don't live in DR Congo?

Biggins

Shocking and sad stuff.

Jamiekelly

Countries with DR or DPR in their name are usually pretty F**ked up. Glad I don't live in that sh*thole! (and I'm from kildare, which will tell you something..)

prinz

Yes. It's a hole and has been for a long time. It's long over-due an intervention tbh but our post-colonial sensibilities means it's a problem everyone is afraid of tackling head on. All the while there are people profiting by the millions if not billions.

Teutorix

Thats fúcked up

brianthebard

prinz wrote: »

Yes. It's a hole and has been for a long time. It's long over-due an intervention tbh but our post-colonial sensibilities means it's a problem everyone is afraid of tackling head on.

Disagree completely tbh, the reason there has been no (further) intervention is because mineral and material production continues to provide for the needs of western businesses at a price that could not be matched in a well organised peaceful company where coltan and other raw materials aren't dug by slave labourers at gunpoint.

'Post-colonial sensibilites' has nothing to do with it, and Belgium, the US or UK are not known for their shame about previous invasions of the country.

Morlar

brianthebard wrote: »

Disagree completely tbh, the reason there has been no (further) intervention is because mineral and material production continues to provide for the needs of western businesses at a price that could not be matched in a well organised peaceful company where coltan and other raw materials aren't dug by slave labourers at gunpoint.

'Post-colonial sensibilites' has nothing to do with it, and Belgium, the US or UK are not known for their shame about previous invasions of the country.

The other way of looking at it is that with that much vast mineral wealth at their disposal they should be able to take care of their own security issues without needing the west to do it for them. But of course this is liberal Ireland so we are about to hear how this is all really the fault of the west . . . .

humanji

So am I the only person who pictured a man called Dr Congo?

prinz

brianthebard wrote: »

Disagree completely tbh, the reason there has been no (further) intervention is because mineral and material production continues to provide for the needs of western businesses at a price that could not be matched in a well organised peaceful company where coltan and other raw materials aren't dug by slave labourers at gunpoint..

Like I said, there are people pocketing obscene amounts of wealth by keeping the status quo, "western businesses" but also African businesses and leaders.

brianthebard wrote: »

'Post-colonial sensibilites' has nothing to do with it, and Belgium, the US or UK are not known for their shame about previous invasions of the country.

Actually it has, and it has reared it's ugly head on more than one occassion in the past; the concept of letting Africans sort out the issue on their own etc. and also the objections of some leaders and countries to outside 'interference'.

Morlar

humanji wrote: »

So am I the only person who pictured a man called Dr Congo?

Dr King-o Congo, actually.

brianthebard

Morlar wrote: »

The other way of looking at it is that with that much vast mineral wealth at their disposal they should be able to take care of their own security issues without needing the west to do it for them. But of course this is liberal Ireland so we are about to hear how this is all really the fault of the west . . . .

What an incredibly ignorant post.

Nobody in the Congo wants the west to do it for them. Its persistent western intervention for the past 120+ years that has gotten the Congo where it is. In the late nineteenth century it was Leopold II's 23 year reign of terror that destroyed the country and killed half the population.

After that the Belgian state took over the plundering of the Congo until independence in the sixties.

Straight after the first elections America and American companies asserted their plans to use the resources of the Congo for their own goals, going as far as to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the country Lumumba. They then propped up a brutal dictator for decades as a barrier to the spread of USSR influence.

Moboto's eventual fall from power took the only semblance of control away from the country (not that he had any real control by the end) and left the country in a fractured state of civil war that we see now. Of course the US didn't bother to try and clean up their messes in Africa.

The Congo is a mess of international intervention, companies from America, Finland, Belgium, China, Korea, Canada, Britain, etc, etc, pillaging the nation's resources illegally, encouraging militia's to mine for them while turning a blind eye to slavery, rape and widespread murder.

brianthebard

prinz wrote: »

Actually it has, and it has reared it's ugly head on more than one occassion in the past; the concept of letting Africans sort out the issue on their own etc. and also the objections of some leaders and countries to outside 'interference'.

What you're talking about has no connection to postcolonialism or anything remotely postcolonial. Its business as usual, deciding whether to intervene or not simply on the basis of economics and possible political gain in the region. Both Hussein and Moboto were US installed dictator's, but one was deposed and executed and one was not. Neither event has anything to do with postcolonial sensibilities, and everything to do with what would bring the most gains.

