I am glad that Russ Feingold agreed to be the U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and I’m glad that he is trying to raise awareness about the 5.4 million people who have died in the region since the mid-1990s. But I get frustrated with this issue because I don’t feel it is ever adequately explained. Even in Feingold’s article, he doesn’t tell us why so many people have died or how the violence is sustained or who the various parties are to the conflict. Without that kind of information, how are we to even begin to know what can and should be done?
I know the information is available, but it requires a real commitment to go out and find it because so few people are writing about it, at least here in the States. Part of Feingold’s job is to change that, but that’s why I see his article as a lost opportunity. He tells us that there is a huge problem and a little about who is trying to fix it, but he doesn’t tell us why there is a huge problem or who and what is standing in the way of peace.
What happened in the DRC troubled me so much that as an artist I was compelled to create a hooked rug as a statement against the atrocities.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/Rughooker/congo-rug1.jpg
This was ten years ago.
My husband and I joined a local group through the Peace Museum here in Dayton, and we helped with the Jewish Federation to raise money and awareness for the people. Nick Clooney and his wife came and spoke to our group and discussed some of the ongoing problems. There was a concerted effort to help, but I don’t know where it stands right now.
There don’t seem to be solutions. If we spend money to help countries like Syria to fight brutality and genocide, then we should help regions like the Congo. I don’t know where it starts and where it ends, but when your own govenrment is calling for the heads of its people, something is horribly wrong.
I’m glad Russ Feingold is on the job, and hope something actually comes of it.
Is Nick Clooney George’s father?
Yes, Nick is George’s father. He was a big deal in Cincinnati on TV for years. I met George Clooney’s mother at the event and she’s exceptionally nice. She does a lot of work with animal rescue.
Not meaning to be flippant but it starts and ends with Saudi interests. The Saudis are interested in Syria (Istrael is too) and not in the Congo (neither is Israel).
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A new diary – Envoy Feingold and Global Interest for African Nations.
or Jewish Neocons (and Susan Rice) Adopt Rwandan Dictator, Kagame
The Eastern Congo has been in turmoil since the independence of the Congo from Belgium. Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary General of the United Nations, died in a plane crash while trying to get a negotiated settlement to the civil war there.
There is this history:
And the reason is the mineral wealth, especially that of Eastern Congo. To bring an end to the conflict, you have to determine which mining interests are backing which groups of combatants (whether Congolese or from surrounding countries). Continuing the fiction that it is a ethnic struggle or a geopolitical struggle among the countries of the Great Lakes region ignores the financial resources from outside the continent that keep the wars going.
Like some other countries, the US broke it 52 years ago and has not owned up to the meddling that keeps the war going. Dealing with that history is a tall order for Russ Feingold. After 52 years, who there can trust the US as actually being interested in the resolution of the conflict. The local reading will be that the US is concerned that China will cut deals in Africa to deny strategic mineral resources to the US military and that human rights and ending war is just the usual convenient cover for the interests of US mining corporations.
If Russ Feingold is constrained from owning up the issues there in explaining this to the American public, our policy is in deep trouble from the start. If I was cynical, it seems like a great way to keep Feingold from regaining political clout in Wisconsin. If however, he has the diplomatic skills of a George Mitchell, he might be able to move things along. I wish him well in what might turn out to be a thankless task.
Diamonds get the press, but are a comparatively small part of the problem. I think even saying mineral wealth is too narrow. ‘Land-disputes’ probably captures it better even if that’s a more bloodless term.
But I confess ignorance is to the current influence of outside-Africa actors.
For those wondering about some of the background of what the US and its allies in Western Europe broke (in the name of anti-communism, although Lumumba and his party were not communist, although left-ish) A little more about Patrice Lumumba via Black History Every Day:
More collateral damage from the Cold War era.
One of John Le Carré’s finest recent novels, The Mission Song (2006), deals with the Eastern Congo situation and is very informative as well as a moving story. I’ve been haunted by it ever since reading it. I think peaceful intervention there has a much better outlook than anything that can be done in Syria, but people must try to pay attention. Good luck to Feingold!!
This seems like a good time to plug Who Hates Whom by Bob Harris. Far from in depth and doesn’t list sources, but still a good read that covers the basics. Looks like the book spends ten pages on D.R. Congo as part of its world spanning tour.