THE DR CONGO AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES FROM 1990-2016
3.3 THE DR CONGO AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL
3.3.6 Human rights abuses in DR Congo
3.3.6.1 Freedom of expression
According to UNJHRO (United Nations Joint Human Rights Office), journalists and media workers in the DR Congo have since long been subjected to intimidation or harassment.
Arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions of journalists are widely reported in the country (Monusco-OHCHR, 2016:17).
Yet, the DR Congo has signed several international agreements concerning freedom of expression which the country is supposed to respect. Among these agreements are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the General Assembly, resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, the convention against torture, adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1984, entering into force on 26 June 1987,
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and the African Charter on Human Rights adopted on 26 June 1981 in Nairobi, Kenya (Monusco-OHCHR, 2016:6).
The DR Congo’s 2006 constitution subscribes in its article 215 to these agreements promising to respect them:
« Les traités et accords internationaux régulièrement conclus ont, dès leur publication, une autorité supérieure à celle des lois, sous réserve pour chaque traité ou accord, de son application par l'autre partie» (Assemblée, 2006).
This means: "Treaties and international agreements duly concluded shall, as soon as they are published, have an authority superior to the laws, subject to each treaty or agreement being applied by the other party".
Rights of physical integrity as guaranteed by internationally accepted tools are protected by article 16 of the Congolese constitution. The article refers to the sacralisation of the human person and protection thereof by the state.
The rights of the liberty and security of the person are guaranteed by the constitution in art. 17 and 18.
The rights to freedom and peaceful assembly are guaranteed by art. 25 and 26 of the Congolese constitution.
The rights to freedom of expression set down in art 23 and 24 of the Congolese constitution stipulate that everyone has the right to express his or her convictions and opinions.
Article 23 : « Toute personne a droit à la liberté d'expression. Ce droit implique la liberté d'exprimer ses opinions ou ses convictions, notamment par la parole, l'écrit et l'image, sous réserve du respect de la loi, de l'ordre public et des bonnes mœurs ».
Article 24 : « Toute personne a droit à l'information. La liberté de presse, la liberté d'information et d'émission par la radio et la télévision, la presse écrite ou tout autre moyen de communication sont garanties sous réserve du respect de l'ordre public, des bonnes mœurs et des droits d'autrui. La loi fixe les modalités d'exercice de ces libertés.
Les médias audiovisuels et écrits d'Etat sont des services publics dont l'accès est garanti de manière équitable à tous les courants politiques et sociaux. Le statut des médias d'Etat est établi par la loi qui garantit l'objectivité, l'impartialité et le pluralisme d'opinions dans le traitement et la diffusion de l'information ».
Article 25 : « La liberté des réunions pacifiques et sans armes est garantie sous réserve du respect de la loi, de l'ordre public et des bonnes mœurs ».
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Article 26 : « La liberté de manifestation est garantie. Toute manifestation sur les voies publiques ou en plein air, impose aux organisateurs d'informer par écrit l'autorité administrative compétente. Nul ne peut être contraint à prendre part à une manifestation.
La loi en fixe les mesures d'application”.
In English: Article 23: Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right implies freedom to express one's opinions or beliefs, notably by word, in writing and images, subject to respect for the law, public order and morality.
Article 24: Everyone has the right to information. Freedom of the press, freedom of information and broadcast by radio and television, print media or any other means of communication are guaranteed, subject to respect for public order, morality, the rights of other persons. The law lays down the procedures for the exercise of these freedoms.
State-owned audio-visual media and writings are public services whose access is guaranteed equally to all political and social currents. The status of state media is established by the law which guarantees the objectivity, impartiality and pluralism of opinions in the processing and dissemination of information.
Article 25: Freedom of peaceful and unarmed meetings is guaranteed, subject to respect for the law, public order and good morals.
Article 26: Freedom of manifestation is guaranteed. Any demonstration on public roads or in open-air spaces requires that the organizers inform the competent administrative authority in writing. No one may be compelled to take part in a demonstration. The law shall lay down the implementing measures.
