A UN peacekeeping armored personnel carrier patrols the roads. Rutshuru, North Kivu, 2008. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Contributor Michael J. Kavanagh reported for Worldfocus last year on the crisis in eastern Congo. He’s currently based in the DR Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

He discusses the controversy surrounding the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission, the problems with integration of rebels into Congolese Army ranks and the economic future of this resource-rich, war-torn country.

Q: Why has the UN’s peacekeeping mission come under such intense criticism in eastern Congo?

Michael J. Kavanagh: For the past year, the Congolese army has been fighting a group of Rwandan rebels known as the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) who’ve lived in eastern Congo for around 15 years.

They’re mostly Hutu and some of their leaders are implicated in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. This military mission began in concert with the Rwandan army in January and February 2009. Since March, it’s been supported by the UN peacekeepers.

This has been hugely controversial because the military operations have caused the deaths of well over a thousand civilians, the rape of several thousand and the displacement of around a million people. Rwandan rebels and the Congolese army are both accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Peacekeepers were put in a difficult position as the operations progressed because their mandate essentially became contradictory: They’re supposed to protect civilians while at the same time support a Congolese army that’s often killing civilians.

A former CNDP rebel holds a rocket propelled grenade at a ceremony for rebel integration into the Congolese army. Masisi, North Kivu, 2009. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Q: Earlier this year, as part of a deal between Rwanda and Congo, the Rwandan-backed CNDP rebel group was integrated into the ranks of the Congolese army. How has this impacted the conflict in eastern Congo?

Michael J. Kavanagh: A year ago the UN released a report saying that Rwanda was supporting a rebel group in eastern Congo known as the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP. The international community pressured Rwanda to stop this and now after nearly 15 years of fighting each other, Rwanda and Congo are nominally allies.

The CNDP has been integrating into the Congolese army over the past year as part of a peace deal, but they are still committing massive atrocities in eastern Congo, they’re just now wearing Congolese Army uniforms. Their leader, Bosco Ntaganda, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Various human rights groups and even the UN itself have documented these atrocities by ex-CNDP forces, but the Congolese government has been hesitant to complain because they don’t want to upset their new (peaceful) relationship with Rwanda.

Meanwhile, tiny-but-powerful Rwanda benefits from the illegal trade in natural resources in eastern Congo, as do other neighboring countries like Uganda and Burundi and Tanzania. So this is still a regional problem that requires a regional, political solution as much as a military one.

Displaced families finding shelter in a school. Kiwanja, North Kivu, 2008. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Q: The peacekeeping mission in Congo is the UN’s largest. How relevant is the UN’s mission there? What will happen when the mandate expires in five months?

Michael J. Kavanagh: The UN mission in Congo is huge - its budget is more than $1.4 billion a year and over 20,000 soldiers and civilians work for it. But you need to remember how big Congo is - it’s the size of western Europe with 60+ million people.

We’re asking a lot of these peacekeepers — probably more than they can provide given their resources and the difficulty of operating in Congo. Besides basic logistical issues, the Congolese government and army have not always been partners in good faith, nor have other regional partners like Rwanda and Uganda.

Over the last 10 years, the results of the peacekeeping mission have been mixed. So on December 23, the UN renewed its mandate for only five months instead of the usual 12, to send a sign that they were rethinking how the mission would do business.

They’re attaching conditionality to the support of the Congolese army — no civilian protection, no support. The UN is also asking for mechanisms to regulate the flow of illegal natural resources that are being used to enrich elements in various armed groups as well as some international companies.

Congo will celebrate 50 years of independence in June, and the government wants the UN to start drawing down its troops, but with major security issues in the east and other problems in the northeast (with the Lord’s Resistance Army) and center (a new insurgency) of the country, it’s hard to see how the Congo can afford to let UN peacekeepers leave.

For all its problems, the UN mission still provides essential services in Congo - perhaps too many, some argue - and the new mandate says another year will be added to the mandate in June.

Rwandan Defense Forces march through Pinga, North Kivu, a former FDLR stronghold, in 2009. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Q: How do Congo’s rich natural resources play into the conflict?

Michael J. Kavanagh: In December, the annual UN group of experts report on Congo outlined how armed groups were exploiting minerals like gold and tin ore to support their fighting. Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda were all implicated in the trafficking, as were a number of international companies.

