Congo’s ongoing war

Congo’s war officially ended in 2002 with the signing of the Peace Accords in Sun City, South Africa. There have certainly been changes since that time: inflation has stabilised, there is a reasonable amount of economic development for a country that still has no infrastructure, and now there is even an ATM.

But anyone who cares to cast an eye in Congo’s direction even occasionally sees fairly quickly that this is not a country at peace. The international community focused attention heavily on last year’s presidential elections -the first in over 40 years- as the key to bringing the country back together. But six month after the results were announced, the country is still experiencing low-level warfare and the continuing electoral process, now trickling down to the municipal level, is beginning to stall due to lack of funding.

MONUC has not yet decided the fate of Bemba’s foot soldiers who surrendered to the UN at the end of March’s brief siege in Kinshasa. Bemba himself is just over halfway through his 60-day medical stay in Portugal, his fate still unknown.

Meanwhile, ongoing clashes between government soldiers and rebels near Goma caught a student in the crossfire. A demonstration to commemorate the student’s death was held yesterday in Kinshasa.

If Congo claims any peace at all, it is at best a shaky one.

There is no doubt that I live in an occupied country. As I watch the increasing push for allied forces to withdraw from Iraq, the equation with Congo comes easily. Without MONUC’s presence here, the next round of elections will not take place. Without MONUC’s presence in the east, low-level militia fighting could easily take over the urban centers once again. Kinshasa’s finer restaurants will most certainly suffer when MONUC finally withdraws, but that is another tale of woe for another time.

The first phase of the electoral process last year was simply the beginning of the much longer phase it will take to rebuilt a country that was hardly held together from the moment it was born. Convincing people to have faith in a government that has done nothing but fail them -and at the same time give that government adequate time to built lasting change- is asking a stupendous leap of faith.

There is no one moment when war is over and peace rides in on a shiny white horse. Reconstruction can certainly not wait for a complete cessation in fighting that may not come for years. But keeping the faith: that is the real battle.

Koko Souing

The UN Peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC (Mission de l’Organisation d’Nations Unis en Republic Democratique du Congo) is the largest peacekeeping mission globally in terms of both size and budget. MONUC, known around as Monique due to its passive stance on much that has gone on, is led by an ex-Foreign Service American: William Lacy Swing.

Last year, Mira Mikaza -a Congolese musician at the National Arts Institute- created the song Koko Souing (Grandpa Swing, in Lingala), a call for non violence in the period of waiting for the election results. The lyrics insist that as long as Koko Souing Swing is around, there will be no shooting. The video shows the rapper in white face doing a fairly impressive impression of Swing’s franglais and dancing with his wife Mama Monique.

When Ban ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, came to visit earlier this year, the video was played at the UN Town Hall Gathering. Despite Grandpa’s stumble with last month’s violence, people around here are still pretty into Koko Souing.

A bit short of asylum

Mr. Bemba finally left our presence last Wednesday when he headed to Portugal for medical treatment. Bemba received permission from Parliament to travel last Monday on the condition that he returns in 60 days.

In the meantime his political party, the MLC, has refused to participate in the lower house of Parliament due to harassment they claim to be receiving from Kabila’s party.

The public prosecutor has asked the Senate to remove Mr. Bemba’s immunity as a senator so he can be prosecuted for inciting last month’s violence.

Kinshasa is relatively calm these days but the question of Mr. Bemba’s post-Portugal fate remains unanswered (although this bloke has some disjointed theories that seem a bit clouded by his own experience).

While it was expected that Congo’s political situation would lighten following the elections, the violence both in Kinshasa and Matadi (and similar reports from other areas of the country) coupled with sustained reports of opposition harassment indicate we’re not in the clear quite yet.

In response, the UN Security Council has extended MONUC’s Peacekeping mandate a month further to the 15th of May, stating that “continues to pose a threat to international peace and security in the region”. It’s expected that a new resolution will be introduced in the coming month to extend the mandate farther.

But there are a few small signs of hope. The Congolese government is being held responsible for a journalist killed (one of several throughout the electoral process) in late 2005 when the court convicted two soldiers and demanded that the State pay reparations in the order of $3 million to the family and the Congolese National Press Union.

What passes for normal

I’m not sure what constitutes normal in this part of the world but it seems that most people around here are trying to get back to it.

Somewhere between 100 and 150 were killed during the clashes. The International Committee of the Red Cross has organized a relief mission which arrived on Saturday and has taken a major role in cleaning up the bodies and supplementing the medical supplies of the Hôpital General for treating the wounded.

