Tensions between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda are beginning to thaw as on-going peace talks, aimed at ending fighting in the east of the DRC between the Government and the main rebel militia in the region, are making slow progress, the United Nations envoy facilitating negotiations told the Security Council today. 

from Lyn Lusi
date Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 7:12 PM
subject: This is letter TWO, all about Congolese POLITICS in North Kivu

Yesterday, as I was driving into the hospital, we were stuck on a street for almost 5 minutes by an endless cortege of hundreds of motorbike taxis, – lights glaring, horns blaring, people screaming, to celebrate the peace agreement signed on 16th January between Rwanda and Congo. Even the Mai Mai have decided to sign on for peace once again.

We sincerely hope that it is true. There have been no serious incidents of fighting since Christmas. When the Congolese government and CNDP met Nigerian ex-President Obasanjo in Nairobi before Christmas, it became obvious that they had nothing to fight about with the Congolese government, so they went home and started fighting amongst themselves. Nkunda heads one faction, and his second in command, Bosco, heads the other. Both are indicted war criminals. Strangely, it is the Bosco faction that has signed the peace agreement in the latest round of peace talks; but Nkunda has said Bosco does not speak for the CNDP.

All of this manoeuvering is the subject of endless speculation: maybe the split is engineered so that Rwanda can have two options: peace or war. According to the peace deal, the Rwanda army will come into Congo officially, and hunt down the FDLR alongside the Congolese army, and all the CNDP will join the Congolese army (Back to square one! Do not pass Go! Do not collect 200!) On the other hand, the Rwandans keep their options open to continue fighting as before alongside the other half of the CNDP.

Some rather sinister indications about what is really going on have come from Kigali. At the US embassy party, the new ambassador appointed in August apparently said that one of the objectives of his government in the region would be to redraw unjust boundaries that were fixed in colonial times. Either he is a total idiot speaking only for himself, or else he has revealed the secret agenda of the US in the region: that would also indicate he is still a total idiot. We can only hope that the Obama administration will take a more impartial and intelligent approach to resolving conflict in this region.

The FDLR militia of course are not happy about this agreement. The only FDLR that can be easily found are the ones who have settled into villages in North and South Kivu. To hunt them down means more suffering and violence for people in the rural areas. The ones who are really dangerous are in the forest, constantly on the move and impossible to find. The women of the region, (Hotense Maliro, media officer from HEAL Africa is one of their leaders) have organised together as Sauti ya Wamama WaKongomani (Voice of the Women of Congo). They held a demonstration on Friday in Goma, and are planning to lobby the Ministers here in Goma for the talks, for a peaceful approach to the FDLR. There is no space and no future for them in Rwanda; the only lasting solution is to give them space to settle in Congo, and approach them with messages of inclusion and peace building. This is the challenge of the church, and our partners the Nehemiah committees are prepared to take up this challenge.

So the message of this letter is mainly hopeful, but with reservations because politicians have their own agendas and never tell us the whole truth. Continued prayer is needed! Thank you for being alongside us with your prayers.

LL

There is a crisis in Eastern Congo around Goma.  The rebel army, CNDP, lead by Nkunda advanced from the north all the way to the outskirts of Goma, the provencial capital.  More than 50,000 people fled to Goma.  Behind the CNDP lines, credible reports document that the rebels have broken up IDP (internally displaced peoples camps) and burned them to the ground, further displacing 50,000 + more people.  Aid agencies haven’t been able to reach many of the displaced, until now, and hunger and starvation are very real, as there is no food. It is wet, muddy, and raining.  Many are sick. Below are a few articles that do a good job analyzing the conflict.

How we fuel Africa’s Bloodiest War
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-how-we-fuel-africas-bloodiest-war-978461.html

The Rape of a Nation (~10 min documentary that explains some history)
http://mediastorm.org/0022.htm

Update on UN’s role
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/31/congo-unitednations-miliband

This conflict is more than what is frequently cited as “tribal” or “ethnic,” rather it is economic.  Eastern Congo is rich in natural resources: copper, diamonds, gold, and coltan.  Coltan is used in laptop computers and cell phones — multinational companies benefit. Attached is a form letter to send to your senators calling for conflict-free coltan regulations.  Send a letter to our senators and representatives.  The form letter is “Coltan Letter.pdf”

