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Hope,
Fear Mark Congo's First Democratic Elections in 46 Years |
Posted:
07.31.06
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The people of the African nation of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, one of the most dangerous places in the world, voted
Sunday in their country's first multiparty election since 1960.
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 Election
officials were surprised that despite widespread illiteracy and
the shear number of candidates -- 32 for president and more than
9,700 for national assembly seats -- the vote ended on time with
only isolated violence, Reuters reported.
Congolese people showed off purple indelible ink on their thumb
as marks of a successful vote.
A United Nations representative for the Congo, Ross Mountain,
told Reuters: "We believe the enthusiasm being shown at this
election shows the willingness of the population to move ahead,
to move out of 40 years of misrule and misery."
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A history
of violence |
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Much of the country's violence can be traced to ethnic clashes
that have raged throughout central Africa, and to ongoing power
struggles for natural resources such as gold, diamonds, copper,
zinc and timber.
The Congo won independence from Belgium in 1960, but soon thereafter
an army colonel named Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in a coup
d'etat.
He renamed the country Zaire and for more than 30 years ruled
with an iron fist and put aside nearly all of the country's wealth
for himself.
Mobuto's reign unraveled in the 1990s due in part to events in
neighboring Rwanda.
 Rwandan
Hutu rebels, known as the Interhamwe, fled to Zaire after
orchestrating the mass killing of about 500,000 to 800,000 Rwandan
Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.
Mobutu allowed the Hutu rebels to remain in eastern Zaire.
Angry with Mobutu for providing sanctuary for their enemies,
the Rwandan government supported a rebellion lead by Laurent Kabila,
who finally ousted the brutal Mobutu regime in 1997.
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New leader
and stunted peace efforts |
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Laurent Kabila was hailed as a hero.
 The
people of newly renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo hoped
he would reverse Mobutu's years of terror and corruption.
Kabila's backers in Rwanda and Uganda also felt they could count
on the new leader to drive out Hutu rebels.
Within a year, however, Kabila changed his mind and refused to
expel the Hutus.
The Rwandans and Ugandans immediately switched sides, and supported
rebels seeking to overthrow Kabila, starting a new civil war in
1998.
Fighting continued despite a 1999 cease-fire between the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Congolese rebels, and the countries of
Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and his son, Joseph Kabila, was
named head of state in his place.
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Still the
most dangerous place in the world |
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Under Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of the Congo found
new hope for peace.
In 2002, Kabila negotiated the retreat of Rwandan rebels from
the Congo's east, and signed an accord with the country's warring
factions to establish a transitional government with international
oversight.
Though these agreements formally ended the civil war, militias
continued to kill and loot, especially in the eastern regions
of the country near the borders with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
 According
to a 2005 report by the International Rescue Committee, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo is the deadliest place in the world, with
about 1,000 people dying every day because of preventable disease
and famine brought on by the continuing violence.
Some 4 million Congolese, half of them children, have died since
1998.
The United Nations has maintained a peacekeeping mission in the
Congo since in 1999 and has spent $6 billion there since 2001.
"Peacekeeping may be expensive, but try war, it's a lot
more expensive," Mountain, the U.N. representative in the
Congo, told Reuters.
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Optimism
and concern over the future |
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 Sunday's
elections were overseen by the largest peacekeeping force in the
world: a 17,000-member U.N. force backed by 1,100 European Union
troops, Reuters reported.
Incumbent Joseph Kabila appears to be the front-runner for the
five-year term presidency.
In the week leading up to the election, however, supporters of
other candidates protested, throwing rocks and gas bombs, and
blockading a highway, claiming that the international monitors
were trying to manipulate the elections in Kabila's favor.
"Perhaps we're heading for a masquerade or a parody of elections,"
three main opposition candidates, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Azarias Ruberwa
and Arthur Z'ahidi Ngoma, wrote in a joint statement.
 These
candidates, former militant leaders who are now vice presidents
in the transitional government, accused the electoral commission
of printing too many ballots and setting up fake polling stations.
Analysts fear these leaders, who have support in Kinshasa, Congo's
capital, could revert to violence if they do not have a role to
play in the new government.
"There will be winners and losers, and many of the losers
have guns. ... The probability is high that conflict will break
out again," Jason Stearnes, an analyst with International
Crisis Group, told Reuters.
But the Congolese people showed optimism for their country.
"I do have hope for these elections," said Laurent
Paluku, head of an electoral commission office in the eastern
town of Beni, on the July 25 NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
"We will have elected leaders, even if they're not good
leaders. And I think that's a lot."
--Compiled
by Adnaan Wasey for NewsHour Extra
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