Morlar

brianthebard wrote: »

What an incredibly ignorant post.

Nobody in the Congo wants the west to do it for them. Its persistent western intervention for the past 120+ years that has gotten the Congo where it is. In the late nineteenth century it was Leopold II's 23 year reign of terror that destroyed the country and killed half the population.

After that the Belgian state took over the plundering of the Congo until independence in the sixties.

Straight after the first elections America and American companies asserted their plans to use the resources of the Congo for their own goals, going as far as to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the country Lumumba. They then propped up a brutal dictator for decades as a barrier to the spread of USSR influence.

Moboto's eventual fall from power took the only semblance of control away from the country (not that he had any real control by the end) and left the country in a fractured state of civil war that we see now. Of course the US didn't bother to try and clean up their messes in Africa.

The Congo is a mess of international intervention, companies from America, Finland, Belgium, China, Korea, Canada, Britain, etc, etc, pillaging the nation's resources illegally, encouraging militia's to mine for them while turning a blind eye to slavery, rape and widespread murder.

So in other words yes it is the fault of the west.

brianthebard

Morlar wrote: »

So in other words yes it is the fault of the west.

You can blame Lumumba for dying when he was shot if you want to be hip and alternative and anti-'Liberal Ireland' or whatever it is you're trying to do in this thread. :rolleyes:

Morlar

brianthebard wrote: »

You can blame Lumumba for dying when he was shot if you want to be hip and alternative and anti-'Liberal Ireland' or whatever it is you're trying to do in this thread. :rolleyes:

I am just a bit sick of this ;

'Every problem of africa is caused by the west'

schtick.

Saadyst

Morlar wrote: »

I am just a bit sick of this ;

'Every problem of africa is caused by the west'

schtick.

I don't think people are saying that the mass rapes reported today are the direct fault of the west. I think it's attributed as an indirect effect of the long period of time that they have been getting screwed over.

brianthebard

Morlar wrote: »

I am just a bit sick of this ;

'Every problem of africa is caused by the west'

schtick.

You're right the people of the Congo invited Belgium to subjugate them, silly me.

prinz

brianthebard wrote: »

What you're talking about has no connection to postcolonialism or anything remotely postcolonial.

When the French sent troops in to the Civil War in the Ivory Coast there were immediately cries of 'colonisation' while the country was weak blah blah blah etc.

There is a reason more and more conflicts in Africa are being policed by often times badly equipped and ill trained soldiers from other African countries at the expense of the victims of the crisis rather than using troops much better equipped and capable to restore and keep order. This is also the reason why there are numerous examples of western UN troops being murdered while their African fellow soldiers are spared.

If western powers mobilised to go into the Congo, the same people here blaming the colonial history would be back accusing the foreign military intervention as being a front to maintain their literal gold-mine. Lose - lose.

Amalgam

There's 'physical problems' that persist long after being attacked. The BBC did a radio item on 'Fistula' and other complications with women from the Congo region. Not for the faint hearted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3426273.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8677637.stm

Dr. Zeus

Thanks for posting this curlzy. Had heard about this must admit I know very little about what is actually happening there. Will read up to update myself.

Sounds horrific though.

brianthebard

prinz wrote: »

If western powers mobilised to go into the Congo, the same people here blaming the colonial history would be back accusing the foreign military intervention as being a front to maintain their literal gold-mine. Lose - lose.

The same people meaning me? Well even if you didn't mean me, I guess it does describe me. However military intervention is not needed. A boycott of Congo derived materials and foreign companies operating illegally in the Congo would make it no longer profitable to exploit the Congo in the way it has been. There is no foreign military intervention required at this point, only a willingness to actually change the economic system that is allowing the destruction of the Congo to continue.

orourkeda

Teutorix wrote: »

Thats fúcked up

Quite literally

prinz

brianthebard wrote: »

The same people meaning me? Well even if you didn't mean me, I guess it does describe me. However military intervention is not needed. A boycott of Congo derived materials and foreign companies operating illegally in the Congo would make it no longer profitable to exploit the Congo in the way it has been. There is no foreign military intervention required at this point, only a willingness to actually change the economic system that is allowing the destruction of the Congo to continue.