Non-governmental armed groups control some mines and they tax transport routes in eastern Congo. The Congolese army - in particular ex-CNDP elements - also control mines and transport routes. The illegal trafficking is worth tens of millions of dollars, if not more.

The UN, EU, and U.S., among others, are all working on mechanisms to regulate the exploitation of minerals - something Congo needs for development - and hold individuals and companies accountable for illegal trafficking.

Q: Recently the IMF gave Congo a new loan of more than $500 million for showing signs of economic progress. What do you make of this?

Michael J. Kavanagh: It’s a big deal. The IMF will be giving Congo well over half a billion dollars in loans over the next three years through a program intended to increase growth and reduce poverty.

The loan program is an explicit signal to international donors that in spite of ongoing conflict in the east, Congo is making macroeconomic progress, and if that progress continues, Congo could be eligible for debt relief under a World Bank and IMF program called the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, or HIPC.

You have to remember that after 15 years of war, years of dictatorship and rapacious colonialism before that, Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Even with vast natural resources, the government is struggling to fix its infrastructure and pay its army, police and civil servants. IMF and World Bank loans and debt forgiveness are critical for the country to rebuild itself.

Forgiveness of most of Congo’s old debt (much of which was accumulated during years of dictatorship and war) would allow Congo to take on new debt to pay for new development and services.

A construction worker at a refugee camp takes a break during a rainstorm. Goma, North Kivu, 2009. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Q: Are foreign investors optimistic about investing in Congo?

Michael J. Kavanagh: A few months ago, Congo completed a two and a half year review of international mining contracts, which was necessary but has been highly controversial.

At the moment, Congo is still renegotiating its mining contract with Phoenix-based Freeport McMoRan over one of the biggest copper and cobalt deposits in the world and it canceled a huge copper and cobalt contract with Canadian mining giant First Quantum last Fall.

This has created uncertainty regarding foreign investment in Congo.

On the one hand, many of these contracts were negotiated during the war and even if they’re legal, they’re not necessarily fair and needed to be renegotiated.

On the other hand, the mining review was far from transparent. It’s created an uneasy environment for potential and existing investors.

Growing and regulating its mining sector is probably the most important thing Congo can do to extricate itself from poverty; it’s also the sector most vulnerable to corruption.

One final prediction for the coming year: Angola and Congo have been allies for years, but there’s now a dispute over huge oil deposits off the coast of the two countries. It looks like Angola has been exploiting oil belonging to Congo, and the case has been sent to an international arbiter.

Angola is quietly furious, and this could seriously damage the relationship between the two countries and be a source of conflict over the next year. Something to think about, because Angola has always been the Congo’s ally of last resort when it’s faced serious security challenges.

- Lisa Biagiotti and Christine Kiernan

For more of Michael’s reporting, visit Worldfocus’ Crisis in Congo extended coverage page.

He’s currently based in the DR Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, and gives Daljit Dhaliwal an update on the civil war that continues to cripple the country.

Kavanagh says the security situation is the worst he has seen in a decade — since the start of the Second Congo War.

For more on Congo’s future from Michael Kavanagh, read: UN, Rwanda and investors entangled in Congo’s future. He explains the controversy surrounding the United Nations peacekeeping mission, rebel integration into Congolese Army ranks and the economic viability of this resource-rich, war-torn country.

Radio journalist Hassan Suber was killed in the recent blast in Somalia. Photo: Shabelle

This year was the deadliest year for African journalists since 2000, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The organization confirmed 12 cases of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa killed while reporting. In Somalia, nine local journalists were murdered or killed in combat situations.

Tom Rhodes is the Africa Program Coordinator at CPJ. He writes about the deteriorating situation for journalists in Somalia and explains why this figure is especially startling considering that sub-Saharan Africa has historically had one of the lowest journalist murder rates.

On the very first day of 2009, a Somali reporter from one of the leading independent stations, Radio Shabelle, was shot by a government soldier in a town outside the capital, Mogadishu.

This month, three journalists died in a suicide bomb blast set off by the notorious Al-Shabaab insurgents during a graduation ceremony held in Mogadishu.

“You never know what the day will bring in Mogadishu,” said Mustafa Haji Abdinur, editor-in-chief of Mogadishu’s Radio Simba who received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award this year. “I basically live in my office due to the insecurity, it’s impossible for journalists to venture too far from their office –the few of us still here are basically prisoners to our work.”

