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.

Victims of the September 28th events in Conakry.

A number of Western governments have stepped up their condemnations of recent violence and brutality in Guinea.

An estimated 157 died last week as government troops shot demonstrators who were voicing their disapproval of military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara’s decision to become a candidate in January’s elections.

On Monday, a senior U.S. diplomat arrived in Guinea to scold the embattled regime for cracking down on the massive September 28th political protest in Conakry, the capital.

The U.S. envoy met with Captain Camara for two hours, blaming him personally for the violence and instructing him not to run in the upcoming elections.

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has urged international intervention and said that France would no longer work with the dictator.

But, for his part, Captain Camara defended the actions of his soldiers in an interview with a dozen foreign journalists yesterday night.

The government blames the opposition for the large death toll.

Senegalese French-language daily newspaper
Le Messager described Camara as having “responded to the reporters’ questions…with pleasure.” The article gives a detailed account of Camara blaming the opposition for the riots and subsequent deaths:

He placed responsibility for the killings on the political leaders who organized the demonstrations, despite the protest ban. [Camara] declared that the protesters “attacked police buildings…and burned cars. These are leaders who have told children to go take up arms.”

[Camara continued], “That was a plot against me. It failed. The opposition believed that their protest would provoke the security forces to crack down on the civilian population, and that afterward, I would be overthrown. It was premeditated.”

But the photo evidence may be stacked against Guinea’s leader. An article in Monday’s New York Times describes three cellphone snapshots of the sexual violence committed against women:

One photograph shows a naked woman lying on muddy ground, her legs up in the air, a man in military fatigues in front of her. In a second picture a soldier in a red beret is pulling the clothes off a distraught-looking woman half-lying, half-sitting on muddy ground. In a third a mostly nude woman lying on the ground is pulling on her trousers.

According to human rights groups, the rape toll was staggering, and Guinea’s women seem to have borne the brunt of the military’s repression.

Blogger Laura Sjoberg, a political scientist at the University of Florida, analyzes the riots from a female perspective:

There’s an obvious point for those who would see [international relations] through gendered lenses here: women’s rights. What happened to the women who were raped in Guinea is terrible, fraught with gender subordination, violent, and should never happen to anyone ever again.

It would be a mistake for gender analysis of this situation and the news stories portraying it to stop there, however.

Through gender lenses, I’m interested in the question of how it came to be that “rape is a fairly common tool of military repression” (the article adds “in Africa,” but most research on wartime rape shows that the prevalence of rape as a weapon of war is not geographically or culturally limited). What is it about rape that makes it an effective tool of repression and war-fighting?

Clinton visited a clinic and a large refugee camp in the eastern town of Goma, where she pledged $17 million to deal with sexual abuse.

Severinne Autesserre, an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the conflict in Congo and how the country’s government and people will respond to Clinton’s message.

Watch the Worldfocus signature video “Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo” and see our extended coverage of the crisis in Congo.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about Clinton’s mission: Clinton must call for an end to Congo’s media censorship

A blogger at “Texas in Africa” writes an open letter to Hillary Clinton:

I think it’s great that you’re headed [to Goma]. You have to get out of Kinshasa to understand the country and its governance problems, and you will not understand the conflict in full — or how pitiful and inadequate the international response to it is — without going to the east and meeting some of the victims. [...] You will meet little girls who’ve been gang raped by soldiers and who can no longer talk or feed themselves. You’ll see mothers and their children who live in a kind of poverty that does not compare with what you see in Kenya or South Africa or Ghana or any of the places you’ve previously visited on the continent.

Remind yourself that this is the norm in eastern Congo. [...] You will not be the same after hearing their stories. But the people of the Congo don’t need you to see and be shocked by their situation. They need you to do something. They need you to go beyond the rhetoric. So I am begging you: please make this trip different.

Blogger “Marcel,” with Oxfam’s operations in Congo, gives Clinton some advice based on experience with rape victims:

This afternoon I’m supposed to be attending a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who flew into Congo last night.

She couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time. Rape is widespread here, and cases have increased dramatically in the past few months.

I remember a woman I met in the remote Lubero territory of North Kivu Province. She told me she witnessed a gang rape of another woman by three armed men. It is almost impossible to describe the scenes she told me, but she was so brutally raped that she later died of internal bleeding. The witness, the woman I talked to, fled the area in terror. So did thousands of other unnamed victims in the past few months.

