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Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo
1. Background
Although the five-year civil war in the DRC ended in 2003 with the formation of a transitional government, crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilian populations – including murder, rape and sexual slavery, recruitment and use of child soldiers, and forced displacement – continue, largely unabated. The civil war, often referred to as Africa’s “First World War,” claimed four million lives and subjected countless civilians to displacement, rape, abduction, and torture. There has not been a cessation of violence since the end of the war; fragile peace agreements have been broken and violated over and over again. Ensuing and persistent violence and the struggle for control over natural resources has dragged all of Congo’s neighbors into a regional conflict and human rights and humanitarian crisis, in a region already marred by instability.
1. Crimes in the DRC – Reaching the RtoP threshold The Democratic Republic of Congo has been on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Warning list since 2003. The Museum's concern about the DRC stems from the relationship of the crisis to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the scale and effects of violence against civilians, mass sexual violence against women, continued fighting in the East, and the role of ethnicity in the perpetration of violence.
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Yakin Ertürk, has called the situation the worst she has seen since she became the Special Rapporteur in 2003, denouncing sexual violence against women as a war crime. According to the Enough Project, rape as a weapon of war in Congo “exists on a scale seen nowhere else in the world”.The IRC estimates that tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped, sexually assaulted, attacked and abducted since 1998.
According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers’ 2008 Global Report, an estimated 7,000 child soldiers remain in government forces and armed groups. Children are recruited from refugee camps and used as combatants, sexual slaves, guards and porters. Moreover, Refugees International estimates that approximately 1.25 million people remain internally displaced in eastern DRC and that there are more than 370,000 Congolese refugees who have sought safety in neighboring countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimated in January 2008 that 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes (including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition) in Congo since 1998, while as many as 45,000 die every month – making it arguably the world’s deadliest documented conflict since World War II. Approximately 500,000 Congolese continue to die each year. The conflict has taken an extraordinary toll on children who make up nearly 50% of the recorded deaths, despite constituting only 19% of the total population.
In late November 2008, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, and former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, warned that the conditions in the DRC look frighteningly similar to the conditions in Rwanda before the genocide.
UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Francis Deng, visited the Great Lakes region from 23 November to 4 December 2008 to assess whether or not the human rights violations in the North Kivu region of the DRC could be evidence of the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such”. He found that “massive violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were being committed on the basis of ethnicity and national origin” in the DRC. Special Adviser Deng urged all parties to the conflict to put an end to the atrocities and work toward a political solution.
2. International Responses
Security Council: In 2004, the UN Security Council began imposing sanctions on the DRC. As of March 2008, there are asset freezes and travel bans on 22 individuals and companies, and an arms embargo on the DRC. In December 2008, sanctions were expanded to target individuals hindering humanitarian assistance or supporting armed groups operating in eastern DRC through illicit trade of natural resources.
After adopting several resolutions regarding the violence in the DRC, in November 1999 the UN Security Council authorized a peacekeeping force, MONUC, 90% of which are deployed in eastern Congo. MONUC has a Chapter VII mandate that allows it to use “all necessary means”, to protect civilians and humanitarian workers under the imminent attack of violence as well as to ensure the security necessary for the operations of the UN and the oversight of the peace process. However, Congolese civilians have been left to die as MONUC peacekeepers are greatly incapable of fighting against the well-armed and efficient forces of General Nkunda’s National Council for the Defence of People (CNDP), and often end up fleeing. See Human Right Watch December 2008 Report, “The UN’s inability to protect civilians”. For more information on the UN Security Council involvement around the DRC (1999-2009): click here Amnesty International, concerned by the lack of action following the resolution passed by the Human Rights Council in December 2008, urged the UN to do more to protect the civilians and end impunity in the DRC. While supportive of MONUC’s mandate expansion, it criticized the follow up procedures of the HRC as “weak”. Amnesty recommended a stronger human rights mechanism to report to the UN and pointed out that despite rhetoric to end impunity within the resolution, no actual measures were included to facilitate justice. The UN was conspicuously silent on the reform of DRC courts; did not discuss the possibility of an independent vetting process to exclude people suspected to have committed international crimes and human rights violations from the security personnel; neither did it voice any support for the ICC’s investigation of the DRC.
International Criminal Court On 19 April 2004, President Kabila of the DRC referred his country to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 23 June 2004, The ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, formally announced the decision to open an investigation – the first of the ICC – on the crimes committed in the DRC. The Office of the Prosecutor had been analyzing the situation in the DRC since July 2003.
On 10 February 2006, the first arrest warrant was issued for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, alleged founder and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) and the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC). Lubanga was indicted with war crimes, specifically for enlisting and conscripting child soldiers under the age of 15 and using them to actively participate in hostilities. On 6 July 2007, the ICC also issued arrest warrants for Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, who were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity; including the use of child soldiers, attack on civilians, pillaging and sexual violence. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant on 22 August 2006 for Bosco Ntaganda, but he remains at large. Hearings continue for the Lubanga, Katanga and Ngudiolo cases.