While many of Bemba’s men are surrendering to MONUC, there’s some discussion as to whether they are turning in all of their arms. One of the major failings of the DDR programmes here (and I would guess in other places) is that large stocks of weapons are hidden when militia members turn themselves in, leaving open the opportunity to re-mobilise again fairly quickly. Others report seeing large caches of arms being brought into MONUC compounds – garbage cans filled to the hilt with AK-47s and RPGs. But no ammunition; which was apparently the limiting factor in Bemba’s forces efforts.

The have been rumours of Angolan troops in the country on and off for several months and there have now been definite sightings in Kinshasa. Apparently during the fighting the Angolan army was ready for deployed to Congo.

Bemba is still said to be at the South African embassy although there is no definitive news as to his future plans or pending asylum applications. He continues to insist that his life was treatened several times.

We’re back in the office today, as are most people. Back to the grind as everyone awaits the shaky next step in the supposedly enlightened path to democracy.

The shot heard round Kinshasa

I’m sure y’all are wondering how did this all start? After all, Kabila’s troops had been in a standoff outside of Bemba’s compound for the last week, with MONUC standing by and watching.

The story I got is that Kabila and Bemba were actually in negotiations with William Swing, head of the UN mission here, when the fighting broke out. If you’ve been following along, Bemba was ordered to disarm his personal security force by midnight Thursday last week and integrate into the national army, FARDC. The security force would then be replaced by 12 policemen. Swing was trying to negotiate for a few extra men for Bemba and that he could pick his guards from among his men. The negotiations were apparently going well.

But then an FARDC truck drove by the standoff and one of Bemba’s men fired on it.

Surprise, surprise, all hell broke loose.

Two days later, downtown is pretty quiet and most people are headed to one of the downtown supermarkets to stock up and trade war stories. Government troops are still looking for those among Bemba’s men who have not yet turned themselves in.

The airport is now open and SNBrussels and Kenya Airways are flying today — although apparently when some mundeles (expats) tried to make a break for the airport, their cars were fired upon by FARDC. Flights schedules are due to return to normal tomorrow.

Here’s a quick peek at some of the damage in my neighbourhood.

The Biac building, containing several organisations including UNICEF and the Spanish and Greek embassies, was the target of several exploded and unexploded ordnance (mostly artillery, I’m told) and sustained fairly serious damage. The ordnance that made the large hole in the second and third floors apparently hit an air conditioner which prevented it from exploding farther into the building where it would have caused significantly more damage. There is one fatality reported from the first floor bank and another critically wounded.

And for me, I’m going to go see about a fresh beer and sign off from a much quieter Kinshasa.

Holding pattern

On Monday morning, a colleague of mine had a meeting with an ambassdor in Brazzaville but couldn’t go because the beach (river port) was closed due to a major downpour. Isn’t it funny, I said, how in the part of the world, rain can bring things to a total halt? Sure enough, half of our staff didn’t show up until 11am.

Now, as I stare at her in the same room we’ve been sitting in for the last two days, we laugh about what might have happened if only it had started pouring again yesterday. But alas, that wasn’t our fate.

There are no numbers yet on the death toll though a friend in Belgium says the news there is reporting about 60 dead. As Fred points out, at this point most of the concern is around the risk of looting (and around my cat, of course, who’s now spent two days alone).

MONUC has evacuated 600+ people from the area where the fighting was focused including around 200 kids from the French school and a large group from the BIAC building where UNICEF has its offices. Have no fear though, a UNICEF-employed friend reports ready access to PopTarts.

Congogirl reports civilians out and about in her area, which is always a good sign.

No clues yet as to what Bemba’s next move will be (although he’s hiding out in the South African embassy, he has not offically sought asylum) but no doubt tomorrow will reveal a bit more. Until then, there are reports of a curfew until 7am.

Moving in the right direction

After two days of fighting, Kinshasa is starting to quiet down.

Bemba’s forces are surrendering – mostly to MONUC where they have a better chance of their Geneva Convention rights being upheld. Civilian traffic is slowly becoming more frequent as those stuck in their offices make a break for home before dark, but embassies are still advising staying indoors until tomorrow.

We heard that those among Bemba’s troops who have not surrendered are hiding out in several quartiers of la cite. The government has announced that the FARDC (nat’l army) and the GSSP (Kabila’s presidential guard) will go door to door tomorrow looking for Bemba fights and hidden arms stores.

Five of our party of nine already made a break for home -and arrived safety- but I’m a little more conservative and am hoping to make it home tomorrow morning.

Wake up call

6am
Being woken up before 5am to the sounds of mortar fire is not unknown around here but I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do it again. I guess yesterday’s MONUC reports that both sides were already tired after a multiple-day standoff didn’t carry much weight with the fighters themselves.