Here are the links to the CA Senators
Senator Boxer: 

https://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm

Senator Feinstein:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

Secondly, it is women and children who suffer the most during this conflict.  Troops from both sides are raping and pillaging.  The people of Congo need security and to be able to return to their homes, their villages, their fields in order to produce food!  One million people are displaced in North Kivu, and they cannot be taken care of.  They’re dispersed, and putting huge strain on the existing towns and cities as they try to feed them.  WFP’s rations are one quarter of what is needed to survive.  MONUC (UN peacekeeping mission) doesn’t’ have the resources to provide protection.  Support is needed from the international community in order to help these organizations do what their mandate is: feed and protect. Attached is a petition drafted by HEAL Africa you can sign.  To sign, email your Name, Affiliation, Country to [editor's note: instructions for participating in the petition are available on the HEALAfrica "Four Ways to Help" website]

Finally, to encourage the international community to do something about this humanitarian disaster, attached is a form letter (thanks to Andrew Hoeksema) to send to your senators calling for them to do something and influence the UN Security Council, rather than sit back and ignore.

“As the UN Security Council will be briefed on the situation in eastern D.R. Congo.  Please work with fellow Senators to encourage the U.S. delegation to the UN to push for further intervention on behalf of the innocents who are affected by this fighting.  Great humanitarian aid is needed for the 100s of 1000s who have been displaced in recent months.  Tell the UN Security Council to increase humanitarian aid in this emergency situation to the displaced peoples in the major city of Goma.  Also, have the UN Security Council increase the mandate of the peacekeeping troops to further intervention to stop and push back the advances of Nkunda’s rebel forces.  The UN Security Council also must work to push negotiations between presidents of D.R. Congo and Rwanda who are both involved in this crisis.”

Thank you for taking time to learn more about this catastrophe.
Thank you for praying fervently for peace and for taking  a step to end the atrocities and injustice.

Marian

I’ve been meaning to cross-post all of HEAL Africa’s updates here, but just have been swamped with travel, etc.  I suppose it’s not too late to start.  Here’s the latest update from Judy Anderson’s conversation with Joseph Ciza:

November 14, 2008. 

I just spent time with Joseph Ciza on the phone.  (He’s in Goma, I’m in Seattle).  You haven’t heard from HEAL Africa for a few days.  It doesn’t mean that things have “settled down” in Goma.  The military action continues all around, people are increasingly unsettled, and troops from Angola and Zimbabwe are reportedly in Congo.  This doesn’t bode well at all.   Joseph said he’d heard from someone that military troops were heard in the dark, so they wait to hear what will happen in the morning.

I don’t want to inundate you with email.  We are working to consolidate our databases so you won’t get four messages from us, but thank you for your patience with us!  Thank you for your support; we need it!!!

Joseph has spent the past week and a half visiting with nurses, clinics, Nehemiah Committee members, IDPs, military and militia and rebel leaders, and with humanitarian organizations assessing the needs for their own organization to begin work in Goma, North Kivu, DR Congo.

It is deeply personal work for him.  For the past many years he has been involved in providing training and equipment to rural health clinics in North Kivu.  He has been a tireless advocate and encourager; he has visited every military group that operates in North Kivu.  In the past week he has visited looted clinics, visited community leaders in hiding, in IDP camps.  They cannot go home.  The future is very uncertain, especially with foreign troops coming in from various countries.

He has picked up wounded and brought them to the hospital for treatment.  Today he was southwest of Goma, visiting the hospital at Kirotshe, and stopped at Bweremana.    He was taken to see two women, and said “They  were shot in the legs by FARDC soldiers as they were retreating from Goma toward Bukavu.  The women were in a car coming from the market; the soldiers stopped them to commandeer the car.  The women suffered severe injuries when they were shot in the legs by the soldiers.”  The women are now at HEAL Africa’s hospital.

The number of wounded related to the present crisis today at the hospital is 127.   This is in addition to the normal number of around 180 patients.  He continued,   ” 82% of the new cases are raped women.  45 women are victims of rape from Kibati refugee camp.  45 were raped in town.  There are about 30,000 extra people in Goma town right now.”  This is in addition to the IDP camp on the northern edge of town, Kibati.  And does not include the camps to the west and southwest of town…Mugunga, Bulengo and others.

