Action Memorandum on Congo - Admission/Application Essay Example

 Action Memorandum on Congo To: Barack Obama, President of the United States of America From: Anne-Rieke Stuhlmann, State Department Diplomat Subject: Diplomatic Solution to the Horn of Africa Conflict The conflict in Congo requires a prominent place on the United States’ foreign policy agenda for several reasons that I will highlight. Congo is in utter chaos, the “Goma Agreement” helped maintain peace in the country but all that changed in late August. The CNDP rebels have launched a series of attacks on the army bases established by the UN. The month of November was very crucial as the conflict picked up pace in this month claiming countless innocent lives. Origin of the conflict For many years the infrastructure and political system of the DRC (Congo) was in ruins. The country was effectively looted by its long-term president Mobutu. Corruption was terrible and the country fell into disrepair. This terrible period followed an even worse one when the country was a Belgian colonial possession. So the Congo has never had it easy. But the problems in recent years make all other problems pale in comparison. Nearly 5 million people have died in the last 12 years, more than in any other conflict since the Second World War. This conflict started off with the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Congo shares its border with Rwanda and some of the extremist Hutu militias crossed the border and entered Congo. In the words of one article, “Rwanda, now run by the Tutsi force which ended the genocide, has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it wants to wipe out the Hutu militias. Gen Nkunda has always claimed he was protecting Congolese Tutsis from attacks by the FDLR.” (What is the conflict about?). The rebels entered the country with the intention of exploiting the minerals available in the country and this has led to a huge conflict in the country. There is no proper road link or railway link in Congo and the rebels have certainly made the most of this fact. The country is cut off from the other countries and this means that for any help to arrive it would take a minimum of 3-4 days. This factor has been exploited to its very maximum by the rebels. The rebels have enriched themselves in many ways: some steal valuable resources such as timber. Others have taken to using old tin mines to produce coltan—a material that is increasingly valuable these days as it is needed for cell phones. The coltan is than smuggled out of the country and sold to the highest bidder. As demand has increased so have the illegal coltan operations in Congo. The rebels have little respect for human life. Enriched, they rape and pillage without compunction. This has just worsened the situation in the country. Current situation All the dignitries involved in the current peace process are aiming at one thing: getting the parties to stick to the 29 October ceasefire, the terms and conditions agreed by both the government as well as the rebels. The UN peacekeeping force, MONUC, has also been heavily involved in finding an amicable solution to this conflict. The country can only be stabilized when the local militia is dissolved and an army capable of protecting the country is established. The local rebels have gone on a rampage in Congo. The worstly affected part of Congo is North Kivu, there is no stability there whatsoever. The civilans located in the vicinity of North Kivu have been terribly affected by the conflict. Rwandan proxies fight each other and rob people to support themselves. They traffic arms and illegal minerals and timber. As do Ugandan proxy forces. The civilans will be protected only if the state authority establishes some contol in the east; only when this happens the law and order will be restored in the Republic of Congo. There are several UN troops deployed in Congo and Rwanda to ensure that he conflict comes to an end soon but fresh cases of conflict have been reported in October 2008, this included brutal attacks, abduction etc. The conflict started because of human rights abuses and the illegal exploitation of the natural resources. The unequal distribution of the land among the people is another factor that has triggered off this conflict. Recent fighting has been brutal and thrown several years of gains to the wind. Here is a useful description: The humanitarian costs of the violence have been catastrophic. Over 300,000 have been newly displaced since fighting resumed and the Congolese army has been implicated in looting, rapes and killings in and around Goma as troops abandoned their positions. The UN peacekeeping force MONUC, though 17,000-strong and the biggest of all UN missions, has shown itself unprepared and unable to respond to the unfolding crisis and fulfill its mandate to protect civilians. (DR Congo Conflict). Action Plan: The PANAFRICAN PLAN In order to successfully establish sustainable peace in Congo the roots of the conflict have to be tackled. First, the external interventions in Congo have to be eliminated; the rebels from Rwanda have to be sent back to their country. Their sole purpose is the exploitation of resources and this has to be strongly condemned by the authorities working toward peace in Congo. Once these rebels are out of Congo, the country will experience peace like never before. Conflict would surely end within a few days if these rebels from Rwanda are chased out of the country. Also there are Ugandan rebels in eastern Congo that are causing serious problems. These members of the Lords Resistance Army have to be removed. They are raping and pillaging and causing lots of problems. Both Rwanda and Uganda have to be more engaged in this process and convinced to work together and with the DRC to help solve this difficult problem. How can this be done? One key way to take action is through African Union. A pan-African solution is needed to this problem because it involves so many different countries and such a huge geographical part of Africa. Many African countries overlap one another ethnically due to the way Africa’s borders were delineated by colonial powers many years ago. This in part is a cause of this conflict and a reason why it has persisted for so long. The only real solution when dealing with nations and peoples so interwoven and entangled with one another is to take a broad view of things and use the African Union to help solve the crisis. For example, AU soldiers can be sent to the eastern Congo to help root out the FDLR and other rebel groups that have been causing trouble for so many years. The U.N. has not been successful—the focus must shift to the A.U. have more of a stake in the situation and are closer the ground. The A.U. can also be used to facilitate communications between all of the parties, especially the DRC and Rwanda and Uganda. Of course, the A.U. won’t be able to do this on its own. It will need the support of the international community, especially the United States and Great Britain. These countries have backed Rwanda and Uganda in the past and need to take a more measured approach to the crisis. The United States should put pressure on the government of Rwanda to retract its proxies from Congo. Political pressure has solved many conflicts and it is a proven fact that political pressure is more than capable of solving this long-standing conflict too. Another important thing that must be done is to ensure that no more rebels enter into Congo; the US can again play a pivotal role in ensuring the same. The intervention of the US is very necessary at this point and it is expect that the US would intervene sooner rather than later. The A.U. already received a lot of money from the international community, but it also desperately needs more equipment and better training. Think how much more effective it would be if the money that went to MONUC—billions of dollars—went to the A.U. instead. They would finally be able to effectively handle conflicts on the African continent. African leaders trust each other more than they do strangers from Scandinavia. The solution to African problems almost certainly resides in Africa itself. References “DR Congo Conflict.” In BBC. Retrieved on 12 March 2009 from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3075537.stm “The Current Situation.” In Crisis Group. Retrieved on 12 March 2009 from: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2829&l=1 “What is the conflict about?” In BBC. Retrieved on 12 March 2009 from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3075537.stm Read More