In spite of these constitutional provisions many cases of human rights abuse have been reported since the beginning of the Third Republic. It has been shown that public freedoms have been denied to the Congolese people in many ways, including freedom of expression. The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office raises concerns that people in the country are as a rule deprived of freedom of expression, information and peaceful assembly.
Among human rights abuses in the DR Congo were at the end of 2016 according to UNJHRO the killing of around 40 civilians, the injuring of 147 and the arrest of 917. Many more were arrested and detained on suspicion of intended participation in demonstrations (Monusco-OHCHR, 2016:10-12). In addition, the country experienced the discovery of
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mass graves. According to the UN mission in the DR Congo, until July 2017, at least 80 mass graves had been identified (UN: Another 38 probable mass graves found in DR Congo).
In a summary of the cycle of violence that followed on the independence of the DR Congo, Acker (2005:79) estimates that the cost in lives of the war in the East of the country amounts to around 3 of the 20 million civilian inhabitants between 1998 and 2001.
Generally, people focus on death by gunshots without taking account of other consequences of the war. In addition to those who die in combat, there are others who perish from lack of food, clean water, medicines and shelter. Acker (2005:79) estimates that in some areas, around three quarters of children died before their second year of age. He traces sources of the Eastern conflict as far back as the early 1920s when conflicts regularly erupted.
The DR Congo’s conflict has been perceived as the most ignored and deadliest war since World War 2. International institutions have never declared the killing in this warfare a genocide, comparing it to other such conflicts. In his paper Stewart (2006:44) summarises the numbers of people that have died in conflicts. In the years between 1998 and 2002, the DR Congo has, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), seen the death in war of an estimated 3.3 million people. No other crises have led to the loss of so many lives. The total number of victims of all the world’s crises in the same period does not exceed 3.3 million dead. Bosnia had an estimated 250 000 dead, Rwanda 800 000, Kosovo 12 000, and Darfur in Sudan 70 000.
The cycle of violence perpetrated in the DR Congo since independence consists in the following incidents.
1. Soon after independence in 1960, a war Kasaian and Katangese secessionists broke out. The fighting involved as opponents the Force de la République and Belgian parachutists (1960-1962).
2. The second instance is the Mulele’s rebellion which began in the Bandundu Province and set the Kivu, Maniema and the Province Orientale on fire (1963- 1965).
3. In 1966 a mutiny took place by Katangese gendarmes in Kisangani.
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4. In 1977-1978 there was a war, beginning on 8 March 1977, in Moba and lasting 80 days. This war constituted the first attack of the FNLC against the Mobutu regime and against what was perceived as neo-colonialism.
5. In 1991 and 1993 looting occurred throughout the country. The pillages meant, that the multi-party system of which the introduction had been announced in 1990, did have a difficult start.
6. In 1996-1997 the war of the Alliance of the Liberation Forces (AFDL) took place. It overthrew the Mobutu regime that took refuge in Morocco.
7. In 1998-2002 the DR Congo was invaded by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, resulting in the formation of several rebel movements.
8. In 2004-2007 General Laurent Nkunda Batuare led a war in North and South Kivu.
9. The years 2008-2009 saw the insurrection in the national army of the Tutsi military group, the CNDP (Comité National pour la Défense du Peuple, or, National committee for the Defence of the People).
10. In 2012-2013 the rebel movement M23 went public with the claim that the agreements signed on 23 March 2010 between the government and the CNDP were not respected (Revue, 2015:231).
11. In 2016 there was a militia uprising in Kasai. The group claimed to belong to the Chief Kamuina Nsapu who was in August 2016 killed in a police operation after he had challenged the authority of the central government.
A cycle of violence such as summarized above, encouraged the illegitimate extraction of raw materials as well as illicit arms trafficking in Congolese border areas. It is clear that there are many possible causes of political instability and warfare in the DR Congo. It would seem that each period of a few years had its own version of war. Writing on conflict in the DR Congo, Koko (2011: 140-143) mentions other causes of persistent conflicts.