I asked him how he sees the future, “The best hope I see is that we get good leadership.  I don’t see who can lead correctly.  Both leaders (Kabila and Nkunda) were in the same military movement in 96-98″ (that displaced the Mobutu regime and installed Laurent Kabila as President, father of the present elected Joseph Kabila).   “This is a very complicated, complex situation.  We are condemned to live together. The challenge is how to live in peace and be reconciled, especially with all the violence that is happening on all sides now.  That is the real work of HEAL Africa”.

When I asked him how we can support him, he mentioned: 

• Financial support for HEAL Africa.  “The people who are coming to the hospital are very vulnerable people.  They cannot pay for the care they get; we cannot refuse to treat them.”    www.healafrica.org .
• Pray for the people working in such conditions.  Pray for Joseph and the various HEAL Africa teams.
• Pray for the ONE MILLION people in North Kivu who are displaced or lost, children and parents as well as the inhabitants of Goma.  Many parents are affected.  Joseph said, “FARDC soldiers came to rob my neighbor.  They also took the daughter from the hands of the parents.  They were unable to protect their daughter…you can understand how they feel.  What if it happened to me?”

 .

Thank you for standing with our Congolese sisters and brothers.

Peace for Congo, peace to you.

Judy

Just as diamonds are mined to finance these conflicts – coltan (used in the Sony PS2 and mobile phone chips) is another scarce resource that can be traded for weapons or other supplies.

Senate Bill 3058 endeavors to do what we’ve already done with diamonds – to enforce restrictions to make sure that we don’t end up with conflict coltan in our mobile phones. Kerry Gough from my church has drafted a letter that you can use to urge your senator to sponsor this bill.  You can download word documents for Senator Feinstein or Senator Boxer (California) here, or you can just copy the text from below and use it for your own senator.
Letter to Senator Boxer
Letter to Senator Feinstein

Honorable Diane Feinstein
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Re: Rape & Exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Dear Senator Feinstein:

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the worst places in the world to be a girl or woman. Everyday women as old as 87 and babies as young as 10 months are raped by militiamen, soldiers, policemen and civilians. There are hundreds of thousands of victims—2000 RAPES were reported in June, 2008, in just one Province (North Kivu) of the DRC. There is a pervasive atmosphere of impunity that encourages rape at will.

Although the recently passed House Resolution 1227 condemns the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence in the Congo, such resolutions carry no sanctions and are ignored by the governmental powers in the DRC. Legislation with some teeth in it is necessary, such as the Conflict Coltan and Cassiterite Act of 2008 (SB 3058). Similar to the legislation banning importation of blood diamonds, SB 3058 will require that coltan be certified as conflict free before being imported. Coltan is a necessary ingredient for the manufacture of cell phones, computer games, monitors and numerous other high tech instruments. Restrictions on its import would compel not only Congolese government to take action to eliminate coltan related conflict, but also would put pressure upon the U.S. manufacturers of technological instruments to ensure that their products are conflict-free.

The Congolese live in dire life threatening and life ending conditions because DRC is entangled in 10 years of war which has contributed to the death of over 5.4 million people to date. This conflict is not just an internal African implosion but rather it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris – the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling. In addition to high death rates, the war has lead to the use of child soldiers, child slavery in mines, the mass displacement of peoples, and the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war and the transmission of HIV infection by rape. Shockingly, notwithstanding the epidemic of HIV in the DRC, of the $45 billion dollars authorized by Congress to fight HIV (PEPFAR) only $15 million is allocated for the DRC.

I urge you to join as a co-sponsor of SB 3058, legislation that is essential to put meaningful sanctions behind well-meaning resolutions.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’d be happy to point you to some people that can tell you more about the bill!

Melissa

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• Civilians Caught Between Armed Groups in Central African Republic
• As Chechen Conflict Ebbs, Critical Humanitarian Needs Still Remain

Several of these are familiar to me through a combination of limited media coverage and personal contact. Malnutrition is a big one – while much effort has gone into funding for AIDS anti-retrovirals and other drugs, it’s been shown that availability of medicine often does not help without simultaneously pursuing proper nutrition. Likewise for a number of other indicators – malnutrition in children affects their lifespan, their learning ability, and their health. Schools that provide hot lunch for children – in both developing countries and developed countries – see increased attendance.