In the meantime the people continue to die, suffer and are subject to mass rapes, amputations etc., the foreign companies rape what they can in terms of money and resources, then up sticks and move to the next place. Meanwhile the people have suffered and continue to suffer. The country is left desolate and ripe for the next tin pot dictator to rise to the top and invite the companies back in and the cycle starts over. IMO anyway.

p.s. I wasn't referring to you in particular.

brianthebard

prinz wrote: »

In the meantime the people continue to die, suffer and are subject to mass rapes, amputations etc., the foreign companies rape what they can in terms of money and resources, then up sticks and move to the next place. Meanwhile the people have suffered and continue to suffer. The country is left desolate and ripe for the next tin pot dictator to rise to the top and invite the companies back in and the cycle starts over. IMO anyway.

p.s. I wasn't referring to you in particular.

The Congo holds up to 50% of the world's reserves of some minerals, and is a truly huge country. Moving elsewhere would not be enough to continue production on the same scale, and Finland needs that cobalt to produce mobiles.
Your version of it is obviously the worst case scenario but there's no reason why holding foreign companies accountable would make things worse.

Saadyst

prinz wrote: »

In the meantime the people continue to die, suffer and are subject to mass rapes, amputations etc., the foreign companies rape what they can in terms of money and resources, then up sticks and move to the next place. Meanwhile the people have suffered and continue to suffer. The country is left desolate and ripe for the next tin pot dictator to rise to the top and invite the companies back in and the cycle starts over. IMO anyway.

p.s. I wasn't referring to you in particular.

What's your solution?

prinz

Saadyst wrote: »

What's your solution?

Military intervention should be now. Millions of people are dying and this mass rape is continuing.

Once the different factions have been separated and end put to the mass murder, proper governance fostered. Proper regulation put in place and enforced to stop the wholesale exploitation by foreign companies of the people, the environment and the resources... and so on. Ground up, not top down.

Liberalbrehon

Horrible stuff, has been going on for decades, when it was the Belgium Congo a lot of nuns were raped by militias in the 1960's and the Vatican had them all have abortions. Anyway, unfortunately that situation won't be solved any time soon.

Absurdum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYj5o4kQsXs

OutlawPete

Was just watching a documentary about this last night actually.

It starting off discussing the rapes and that is shocking enough in itself.

But it then went on to interview young boys and almost every single one of them had murdered other men by the age of 14 and took part in gangrape by the age of 12.

Saadyst

prinz wrote: »

Military intervention should be now. Millions of people are dying and this mass rape is continuing.

Once the different factions have been separated and end put to the mass murder, proper governance fostered. Proper regulation put in place and enforced to stop the wholesale exploitation by foreign companies of the people, the environment and the resources... and so on. Ground up, not top down.

That's great, but what country is going to go in? And what population will support it?

I agree it should be stopped, and I do believe that military intervention can't always be just for self-gain. But realistically, it's not going to happen without any national interest at stake.

There was a thread here on AH with people complaining about the 400-500 million euro or so that Ireland gives to foreign aid, with the usual comments about "look after our own", "it's not our problem" etc.

Having to commit the amount of resources and lives of your own people to secure what is needed here... I think it's beyond any democracy at the moment.

WindSock

brianthebard wrote: »

What an incredibly ignorant post.

Why do you have to resort to this kind of posting when refuting someone elses? I am sure you are aware that not everyone has studied history or whatever it is you study or have studied yourself. You obviously have a lot of knowledge on some subjects to share but why you have to call people incredibly ignorant in any discussion...

brianthebard

WindSock wrote: »

Why do you have to resort to this kind of posting when refuting someone elses? I am sure you are aware that not everyone has studied history or whatever it is you study or have studied yourself. You obviously have a lot of knowledge on some subjects to share but why you have to call people incredibly ignorant in any discussion smacks of your own head being stuck up your proverbial.

Well Windsock, I didn't realise you were an AH mod but basically when a post is silly I call it that. I don't intend to change that for you.
Morlar is very into his history so that excuse doesn't work in this case. And the issue at hand was not ignorance of history but his blasé attitude to the Congo and a desire to ignore the worst excesses and crimes of foreign business in the Congo. It was not a lack of knowledge but an overt willingness to misrepresent the situation in the Congo and act as if the Congolese people are backward or always looking for outside help to fix their problems. He then went on to make a lazy commentary about 'Liberal Ireland', basically another way of saying the PC brigade are going to complain, the pretty common theme in AH when someone wants to bash a race/class/country and pretend they're not the bad guys....