Watch Martin Savidge interview Mustafa Haji Abdinur: Somali journalist on culture of violence and crippled press.

The heavy death toll in Somalia has led to an exodus of journalists, with at least a third of Somali journalists living in exile, the National Union of Somali Journalists estimates. Those that remain in the country work under extreme duress, where self-censorship is pivotal to a journalist’s survival. Al-Shabaab now control southern and central Somalia, including the airwaves. Major towns such as Baidoa and Kismayo now only broadcast Al-Shabaab radio.

But it is not only war-torn countries that have targeted African journalists.

Other journalists were murdered while investigating local corruption in Nigeria and Kenya or covering the political crisis in Madagascar. CPJ is investigating the cases of two other journalists in Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo to determine whether their deaths were related to journalism.

No perpetrator in any of the African cases has been brought to justice. Such a record sends a chilling message to local reporters: you can be killed, at any time, without repercussions.

Impunity towards the killers of journalists in Africa is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. This week also marks the anniversary of two unsolved murders of veteran journalists: the 1998 killing of Norbert Zongo from Burkina Faso and the 2004 murder of Gambian editor Deyda Hydara. Despite their popularity within their respective countries, local journalists hold little confidence in authorities to actively pursue their cases.

Africa’s high rate of killed journalists reflects a morbid trend seen across the world.

At least 68 journalists were killed for their work in 2009 — the highest yearly tally ever documented by CPJ. The nature of journalists’ deaths in Africa also reflects a global pattern: most were local reporters and most were murdered. As in past years, murder was the leading cause of work-related deaths in 2009 worldwide, representing about three quarters of the cases.

As media outlets scale back on costs and rely more and more on local reporters for their international coverage, the more we may see this trend increase. For this reason, among many others, the death of journalists in Africa and worldwide should be a matter of concern for everyone.

- Tom Rhodes

Funeral for victims of FDLR violence in eastern Congo. Photos: Human Rights Watch

A new 183-page report by Human Rights Watch faults the U.N.’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation for supporting the Congolese Army’s murderous tactics.

The long-running conflict in Congo is the world’s deadliest since World War II. This year, the Congolese military began to direct its efforts toward combating the FDLR, (Les Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda), a Hutu militia. The FDLR has been raiding villages in the provinces of North and South Kivu in eastern Congo, which borders Rwanda. Human rights groups charge both sides with killing civilians during the ensuing violence.

The 19,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force, known by its French acronym MONUC,  has supplied ammunition and food that support the Congolese military. Earlier this year, U.N. legal advisers warned that U.N. troops should not be supporting the Congolese military if there is a likelihood its forces will engage in human rights violations in Kivu.  But that advice was not followed.

Human Rights Watch calls for the embattled U.N. mission — set to expire in two weeks — to cease backing the Congolese military.

“We knew this was a risky operation…we have no other option,” said Alain Le Roy, under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, in a New York Times interview last week.

The bottom line: “For every rebel combatant disarmed, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses have been burned and destroyed and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes,” calculated U.K.-based Oxfam.

Houses in Luofu burned down by the FDLR.

According to the Human Rights Watch report:

The attacks against civilians have been vicious and widespread. Local populations have been accused of being “collaborators” by one side or the other and deliberately targeted, their attackers saying they are being “punished.” Human Rights Watch has documented the deliberate killing of more than 1,400 civilians between January and September 2009, the majority women, children, and the elderly. The attacks have been accompanied by rape.

In a region already known as the “worst place in the world to be a woman or child,” the situation has deteriorated even further. Over the first nine months of 2009, over 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls were registered at health centers across North and South Kivu, nearly double that of 2008, and likely only representing a fraction of the total.

In addition to killings and rapes, thousands of civilians have been abducted and pressed into forced labor to carry weapons, ammunition, or other baggage across the treacherous terrain by government forces and FDLR militia as they deploy from place to place. Some civilians have been killed when they refused. Others have died because the loads they have been forced to carry were too heavy.

MONUC jeeps in Kasiki village in the eastern Congo.

Peacekeepers have made notable efforts to protect civilians which undoubtedly have helped to save lives, but in many instances they have arrived too late or not at all, leaving local people exposed to attacks with nowhere else to turn.