[...] If Hillary Clinton asks me what she can do to reduce rape in eastern Congo, I will tell her first of all that the US government, and the rest of the international community, needs to urgently rethink its support for an offensive that has - according to UN figures - forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes, and has resulted in rape cases spiralling out of control. The military option must not be the only strategy. It is always the civilians - the women, children and men of Eastern Congo - who pay the highest price for any military operation.

The “Wide Angle View” blog examines different approaches to combating rape:

I was encouraged to read about both the top-down and a bottom-up approaches underway in the area to address sexual violence, which I think are equally important for effective change. Having legal structures in place regarding all forms of sexual violence against women is vital for preventing aggressors from acting with impunity, and may provide some preventative dissuasion. And public services are essential for dealing with the aftermath. On the other hand, changing attitudes is a slower process, and immensely difficult, but it offers the only hope of clipping sexual violence in the early stages before it can grow and take root.

Doctors Without Borders shares a video of Congolese refugees in neighboring Sudan:

The

Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo — including mass rapes — has received relatively scant international media coverage. Photo: Taylor Krauss

Tom Rhodes is the Africa Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile eastern city of Goma during her historic seven nation tour of Africa. Press briefings from the state department highlighted her intentions to address a chronic problem particularly acute in this region: violence against women. The home of the deadliest war since World War II; Congolese women have, to this day, been the main victims and targets of marauding militias and government soldiers.

“In just one province alone there was recorded 40 women being raped every day — 13 percent were under the age of 14 and 10-12 percent contracted HIV,” remarked photojournalist Marcus Beasdale in a Mediastorm interview last year. The award-winning journalist had spent a grueling eight years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and saw firsthand the systematic use of rape as a tool of war.

Watch the Worldfocus signature story: Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo.

But there are more local voices that live in this war-torn area that continue to cry out against this plight. Franchou Namegabe Nabintu, or ‘Chouchou’ as her friends call her, is a founding member of the South Kivu’s Association of Women Journalists (AFEM) and plans to meet Clinton tomorrow. Since 2003, Nabintu and her female colleagues have trained female journalists and produced programs concerning women’s issues. No stranger to American politics, Nabintu testified before the U.S. Senate in May to call for more international support to end the ongoing gender-based violence. Her efforts to mobilize women have not come easy. Nabintu told the New York-based media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, of the numerous threats she receives for her work and the exorbitant fees AFEM must pay local radio stations to get their programs broadcasted.

But despite the staggering crisis in the DRC and courageous advocacy efforts by journalists such as Nabintu, the DRC catastrophe has received relatively scant international media coverage. The Congolese crisis represents a dangerous, costly operation for most foreign media bureaus with a complex story not easily digested by western audiences. But there is also a more straightforward reason for the lack of western media coverage: censorship.

Since the beginning of this year, Radio France International (RFI) has been cut off the air by the government three times, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. One of two major foreign broadcasters in the region, Congolese citizens heard static since late July after authorities shuttered the station. At a press conference in the capital, Kinshasa, government spokesman Lambert Mende accused the station of “a systematic campaign of demoralization of the armed forced of the DRC,” AFP reported.

According to freelance journalist Charles Mushivizi, RFI has been unpopular with the government since 2006, after the station produced a series of stories critical of the army. The stories reported on rising criminality among the Congolese army ranks — including rapes, looting and the embezzlement of soldiers’ pay by superior officers. One journalist, Ghislaine Dupont, was expelled for her coverage but continues to report on the country, Mushivizi says.

In all three RFI bans this year, Congolese authorities never disputed the accuracy of the French broadcaster’s reports. According to Mushivizi, Mende warned that the authorities would not tolerate any information the government deems prejudicial to troop morale, “no matter the accuracy of the information.”

The only other major international station, Radio Okapi — a joint project of the Hirondelle Foundation and the United Nations — has had two reporters murdered in mysterious circumstances since June 2007. Botched investigations into the murders of Radio Okapi journalists Didace Namujimbo and Serge Maheshe have allowed their murderers total impunity.

Few locals in South Kivu listen to national broadcasts since they are generally controlled by political forces, Mushivizi said, while the press is hampered by fiscal and political pressures. With RFI banned and local media compromised — there are few voices left to report one of the world’s greatest tragedies.

As Hillary meets President Joseph Kabila to call for an end to the mass rapes that plague eastern Congo, she must also call for an end to media censorship. The free flow of independent information within and outside the country is pivotal to solving the rape crisis.

