HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[While most of us are being spoon-fed dollops of anti-ZANU-PF propaganda with our daily news it is interesting to note that another election, besides the one in Zimbabwe, is going on in Africa in much more repressive conditions and nobody in the West is saying a word. I am speaking of course of the elections in the Republic of the Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville, i.e. the DR Congo's smaller neighbor to the north). Since 1997, when Patrick Lissouba, Congo-Brazzaville's elected president was overthrown by a military coup backed by the French oil company Elf, the country has been wracked by civil war and massacres perpetrated by the new French-backed ruling clique. Five years after the coup elections are now finally being held, but in deplorable conditions and under the iron grip of the country's military dictator (euphamistically called a "military ruler" by the BBC). The only opposition candidate has withdrawn, the majority of the country is boycotting the elections (in order not to give them any false-legitimacy), and the ruling government continues to act with impunity as its thugs go on systematically murdering dissidents throughout the country in numbers that eclipse any of the inter-party political violence occuring in Zimbabwe (most of which is instigated from the outside anyway). Yet where are the election monitors? Where are the calls for sanctions on Congo-Brazzaville? Where are the self-righteous editorials and pronouncements of the Western press and the governments they serve? Nothing but a defening silence greets the subversion of democracy and the strangling of freedom in the Republic of the Congo, or the genocide in the neighboring DR Congo. Yet the press focuses on precisely the very same government that is actively opposing the genocide in the Congo and undertaking the final stage of decolonization by liberating farmland from the grasp of a racist settler-colonist elite and giving it back to the poor and landless! It seems that only when white bodies bleed does the West remember morality, for the rest it is subjugation and oppression as usual. While Zimbabwe has proven itself to be an open, vibrant democracy, the same cannot be said for the neoliberal puppet-regime on the north-side of the Congo river. The real "democrats" in Africa, I guess, are the new breed of "military rulers" like Nguesso (Congo-Brazaville), Kagame (Rwanda), Obasanjo (Nigeria), Museveni (Uganda), Buyoya (Burundi), and of course Tsvangirai - who was caught on tape saying he would support a military coup to remove Mugabe - all of which are Western darlings and dubbed "democrats" for their efforts in imposing neoliberal economic, political, and strategic policies on unwilling populations. That is why the BBC focuses so intensely on the "relief" that unamed persons feel that the elections in Congo-Brazzaville went off in peace and quiet - that of the grave by the way - in the most obviously rigged elections in Africa held in years.]
Monday, 11 March, 2002, 12:55 GMT
Congo's leader heads for re-election
A team from the EU is monitoring the elections
Congo's military ruler, Denis Sassou Nguesso, is well ahead of his rivals in the country's presidential election, according to early partial results.With under a third of ballots counted, Congo's state television credited General Sassou Nguesso with support of at least 80% in several key areas.
Sassou Nguesso: Accused of rigging elections
The general has been expected to win Sunday's election, after the main opposition candidate withdrew complaining of fraud and called for a boycott. Turnout in many parts of the capital, Brazzaville, was low. All vehicles were barred from using the roads. All shops, restaurants and markets were told to stay shut. So those who took this historic opportunity did so in unusual peace and tranquillity.
Voters stay away
But even with the streets practically empty the polling stations themselves were some of the quietest places to spend the day. Turnout got off to a slow start and remained that way for much of Sunday. Only once the temperature had dropped late in the afternoon did more people make their way to the nearest school or municipal office to cast their votes. Some voters blamed the low attendance on disorganisation saying many names had been left off the role. Others, who are opposition supporters, said they were following the advice of their leader, Andre Milongo, and were boycotting the election.
Fears of violence
Mr Milongo pulled out of the race on Friday saying Mr Sassou Nguesso had rigged the vote in advance. His supporters deny this and said people would vote for him because he guarantees the peace and stability of the country. The last presidential elections in Congo held in 1992 were followed by a decade of extremely violent civil wars. Even Mr Sassou Nguesso's harshest critics say their priority is to avoid history repeating itself and there is widespread relief that the elections passed off peacefully.
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