The Congo has been a very volatile area as of late, the report detailing that:

“The conflict continued to fuel the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa, resulting in as many as 45,000 Congolese deaths each month, a total of more than one million internally displaced persons, and dozens of attacks on humanitarian workers by armed groups.” http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/a rticle/ALeqM5gqS1RKT0Jpu1Led3jW7Nx0qX0eCw

In Sudan, the genocide in Darfur continues to decimate the population as violent persists at the hand of government, militia, and tribal forces. The Zimbabwean people are still abused by and in a constant state of economic crisis as a result of Mugabe’s government. Uganda, portions of which lie unfortunately between the unstable Sudan and DR Congo, continues to be plagued by the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by rebel militant Joseph Kony. Ugandan rebels recently ambushed an army patrol in Central African Republic, setting off a string of conflicts reesulting in the deaths of several fighters. This violent instance brings about worry of similar LRA attacks in the region as they flee a “Ugandan-led multinational offensive against their hideouts in northern Democratic Republic of Congo” (http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLP808389._CH_.2400)

Yesterday, the joint military operation between Rwanda and DR Congo against one of the most notorious rebel groups in the Great Lakes region (the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR) officially came to an end (http://allafrica.com/stories/200902260190.html). According to the Rwanda Workforce Development Authority (WDA) Marketing & Communication Specialist,

“it is the nonviolent approach largely employed during the joint operation which convinced even the most hardliners in the rebel ranks to surrender and abandon the genocidal ideology which they seemed to have sworn to serve all their lives.” http://allafrica.com/stories/200902260190.html

The ending of this operation so quickly, after only one month of activity, is a shame, considering the strides that this joint effort made in the direction of peace. Both nations really need to resume diplomatic relations in order to continue on this path. These few regions alone cast a terrible shadow on Africa’s reputation as far as human rights are concerned, and any progress seems to always be just a little bit too slow. There is such a necessity for alliances, treaties, and just general cooperation in order to pacify such a war-torn area.

-AB

http://allafrica.com/stories/200902260190.html http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLP808389._CH_.2400 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gqS1RKT0Jpu1Led3jW7Nx0qX0eCw

On this trip, six other crows– Eva, David, Emma, Emily, Tim, and Anna (who awesomely opened her house up to six people, only two of whom she’d met..)– and I got to see a different sort of DC Monument– a march on the Pentagon.

We gathered on 23rd and Constitution, with the Lincoln Memorial looming nearby. The first hints of cherry blossoms were just barely painting the trees. For about two hours, we watched the crowds gather. There were booths and stand and groups everywhere– lots of oddly aggressive socialists, vegans handing out stellar tofurkey sandwiches, the infamous Code Pink women.

In addition to eating more than our fair share of sandwiches, we finished the signs we had started on the Metro, listened to a number of speakers and poets, and for a few minutes talked to a couple of members of Iraq Veterans against the war. Emily asked one of them why he had joined the Army, and he told us that every recruiter had told him it would be a great experience and it would lead to a solid career. Instead, he didn’t like what he saw a bit and has been unemployed since he got back to the States. Emily asked if he kept in touch with his friends from the Army. He responded that that was, for the most part, impossible, as the majority of them had been stop-lossed and sent back to Iraq.

A few minutes before the scheduled march time of 1:30, the crowd started to get antsy… shifting and chanting and yelling. When we finally started marching, I was shocked how many people were there. The estimates for people at the march are about 4,000 people, but it hadn’t looked like nearly that many when we were all spread out and sitting. When we all started marching, it became clear just how many of us there were.

We marched at the front of the Student Contingent- lots of students from UVM and UMass Boston, among countless other schools, marching under a wide banner screaming “College not Combat!”. The students were probably the loudest section of the procession, as everyone had been given a cheat-sheet of chants (which I promptly lost). War and occupation/will never bring liberation/that’s bullshit/get off it/this war is for profit.

The first part of the march was inspiring, if largely uneventful. Chanting loudly and stretching as far as the eye could see, we caught a lot of attention- helicopters fluttered overhead, bystanders watched incredulously, cars on the highway honked as they passed, and riot police watched with a wary eye and a sympathetic heart. We passed one sign that said “Go to hell traitors”, but no one seemed to pay it much mind.

We marched for miles– past the Pentagon and towards the offices of some of the most egregious war profiteers- Boeing, General Dynamics, and KBR. The first major incident of the march took place in front of one such office building. Opposing groups stretched an orange plastic fence across the path of the march and started physically pushing people attempting to walk past them. Someone threw a rock. I heard later there were two groups largely responsible for this– the first a group of anarchists dressed in black, and the second a group arguing that the anti-war movement was actually a white supremacist conspiracy (not quite sure how they spun that one). It took the group a while to make our way around the fence and reconvene, but while we were waiting we kept ourselves entertained with a lively dance circle and a rousing chant of “get up/get down/there’s an anti-war movement in this town”.

