In less than a month, national elections are scheduled for the Congo.  Yesterday, official campaigning began all across the DRC.  Here in Sud Kivu, we are all holding our breath a little bit.  This will only be the third national multiparty election in the history of the Congo.

So far, many observers see this election as a referendum on incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who took over as interim president when his father was assassinated in 2001 and won Congo’s first real national election in 2006.  Kabila’s political party is the PPRD.

In 2006, Kabila easily carried Sud Kivu Province, as he was considered a “native son” (as opposed to “people-eating” Jean-Pierre Bemba) who reunited the country and ended the Rwandan occupation.  However, since then, Kabila’s reputation in Sud Kivu has suffered for a number of reasons:

1)     Many “autochtone” Congolese (Babembe, Bafulero, Bashi) are angry that Kabila “shook hands with the devil” when he improved relations with Paul Kagame in Rwanda.  During Operations Kimya II and Amani Leo in 2010-2011, the boots of Rwandan soldiers were once again on Congolese soil to assist the largely unmotivated and ineffective FARDC in pursuing the FDLR.  The population of Sud Kivu, who will not easily forget how badly they suffered under brutal Rwandan occupation, are not ready to forgive Kabila for this compromise.  Even after official Rwandan presence has all but disappeared from Sud Kivu, many “autochtone” still feel that the Rwandophone ethnic minorities hold too much power in the regional governments and in the armed forces.  It doesn’t help that many high-ranking PPRD members in Sud Kivu used to belong to the rather unpopular RCD regime of the late 90s/early 2000s.

2)     The lack of development in Sud Kivu (as well as in the rest of the Congo) is still astoundingly awful for a country so rich in mineral resources.  Early in his regime, Kabila promised great developments in the “Cinq Chantiers”, a series of improvements to five aspects of the Congo (schools, roads, etc).  However, in Sud Kivu, unemployment rates are still high, the roads are awful, and the education system is in a dismal state.  Having promised great things, many Congolese people now see Kabila responsible for the failure of development in the Congo.

3)     Security remains very bad in Sud Kivu.  The FDLR has been pushed back further into the jungle in the past few years, but the local populations have suffered under the hands of FARDC troops.  Furthermore, there has been no real resolution to the war and insecurity, despite the fact that many armed groups have been induced to join the FARDC through promises of cash and impunity.  Many people in Sud Kivu dissatisfied by Kabila believe that he should try harder at making a deal with the FDLR, instead of continuing what they believe is a “Rwandan” war.  Thus, many hold Kabila responsible for the lawless, violent, and undisciplined behavior of state-endorsed troops, as well as the lack of resolution to the “fires in the East”.

The discontent with Kabila’s regime explains why groups such as Mai Mai Yakutumba maintain a certain level of popularity in Sud Kivu, particularly among the Babembe elite in Fizi Territory, who resent Rwandophone ethnic minorities and feel disenchanted by their perceived lack of political power at the national/regional level.

Kabila’s growing unpopularity in the East has also fueled a number of myths about his intentions and his origins.  It is easy to find Congolese people in Sud Kivu who will tell you that Kabila is (my goodness) a “Tutsi spy”, a puppet installed and kept in power by the Rwandan government.  There are many circulating stories about Kabila’s mother being a “Rwandan Tutsi”, which, despite their apocryphal nature, may actually be possible, given what we know about the women who orbited around Laurent-Desire Kabila.  Of course, does it really matter where Petit Joseph’s mother came from?  No.  This kind of xenophobic name-calling, unfortunately, is rather counterproductive and does nothing to improve the image of Sud Kivutians as racist Génocidaires 2.0.

I have explained why Kabila is a rather unpopular choice here in Sud Kivu.  However, there is still the possibility that he will carry Sud Kivu in the election, given the dismal state of the political opposition.  In my next blog entry, I will write about those who will be running for president against Major General Joseph Kabila Kabange.

I admire the European Union for many reasons: their strong currency, the ease of travel throughout Europe, the public transit, the certification of good food and wine that preserves time-honored traditions, the general collective spirit of social responsibility, the scarves that Dutch people wear while riding their bicycles. However, EU bureaucracy is giving me a headache at the moment.

Currently, AP and ifa-Zivik are trying to get Marceline to Berlin. ifa-Zivik is about to celebrate its 20th birthday, and so they are getting together some of their local partners from around the world for a workshop on peace-building. In order to get to Berlin, Marceline only needs to apply for a Schengen (short-term) Visa. The form and requirements for this visa work for any country in the EU (wonderful), and those on a Schengen Visa can go between member states with ease. In addition, the Schengen Visa application form is available at any embassy of any member state. Sounds great, right?