Btw you were a little slow on editing your post, too bad that.

WindSock

No one has to be a mod to point out their distaste at a persons posting style. It is something I have noticed and giving my opinion that it does not add to your wealth of information when you berate people or their posts in that fashion. imo. Same with anyone else really.

fonecrusher1

Pretty disgusting actually.The country is practically lawless.

Im not going to go down the lets blame The West route but if there was oil reserves found in dr Congo, you would have a lot more interest from the likes of America.

They have a habit of taking an interest in oil rich countries. Can't think why...

bnt

Here we go again with the "blame game", the crimes of the past being used to justify the crimes of today. Here's the deal: DR Congo has a government; governments are charged with the protection of the country and its people; the government of DR Congo is failing to discharge its sworn duty under its Constitution.

What else matters? When you promise to do a job, the mature, professional thing to do is to do it. Only kids and amateurs promise things, then try to cop out make excuses. The police forces of DR Congo swore oaths to uphold the Constitution, and should suffer the consequences of not doing so. Any less, you don't have a country under rule of law.

OutlawPete

brianthebard wrote: »

Btw you were a little slow on editing your post, too bad that.

In fairness to Windsock, Scarface was just on in Cineworld

Wolfe Tone

WindSock wrote: »

No one has to be a mod to point out their distaste at a persons posting style. It is something I have noticed and giving my opinion that it does not add to your wealth of information when you berate people or their posts in that fashion. imo. Same with anyone else really.

Get over yourself ffs, dont derail the thread.

---

Truly shocking. What is the actually point of the rapes? Make the villages afraid?

Nodin

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Get over yourself ffs, dont derail the thread.

---

Truly shocking. What is the actually point of the rapes? Make the villages afraid?

That, and a crude form of 'reward' for the troops/militias involved, presumably.

jugger0

Anyone bitching about the recession should read up on stuff like this, we are so lucky!

Anyways sending troops in is going to get bad publicity, and not doing so will get bad publicity... it is a lose lose situation.

Its not as if UN troops do anything anyways, they just stay in their bases and go out on the odd patrol, they're no allowed engage enemy forces unless they are fired at first and the militia arent that stupid.

fonecrusher1

bnt wrote: »

Here we go again with the "blame game", the crimes of the past being used to justify the crimes of today. Here's the deal: DR Congo has a government; governments are charged with the protection of the country and its people; the government of DR Congo is failing to discharge its sworn duty under its Constitution.

What else matters? When you promise to do a job, the mature, professional thing to do is to do it. Only kids and amateurs promise things, then try to cop out make excuses. The police forces of DR Congo swore oaths to uphold the Constitution, and should suffer the consequences of not doing so. Any less, you don't have a country under rule of law.

Ever heard of the word corruption?

If they can't restore some sort of balance to these remote towns then there should be an outside intervention. No one wants anything to do with dr congo, its a mess.

OutlawPete

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Truly shocking. What is the actually point of the rapes? Make the villages afraid?

The docu I watched covered a lot of the 'why' it happens.

You'll have to do some jiggery pokery to watch it, as it's on the BBC iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v781z/Kids_with_Guns_Stacey_Dooley_Investigates/

Morlar

brianthebard wrote: »

And the issue at hand was not ignorance of history but his blasé attitude to the Congo and a desire to ignore the worst excesses and crimes of foreign business in the Congo.

Blaming the west for this is a cop out and it is the same old schtick.

digme

curlzy wrote: »

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101015/twl-dr-congo-troops-accused-in-new-rape-696b303.html

"DR Congo government troops are raping and killing women in remote villages where hundreds were the victims of mass rapes by militias just a few weeks ago, a top UN envoy has said.
Margot Wallstrom, UN special envoy on sexual violence against women in conflict, said it was "unimaginable" that the same communities in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were again the target of sexual assaults.


