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House Panel Examines Crisis in Congo

On December 11, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights held a hearing, “The Devastating Crisis in Eastern Congo.” The hearing focused on U.S. policy regarding the conflict and addressed the human rights abuses occurring as a result of the region’s ongoing insecurity.

In his opening statement, Chair Christopher Smith (R-NJ) spoke about the abuses women experience in Congo, saying, “According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA], insecurity in Eastern Congo has displaced approximately 2.4 million people nationwide, especially in the East. Despite long-standing conflict in Eastern Congo, the OCHA estimates that the majority of displaced persons typically returned to their areas of origin within six to 18 months of their initial displacement and require minimal return assistance. While that may be true, this does not account for the kind of life Congolese will have once they return to their homes. Women continue to be targeted for gross abuse in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo]. 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 the country. Their rejection by their families, husbands, and communities casts a cloud over their future efforts to recreate communities destroyed by the militias in the DRC. This is an issue that must be addressed by the Congolese themselves, of course with any help that can be provided from the outside, sooner rather than later.”

Ranking Member Karen Bass (D-CA) said, “We must not look at the current crisis in some civil, political, or military vacuum. For a credible, reasonable, and longstanding stability to take hold, I urge that transparent and accountable processes be put in place that can address reforms at all levels. I want to be clear on this point. If we are to see an end to the violence and instability, then holistic reforms are desperately needed at all levels, including politically and economically. We must also see a dramatic reevaluation of the social constraints to reforms and civic engagement. The results of a deeply flawed 2011 election lay bare the significant challenges that must be addressed if we are to see a dramatic and positive change of course.” She continued, “For too long, the DRC has been ravaged by instability and war. For two decades, Eastern Congo has been under siege by armed groups. Yesterday was the National Congress for the Defense of the People. Today it is M23. What will it be tomorrow? We stand by and allow a fragile peace to be held together by empty promises. The violence, the rapes, the child soldiers, the murderers must be brought to an end.”

In his testimony, Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, said, “[T]he security and humanitarian situation in the Congo is the most volatile in Africa today. An estimated five million people have died in the years since the second regional war began in 1998, and millions more have been forced to flee their homes…The people of North and South Kivu provinces, in particular, have faced repeated cycles of conflict, atrocities, and displacement. An unthinkable number of women, men, and children have experienced sexual violence or rape at the hands of soldiers and armed groups.” He continued, “As Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton noted when she visited Goma in 2009, the Congolese people are courageous and resilient. There are reasons for hope in the DRC. The Congolese army has begun implementing a program to pay its soldiers through electronic and mobile banking and has committed to removing the last vestiges of the use of child soldiers…And for the first time, a horrific mass rape in January 2011 was followed with swift criminal justice for the perpetrators and the officers who directed them.”

“Today the greatest challenge and obstacle to resolving the crisis in Congo is neither the confusing alphabet soup of militia names nor the lack of engagement of the international community. Rather it is the lack of understanding of the drivers and dynamics of the conflict that stands between policymakers and the right prescriptions. For the past two decades, the policy discourse on DRC has been defined by a narrative that focuses on the ramifications of the problem, such as ethnic identity, citizenship, sexual violence and the looting of natural resources, but ignores the root causes of crisis…While the problem is often viewed as a humanitarian disaster, DRC is paralyzed by a political crisis, which requires political solutions,” said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, visiting fellow from the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He continued, “The Congolese people want and deserve peace. We should empower them to that end. DRC government’s inability to protect its people or control its territory undermines progress on everything else. A competent, professional military – organized, resourced, trained, and vetted – is essential to solving problems from displacement, recruitment of child soldiers and gender-based violence, to economic growth or the trade in conflict minerals.”

John Prendergast, co-founder of The Enough Project, and Steve Hege, former coordinator of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also testified.