- Tom Rhodes

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

View Worldfocus’ complete coverage of the crisis in Congo and an interactive map exploring Clinton’s African tour.

For more on the issue of rape in Liberia, watch the Worldfocus signature stories “Former child soldiers, sex slaves recover from Liberia’s war” and ”Liberian women occupy front lines of war on sexual violence.”

Tania Bernath, a researcher for Amnesty International, joins Martin Savidge to discuss efforts to combat rape and sexual violence in Liberia and other post-conflict countries, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled visit to Africa next week.

When Jackie Redd was 14, she was forced to join the NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia), a rebel group. She was raped and forced to be the “wife” of three men for 11 years, until she escaped in 2001.

Jackie is now speaking out. She is trying to start a support center called the “One Help One Center for War Affected Women” to provide care and training for women who are trying to recover from the war. She has also been working with Amnesty International and is the subject of a documentary about war-affected women.

Some of the biggest victims of that era were young women who were often taken prisoner and forced to fight, or made into sex slaves. As Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson report, many of them are now struggling to recover and struggling to forget.

For more on the rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers, watch PBS Wide Angle’s film on child soldiers in Uganda, “Lord’s Children.”

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson venture to Liberia and meet some women on the front lines of what’s become a war on sexual violence.

Watch more videos from this series and read blogs from the field: Liberia’s Long Road Back.

For more on efforts to combat sexual violence in Africa, watch Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo.

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.

The U.S. removed the contested region of Kashmir from envoy Richard Holbrooke’s mandate. Photo: United Nations

Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din is a Kashmiri-American who is currently a Fulbright scholar in Morocco. He also works for Human Rights First, is the drummer of a Kashmiri rock band Zerobridge and blogs at the Huffington Post. Mohsin participated in the Worldfocus online radio show about the disputed region of Kashmir. He writes about the decision to remove the Kashmir issue from U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke’s mandate, arguing that it will have lasting repercussions.

During his presidential campaign, President Obama publicly stated that peace in South Asia and Afghanistan would need to incorporate some kind of resolution on the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

The then presidential candidate rightly stated, “We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis.” Obama’s stance restored hope in Kashmir as a whole, including the Kashmiri civil society and pro-democratic forces in the Kashmir valley.

Over the summer, Kashmir witnessed the largest civil protests in years, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in peaceful, unarmed protests demanding freedom, peace and human rights. Even though more than 40 unarmed protesters were killed and hundreds were beaten and arrested by state security forces, Kashmiris marched on for weeks. Kashmiri civil society showed the world its commitment to non-violent demonstrations, desire for peace and respect for human rights.

Yet last week, the Obama administration announced the mandate of Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and India, would not include the disputed territory of Kashmir. India has celebrated the announcement as a political victory. Kashmiris again find themselves shaking their heads at a lost opportunity for the truth be exposed concerning the atrocities and political oppression they endure.

India’s celebration comes as no surprise. Greater attention to the Kashmir conflict would threaten India’s reputation as the largest democracy in the world. Kashmir remains a huge stain in India’s already questionable human rights record. The U.S. envoy’s attention to Kashmir would have perhaps shed more light on the scale of atrocities and political oppression endured by Kashmiris for over a decade.

Read more about Worldfocus’ coverage of the Kashmiri people, history and human rights.

U.S. and the Muslim world

Like the conflicts in Afghanistan and Palestine, the Kashmir conflict is one that is talked about in hundreds of thousands of mosques — not jut in the region, but throughout the world. Extremists in the Muslim world often use Palestine and Afghanistan as examples for creating anti-U.S. sentiments. Unlike Palestine and Afghanistan, however, the U.S. is still in a position where it can either appear as a helper or an agitator. Kashmiris are looking to the new administration to pressure both India and Pakistan to acknowledge the grievances of the people living in the Kashmir valley.

The U.S envoy’s omission of Kashmir in his mandate threatens to leave Kashmiri civil society vulnerable, and U.S. supporters in Kashmir beleaguered. Atrocities will continue and the current generation of youth will grow increasingly helpless within the present system of zero accountability for past killings and rapes and zero justice. Such developments threaten U.S. interests for achieving peace, strengthening democratic institutions and defeating extremism in the region.

Peace will be hollow if Kashmiri civil society continues to be marginalized. Extremists will capitalize on this marginalization. Therefore, it is imperative that the Obama administration create avenues of communication to the thriving Kashmiri civil society, which supports human rights and transparency.

