In late November, my government professor asked our Violence and Security class to identify the bloodiest armed conflict since the end of World War II. Not one of the 40 students answered correctly by pointing to the chaos in the Congo, a conflict that many have called the World War of Africa. Indeed, this war does not receive much media coverage in the United States. Our attentions are necessarily focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but how is it possible that 40 Dartmouth students were unaware of a conflict that has killed over five million people during the past decade and continues to take at least 1,200 lives every day as a result of violence and preventable disease? It's high time for the rest of the world to start paying attention, because new reports suggest that peacekeeping efforts so far have actually increased the bloodshed.
The United Nations' mission in the region, MONUC, is the largest and most expensive of its kind, with a price tag of $1.4 billion per year, yet it is becoming increasingly clear that throwing money at this frustratingly complex situation is doing little but exacerbating the conflict. War criminals remain in control of well-armed militias that operate with relative impunity on both sides, and it is civilians who suffer the consequences. The U.N. Security Council has delayed release of its report on the efficacy of MONUC because, as one anonymous official admitted to The New York Times, "There is a lot in there that makes us look complicit."
So what exactly does the report show? The U.N. has been supporting the Congolese government forces, which recently incorporated Rwandan Tutsi militias with whom they shared a common enemy: Rwandan Hutu expatriate rebels. The rebels call themselves the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, many of whom fled the country after perpetrating the 1994 genocide. By agreeing to provide food, fuel and logistical support but not direct arms assistance to the Congolese army, the U.N. seems to feel it can wash its hands of the events of 1994 and steer the present conflict without sharing responsibility for human rights abuses.
Soldiers on both sides of the conflict have committed atrocities. The Congolese and Tutsi army backed by the U.N. has prevented aid from reaching the more than 850,000 internally displaced people and refugees in Eastern Congo. It has also begun to target humanitarian aid programs that seek to assist Rwandan refugees. In October, Congolese soldiers with automatic weapons waylaid a Doctors Without Borders measles vaccination campaign, massacring hundreds and leading to the withdrawal of the NGO from eastern Congo. The trucks that carried the killers to the clinics were provided by the U.N.
MONUC policy to date has also contributed to making warfare a livelihood for both Congolese and Rwandan fighters. The lack of sufficient regulation of conflict mineral exports such as gold, tin and coltan provides all factions with financial means and incentives to continue this bloody conflict. Eighty thousand pounds of gold alone were smuggled out of Congo last year, supplying about $1 billion to various rebel groups. If one thing is clear, it is that the violence fueled by this money kills civilians, not actual combatants.
The time has come for a reevaluation of the U.N.'s mission in the Congo. Rigorous quantitative data and evidence are needed to demonstrate which programs are working and which are not. Resources must be targeted at civilian populations while convincing the combatants to disarm through nonviolent means. To begin, the U.N. should ally with The Enough Project a venture that aims to end genocide and crimes against humanity and endorse legislation barring corporations from purchasing conflict minerals from Congo. Stricter arms embargoes should be enforced against both the FDLR and the Congolese forces and the International Criminal Court should continue to pursue indictments against war criminals from each faction.
Finally, a reintegration program should be implemented for combatants who did not participate in the 1994 genocide. MONUC should support the creation of jobs for these men as community health workers by following Partners in Health's remarkably cost-effective and successful model in Rwanda. By training ex-rebels to combat infectious disease, the U.N. can provide a legitimate means of economic and social support in which ex-combatants work to save lives, and not destroy them.