MD-resistant TB caught my attention because I’m in the middle of reading Tracy Kidder’s Mountain Beyond Mountains, a biography of Paul Farmer and Jim Kim (of Partners in Health). In Peru, where the DOTS program was implemented rigorously, they saw an outbreak of MDR-TB resulting from mismanagement of TB cases whose treatment fell outside of the “cost-effective” limitations of the DOTS program. They’ve made inroads in reducing the cost of second-line treatments, but as TB strains resistant to existing drugs appear, the costs of treating TB goes up. The question of financial sustainability in health is always tricky, making it difficult for health policies to advocate treatment of “rare” cases. Investment in research takes a long view – expensive efforts now to successfully treat MDR-TB cases today will result in lowered costs later on. Failing to treat today’s cases only pushes the need until tomorrow, when a few cases could multiply into an epidemic.

Having recently visited the HEAL Africa hospital in D.R. Congo, I’m still getting updates on the graveness of the situation there, in which several armies (Nkunda’s rebel troops, UN/MONUC peacekeeping forces, Congolese Army, Interahamwe, and more) are engaged in ethnic-and-poverty driven fighting. There’s been increased coverage recently, especially on BBC News, due to recent (i.e. starting in the weeks just after I left) increased instability. Refugees are fleeing to Goma and across the border to Uganda. Despite the danger, a team of medical practitioners from HEAL Africa continues their outreaches to rural areas, treating soldiers and villagers alike. Yet these new developments are only part of the story – even when things are relatively peaceful, the Congolese people of North Kivu (including Goma) experience atrocities daily, often perpetrated by the very people that are supposed to protect them – the Congolese army. Yet – precisely because this has been an everyday situation for a number of years/decades, these stories are not told, nor do we care to do anything about it. To hear the stories is to take on a responsibility, an obligation to care, but instead we prefer not to know about things we think we cannot control, we prefer not to know that human beings are capable of doing such horrible things to each other. I prefer to know – because I think we -do- have the power to change things, to consider our place in this world, and to want this world to be a better place. I think the world would be a better place if more people actively and genuinely want peace on earth, don’t you?

Normally I’m pretty skeptical about missions. I mean really – what depth is there to going out to beaches over spring break and walking up to random strangers to tell them about God? It’s pure proselytization. But over the past few years I’ve been taking development classes and talking to people in Ghana, and I’ve realized that missions are not purely evangelical; many of the schools and hospitals in Africa are missions in which people have devoted their time and skills towards God’s mission of feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and curing the sick. But still.. what can one do with two weeks? Short missions trips are always ultimately for the benefit of the person going and not to the community supposedly being served.

This trip was different. We gathered together as a multi-disciplinary group of people who wanted to go to Goma to listen to the people there, to hear what needs were there, and to serve in whatever way we could. We preached, installed wireless routers, and taught workshops on how to play with children. We even painted a mural! I really think we made a difference… and I can’t wait to go back.

For those of you that are interested, here’s the text of the talk I gave at the trip report:

First, I want to introduce you to Bizi, the medical engineer at HEAL Africa. Bizi was incredibly helpful, always smiling and always ready to help. His official job is to maintain and repair all of the medical equipment: incubators, oxygenators, etc. In one of my first interactions with him, he took me to visit a little premie in an incubator he was monitoring. He always referred to little Rebecca as “his” baby, checking on her often to make sure the incubator was still working, especially when the power went out. While he was there, he was also able to repair a second incubator, one that had been donated in 1976 to another hospital and re-donated to HEAL Africa recently. I could tell that his heart was very much broken with care for the shortage of functioning equipment – and the people unable to get adequate care as a result. Not only that, Bizi also strove to help people wherever and whenever he could.

I interacted with him mostly on the IT project. Together, we worked with the two IT administrators, Pytchen and Jacques, to set up a wireless link from the Jubilee conference center, to the main hospital grounds about 300 meters away. The hospital already has a wireless link to the local internet service provider, providing Internet to the 7 computers available in the “Internet Room”, as well as any laptops that want to connect using WiFi, but it’s not accessible in the main hospital It’s not in Bizi’s job description to help with the IT stuff, but he told me that he likes information technology, and he saw that I might have trouble communicating with Pytchen and Jacques with my limited French, and decided to step in. It’s this type of thing that made my time in Goma really stand out.