Bemba himself is reported to have taken refuge in the South African Embassy just a few kilometers from his compound. So much for his personal security force protecting him. We’ve also heard that two of the three or four big supermarkets in Kinshasa, City Market and Peloustore, have been looted along with one of my favourite restaurants, Chateau Margaux.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Embassy has been hit by mortal fire and the Nigerian Ambassador has been wounded in his home yesterday and as last heard, had not been evacuated as MONUC could not yet get to his house.

Fighters are still in the streets below -it looks from here like the post office just got hit- and my hopes of heading home (about a kilometer away) today were more or less dashed at dawn. Let’s just hope my friendly host has enough toilet paper for the 9 of us camped out here.

10am
Since watching Kabila’s foot soldiers approach a hidden Bemba fighter with an RPG in the street outside, things have been a bit quieter. There are reports that an oil tanker by the river was lit on fire but the plume of smoke we see from the window is in the opposite direction. And of course, the looters trying to break into the NGO next door…

Word is that the lobby of the Memling (one of the big Kinshasa hotels) was hit yesterday, including a female expat.

Meanwhile, Kabila’s government has issued a warrant for Bemba’s arrest.

11.40am
Things have been quiet for awhile now and word is that Kabila’s troop have taken back the city (i.e. now it’s their turn to loot). The police are now coming back into our part of the city, which we take as a good sign. They appear to be recovering looted treasures hidden in a flowerbed earlier.

No one quite knows what will happen to Bemba. Aside from the arrest warrant for high treason, we’ve heard Kabila planned to flatten his compound. We’re all wondering: what exactly is the difference between high treason and low treason? Maybe the difference between Bemba’s private military and stealing a bit of uranium?

3pm
Things are certainly quieter around here, with only stray gunfire and shelling. Word is that Bemba’s tropps are fleeing and surrendering with most of the miltary moving towards la cite, where most of the Congolese live - and will now probably be pillaged. The government is now planning to search the city tomorrow for Bemba’s secret arms piles.

Children are still stuck in the Belgian school (but are fine). The streets are still deserted, except for about 20 civilians, kicked out of the clinic Centre Mongala by Kabila’s forces, whom we saw walking past in a group with their hands in the air. They were followed by the first civilian vehicle movement! Kabila’s tanks are all sitting on the streets and Bemba forces have mostly been chased out. Fighting continues between the Round Point Gare and the beach for those who know Kin.

We’re hoping this will all pass soon. Of course, a friend’s office headquarters in the US is suddenly asking: What is your evacuation plan?

Evac plan? Stay put until we either can go home or run out of food.

(Kabila tank as government troops take back the city)

Deja vu

The news of the morning is that gunfire has broken out between FARDC (Kabila’s national army) and Bemba’s guards. With MONUC standing by to watch. There have been reports of army trucks coming in from bases just out of town and of mortal fire. The kids in the French school next door to Bemba’s place are trapped inside the gymnasium.

There’s now gunfire and mortals throughout downtown Kinshasa.

One of the refugees from the fighting is a bull who’s been sighting tearing through the streets in an effort to avoid becoming someone’s dinner. No one knows quite where he’ll end up.

The good news? We’re now trapped at a friend’s apartment with a fresh case of beer.

Part II (11pm)
The afternoon here has been filled with AK -47 and mortar fire. We had word of an hour-long cease fire a few hours back but in the intermim have a heard a decent amount of noise (though not as much as Fred, if you check out the sound clip on Extra Extra). Bemba is supposedly controlling much of downtown Kinshasa, which is possibily attributed to the supposed loyalty of the 7th Brigade of the FARDC. According to the AP Mortar shells landed as far as two miles away in Brazzaville, the capital of Republic of Congo that sits across the Congo River from Kinshasa. A government spokesman in Brazzaville said the mayor’s office was hit, but no one was injured.

With beer stocks running low, my companions are starting to wilt. But all has been getting progressively quieter over the last few hours and we’re hoping to be able to escape homeward tomorrow.

More rumblings

A few shots were fired yesterday, though supposedly accidental, have created the latest stand-off between Kabila and Bemba. Kabila’s government maintains that Bemba’s personal guard must retreat to Maluku to be integrated into the national army. Bemba insists that he needs the guards to protect his life.

Kabila’s troops, mortars and all, are now threatening to close in on Bemba’s Kinshasa residence which is being protected by MONUC troops. Kabila has requested the removal of MONUC tanks, a request which has supposedly been passed as high as Peacekeeping HQ in New York.

Although the tension is still rising, the Kinois are going about business as usual.