tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496128027266609412009-12-23T07:45:20.882-08:00A site tracking political and military developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a focus on resource exploitation.Emin Pashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09530153464205125811noreply@blogger.comBlogger365125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2349612802726660941.post-76427312527332478632009-07-21T20:15:00.000-07:002009-07-21T20:25:25.889-07:00

Soul Power: Coming soon to a theater near you. (Provided you live near an art-house theater.)From the press release:In 1974, the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Africa for a 12-hour, three-night long concert held in Kinshasa, Zaire. The dream-child of Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine, this music festival became a reality when

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Blogging is light this week because of family obligations. Two new very important reports are out. Global Witness has a new report out on "War and the Militarisation of Conflict" and Human Rights Watch has one out on "Sexual Violence and Military Reform." I'll have more comment on them next week.From Global Witness: The report details how companies are buying from suppliers who trade in minerals

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Amid the hosannas, a critique: At every opportunity, the President emphasized internal African causes for the continent's woes, highlighting especially the need for good governance and ending corruption. So he argued, for example, that "you're not going to get investment without good governance." That's just wrong. For decades most foreign investment in Africa has gone to South Africa first, even

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The Enough Project just published a report based on extensive trip it took to the Kivus with a crew from 60 Minutes. The good news is that Enough recognizes that what the international community is doing right now is utterly insufficient.It recognizes "that the conventional image of Congo as a failed state is at variance with a dark and little-acknowledged reality: that the Congolese government

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From Congoblog:

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Le Potentiel reports that a meeting of ngos organized by two Open Society-funded groups, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), concluded that the Congolese government needs to put a stop to its endless process of contract renegotiations with the mining companies and publish the results. "The state is primarily responsible for the

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The well-respected Congolese human rights group Asadho reports that the French nuclear power plant firm Areva is buying uranium from artisinal miners working at the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga. The Shinkolobwe mine, which produced the uranium used in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, is supposedly closed and locked up, although occasional Western visitors have reported easy access to the site. The

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L'Antenne Libre ASFCO reports that the humanitarian situation in South Kivu has significantly deteriorated in the last few days since authorities announced they would begin pursuing the FDLR in that province. The territories of Mwenga, Shabunda, Kalehe, Kabare and Walungu have been particularly hard hit. The Congolese NGO says that the government's apparent advances may prove illusory, as the

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Congolese music and religion tend to shy away from overt political expression. This article by Ed Rackley on Bundu dia Kongo and this review of Bob White's book, Rumba Rules, review the possibilities and dangers of dissent in popular culture.Money quotes: [White's] analysis of four recent love lyrics as encoded cries of social uncertainty and isolation -- the kind of interpretive leap that leaves

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In a story too depressing to comment on, BBC reports that the Swiss banks holding six million dollars of Mobutu's stolen monies will release those funds to the ex-dictator's heirs, after the banks' repeated efforts to encourage the Congolese government to repatriate the funds failed. It's not like they weren't warned.

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You would think a botched UN military operation that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, caused thousands of needless deaths, and led to untold numbers of rapes would at least merit a small mention in the Western media. You would think an operation branded a disaster by every major international humanitarian organization that has studied the issue would at least generate an op-ed or

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Radio Okapi reports that only 123 kilos of gold were officially processed and taxed last year by the Congolese state out of an estimated five tons produced annually. The rest was smuggled out of the country. Efforts to reduce smuggling by cutting the applicable tax to one-tenth the previous rate have proven largely unsuccessful, because most of the tax agents have become, in the lovely French

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From Africa Intelligence:The vulture fund FG Hemisphere (AMI N°195) is now targeting mining companies. On July 7, the Congolese tax authority, the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI), announced that the Groupement pour le Traitement du Terril de Lubumbashi (GTL) was not in a position to “honour a tax liability on profits for fiscal 2009 on 2008 revenues”, representing 6.56 billion Congolese

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The war is far from over for ordinary civilians. Over 80 percent of the people we interviewed said that security is worse now compared to a year ago. The offensive against the FDLR was supposed to bring peace to eastern Congo, but our survey shows people are living in constant fear of violent attack. This suffering is not inevitable. It is happening because world leaders have decided that

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The disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program sponsored by the UN has been terminated, after posting consistently dismal results: The Amani programme, intended for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of the miltia of the armed groups of North and South Kivu was completed on 8 July 2009, with an assessment of 3,200 ex-combatants demobilised, a figure much lower than the

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Alan Doss offered a limp defense of Kimia II last week at a briefing before the Security Council and in the pages of the Washington Times, even as evidence continued to mount that his decision to launch a military operation to extirpate the FDLR has been an unmitigated disaster for the people of Congo. After the briefing, the Security Council published a feeble statement of support for Doss

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From the Hindustan Times:Thirty-six soldiers Indian soldiers have banded together and taken the army to court for dropping them from a United Nations peacekeeping assignment in the Congo. UN peace missions are much sought after by armymen, both for their prestige as well as for the tax-free dollar salaries they provide. Soldiers earn almost four times their Indian salary.Over 4,250 Indian

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The wall-to-wall news coverage of Monuc's botched operation in eastern DRC, which has resulted in hundreds of reprisal rapes, thousands of deaths, and hundreds of thousands of refugees, has properly generated global concern. Wolf Blitzer's breakdown of the mai-mai leadership's complex allegiances, the View's dissection of the region's economic potential, and Bill O'Reilly's spirited defense of

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From All Africa:Civilians are bearing the brunt of attempts to dismantle armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the rebels carrying out vicious reprisals and some Government soldiers committing serious human rights abuses, the senior United Nations official to the country told the Security Council today. Alan Doss, the Secretary-General's Special Representative

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This happened. From Howard French, who was the NYT correspondent to Africa when it all went down: According to respectable international estimates some four million people have died in the Congo as a result of wars there since 1996, the greatest toll anywhere since World War II.There is a powerful argument to be made that this disaster, along with the Rwandan genocide that preceded it, is Bill

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Wolpe, who is all-but blind to Rwanda's ambiguities, will almost certainly press Kabila to allow the Rwandans in to "finish the job" of rounding up ex-genocidaires in eastern Congo. That will put Kabila between a rock and a hard place: Allow the Rwandans in, and he will almost certainly lose the 2011 elections. Don't allow them in, and he will be cast as the impediment to peace. I would not put

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From Foreign Policy:Howard Wolpe, a former Michigan congressman who directs the Africa program and the project on leadership and building state capacity at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will be named President Obama's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, sources confirmed. Wolpe previously served as an envoy to the region from 1996-2001 for President Clinton. More

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Fifty-two years ago, the eyes of the world were on Ghana. And a young preacher named Martin Luther King traveled here, to Accra, to watch the Union Jack come down and the Ghanaian flag go up. This was before the march on Washington or the success of the civil rights movement in my country. Dr. King was asked how he felt while watching the birth of a nation. And he said: ''It renews my conviction

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“If a foreigner tells you to clean up your mess, it is regarded as an insult. If your brother tells you, it is good advice.” --Nameless Ghanaian speaking to reporter Richard Dowden, on Obama's unique capacity to speak truth to African leaders.

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Read this essay by Paul Collier and the various responses to it provided by the Boston Review. Discuss the implications for policy for the Congo.

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