Firstly, on the regional level there is the non-existence of a regional perspective on post- conflict peacebuilding, for example in the Great Lakes region. Secondly, the endemic weakness of the country’s state institutions is a problem. In the third place, the economic decay affecting the country for several decades now, may be an instigator of violent conflict, as is true also for the social dislocation precipitated by state failure and the chronic downward trend of the economy.
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There have been serious attempts to overcome the threats of violence and evil in the country, for example by peace building. Some consultations and attempts to reconciliation that have taken place since 1990 are listed below.
Summarising consultations for peace and reconciliation since 1990 Among the consultations that have taken place are:
1. The agreement of Outenica
2. The national sovereign conference, August 7, 1991
3. The Lusaka agreement, 10/07/1999. It was signed by Angola, DR Congo, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe and aimed at stopping the second war in DR Congo. Added signatures were from Jean Pierre Bemba on 1st August 1999 and by 50 founders of the RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie) on 31 August 1999. Note that the second war had started in 1998 involving 9 African nations and more than 30 army groups.
4. The Acts of National Consultation, 24/02-11/03/2000, held in Kinshasa by the religious confessions.
5. The inter-Congolese dialogue held in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, 15/10/2001. Joined by almost 80 people from the government, rebel groups, political opposition and civil society.
6. The global and inclusive agreement of Pretoria signed on 16/12/2002.
7. The agreement of Sun City in South Africa on 19/04/2003. It was the result of the Inter-Congolese dialogue.
8. The transition constitution of the DR Congo in 2003.
9. The transition government of ‘One President plus four vice-presidents’, on 30/06/2003.
10. The agreement of 23 March 2009.
11. The agreement of the ‘Cité de l’Union Africaine’ in Kinshasa on 18/10/2016. It coincided with the ending of the last term of President Joseph Kabila. The agreement was facilitated by SEM Edem Kodjo. Many parties were however not in agreement with decisions taken, including the Catholic Church.
12. The Saint Sylvestre agreement came last, on 31/12/2016, under the leadership of the Catholic priests of CENCO (Conference Episcopale Nationale du Congo).
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Chapter Three discusses aspects of the socio-political situation of the DR Congo from the early days of democracy onwards and starting further back in 1879 when Leopold II, king of the Belgians, established authority over the Congo Basin and 400 local chiefs signed ’treaties’ ceding land ownership to the International Association of Congo (AIC) under the control of the king. A free State of Congo was created in 1885. Although Leopold II ceded the Free State of the Congo in 1907 to Belgium, the lives of people did not change much. Railway lines were constructed to complement the existing transport network for the exporting of gold, coffee, sugar and so on. Unfortunately, from Leopold II through Belgian administrations onward, and continued by Mobutu, Laurent Desire Kabila and Joseph Kabila, the country has been managed as if it were a private possession.
As far as natural resources and wealth are concerned, the DR Congo is one of the richest countries globally, with over 1100 types of minerals, in value equivalent to the GDPs of the US and EU combined.
When the country started on its democratic journey in 1990 with the introduction of a multi-party system, it appeared as if Mobutu, by accepting the need for transition, was responding to a perception of the Kairos.
The DR Congo experienced an extremely long transition period from being a colony to becoming a practising democracy, namely 16 years. The first part of the transition period was characterized by scenes of pillage, leading to the worst GDP experienced between 1990 and 2015. The amount in the state budget set aside for education was 30% in 1960 and shrunk to 0.6% in 2014.
The statistics show that today 82.2% of workers are regarded as disguised unemployed persons, unable to live of their wages. Overwhelmingly, the main cause of poverty in the DR Congo is the mismanagement of natural resources under pressure of corrupted stakeholders. Besides, there are the growing problems of external exploitation and manipulation of the justice system, thus facilitating human rights abuses.
Not the least of these problems is concerned with the inability to bring political careers in the DR Congo to a peaceful conclusion. If it was like that at the closure of Mobutu’s
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regime, it appears to be no different today. Chapter Four focuses on the Protestant Church and its stance regarding socio political matters.
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