By this time I had already been in Africa for 3 months, trying to deploy IT solutions in Ghana and Uganda as part of my dissertation research. I’m a PhD student in the School of Information at UC Berkeley, investigating the best uses of communications infrastructure for healthcare in Africa. So I’m familiar with some of the resource shortages in rural Africa. Although my time in Uganda was incredibly productive, my time in Ghana was riddled with bureaucratic, technical, and logisitical struggles. By the time I arrived in Goma, I was frustrated and had almost become cynical about working in Africa, sure that any efforts that I put in would ultimately be weighed down by people trying to get their own piece of development money coming from the West.

Meeting Bizi after this was so encouraging to me – to see someone not focused on his own gain, but instead focused on helping HEAL Africa be everything HEAL Africa could be for Goma, and on being a blessing to his community. Together, we set up a wireless router in the Jubilee Center, and another just above his office. The second one had to be placed about 6 feet above the roof. Lacking telekinetic powers to make it float up there, Bizi came up with a great solution: he pulled a broken IV stand out of the scrap pile and constructed a pole on which we could set up the antenna. A trip to the nuts and bolts market later, we had a link set up. I couldn’t have done it without his willingness to help.

And that is what struck me about HEAL Africa as a whole. Not only was everyone so willing to help, but HEAL Africa is an environment where people feel encouraged to start projects helping others, and to pitch in and help other people realize their own visions. It is a place of hope and restoration, where people that have hope can see real ways in which they can make a concrete contribution. I was so encouraged to see how HEAL Africa mobilized in a way such that even for such a short trip, our team was able to really serve with our gifts, teaching, preaching, painting, and using technology. I was so encouraged to see all the programs HEAL Africa has running, and to meet the many Congolese people that were so engaged in running the programs. I was so encouraged by the hope and the joy in the hearts of the patients of HEAL Africa, some of whom had been there for years, and all of whom were suffering greatly. Their hope was rooted in faith and a hope for restoration.

Given the weight of what we saw, and some not-so-great experiences in Ghana prior to my arrival, a couple of my thoughtful friends have asked if I was discouraged about trying to get work done in Africa. My response is always that my time in Congo was very restorative and grounding – and reminded me who I’m doing my PhD for, and why my heart is so broken for the people of sub-saharan Africa. I learned the value and the hope entailed in an environment supportive of innovation and progress. And I was restored because I felt genuinely loved by my teammates and the people at HEAL Africa.

What: Goma Adult Ministries/Global Strategies Teams Report
When: October 14, 12:15–2:15 PM or 6:30–8:30 PM
Where: First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, G202

On Sunday, October 14th, the Goma Missions Teams (including mine) will be giving a report on the Congo, what we did, and what we’re planning to do.  We’ll have two sessions, one at 12.15pm (following the morning service at 11am) and another at 6.30pm (following the evening service at 5.05pm) You are all invited to attend – I would love for you to meet my teammates and to hear about all the things we saw and heard and did.  There will be videos and music and (gasp!) time for questions.  If you are interested in attending the service, let me know and we can meet before. I hope you can make it!

Directions to First Pres:
http://www.fpcberkeley.org/directions.asp

(Official Announcement Below)

Melissa

Goma Adult Ministries/Global Strategies Teams
October 14, 12:15–2:15 PM or 6:30–8:30 PM, G202

Partnering with the HEAL Africa hospital in the city of Goma in war-torn eastern Congo, these three teams taught classes, led retreats, offered pastoral care to victims of the conflict that continues to rage in eastern Congo, provided in-service training for nurses, enhanced the hospital’s engineering and equipment needs, participated in a sports outreach and education ministry, assisted with pastoral visitation and the palliative care of HIV patients, painted a mural in the pediatric HIV clinic and much, much more. Learn more at the Goma Team Blog ( http://gomateam.blogspot.com ).

For those of you interested in my work in Goma, Congo, check out my team blog:
http://gomateam.blogspot.com

Also, for a more recent technical update, you can check out Eric Nguyen’s blog here:
http://mindtangle.net/2007/09/08/work-update/

For those of you interested in learning more about HEAL Africa, PBS is showing a documentary called Lumo on KQED Channel 9 on Tuesday, September 18 at 11:00 PM. (Those of you not in the Bay Area can check your local listings on the website: http://www.gomafilmproject.org/ ). My church (fpcberkeley.org) is also hosting a preview viewing on Sunday, September 16 at 7:00 PM in G 202.