As we marched further into Crystal City, Virginia– the location of the KBR offices – we started to notice the riot police lining the streets a little more thickly. Some had cans of tear gas. Some had really big guns. But they were just standing– watching us, keeping the peace just as we were trying to do.

 
When we got to the KBR offices, the plan was to lay down a number of cardboard  coffins bearing the flags of many nations at their door. A strong line of riot police quickly formed, blocking the march from approaching the offices. At this point, events took a slightly less pleasant turn. The police weren’t doing a thing but standing there, keeping us from getting within about 30 feet of the doors. For the most part, the crowd interacted with them jokingly- “you’re sexy, you’re cute/take off your riot suit”- and many of them were smiling behind the plexiglass shielding their faces. Other members of the crowd, though, seemed weirdly set on picking a fight- screaming “pig!”, getting in the cops’ faces far more than was necessary, screaming at them for not having their badge numbers visible. Nothing ever came of the confrontation- the coffins were laid down at the police’s feet- but it was a little disheartening to see people trying to fight on a day that should have been about peace.

We headed back to the metro with weary feet and a lot to consider. Despite what some may have done at the end of the march, the experience as a whole was incredible– to see so many different sorts of people come together for a single cause and actually attract some major attention. An administration may have come and gone, but the wars aren’t over, and the movement to end them isn’t letting up any time soon.

-Leah Fine

(copied with permission from her blog on nonprofit Calling All Crows’ social networking site)

credit: http://www.350.org/multimedia

-AB

The turmoil and bloodshed from the Hutu-Tutsi conflict and genocide did not remain confined to the borders of Rwanda, but rather spilled into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was then Zaire, as early as 1996. Hutu refugees banded together with Zaire’s military forces, fighting against the Congolese Tutsi people who in turn joined forces and rebelled. This rebel force, called the Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo-Zaire, or AFDL, was led by Laurent-Desire Kabila and aimed to oust the current president, Mobutu. Mobutu left the country in 1997, at which point Kabila put himself in the position of president and gave the country its current name. Warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba ‘s MLC, or Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo, invaded in 1998 with support from both Rwanda and Uganda while Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia sided with the DRC government. In 2001, Kabila was assasinated and succeeded by his son who quickly entered into peace talks.

Despite the apparent resolution and the presence of UN peacekeepers, northeastern ethnic clashes rekindled the conflict. Another peace accord was drawn up, and by June of 2003 nearly all outside troops (save Rwanda) had been pulled from Congo. The first multi-party election since their 1960 independence was held in June of 2006, and a close contested election between Kabila and Bemba led to bloodshed and police control followed by a second election in October of the same year. The reign of the transitional government that had been in place came to a close with Kabila’s December 2006 swearing in.

The state of Congo remains so fragile that human rights violations and conflict are abundant. In October of 2008, a rebel uprising out of Rwanda led to a crisis situation for refugees. Joseph Kony’s LRA of Uganda, the Ituri conflict, and trouble in northern Katanga all contribute to what has been deemed the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II with a death toll of 5.4 million people.

“Today at the dawn of 2009, people in the Congo are still dying at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month and already 2,700,000 people have died since 2004. This death toll is due to widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of the individuals killed are children under the age of 5. The aftermath of the war has truly gutted the country. This death rate has been prevalent since efforts at rebuilding the nation began in 2004.” (Wikipedia)

As the terrible attacks in this area continue to plague the Congolese people, it appears that the UN has been falling short of their peacekeeping duties. The issue of the terrible LRA violence is extremely prevalent, as the Human Rights Watch claims the abductions of at least 160 childre with reports of new attacks every week, and the UN has reported 140,000 civilians have been displaced by the violence. Congo boasts a population of over 58 million, and the number of peacekeepers in place by the UN is only enough for approximately one per 3,400. Needless to say, this is not enough. Civilians are dying at an obscenely fast rate and the peace efforts are simply not cutting it. The people of Congo are in dire need of help to save them from the violent insurgence at hand.

-AB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo#cite_note-18 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1OdCrpy4HFMvxUdd05e88M2AmKgD96E7K602 http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-16-voa39.cfm

as taken from AB’s personal blog

This publication is just getting started, so keep checking back and we’ll have our first articles up in no time!

Anna Becker & Katie Kenney

editors-in-chief

COMING SOON:

An exclusive interview with Chad Urmston of State Radio about his politics and activism!