Almost 1 million civilians have fled their homes during the past year, and civilians have been targeted by forces on both sides: the FDLR, the Congolese army and even the Rwandan army.

Civilians have not found much protection by the UN peacekeeping mission. Security analysts suggest that the force could be asked to withdraw by 2011, when elections are next scheduled to take place.

The force will likely continue to struggle with its paradoxical mandate: to protect civilians and support the Congolese military. U.N. officials have long sought more peacekeepers for a country as large as Western Europe.

For more about the human toll of the conflict in Congo, see Worldfocus’ 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award-winning Crisis in Congo videos.

- Ben Piven

Worldfocus was nominated for an Emmy in the “Best story in a regularly scheduled newscast” category for our coverage of the “Crisis in Congo” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center, Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Taylor Krauss). The “Crisis in Congo” videos also won the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international television category.

Pascal and Vestine are alive, but still not home

Rape as a weapon of war

Worldfocus was also nominated for an Emmy in the “Outstanding feature story in a regularly scheduled broadcast” for our coverage of “21st Century Africa” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Martin Seemungal, Producer: Yuval Lion).

China strengthens trading ties in Africa

Middle class sprawls in Nairobi, Kenya

Tech advances rev up across Africa

Rwanda aims for one laptop per child

Finbar O’Reilly of Worldfocus partner GlobalPost reports on Congolese women living under the most adverse conditions who are struggling to preserve something precious to them — their beauty.

Crisis in Congo: Human Rights Watch reports that Rwandan rebel forces, Congolese army soldiers and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

On Thursday, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alan Doss, said that joint efforts between Rwanda and Congo represented a “sea change” in the region that could create “real hope of being able finally to find a durable solution to the problems that have haunted this region of Congo for more than a decade.”

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch reports that Rwandan rebel forces, Congolese army soldiers and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009 — when Rwandan troops first entered Congo as part of a joint military operation to target Rwandan rebel groups.

Rwandan rebel forces have also been implicated in the deaths of 180 civilians killed since Rwanda and Congo joined forces.

Maartje, a Doctors Without Borders worker in eastern Congo, writes about her encounters with Congolese rape victims in the “Condition Critical” blog:

I’m responsible for the ‘MSF/SOPROP’ clinic (‘Solidarité pour la promotion sociale et la paix’), a place where we offer help to victims of sexual violence. [...]The team is working hard to make the clinic’s presence known among the population so people know where they can get care. We have also started setting up a focus group. This is where victims can share their experiences. Listening to their input also helps us improve the care we offer.

It’s starting to work. Last Tuesday, 16 women showed up. Quietly and shyly they came inside one by one. Some women entered seeming completely broken, others appeared to take a deep breath and then square their shoulders.

I was actually nervous. I found it difficult to see all of these women, knowing how much pain they had suffered. I felt so powerless.

First we drank a cup of tea together. The conversation began to build softly. Then a few women started to answer questions posed by the nurses. Others stayed silent but listened intently. As time went by, more women spoke up and the group began to relax. After an hour, it was as if the group had undergone a complete transformation. We laughed and had fun together.

Read more eyewitness reports from women in Congo at “Condition Critical” and watch the Worldfocus signature story: Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo.

Doss also reiterated the need for troop reinforcements and equipment to the U.N. Security Council. In a post entitled “U.N. talks while Congo civilians suffer,” blogger “Dave” criticizes the U.N. for not coming through on its promises:

While joint operations were declared successful by the governments involved and the UN hailed the strides toward peace, the people of the region continue to suffer at the hands of all the combatants.

[...]The UN Security Council meets today to talk about the situation. Last year, they promised an additional 3,000 troops to aid the 17,000 blue helmets already in the Congo protect the civilian population. Not only have none of those additional troops arrived, there have been no reports that they are even en route. No one expects much from the additional troops anyway. The original Security Council mandate called for UN troops to protect UN relief operations and Congolese civilians, but their record has been dismal. Civilian casualties in the eastern provinces continue to mount and the epidemic of terror rape continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of women and their families.

The “Impudent Observer” blog calls eastern Congo an “invisible land”:

The world becomes furious at the death of a thousand civilians in Gaza, the world becomes furious at the ongoing deaths in Darfur, but the world simply ignores the death of millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Latest reports are that at least 90 Congo women were raped and about one hundred fifty villagers killed. Unfortunately, the Congo government took into the ranks of its army former rebels and sent them on this operation. These soldiers lacked training, pay or food so they proceeded to steal, rape and kill the people they supposedly were protecting.

