UN should forestall the atrocities in Congo

So the United Nations Security Council is aggrieved rape has become endemic ‘weapon of choice’ in the long-running civil conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)! That would be so without a critical understanding of the cause and history of the conflict that predates independence in 1960.

Eastern DRC exemplifies the innate human capacity to commit untold atrocities in mortal competition for natural resources. The rape of 500 women last month alone is a manifestation of a serious problem that belies the Congo crisis. The UN Security Council (UNSC) must go beyond the mechanical motions of profiling the heinous acts and address the genesis of the humanitarian crises triggered by the conflict.

International media, as they are wont to, took turns in condemning the Congolese and Rwandan rebels for the mass rape of women and indiscriminate murder of men. The report is, to say the least, a masterpiece of deceptive self-deprecation. The report blames the combatants for the multiple rapes, but carefully glosses over roles of multinationals in stoking the conflict.

Atul Khare, the UN Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping, who led the investigations, conceded: "While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the State, its national army and police force, clearly we (the Security Council) have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, resulting in unacceptable brutalisation of the population of the villages. We must do better."

The statement sounds laudable until one delves into the cause of the war: vicious struggle for control of the vast mineral wealth.

The UNSC report on systematic rape of women in DRC should not be taken seriously when it blames Rwanda militiamen, Congolese rebels, and government soldiers in the mineral-rich regions in the east for the blatant abuse of women. It must be stated here that the rapes are a consequence of a broader and more serious crimes against humanity – the pillage of Congo’s resources by the West.

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Aware of the external actors in the war – governments in Europe, Asia and the Americas – the Security Council has tended to pass the buck by accusing governments in the Great Lakes Region of fuelling the conflict. However, it is no secret that these governments – Ugandan, Rwandan and the others – are proxies of the warlords in the West.

The West planted the germ of war; it is therefore the West that can end the atrocities profiled in the UNSC report. The report is a profile and indictment of council’s complicity in the heinous crimes against humanity that have become a sore on the collective conscience of the civilised world.

The details are distressing: "The rapes in the villages in North Kivu were not isolated incidents, but part of a broader pattern of widespread systematic rape and pillage... The militiamen shoved their hands inside women’s sexual organs to look for hidden gold and that the village was surrounded so that no one could run away."

Such is the deplorable life of the Congolese women. The West’s unremitting avarice for minerals fuels the conflict in this central African nation. It needs not be repeated that DRC is arguably the world’s most resource-endowed country.

The irony is, it ranks among the poorest in the context of the gross domestic product, with more than 80 per cent of its population rooted in pitiable squalor and poverty. Disease and hunger stalk the severely impoverished population. Not surprisingly, it leads the rest of the world in terms of illiteracy. It is no exaggeration that 70 per cent of its landmass is still virgin, with the remaining scarcely touched by civilisation.

The UN has repeatedly said it has deployed its largest peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops in DRC. The force gobbles up nearly $1.35billion. Sadly, the troops are stationed in parts of the country that experience little or no insurgency.

Had the UNSC heeded early warnings that the atrocities against women had become commonplace, the rapes would not have taken place. Time to act is now.