WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

As the Congolese government celebrates 50 years of independence and rolls out the red carpet in Kinshasa for visiting dignitaries – including top UN official Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the King of Belgium – let’s not forget about the hundreds of thousands of Congolese people who remain displaced from their homes due to ongoing conflict. I doubt anyone will be giving them cake today.

I was recently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with my colleague Melanie Teff looking at the new strategy on sexual violence, and it was interesting to see all the resources that were clearly being put into the celebrations in the capital – splashy billboards announcing Congo’s golden jubilee for example – while elsewhere in the country, basic infrastructure like roads remain virtually non-existent in most areas.

If the Congolese government put as much effort into addressing the serious issues in its country, like rampant insecurity and widespread rape, as it did to putting on a show for its independence celebration, perhaps we’d actually be somewhere useful today. Let’s hope that Ban Ki-Moon uses the occasion of the celebrations to hand over yet again to President Kabila the list of five high-level army commanders responsible for sexual violence, against whom the Congolese government has still not brought prosecutions.

One of the biggest obstacles to peace and security in the DRC remains the behavior of the Congolese military. The fact that many of the women we interviewed during our visit to the Congo told us that armed men, often Congolese soldiers, were the ones that had attacked them, looted their homes, and raped them, is still one of the most alarming aspects of the ongoing conflict in the east.

The reality is that the Congolese government remains incapable of protecting its own citizens. And while President Kabila spent much of the past year calling strongly for the withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) in advance of June 30th, this was just his way of deflecting attention from the fact that he cannot seem to govern his own country, even with all his rhetoric about national sovereignty.

In fact, it is MONUC and its international peacekeepers who are the ones providing at least some level of protection for Congolese civilians. It’s true that MONUC chronically lacks adequate resources and certainly deserves its fair share of criticism for its failure to respond in certain crises, but the peacekeepers in MONUC still do more to protect local populations than the Congolese military or government ever has.

During my recent trip, I asked everyone from local leaders to government officials to civil society organizations to Congolese women living in displacement sites if they were concerned about the effect that MONUC withdrawing from the DRC would have on the safety of civilians – they all told me yes.

Despite this critical role, MONUC must do a better job in addressing the issue of sexual violence in the Congo, especially on the side of prevention. Peacekeepers need better training to respond to the needs of survivors of sexual violence and to support efforts to prevent these horrific acts of violence from occurring.

So today, I suggest instead of celebrating Congo’s independence, we should celebrate an important step forward in getting peacekeepers that much needed training. The publication today by the UN of a practical “inventory” that details actions peacekeepers can take to deter perpetrators and assist survivors of sexual violence could be a big step forward in improving the protection of Congolese civilians. While it now needs to be translated quickly into practical training for peacekeepers, this inventory is something we should all be able to get behind.