She said the UN mission, MONUSCO, had reported new attacks in the Walikale region where in late July and August militias and Rwandan rebels rounded up women and raped them in front of their villages and families.
Wallstrom has in the past called DR Congo the "rape capital" of the world.
"I am gravely concerned about the ongoing military operations by FARDC (DR Congo army) in the Walikale territory and the implications for the protection of civilians," she told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
"Thousands of FARDC troops have now been deployed to the territory in an operation to implement the president's moratorium on mining in the area and to reassert government control.
"There is already some information from MONUSCO peacekeepers on the ground that rapes, killings and lootings have been perpetrated by FARDC soldiers.
"The possibility that the same communities that were brutalized in July and August by FDLR and Mai-Mai elements are now also suffering exactions at the hands of FARDC troops is unimaginable and unacceptable."
Wallstrom called on the DR Congo government to quickly investigate the new attacks and "hold any perpetrators to account."
She had blamed the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Mai-Mai militia for the mass rapes in July and August.
A Mai-Mai leader, Lieutenant Colonel Mayele, was arrested in an operation by Indian peacekeepers with the MONUSCO mission on October 5.
Wallstrom praised the Indian soldiers and called the arrest of Mayele an "important precedent".
"When commanders can no longer rest easy in the certainty of impunity, when it begins to cross their mind that they may be turned in by their own, for commissioning or condoning rape, this is the moment when we open a new front in the battle to end impunity," she said.
She said the Security Council should "escalate" the focus of the DR Congo sanctions committee on sexual crimes.
Wallstrom identified a militia leader, Lieutenant Colonel Seraphim, of the FDLR, and said he should be added to the list of those facing international sanctions, alleging that he was also to blamed for the mass rapes in July and August.
Wallstrom said the arrests sent a strong signal to the thousands of victims of rape in DR Congo each year, calling it: "A moment of solace, that the world is not blind to their plight."
But also highlighted what she called the "nexus" between the pattern of rapes and attacks and the presence of the huge mineral and natural resource wealth in eastern DR Congo.
"The mineral wealth that should be the source of their great prosperity is instead the source of their greatest suffering," she declared.
Wallstrom said that UN peacekeepers in DR Congo are "overstretched and under-resourced" with a "widening gap" between the expectations made of the force and the means it is given.
"They are demoralized by the sheer scale of the problems and constant barrage of criticism from all quarters."
MONUSCO has about 20,000 staff and troops from more than 50 countries. Costing more than 1.3 billion dollars a year, it is one of the world's biggest UN security operations."




Anyone else glad they don't live in DR Congo?

Africa is a ****ing ****hole and they should not be allowed into ireland you don't know who your getting.Sick bastards

curlzy

digme wrote: »

Africa is a ****ing ****hole and they should not be allowed into ireland you don't know who your getting.Sick bastards

FACEPALM AND DOUBLE FACEPALM, and also alot of tutting and shaking of head.:(

digme

whys that?

curlzy

I think blaming the DR Congo for the state they're in is kinda like blaming the victims of the mass rapes. DR Congo has been methaphorically raped for decades, by the west and who ever else, to me it really doesn't matter because the powers that be that cause sh*t like this NEVER pay, so why spend time and energy on that? After the country is fixed we could concentrate on bringing people to justice but at the moment that wouldn't do a thing for the people. Personnally, this type of suffering is so epically beyond anything I can even imagine that I would have ZERO problem with our country giving peace keepers, doctors, money etc. I know our economy is bad (blah blah blah) but we know nothing of suffering compared to the DR Congo. It's just so sad, it's the type of thing that just makes me kinda sorry to be human, because how we can be so very scummy to each other is just stomach turning.

:rolleyes: Happy friday everyone. I'm gonna go look for a happy story to make into a thread, sorry for being such a ruiner of fun!!!

brianthebard

Morlar wrote: »

Blaming the west for this is a cop out and it is the same old schtick.

How did Moboto stay in power so? What companies and countries are making money from illegal mining and extraction? Who has the UN consistently blamed for the biggest problems in the Congo? Its the same schtick cause its true, its not a cop out you just don't want to face the truth.

digme

brianthebard wrote: »

How did Moboto stay in power so? What companies and countries are making money from illegal mining and extraction? Who has the UN consistently blamed for the biggest problems in the Congo? Its the same schtick cause its true, its not a cop out you just don't want to face the truth.