Hapana, bwana (no sir). We tried the Belgian embassy in Bujumbura, but the Belgians brusquely told us that they couldn’t process a visa for someone “from the Kivus”. They told us to try an embassy in Kigali. I sent an e-mail to the German Embassy in Kigali, and soon received a very polite reply telling me Marceline needed to go to the embassy in Kinshasa.

Go all the way to Kinshasa? That’s on the opposite end of the Congo. Good Lord, it took Henry Morton Stanley three bloody long years to cross the territory now known as the DRC. Kinshasa and Uvira are over 2,000 kilometers apart as the crow flies.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will soon be the second biggest country (territorially) in Africa, now that the Sudans are going to split (Algeria will be number 1). A straight-line overland route directly from Uvira to Kinshasa is virtually impossible (of course, you could take a boat on Congo River straight through all the way to the Atlantic, but doing that is like attempting to climb Mt. Everest on your knuckles). Fortunately, this modern age allows one to fly from Bukavu or Goma into Kinshasa, although at more than 800 dollars a pop, it is an expensive option.

Kinshasa is not only far away in distance, but it is also a bit culturally removed from the East, especially in terms of language. French is the unifying language of the Congo, at least for people that are educated. However, whereas in Eastern Congo a good foundation in Kiswahili will get you nearly everywhere, in the west the lingua franca is Lingala. Fortunately Marceline knows French, and she knows Lingala from being a refugee. Uniting the different regions of the Congo under one government in Kinshasa has always been somewhat of a struggle, from the mineral-rich regions of Kasai and Katanga to the Kivus to Equateur to Badundu to Maniema.

We are hoping that Zivik will be able to tickle some funnybones with the Deutsche Botschaft in Kigali so Marceline doesn’t have to go all the way to Kinshasa. Again, it seems strange that one cannot apply for a visa at an embassy just across the border because of their nationality. Of course, I am sure there is a bureaucrat somewhere who will wrinkle their brow and give a perfectly sound and reasonable answer why; rules are always there for a reason that makes sense to the persons that made them. Nonetheless, I still feel miffed, if at no one in particular. The Colonial Europeans divided up the “African Cake” according to their desires, modern nation-state boundaries follow the colonial borders, and now today an African is having a tough time getting a visa to visit Europe because the logistics of getting to the capital are so difficult. Ah, a tale of the post-colonial era.

SOS FED director Marceline Kongolo

SOS FED director Marceline Kongolo

One last note: when we got back home to Uvira yesterday, I found a large dead bug lying on its back on our patio. This bug was caramel-colored, about an inch and a half long, and kind of looked like a cockroach/beetle/cricket hybrid. It was hideous and succulent. I called Marceline over to take a look at it, this piece of local Congolese wildlife laying expired in our house. Marceline bent over to pick it up, whereupon the large bug started wriggling; it was not, after all, dead. Marceline took off a sandal, smashed it, and threw it into the mud outside. We stood there staring at it for a bit, and Marceline told me that these bugs can be cooked and eaten during the proper season.

Iko butamu? (is it delicious?) I asked.

Sana, (very much so) said Marceline, with a grin and a sigh, perhaps recalling some fond culinary memories.

Congolese wildlife

Congolese wildlife

Rose Shukurami and her family

Rose Shukurami and her family

Songolo asked Rose if she wanted to return to Rwanda.  Rose shook her head no.  This may seem strange, since Rose is ethnic Rwandan, and being married to the FDLR she is hardly a member of accepted society in the Congo.  However, once you look at the bigger geopolitical and historical picture, it makes a bit more sense.  Kagame’s Rwanda would be hardly peaches and cream for a “Hutu” attached to the Interahamwe like Rose, even if she had nothing to do with the genocide in 1994.  Rose had been in Congo even before the genocide; her daughter and grandchildren were born here, and they’ve never seen their “homeland”.

Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and his allies, such as Yoweri Musevini in Uganda, toppled Mobutu’s regime in 1997, intending on installing Mobutu’s wily old opponent Laurent-Désire Kabila as their puppet.  The excuse for the invasion was that the Interahamwe had fled into then-Zaire and were plotting their return, with support and shelter from Africa’s consummate troublemaker Mobutu.  While this was somewhat accurate, it was also a cover for Rwanda’s neocolonialist plans for Eastern Congo.  Since the international community was very ineffectual in stopping the Rwandan genocide, and since their post-Cold War realpolitik no longer needed Mobutu, they were shamed and manipulated into playing along with and even supporting Kagame and Museveni.

