In Goma, Christians are praying for peace. So might we all. For perhaps only divine intervention can defuse the explosive cocktail of violence, fear and the desire for riches that is making life hell in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The violence is against a helpless civilian population. 

Human Rights Watch claims that the rebel army of Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda and the Mai Mai pro-Government Congolese militia have deliberately killed civilians. In early November, a Human Rights Watch team visiting the town of Kiwanji found that 20 men had been killed and 33 wounded for apparently supporting Nkunda’s enemies. The town’s population of 30,000 was forced to flee before these victims were attacked and screams heard in the night.

Kiwanji is just one example.

Frightened civilians – lacking food, water and shelter – have fled to the jungle in many areas and streamed into the town of Goma, population 600,000, sparking a humanitarian crisis. On October 30, the UN’s humanitarian arm, the UNHCR, estimated that 45,000 internally displaced civilians had entered Goma; the agency is struggling in its bid to help them.

UN peacekeeping forces have also fled into Goma. Why they have been so ineffective is probably a question furrowing the brow of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as I write.

There seems no end to the misery in the eastern Congo. A report from The Times stated that an estimated 5.4 million people have died over six years in what is dubbed the Great War of Africa.

Why?

Mineral wealth is surely one answer. The eastern Congo is rich in cassiterite (tin ore), gold and coltan. Coltan (short for Columbite-tantalite) when refined forms a heat-resistant powder that is used in cellular phones, laptop computers, electronic games consoles, other electronic devices and even hearing aids and pacemakers. The Congo is said to have 80 per cent of the world’s supply of this valuable mineral.

According to Global Witness, all the armed groups in the eastern Congo, including members of the Congolese national army, have been exploiting these riches illegally for years, taxing the civilian population and extorting minerals and cash. It claims that mineral wealth has underpinned the war since 1998.

Then there is the ethnic conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. This is what we hear about in horrifying news reports. Its root cause appears to be entrenched advantage and disadvantage.

In times past, the majority Hutus were traditionally peasant farmers. The king, or mwami, was a Tutsi and the Tutsi minority enjoyed a superior status in a hierarchical society.

During the past century, German and Belgian colonial rule consolidated this Tutsi advantage.

Colonialism ended in 1961-62, when Belgium withdrew leaving the large country of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, on its eastern flank, the smaller countries of Rwanda and Burundi.

In Burundi, the Tutsis retained power. In Rwanda, the disadvantaged Hutus rebelled and installed a Hutu president. Tutsis were forced to flee. Ethnic ill-feeling grew in Rwanda and culminated in the horrific Rwandan genocide of 1994, when Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred. But then the Tutsis fought back and installed the present government under Tutsi leader Paul Kagami.

Rwandan Hutus, including the Hutu militia and some Hutu government figures, fled into the eastern Congo. They and their followers are still there. The Zaire government of the time did not disarm them, so Tutsi forces, including General Laurent Nkunda, attacked the government of Zaire and installed a new leader of their choice. With new leadership came a new name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Then General Nkunda fell out with the new Congolese government. Fighting broke out again in the eastern Congo. General Nkunda and his troops are still in the jungles and towns of the region fighting the government troops and pro-government militia.

No doubt power and ethnic rivalry are strong factors in this conflict. Yet it’s hard to escape the belief that the prime motivator is access to the region’s great mineral wealth. There is an eager market for coltan among big corporations in the US, and buyers in China, Germany and Belgium. Powerful people are reaping rich rewards. It’s another case of greed is bad – especially if you’re an ordinary Congolese civilian who just wants
peace, safety and enough to eat.

No wonder they are raising their hands to God.

Image Courtesy of DayLife

Image Description: Congolese displaced by fighting stand by the roadside north of Goma in eastern Congo November 11, 2008. Weeks of violence have forced more than 250,000 people from homes or ramshackle camps where they had taken shelter, bringing to over 1 million the number of internal refugees from years of fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province. - Photo from Reuters Pictures

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