Violence, potential humanitarian crisis and the post-2011 election aftermath in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were the topics of a congressional hearing Thursday held before the House panel that oversees international human rights and African issues that is chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04).
“Suspicion persists that this election was manipulated in favor of incumbent President Joseph Kabila,” stated Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. “The Carter Center, which observed the vote, as well as the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and most of DRC’s civil society, all cast serious doubt on the announced outcome of the election.
“Congolese have reason to be skeptical that they will ever have a stable government that functions on their behalf,” said Chairman Smith in his hearing statement. “There has been one crisis after another since independence in 1960, caused by the selfish actions of predatory leadership. An estimated four million Congolese lost their lives in two wars from which they are still recovering. Most Congolese remain poor, hungry and in danger of violence. Their government cannot provide the most basic necessities for their families. A study that recently appeared in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that an average of 48 women and girls are raped every hour in this country. So before our hearing today is ended, more than 100 females in DRC will have been raped.” Click here to read Chairman Smith’s statement submitted for the record.
The hearing, entitled “U.S. Policy Toward Post-Election Democratic Republic of the Congo,” examined America’s strategies for addressing the largest nation in the Great Lakes area of Africa, options for dealing with the DRC, which is one of the priority countries in the U.S.’s African policy, and the U.S. Administration’s view of the DRC following the controversial presidential election in November 2011.
“We are very concerned about the many problems that have come to light regarding the conduct of these elections and are seeking ways to ensure that these problems do not divert the country from the path toward lasting peace and stability based on democratic principles,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Donald Yamamoto at the Bureau of African Affairs in the U.S. State Department told the House panel. Click here to read Yamamoto’s statement.
The hearing also featured the following witnesses (click on the name to read their testimony): Daniel B. Baer, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, and; Sarah E. Mendelson, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Opposition political parties and civil society are increasingly discontent with the results of the troubled election, threatening the long-term stability of the country. Moreover, since November, violence attributed to the Congolese military, the Rwandan rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and local militia have caused more than 100,000 Congolese to become internally displaced or refugees.
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