While Kagame and Museveni succeeded in pillaging Congo’s resources and terrorizing the population, they did not count on Kabila père being an extremely incapable ruler, even for a puppet, and he eventually turned his back on his Rwandan and Ugandan supporters.  In 2001, Kabila père was assassinated by one of his own child-soldiers, which precipitated another power vacuum that Congo’s neighbors tried to fill.  Instead, Joseph Kabila, the son of Kabila père, became president and rallied international support to regain Kinshasa’s control over the eastern provinces.  He even won a national election in 2006, the first real election in Congo’s history.

Nonetheless, the government of Kabila fils is still a kleptocratic mess, and its military is now accused of committing the grand majority of sexual violence in Eastern Congo.  The armed groups kicked out of Rwanda and Burundi still operate within Congolese territory with some impunity.  In addition, international mining companies are exploiting Congo’s mineral resources with a very heavy human toll.  Joseph Kabila is definitely anything but a national hero.  In other words, things still suck.

If you are Rose Shukurami, you have to worry about your fate if you are deported back to Rwanda, where you don’t know anyone and your chances of being persecuted for being attached to the Interahamwe.  When Kagame’s RPF took over Rwanda, they immediately started intimidating, persecuting, massacring, and assassinating anyone they felt stood in the way, both Hutu and Tutsi.  People who had sheltered Tutsis during the genocide found themselves the targets of the RPF.  The “coalition” government formed in Rwanda after the genocide did not last as a diverse coalition for very long.

If you are an ordinary Congolese person who isn’t married to the FDLR, you not only have to worry about Rwandan FDLR and Burundian FDD marauders, but also your own notoriously brutal and predatory military, the FARDC.  To complicate things, the homegrown Mai Mai militia does not hesitate in abusing the civilian population as well.  Your country is being drained of its mineral resources, and you do not see a red cent of it.  Infrastructure is crumbling, “modern” healthcare is terrifying, and there are no jobs.

War, violence, exploitation, and death are what these people have known for almost 15 years.  Rose’s grandchildren have never known anything different.  People in Congo are played like pawns, while we in the States yawn and flick off our televisions.  Probably not a lot of Americans know that the U.S. government gave military support to Kagame’s invasion of the Congo in 1996.  Not a lot of Americans could tell you about Congo’s state of war and upheaval from 1996 onwards, but here it is everyday life.

Two days after our visit, Rose Shukurami, her daughter, and her grandchildren were released to the UNHCR refugee camp in Sange.

Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu

Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu

Ned and I recently returned from a short trip to Bukavu, trying to secure living arrangements and such for an Advocacy Project fellow that will be working there this coming month.  Bukavu is a larger city north of Uvira that sits on Lake Kivu.  There is but one good way to get from Uvira to Bukavu: taking a minibus, or agence.  The agences have colorful, distinctive names, such as Okapi, Arc-en-Ciel (rainbow), and Colombe (dove).

If you take the safer, less scenic route from Uvira to Bukavu, you travel through Rwanda for a short distance.  The differences once you cross the border into Rwanda are startling; in Rwanda, all the roads are paved and lined with cement drainage ditches.  Most of the rural towns have shiny new electrical wires running to all the houses.  Thus is the plunder of the Congo.

By the way, a visa to Rwanda is free for American citizens, but it seems that citizens of European francophone countries have to pay $60 to even get a transit visa through Rwanda.  My interactions with Rwandan border and immigration officials were cordial once they saw the American passport.  On a larger geopolitical scale…

After driving through Rwanda for about half an hour, you arrive back at the Congolese border and into Bukavu.  Once in Bukavu, the world descends into chaos.  Since it is the dry season, it is incredibly dusty, and a lot of things just do not work (electricity, roads, water).  Nonetheless, Bukavu is blessed with a mild climate from Lake Kivu.  If you squint just right, the hillside surrounding the lake looks like it belongs in Italy, and the houses look like idyllic villas.  There are also an abundance of natural gas deposits in the DRC-side of Lake Kivu.  The DRC extracts the natural gas and sells it to Rwanda; proceeds from the sale go to pad the pockets of the people in charge.  Thus, Bukavu is yet another city where you will not see the riches of the Congo.

Recommended reading: Africa’s World War by Gérard Prunier.  In his book, Prunier neatly dissects the conflict that has engulfed Central Africa since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.  Prunier’s book is very up to date (published in 2009) and gives comprehensive background information on all the countries involved in the conflict.  I find Prunier’s book to be an excellent and well-rounded resource to catch up with this conflict that the mainstream American media has largely ignored.