The U.S. relationship with India and Pakistan is in itself peculiar and warrants some serious reevaluation. On the one hand, the majority of systematic abuses in Kashmir are continually perpetrated by India, which receives praise by the U.S. for being the world’s largest democracy and remains a key economic partner in Asia. Making matters more complex, America’s ally in the war terror, Pakistan, remains a provider of weapons and money to some militants operating in Kashmir. All the while the situation on the ground deteriorates and extremists win ground against confused U.S sympathizers in the region.

Displaced Kashmiris. Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

Hopes and desires of the Kashmiri people

For too long, Kashmir has been debated from the lenses of India, Pakistan and extremists. Yet Kashmir is not limited to these players. Within Kashmir are the people — the people most affected from the conflict, a people who suffered and continue to suffer atrocities. They are a people who desire peace, human rights and democracy. Organic institutions in Kashmir founded on human rights, democracy, and justice exist, yet they continue to be overshadowed.

It was my hope that the U.S. envoy to the region would at least have a mandate to reach out to these institutions. I still hope that he will, perhaps behind the scenes. I hope — and Kashmiris hope — that the Obama administration pushes for greater communication with local civil society on the ground in Kashmir, for they wait and pray for the next opportunity for greater justice and accountability to materialize. And it must also be stated that the extremists and the Taliban hope for the opposite.

Regional peace and U.S. interests

Kashmir is at critical stage that will affect both regional peace and security and U.S. interests in the region. As opportunities for greater justice and accountability for Kashmiris are continually marginalized, the Kashmiri youth of today, who have seen nothing but war and failed judicial processes and failed political processes, will be ever vulnerable to sympathizing with extremists and Taliban forces in the region, thus threatening U.S. interests in the region. The road to defeating the Taliban and extremism in the region is through strengthening and supporting institutions of peace, democracy and human rights.

Since India continues to oppress civil society in Kashmir, as seen last summer with the killings of unarmed protesters, it is left to the international community to bring the people’s grievances forward. The road to peace in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India leads through Kashmir and through recognition and inclusion of Kashmiri civil society.

Will we (America) continue to shake India’s and Pakistan’s hands as 1,000 mass graves are left uninvestigated by India and as Pakistan continues to support certain militant groups in Kashmir? I hope not. I pray that this country, America — a country that prides itself on justice, accountability, human rights and change — will for the first time in eight years mean what it says.

In the meantime, Kashmir waits, still bleeding.

- Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din

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

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

The United Nations estimates that 3.25 million Somalis, or 43 percent of the population, will require food aid until the end of the year.

The number of Somalis requiring humanitarian assistance doubled in 2008 and continues to climb. Aid workers have also come under fire. As of Oct. 27, 30 aid workers had been killed and another 10 kidnapped.

Zam Zam Abdullahi Abdi once counseled victims of violence at a hospital in Mogadishu run by the Africa Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia — coming face to face with women and children who face rape and deadly beatings. She left Somalia after receiving death threats, and now joins Martin Savidge to discuss Somalia’s plight.

Photos by Abukar Albadri

AUDIO: John Prendergast of the ENOUGH project discusses the use of rape as a weapon in eastern Congo as well as prospects for the UN in the region.

Congo’s children become soldiers in the ongoing conflict. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

The cease-fire collapsed in eastern Congo this week as fighting resumed.

As rebels make demands from the Congolese government, civilians are caught in between. Beyond ongoing hunger and starvation, crimes against humanity include the rape of women and the recruitment of children into war.

United Nations officials have called the epidemic of sexual violence in Congo “the worst in the world,” pointing to the 27,000 sexual assaults reported in South Kivu Province in 2006. Often, women are mutilated and left to die.

The “Healing trauma in DR Congo” blog writes about tackling problems like rape by supporting women empowerment programs.

The “generalspeaking” blog discusses the fate of women in wartime, and writes that both the military and militias in Congo use rape as a weapon.

Blogger “Amber” considers why rape is considered an acceptable tool in Congo and elsewhere.

Children, too, live in fear — Save the Children recently reported that amid the current conflict, armed groups attacked two schools in order recruit child soldiers. Here is a map of child soldiers fighting in Congo and around the world.

Chris Blattman of Yale University talks about his study on the motivation for child soldier recruitment in his blog.

Watch a documentary on the situation of Congo’s children — who are soldiers, prostitutes and refugees.