Ben Affleck’s ECI Calls for ‘Radical Refocus’ of US Congo Policy

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010  |   1 Comment »

I will be upfront: I’m partial to Ben Affleck. He was committed to Congo before it became a mainstream issue. In fact, his high-profile trips there played a pivotal role in Congo reaching a tipping point in the American media. That, and our joint appearance talking Congo on Oprah, along with Nick Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, and Secretary Clinton, lead to a record fundraising surge of 6 million dollars in a matter of weeks, doubling the size of Women for Women International’s Congo program. So yeah, I am biased.

But that is not why I love Eastern Congo Initiative’s first policy report.  Rumor has it Ben was a genius policy wonk in a former life. Today, we have the proof. ECI’s “white paper” proves when it comes to finding long term solutions to end the violence in Congo, they mean business. Urgent business.

I’ve been working on Congo full time for nearly 6 years, yet I learned so much reading this report. The report provides a rigorous review of US policy engagement with DRC, while providing a bold roadmap essential for the next phase of the movement, aimed at stabilizing Congo. The report calls on the US government to “radically refocus” our present efforts in Congo, which the report terms, “the status-quo of piecemeal efforts”. “The US cannot stand idly by or maintain its commitment to a minimalist mandate in the Congo.”

A Thousand Sisters core platform focuses on a coordinated, comprehensive security sector reform plan, conflict minerals regulations, and disarmament, starting with the FDLR. In Representative Wu’s recent Dear Colleague letter, we also called for a Great Lakes Special Envoy. This report calls for all of that…and more. That is a “radical refocusing” in and of itself.  ECI is dead right when they say the focus of US policy thus far has been piecemeal. I would argue by extension, the movement has also focused on breaking down the conflict into specific key levers and elements, which is key, but has wasted enormous energy in activist squabbling over whether point A or point B is “the real issue” or silver bullet. For anyone who maintains intellectual integrity, you’ve got to admit a real solution must be holistic, and include all of it.

As a movement, we’ve been operating on the assumption of scarcity. Our strategies assume US government focus, attention and political will is finite at best, non-existent at worst, forcing us to chose between priorities for stabilizing Congo. What if we’re wrong? ECI’s paper challenges our assumption. We have rare universal, bi-partisan support. Why on earth would we ask for anything less than a comprehensive strategy? Don’t the people of Congo deserve it all?

The stakes could not be higher.  The report fastidiously outlines the tremendous progress made on many fronts since the technical end to the conflict in 2003, particularly initiatives lead by the Congolese government that could provide a worthy framework for reform. It is encouraging to see real progress. Yet I am haunted by the reality of “relative security” on the ground in Congo.  No, people haven’t been murdered in batches of 700 for a while now.  But the rates of rape have gone up 2004-2008, according to a recently released Oxfam report. The International Rescue Committee’s mortality studies show an increase in conflict related deaths: 38,000 per month in 2004, up to 45,000 per month in 2007.  Let’s be clear: Moms, grandmas, small business owners just like us, gang raped in droves, like the sisters I met in Baraka. Half had been gang raped in their first six months home, following their return to newly “secure” Baraka. Babies dying while their families spend the night in the forest, hiding from militias, like my sister Xaverine’s five-year-old daughter, Nsemeru, who’s name meant, “I love you”. Whole communities murdered next door to mining sites, like the 29 beheaded like cattle next to a gold mine in Kaniola in 2009. This is the reality of “post conflict” Congo, which continues to scream for our attention as the worst of international crises.

Lucky for us, ECI has outlined a clear, comprehensive plan, one that treats Congo like the emergency it is. They offer timelines that reflect the urgency of the situation. Not in a couple of years. How about end of this month? Or next month, at the very, very latest. That just makes my grassroots heart sing.

The report identifies one of the core problems with ongoing assistance to Congo, not as lack of international interest, funding, or even modest success with some programs, but utter lack of cohesion and coordination between programs and donor governments.  We need a cohesive, comprehensive, coordinated plan. The US government can lead the charge in rallying international support for the Congolese government’s full leadership and engagement in building structures and frameworks for lasting stability.

Look, we give the DRC a lot of money. Specifically, the US gave the DRC 2 billion dollars from 2007-2010. We need to leverage that and “support” (read: insist) Congo’s government fully engage. We need to support Congo’s government in establishing transparency, deployment of administrative and judicial reforms to root out political interference, stop corruption, and restore law, order and justice at the provincial level.  We need to spearhead a coordinated international effort to support Security Sector Reform, using structures initiated by Congo’s government that have already shown modest successes: STAREC/ I-SSS framework.