Cry the beloved people of Congo because no one cries for you.

Also see our coverage of the crisis in Congo and Worldfocus correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh’s Potraits of Insecurity, a slideshow of the tenuous situation in the corners of eastern Congo at Foreign Policy.

Wangari Maathai is an environmental and political activist and the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. She also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss how to balance the economic needs of developing countries with the need for conservation, as well as the impact of climate change on Africa and how African governments are dealing with environmental challenges.

For more, listen to our online radio show on resources in the developing world.

Also, read more about the relationship between natural resources and war in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Rich natural resources partly fuel crisis in Congo.

Wangari Maathai will also be featured in ”Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” on the PBS series Independent Lens next Tuesday, April 14.

Competition for natural resources often lies at the heart of human conflict, from oil and water in the Middle East to contested coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In today’s economic environment, the demand for some resources may be declining, but the importance of who controls natural resources like oil and water — and how they control — is of pressing importance as supplies of these resources dwindle.

This proves particularly true for developing countries, where the right decisions can lead to a strong infrastructure and international influence, and the wrong decisions can lead to social strife, war or environmental destruction.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of natural resource use, opportunities and dangers for resource-rich developing countries and the role played by the U.S. in this global issue. Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Dave Burdick is the green editor of The Huffington Post. He follows energy, environment and green lifestyle stories. He has also been a reporter, a stand-up comedian and a copywriter for the United States’ only accredited, Buddhist-inspired university.

Michael Cohen is a professor of international affairs and director of the graduate program in international affairs at the New School University. From 1972 to 1999, he worked at the World Bank and was responsible for much of its urban policy development. He has worked in over 55 countries, published several books on urban development and has advised governments, U.N. Habitat, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions around the world.

Alf Hornborg is an anthropologist and professor of human ecology at the University of Lund, Sweden. His research has largely focused on cultural and political dimensions of human-environmental relations in past and present societies. He is the author of “The Power of the Machine” (2001) and lead editor of “Rethinking Environmental History” (2007) and “The World System and the Earth System” (2007).

See some related Worldfocus signature stories:

• Haitians destroy environment in struggle to survive
• Controversy surrounds water forum in Turkey
• Brazil emerges as an oil giant
• Brazil pioneers energy independence with ethanol

See our interactive map: The world according to energy.

Associated photo courtesy of Flickr user AdamCohn under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Bijan Rezvani and Katie Combs

Last month, Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting went back to eastern Congo to find out what happened. Together with Lisa Biagiotti and Taylor Krauss, he produced the story of Pascal and Vestine.

Read Michael’s post on what he saw in Congo’s most remote areas: War still rages on in corners of eastern Congo.

A woman displaced by the fighting between Rwanda and FDLR, outside Pinga, North Kivu. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

PARECO rebel soldier at an integration ceremony where all rebel groups are joining the Congolese Army. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

A boy in Pinga, former FDLR stronghold. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting returned to eastern Congo last month to understand the conflicting news coming out of the region. Below he explains what he saw in some of the most remote areas of Congo. Along the way, he reconnects with Pascal and Vestine Bumbari. He reported on the signature story: Pascal and Vestine are alive in Congo, but still not home.

“Michel, we are suffering so much.” Those were the first words Pascal said to me over the phone in February, when he called out of the blue.

Pascal and his wife Vestine live on non-arable lava rocks in their new camp; his clothes are all torn; they don’t have enough food; the rain seeps through the tarp that covers their hut. Until the day we arrived, Pascal had done nothing - nothing - with his days for four months. Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps are not really the place you’d go to look for work.

There is a misconception right now that peace is spreading throughout eastern Congo. Tutsi rebel-leader Laurent Nkunda is under house arrest in Rwanda. There’s a new peace agreement between his rebel group (the CNDP) and the government. Joint-military operations between erstwhile enemies Congo and Rwanda continue against the Rwandan Hutu rebel group hiding in eastern Congo (the FDLR). It all seems like hopeful stuff.

But this new development, this surprising volte-face, is only a beginning. The main issues that caused the war in the first place - land, resources, tribalism, refugees and the continued presence of the FDLR in Congo - have not gone away.