Th IMF controls that country along with every other one in Africa bar 1, Eritrea
The IMF is mostly owned by the usa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IS7M-4cgQM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c4yJ_Z1LF4

Amhran Nua

There's an interesting article here with some more information on the background...

An agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China in 2008 to swap 10 million tonnes of copper ore for US$9 billion worth of mine and civic infrastructure looked like a genuine win-win.

But ever since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded renegotiation of the deal in May 2009, China and the DRC have been on a roller-coaster ride of risk. Today, Beijing anxiously eyes a growing list of major dysfunctional problems - and a $100 million adverse judgment in a Hong Kong court - that could derail the "deal of the century".

...

The third was onerous indebtedness, which forced the DRC to concentrate on the IMF's priorities of debt repayment and fiscal and financial reform instead of its own desperate need for social and infrastructure spending.

The Chinese deal was, in its essence, barter. The state-owned Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) would fund the opening of a copper mine in the DRC's Katanga province for $3 billion and underwrite $6 billion of infrastructure projects, paid in two tranches. The bank would be repaid using profits of Sicomines, a joint venture between the DRC and China that would receive the rights to extract 10 million tonnes of copper and 600,000 tonnes of cobalt reserves from the Katanga mine.

Undoubtedly, the deal was a potential bonanza for China. In addition, Chinese companies might well have hoped to take advantage of the DRC government by manipulating the contracting process to provide the capacity-challenged and corruption-prone nation with overpriced infrastructure.

An expert on the DRC's developmental challenges told Asia Times Online he was pessimistic about what might be delivered. "I'm not sure what to expect, beyond a bit of new pavement on some old roads. I 'trust' a corrupt, but efficient government like Angola to squeeze value out of Chinese and Western companies. Not the DRC."

Nevertheless, for China as well the deal represented a remarkable leap of faith. At the time when the DRC was a financial, political and economic basket case, China agreed to put $6 billion into the country up front in the first four years before the mine - which would enter into production at 2014 at the earliest - had produced a pound of copper.

To its discredit, the West's response to news of the agreement was anger compounded by fear and jealousy. Kabila conveyed his resentment of this response in an interview with the New York Times: [1]

No sooner had the agreement been praised in Congo as a desperately needed lifeline than Congo's Western allies started griping that the Chinese got a sweetheart deal and began pressing Mr Kabila to revise the terms.

"What revolted me was the fact that there was resistance to this agreement and there was no counterproposal," Mr Kabila said.

The West expressed its displeasure in a concrete way through the most effective avenue available to it - the IMF.

The IMF dominates the DRC's international economic activity through its administration of a debt workout process for so-called HIPC or "Highly Indebted Poor Countries".

The HIPC workout has been criticized as a coercive and self-serving exercise designed primarily to protect the interests of Western sovereign creditors who over-lent to developing countries.

To prevent a wave of national defaults, and avoid the need for creditors to immediately write off foreign debt that impoverished borrowers are unable to service, the IMF interposes itself to set fiscal and structural reform obligations in return for bridge financing and the employment of its good offices to effect eventual cancelation of debts by the Paris Club of the largest Western holders of bad national debt.

Somewhat absurdly, the DRC, even in the depths of the global recession in 2009, was making more than $170 million in interest payments to stay in the good graces of the IMF.

This self-sacrifice is necessary so that the IMF will eventually certify to the Paris Club creditors that their $6 billion share of the DRC's $11 billion foreign debt is worthy of being written off. The debt was actually incurred by the kleptocratic predecessor regime of Mobuto Sesi Seko, who fled the country in 1997 when it was still called Zaire; he died the same year.

It would appear that the IMF relishes the leverage it holds over the DRC by virtue of its control of the country's financial lifeline to the outside world, and resented the idea that the DRC could, through an ore-for-infrastructure swap, pursue its developmental goals in disregard of the priorities of the IMF and its Western backers.

Maybe not the most unbiased source, but it does look like the IMF, European and American investors are getting together to make the situation a lot worse than it should be. When the humanitarian situation has escalated to the state that it has, or anywhere near it, its time for a major re-evaluation of priorities.

prinz

curlzy wrote: »

I think blaming the DR Congo for the state they're in is kinda like blaming the victims of the mass rapes.

Not even remotely..

digme

I rest my case.