The ICC’s investigations in the DRC has sparked some criticism, namely on the lack of planning and the rushed investigative process in its haste to present cases in court as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program recognizes that it set a precedent and made “clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted at the international level."
3. Regional Responses
On 7 November 2008, in response to the surge in violence at that time, Great Lakes Regional leaders, the AU and UN met in Nairobi. They called for a ceasefire in North Kivu and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to address the humanitarian crisis, called on the UN Secretary-General to strengthen the mandate of MONUC and provide adequate resources for the force. They also considered the possibility of sending peacekeepers to North Kivu, and established a mediation process and mechanism that involves all the regional leaders and a team of facilitators. While the UN did strengthen and reinforce the mandate of the MONUC by UN resolution 1856 on 22 December 2008 to emphasize the focus on the protection of civilians, the calls for a ceasefire, humanitarian corridor and mediation process were unheeded.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of States and government met two days later to discuss the situation in the DRC. One of the outcomes of the meetings was for SADC to immediately deploy its Team of Military Experts to assess the situation; dispatch its Military Monitoring Commission to monitor the border between the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; and send a SADC representative to the mediation mechanism established by the Great Lakes Region for the DRC. It also considered sending a peacekeeping force into Kivu Province. However, little practical measures have actually been put in place to follow up their rhetoric with action.
Regional efforts to better the humanitarian crisis in the DRC intensified in 2008, with a flurry of meetings and dialogue. In mid-October, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Secretariat condemned the violence, and in late October 2008, the ICGLR called for the international community to end the crisis in Eastern Congo. On 20 December 2008, the African Union Peace and Security Council condemned the atrocities and urged the UN Security Council to strengthen the mandate of MONUC. However, the AU, SADC or the leaders of the Great Lake regions have made little progress; humanitarian efforts decided upon are rarely translated into actual action; ceasefires had no lasting hold. There is a dire need for greater commitment to the goals and tasks decided upon during regional meetings. Given that the regional states have been unsuccessfully in implementing mechanisms to improve the humanitarian situation, it is necessary that the international community steps in to assist their efforts in resolving the crisis.
4. Calls by Civil Society
Civil societies groups have tirelessly sought to find a political solution to the conflict and have stepped up efforts to address key concerns in the DRC, including civilian causalities, a lack of accountability and insufficient MONUC capacity.
The International Crisis Group and Refugees International (among others), motivated to find a political solution to the conflict, have urged the USA, the UK and the EU to deploy full-time, field-based senior envoys to support mediation efforts and to muster the political will and resources to support a sustained and comprehensive effort. These recommendations work towards efforts to secure a lasting political solution to local, national, and international dimensions of the crisis.
In January 2009, Amnesty called on all parties involved in the conflict to take all feasible precautions during the planning of the military operations to avoid civilian casualties. Parties Amnesty addressed include the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) as well as the governments of the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda, whose forces are now engaged in military offensives inside the DRC against, the LRA and FDLR. Specifically addressing accountability issues within the DRC, 11 organizations including the International Rescue Committee, CARE and the Enough Project urged the Congolese government to fulfill its obligation to protect civilians from human rights abuses, particularly by holding its own commanders and troops accountable for human rights abuses, especially with regards to sexual attacks in eastern DRC.
Several organizations recognized the failure of MONUC to protect civilians lie with the fact that the MONUC is stretched beyond capacity and have emphasized the need for MONUC to be strengthened and assisted. In early February 2009, international humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) accused U.N. peacekeepers in Congo of failing to protect civilians by not reacting to attacks by Ugandan rebels that have killed hundreds of civilians. On 19 November 2008, 44 Congolese NGOs in North Kivu wrote a letter to the UN Security Council calling for an immediate reinforcement of peacekeeping troops, a strengthening of MONUC’s mandate, and the immediate deployment of EU troops as done in 2003 in Ituri. That same month, Oxfam International also called for immediate additional support to the UN peacekeepers. Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that “the world is failing in its Responsibility to Protect the Congo's innocent civilians. Also in November, Refugees International urged the UN Security Council to underscore that civilian protection is MONUC’s primary responsibility, provide clear guidance on how to fulfill this responsibility and ensure that it has sufficient resources.
Conclusion The widespread and devastating effects of the conflict in the DRC documented by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations – with 1.25 million people displaced, millions dead, tens of thousands dying each month from consequences of the war, and tens of thousands of girls and women subjected to sexual violence – has undeniably reached the “Responsibility to Protect” threshold. The international commmunity has stepped up to fulfill their responsibility to react and rebuild; however, attempts at alleviating the humanitarian crisis and to implement a peace process in the DRC have been progressing slowly. MONUC's mixed record has prompted calls to strengthen the capacity and mandate of the deployment. Meanwhile, hearings of the DRC cases at the ICC are underway and scheduled to take place through the year at the Hague; the trials contribute significantly to efforts to end impunity and achieve justice and rule of law in the DRC. |