To use the example of our own story: Pascal is Hutu, and he still doesn’t feel safe enough to return to his home, which is still - for the most part - under control of soldiers once loyal to Nkunda. And while 350,000 Congolese in North Kivu have returned home in the last few months (mainly to land formerly occupied by Nkunda’s troops), another 160,000 have been displaced since January as the FDLR takes its revenge on the villages where (they allege) people collaborated with the Rwando-Congolese joint operation.   It makes your head spin.

This new fighting is taking place in very remote regions - I spent days on the back of a motorbike to get there - and what I found was just as devastating as anything I’ve seen in my previous five years of reporting in Congo: Massacres, executions by gun and machete, kidnappings, sex slaves, torture victims.

So while the conflict in some parts of eastern Congo is settling down, there are other corners where the war rages on. This seemingly-endless string of local battles is often what makes people give up on the region - new place names to learn, new rebel groups to figure out.

But don’t give up just yet.

The new collaboration between Rwanda and Congo is the most important development in the conflict in years, and one of the main reasons the countries are now working together is because of pressure from the international community that intensified after last fall’s humanitarian disaster.  Sustaining that pressure is the only way to make sure this conflict truly turns a corner towards peace, so that good, hardworking people like Pascal and Vestine can finally return home.

- Michael J. Kavanagh

The International Criminal Court began its first trial in The Hague.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002 to prosecute serious war crimes and is now holding its first trial.

Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga is accused of “enlisting children under the age of 15″ to fight in the Congolese civil war. He has has pled not guilty. 

Read more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo. 

Blogger “Jonathan Fryer” calls the trial “historic,” hoping it puts pressure on world leaders like President Barack Obama to join the ICC, which was shunned by the Bush administration. 

The “Static and Me” blog calls the trial “momentous,” since Lubanga would not have been prosecuted in Congo. 

Blogger “Dennis Doyle” explains why the trial was delayed, writing that the decision to stay the trial reflects the court’s integrity. 

“The Essayist” blog writes that while Lubanga’s trial offers some hope for justice, other war criminals will no doubt replace him. 

Blogger “Matthew Tostevin” notes that all of the ICC’s arrest warrants have been for Africans, wondering if the court is targeting the continent disproportionately. 

The “Things Seen and Heard” blog explores the same question, concluding that in many cases it was the African governments that requested the ICC’s help.

Below, watch a video from The Hub featuring Bukeni Tete Waruzi, a native of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his response to the trial:

For more on U.S. opposition to the ICC, see PBS Wide Angle’s interview with Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper of the Office of War Crimes Issues.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Michplay under a Creative Commons license.

Laurent Nkunda. Photo: Michael Kavanagh

Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda, who had campaigned against the Congolese government, has been arrested in Rwanda, a country that had been accused of supporting him.

Nkunda was caught as he tried to repel a joint force of Congolese and Rwandan soldiers.

Rob Crilly is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi who has written for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor. Crilly’s blog “African Safari” appears on the blog network “From the Frontline,” where he discusses why Nkunda has lost the support of Rwanda’s leaders.

Rwanda Finally Ditches Nkunda

So General Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwanda. About time too. His thuggish rebellion scattered 250,000 people in the last months of 2008 as he flexed his muscles and played games with the lives of the families he claimed to represent. There are still questions to be answered - will Rwanda hand over to the DRC where he is a wanted man - but this, for what it’s worth, is my take on the affair…

Either General Laurent Nkunda has spent four years protecting his Tutsi tribemates from Hutu genocidaires or he is a Rwandan-backed troublemaker, intent on destabilising the Democratic of Congo depending on who you talk to.

Today it seems time has run out for the rebel leader.

It may be that he has fallen out with too many of his senior lieutenants or that his arrest was the price Rwanda was willing to pay in order to send troops over the border to clear out Hutu militias hiding in Congolese forests.

Either way the man known as the Butcher of Kisangani appears to have lost support in key places. “Nkunda didn’t realise that he had lost political capital with a series of foolish moves,” said a UN source in the regional capital of Goma. “He thought he was indispensable and that he could do whatever he pleased.”

The forests of eastern Congo are the refuge of FDLR guerrillas, Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after the genocide. Kigali has long accused the DRC of not doing enough to clear the forests of Hutu gunmen. As a result few doubt that Rwanda was offering assistance to Nkunda to do the job instead.

