Can the UN intervention brigade bring lasting peace and stability to the war-torn country?
South to North Last
Modified: 27 Jul 2013
08:41
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ubject is off limits - Redi Tlhabi talks frankly to inspiring
and intriguing personalities from across the world.
On March 28, 2013, the
United Nations Security Council authorised a 3,000 strong "Force Intervention
Brigade" to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - the first of its kind in UN
history.
Many believe that the
United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC has failed. The conflict
continues and by some estimates 5.4 million are dead, and hundreds of thousands
of women are raped every year.
And fearing the rising death toll, the UN has broken tactic: the peacemakers
are going to war.
But is this the way to
create internal peace and prosperity in the DR Congo? And is it the way forward
for international peacekeeping missions?
In a passionate and
heated edition of South2North, Redi invites Ambassador Bene M'Poko from
the embassy of the DRC in South Africa; American author Jason K. Stearns; and
former CEO of Africa Liberty and civil leader Bernard Katompa to debate the
past, present and future of the Congo.
M'Poko explains how the resources of the DR Congo have historically made it a
target for external intervention, and that the current government needs time to
recover.
"In 1960, the year of
independence, we had less than ten college graduates - so it took a long time to
send children to school, to build institutions and so forth ... But those
institutions were weakened by the conflict - and the source of the conflict is
resources. If this was a desert country some place with no resources, nobody
would touch us. Nobody would be interested."
Stearns, author of the
book Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the
Congo explains that the reason the DRC has recently been largely ignored by
the media is because of the complexity of the situation on the ground.
"Basically
epidemiologists tell us that 5 million people have died, but they have died in
ways that are very difficult to simplify and to tell. And we don't care about
things that are difficult to simplify and tell - especially when they're
happening in Africa. So in the Congo, 90 percent plus of the victims are
indirect victims of violence - in other words these are people displaced by
violence who then died due to diarrhoea, malaria, pneumonia - far away from TV
cameras."
Katompa believes that
ineffective leadership and weak institutions are to blame for the sluggish
progress in the Congo. M'Poko challenges Katompa pointing to the projected 8.2
percent growth in the economy.
"What is being said is
not the reality on the ground. When you are talking about GDP growth, you have
to see the base of that GDP growth. You're talking about 17 billion of GDP, and
you're talking about 8.2 percent growth … Now you have this in an environment
where there is no proper regulations in terms of the financial system, there is
no regulation in terms of mining resources, no accountability … So you have a
situation which is a pandemonium … When you are talking about economic growth,
does that growth translate into a better life for your people?"
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