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SUFFERING AND DESPAIR:
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE CONGO
Testimony by
Anne C. Edgerton, Advocate
Refugees International
To the House Committee on International Relations
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights
May 17, 2001
want to thank the Chairperson, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for providing the opportunity for Refugees International (RI) to testify on the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Congo, and on the issue of child soldier recruitment there.
I returned exactly one week ago from a five-week RI humanitarian assessment mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, an area I have worked in, studied and written about since January 1995. My focus on this mission was on the following issues: internal displacement caused by continuing insecurity; humanitarian access to displaced populations; the extent of the withdrawal of foreign forces from the Congo and its impact; and the demobilization of child soldiers. In each of these focus areas the situation was worse than RI had anticipated.
RI recognizes that there have been positive developments in the Congo this year: the removal of Laurent Kabila; the installation as President of his son, Joseph, who has pledged to work for peace; the deployment of UN peacekeepers; and the commitments by the countries with troops in the Congo to withdraw from the DRC and support the Lusaka Peace Accord. The participation 12 of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council in a wide-ranging visit to the DRC and neighboring countries underscores that this is a moment of opportunity for peace in the Congo and the wider Great Lakes region.
These developments, however, are having little immediate positive impact on the long-suffering people of the Congo. Displacement is still occurring in remote areas as armies withdraw and re-deploy to new territory in the country. Access to certain populations has improved, but the recent killings of six workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross sent a harsh message that access may still be problematic and that humanitarian workers may be targets. Recruitment of child soldiers is not only continuing, but increasing, with forced recruitment now taking place in more remote areas and training camps.
In short, I see no reason based on my most recent trip to the DRC to modify RI’s conclusion on the humanitarian situation there in December 2000: nowhere in the world is the gap between humanitarian needs and the response greater than in the DRC. Only if peace is achieved and humanitarian assistance substantially increased can this gap be bridged.
As the International Rescue Committee has recently documented, and as this Committee has already heard this morning, 2.5 million women, children, and men have died in the eastern Congo alone as the result of the war that started in August 1998. The current estimate is that two million Congolese are displaced. As new areas open up it has become possible to conduct nutrition surveys that reveal disturbing levels of malnutrition. Overall, 35% of the population surveyed is suffering from malnutrition and of this amount 22% is severe. Claude Jibidar of the World Food Program in Bukavu in eastern Congo reported that the results of a WFP nutrition assessment in Kasika resulted in apparently confusing data --- there were higher rates of malnutrition among adults than among children. He and his staff then realized the implications: most of the children had already died.
What is taking place in the Congo at the moment, especially in the east, is nothing less than a slow motion holocaust. Yet in the face of this humanitarian catastrophe the response of the international community, including the United States, is shockingly meager. The emergency programs of the United Nations system are 70% under-funded for calendar year 2001. A recent information bulletin of the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau of Humanitarian Response attempts to impress the casual reader with a figure of $68 million in assistance to the DRC in the current FY2001. The problem is that most of this funding, $42.4 million, is in the form of food aid and medical assistance that is not specifically targeted to the eastern parts of the Congo where mortality is greatest. The specific pledges by officials of the previous Administration to make the crisis in the Congo a major humanitarian and political priority fizzled after a promising international aid coordination and planning meeting in Geneva in October 2000.
The obstacles to delivering the aid that does reach the Congo are enormous. Access to war-affected civilians is limited by two great factors: the enormous territory of the Congo, unrelieved by working roads, which makes it the most expensive country to deliver aid to in the world. The rampant insecurity, the result of violence between and among three rebel movements, two armed militias, and five national armies on Congolese soil, further complicates delivery in the eastern portion of the country and often prevents access to vulnerable populations for months at a time.
The nominal effort of the international community to address the security situation and facilitate the implementation of the Lusaka Peace Accord is the deployment to date of 1,784 observers and troops collectively known as MONUC. As MONUC troops have been deployed the Congolese people have welcomed them with much excitement and expectation. As times passes, however, more questions are being raised about the extent of their mandate. Their limited numbers prevent them from protecting humanitarian workers much less the civilian population. Indeed, the primary role of the majority of the MONUC troops is merely to protect the 484 observers included in their number.
Demobilization of Child Soldiers
It was obvious from RI’s recent mission that all sides were continuing to recruit child soldiers. Forced recruitment, prevalent in towns a few months ago, has not ceased, but following local and international outcry against it, the focus has shifted to less visible rural areas. All sides continue to voice public support for child demobilization, yet, based on dozens of interviews, RI’s view is that no party or army or militia in the continuing conflict in the Congo has refrained from recruiting child soldiers.
UNICEF, the lead UN agency responding to child soldier usage, is attempting a two-track approach to this dilemma: preventing recruitment and preparing reintegration of child soldiers. Since all sides are still openly recruiting, however, the UN has shifted to two minimum standards: no recruiting of new child soldiers and no sending child soldiers to the frontlines. Neither of these standards is currently being met.
For even these minimum standards to be attained, the UN needs to have international support. While donors voice commitment to child demobilization efforts, they demonstrate a clear lack of will in follow-through. Last year UNICEF-Kinshasa asked for $15 million for their child demobilization programs but only received $4 million. UNICEF told RI that this year they asked for even less and have so far received fewer pledges.
Recommendations
In the light of the above analysis Refugees International makes the following recommendations for a response by the United States to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Congo:
The U.S. should be actively involved, either independently or through the United Nations, in working to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Peace in the DRC is the key to achieving peace and ending suffering in the wider Great Lakes region.
The U.S. needs to provide substantially more humanitarian assistance to the DRC, especially in the eastern part of the country. This assistance should be seen as an investment in peace, giving Congolese the hope that if the conflict begins to wane that their basic needs can and will be met. One urgent priority is support for demobilization programs to give economic alternatives to young men who have only known military life.
The U.S. should support an expansion of MONUC’s mandate and size. The mandate needs to include logistical support to humanitarian aid efforts by making MONUC infrastructure, such as communications equipment, air transports, and trucks and warehouse facilities, available to the agencies. MONUC should at least increase to its original planned deployment of 5,500 soldiers and consideration should be given to further expansion as the implementation of the Lusaka Peace Accord moves forward.
On the issue of child soldiers, the United States should increase funding for demobilization programs directed towards children. Public statements should focus on this issue when evidence is available that recruitment is continuing. The U.S. can clarify to all parties, including the foreign countries involved in the conflict, that respect for human rights, including the rights of children, is an important determinant of international legitimacy. The U.S. can encourage and provide the means for the DRC to implement existing legislation, passed one year ago, to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers.
As soon as practicable the United States should work with the multilateral aid and financial institutions to begin the planning and implementation of a major infrastructure reconstruction program for the DRC.
This is a rare moment of opportunity to move toward peace and end 10 years of fighting in the DRC, fighting that has contributed to instability and poverty in many neighboring countries. The U.S. and the international community must seize this moment. A greater investment in peace today will save thousands, maybe millions, of lives tomorrow and replace despair with hope.
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