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There is a story popularly told on the streets of Kinshasa. George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac
and Gerhard Shroader, on seeing the pitiable conditions of African farmers, gave them
some peanuts to alleviate them of their poverty. After the farmers had left, the world
statesmen said:"Oh God! That should take them out of their misery." Out of their
earshot,the farmers fell down and wept bitterly: "Oh God!" they said, "This is
peanuts. What have we done to deserve this misfortune?"
This story is relevant to the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR).
Last week, with admirable kindness, France agreed to lead an international force
to Bunia,scene of violent bloodbath since May 4. The force is to stop the ethnic
clashes between the Lendu and Hama militias, the people involved with the fighting.The
internationmal force will stay till September. But as the Congolese president, Joseph
Kabila, said yesterday,the period of the force's stay is too short.
However, for Mr Jacques Chirac and his cohorts, this is sheer hogwash. Does
Kabila not know that the international community is committing a mighty army of 1,500
soldiers to contain a band of bloodthirsty tribesmen without semblance of modern
civilization? Should Kabila not be grateful that without Chirac's handout there could
be breakdown of law and order to last the next thirty years?
It does not matter that the stay of the force will be brief. Afterall, the troop will
have the mandate to use deadly force against those reckless terrorist tribesmen.. By
September, the mighty army France and other countries will send to Congo will
pound enough sense into the hoodlums in order to make them obey law and order
after the force has left.
Chirac and his associates have shown great tactical foresight. With the mighty
army in place in the Congo, there will be no more massacre after September. By then,
the thousands of matchetes and rifles handled by tribesmen will be taken away from them.
There will be no more killing and maiming each other for wealth within the next three
months. The contending forces will come to a final and settlement. France,leading the
international army with more than half soldiers, will be seen as the messiah. French
will be inserted into the national anthem of DCR.
Apart from this, the serious problems suffered by the refugees in Bunia will be cast
into the dirty heap of history. Today, the refugees, caused by the violence, sleep
in tents in Tanzania and Uganda. With French protection, they will come back to DCR.
When the French and others leave after September, Lendu militia will not attack them.
The aggressors will be so inculcated with the finer points of Victor Hugo that they will
have forgotten their riotous past. How bereft of insight can Kabila be!
Besides, the government in the Congo is not unstable. Forget the statement by Laurent's
boy that the stay of the international force will be too brief. He is meeting with his
opponents now, this will move the Congo towards democracy within the near future. Forget his fear
that if the force leaves fighting will start. He just wants to keep the international force in
the Congo in order to put the lives of citizens of other nations in danger.Who would have l
thought Congo will recover from that volcanic eruption at Goma last year?Did Congo not l
survive with minimal international help? The same thing will happen this time
around with the brief stay of the soldiers in the Congo.
But things are not so simple. The renewed violence in the Ituru province of that poor
country is being caused by the withdrawal of the Ugandan army from the area. This took
place last month. With the UN troops there just 700 and lightly armed, Lendu thugs
found it convenient to unleash terror on the Hema. Afterall, with no army to check them,
why not make the worst of a bad situation? But, of course, Chirac and company are too busy to take
this fact into consideration.
Remember, this is Congo. Since Laurent Kabila launched his bid for power in that
country in 1997,the security position has been unstable at best. The ensuing
struggle for the control of Kinshasa has sucked in at least six countries into the
mayhem. Over three million men, women and children, not goats, have died in the fracas.Many of
these not through war but starvation and disease.The bloodletting only stopped through an international
force and a UN mandate mandate. The removal of the international force has only brought back
violence.If Chirac gets into Congo and leaves in September, it will be violence as usual in that
unfortunate country.
No one agrees with Kabila that the proposed France- led force be quartered in the Congo
indefinitely. That will only put the lives of innocent soldiers at risk for no reason at all. But
the force need not have a brief stay since the purpose of coming to the Congo in the first place
will be defeated. B ut if Chirac and company insists, there will be more people in Kinshasa
who will fall down and weep:"Oh God! What have we done to deserve this abandonment?"
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