The Congolese government must professionalize the Congolese Army, while dismantling armed groups. Soldiers need to be paid.  Congo needs a functioning justice system. We need to provide serious funding and technical assistance for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs & conflict minerals monitoring systems.

The report calls for a Special Advisor to be appointed immediately. A Thousand Sisters is calling for a Special Envoy. Again, why not ask for what Congo really needs?

Upcoming elections give us a hard-and-fast deadline, and along with other factors make this a rare, critical window of opportunity.

In other words, how about a comprehensive, coordinated long term strategy to stabilize Congo? How about now?

I will warn you, this report is written for policy wonks, not the grassroots. But don’t be scared off by the two page acronym guide. (My book had that too, remember?) Or lines like, “The multi-sectoral approach adopted by the United States should be articulated through an integrated strategy that ensures the chronological and geographical alignment of security, diplomatic, state-building and development interventions…” I don’t know what that means, either. I still got a ton out of the report.

I have a sneaking feeling the contents of this report will be under serious consideration for legislation in 2011. That alone makes it a must read.

ECI’s White Paper. Read it. Love it. Live it. Pass it on.

Link here: http://bit.ly/eP9z2b

Posted in News

A Very Congo Christmas

Friday, December 25th, 2009  |   1 Comment »

They told Francisca not to come home for Christmas. Too dangerous.  This is not a generalized sense of paranoia that hangs in the air in a war zone, but because of what happened last year.

            Francisca, a Congolese ex-pat and fellow Portland Run for Congo Women organizer, comes from Dungu, a small town in the far northeastern corner of Congo, nestled on the borders of Sudan and Uganda.  The notorious Ugandan militia the Lord’s Resistance Army has spread into Congo and south Sudan over the past couple of years. On Christmas Day 2008, four of Francisca’s Aunties and Uncles attended Christmas Mass.  The LRA showed up, and killed them along with all 400 people attending the holiday service.

            This year, the LRA have sent written threats announcing their plan to “celebrate” again.

            Why would anyone living under daily threat of attack choose to attend a holiday service?  One of my most striking first impressions of the Congolese was their fervent Christian faith. For instance, when I visited the village of Kaniola, pounded by twice weekly massacres by the Interahamwe (the militia responsible for the Rwandan genocide- still killing people), I was dumbfounded to find most villagers dressed to the nines- belts, loafers, suit jackets, dresses with lace trim.  Then I realized it was Sunday morning. They were heading to church. On another occasion, I asked a sister I sponsor through Women for Women, about the first thing she said to her children when she woke up in the hospital following an off-the-charts massacre that claimed the lives of her husband and nine year old son.  She replied, “I told them to Thank God. I lived.”

            How is it that in Congo, people who face some of the worst violence known to humanity, could maintain such strong faith, when our faith feels like it is stretched to its limit by a cheating boyfriend or a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average?  I’m not religious, so I’ won’t posture like an authority.  Instead, the observations of renowned psychiatrist and Jewish Holocaust survivor Viktor Frank may shed some light.  “The religious interest of the prisoners…was the most sincere imaginable.  The depth and vigor of religious belief often surprised and moved the new arrival…The last inner freedom cannot be lost.  It can be said that they were worthy of their suffering; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine human achievement. It was this spiritual freedom- which cannot be taken away- that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”

            In the face of overwhelming international news, as we are tempted to shut down and tune out, perhaps we can draw some inspiration from this kind of faith. We may not be able to waive a magic wand and make mass atrocity go away, but do we not we each possess that last of human freedoms to choose our reaction to it? In this way, is activism not an act of faith?

            This Christmas, Congo will be back in the national spotlight.  Oprah will be re-airing the show on Half the Sky and Congo, on which I appeared in the fall (your regular local time and station).  So this holiday, as you wait out the post meal bloat, go for another round of pie, or snuggle up with a loved one (the Congolese would not fault you any of it- in the face of everything, they still know how to party!)- or if you’re hunkered down avoiding all things tinsel and lights- consider watching Oprah and sharing Congo with your family and friends. Trust this simple act of faith will have reverberations beyond anything you can know, and will touch in you that last human freedoms. A beautiful way to celebrate!

            Happy holidays!

Posted in Congolese Sisters, Run for Congo Women, Women for Women International