A United Nations report last year cited evidence that Nkunda’s rebels were receiving cash and recruits from Rwanda, and that senior commanders had a direct line to officials in the Rwandan capital Kigali. But his leadership had been under threat ever since a breakaway faction of his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) declared a ceasefire earlier this week.

At times his comrades have been irritated by his erratic, narcissistic style promising one thing in media interviews, before contradicting himself days later.

Last year his rebels sparked a major humanitarian crisis as they moved on the city of Goma. A quarter of a million people were forced from their homes.

In the end Rwanda probably decided it no longer needed Nkunda’s bloody help.

To read more, see the original post.

See more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Congolese civilians have endured fighting for more than a decade. Photo: Michael Kavanagh

The Congolese government has allowed at least 2,000 Rwandan troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a joint effort to hunt down Hutu rebels, though the two countries have a history of tense relations. The increased military presence has led to fears of more violence.

The Congolese government says its invitation to the enemy extends only to “observation,” and that the Rwandan forces will not actually be fighting rebel members of the Forces Démocratique pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), who played a role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Read more about Congo’s relationship with Rwanda and the rebels involved in our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

Emmanuel de Merode, the chief warden at Virunga National Park in Congo, writes that Rwandan soldiers are “hanging out” with the Congolese army like “best buddies.”

The “Hearts of Diamonds” blog writes that Congo’s invitation to Rwanda represents a bizarre reversal of position, one that may negatively impact civilians.

The “Wronging Rights” blog writes that although past Rwandan involvement in Congo has proved damaging, Rwanda’s honesty about their troop presence in DR Congo is a step in the right direction.

The “Friends of the Congo” blog disagrees and writes that militarization is not the answer.

The “Colored Opinions” blog also criticizes the Rwandan military presence, and discusses the U.S. role in the region.

Blogger “Patrick Lynch” in Congo writes about reports that soldiers are entering homes looking for Tutsis and questioning any that are found.

See more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo.

A hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has put neighboring countries on alert.

At least 12 have died so far in the country’s fourth Ebola outbreak since 1976. The highly infectious disease, for which there is no known cure, kills approximately 80 percent of those infected.

Angola has closed parts of its border with the Congo in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease, and Ugandan immigration officials have been asked to closely monitor people crossing the border.

Uganda experienced an outbreak of Ebola last year. During that period, bloggers and doctors Scott and Jennifer Myhre in Bundibugyo wrote about losing a friend, Dr. Jonah Kule, to Ebola, and about hospital protocol with possibly-infected patients.

The “Ebola in DRC” blog, written by members of Doctors Without Borders, provided a firsthand account of an Ebola outbreak in Congo last year, including efforts to disinfect villages and contain the disease by contacting families of victims.

Blogger “Woody,” a humanitarian worker in Congo, discusses the current outbreak, writing that even more Congolese die as a result of extreme poverty and lack of basic healthcare.

American blogger “Thomas” writes that the outbreak would not have occurred had the international community acted to end the conflict in Congo long ago.

Blogger “Greg Laden” writes about recent scientific discoveries that he hopes could lead to the development of a treatment for Ebola.

View an interactive map of disease hotspots in DR Congo and elsewhere in Africa here.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user cyclopsr under a Creative Commons license.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila made an announcement promising to remove armed groups from the country.

Joseph Donnelly of Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic aid group that reported the massacre, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the latest violence and Congo’s future. 

Guards at a displaced persons’ camp in Kitgum try to protect its residents from LRA attacks.

This week, Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo mounted a joint offensive against Uganda’s anti-government rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in northeastern Congo. The LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, is hiding in a Congolese jungle after fleeing Uganda.

Twenty-two years of fighting between the LRA and the Ugandan government have killed thousands and displaced millions. In recent months, the rebels have attacked Congolese civilians and abducted hundreds of people.

Glenna Gordon is a writer and photojournalist based in Kampala, Uganda. She writes at World Politics Review that regional cooperation far beyond this week’s offensive is needed to resolve the situation lest LRA violence further destabilize other countries.

LRA: Everyone’s Problem, No One’s Responsibility

Rumors abound about Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a group that has terrorized northern Uganda for the past 20 years and now is thought to be active in Congo, Sudan and Chad. [...]

One reason so many rumors persist is to fill the void left by a paucity of verifiable information. Another reason is to fill the void left by the paucity of the LRA’s agenda.

While few rebel groups have what would be considered a sound ideology, the LRA has a particularly dubious set of beliefs. Among other things, they believe they are protecting the Acholi people of northern Uganda from a government run by southerners. Yet the LRA’s actions are a big reason nearly 2 million Acholis have lived in internally displaced persons camps for decades. 

The Ugandan government has contributed to the problem as well. Unable — or perhaps unwilling — to defeat the LRA militarily, it called on the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for Kony’s arrest. A ceasefire was subsequently announced, and Kony agreed to sign the preliminary framework for a peace treaty. 

But on the dozen occasions when he has been set to sign the final deal, Kony has balked, arguing that he wants the ICC warrant removed before he’ll consider coming out of the bush. [...]

The people of northern Uganda are clearly still suffering, living in claustrophobic IDP camps with few opportunities for education or even self-sufficiency. But on the other hand, the LRA has not attacked a village in Uganda since 2005. 

Instead, they’ve been active in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Central African Republic. Where once there were horrible tales in Uganda of children kidnapped and forced to kill their family members, of innocent villagers mutilated, and of entire swathes of countryside destroyed, those stories are now surfacing in other countries.

By letting this conflict go on for so long, Museveni, the ICC and every player in the Uganda peace negotiations have contributed to allowing Kony to operate as before — so long as he doesn’t do it in Uganda.

Kony was Uganda’s problem. Now, he’s become Central Africa’s problem. Of course, everyone’s problem risks becoming no one’s responsibility.

To read more, see the original post. 

For more on the LRA’s actions and its use of child soldiers, see Wide Angle’s “Lord’s Children.”

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user John & Mel Kots under a Creative Commons license.

The United Nations estimates that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in that time, some victims as young as three years old.

Both the Congolese army and rebel groups have used rape as a weapon of war.

Armed groups use rape to tear apart families, spread disease and weaken communities. Women are often victimized doubly — first by their rapists and secondly by spouses or family members who then find it dishonorable or socially unacceptable to associate with them.

Worldfocus special correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and video journalist Taylor Krauss recently reported from eastern Congo. Together with Lisa Biagiotti and Bijan Rezvani, they produced this signature story.

See their previous signature story: War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine.

Watch a companion Web-exclusive video: Rehabilitating rape victims and families in Congo.

Michael Kavanagh and Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge, along with other experts, held an online radio show on roots of the conflict and prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For more on the conflict, read our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo or read Human Rights Watch’s background and timeline of the conflict.

Many journalists and activists have produced harrowing accounts of the epidemic of sexual violence in Congo. But as intense violence destabilizes North Kivu once again, we thought it was important to reiterate that the pervasiveness of rape is directly linked to the war.

Cases of sexual violence skyrocket during and after battles and along frontlines. Armed groups are deeply aware of the stigma surrounding rape and they exploit it in order to destroy families and bring women — and men — to their knees. The key to finding ways to “Stop Rape” in Congo is not just to increase awareness of rape, but also to increase our understanding of the causes of the war and work to end it.

Which brings us to the men. Men commit most of the violence in Congo, and most of the rapes. But many men are also victims, too — often directly through rape and torture, but also indirectly through what their wives and daughters and mothers experience.

Because they are both perpetrators and victims, more and more women’s organizations work with men, too, to educate and counsel them.

In fact, Georgina and André met with counselors from an extraordinary organization called SOPROP (Solidarite Pour la Promotion Sociale et la Paix) that helps victims of torture and their families. SOPROP offered couple’s counseling to Georgina and André, and though in this case they still separated, SOPROP’s efforts have encouraged hundreds of other families to stay together, empowering the husbands to care for the women in their lives without turning their backs.

Lisa Biagiotti and Bijan Rezvani of Worldfocus.org helped us produce this short interview with SOPROP’s Lydie Suatula to highlight the work SOPROP does in Congo.

Many groups do wonderful work with women who’ve been raped — SOPROP and Synergie des Femmes from this piece are two examples.

You can also support Eve Ensler’s grassroots movement of women — the V-day campaign — as well as Heal Africa. Human Rights Watch and the ENOUGH project also do invaluable research and advocacy on behalf of women and all victims of torture in Congo and elsewhere in the world.

- Michael J. Kavanagh and Taylor Krauss