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African Politics
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05:00am Nov 20, 2002 EST
DRC: UN Supervision is Vital to a
Democratic Transition in the DR of Congo
http://www.cides-congo.org
Washington, Nov. 20, 2002 - To review of the Congo's sorry
political history since 1960 demonstrate why the transitional government will be
incapable of performing its duties without international supervision and
assistance. On the 30th of April 2001 the Washington Post wrote: "Death toll in
Congo war may approach 3 million." This is especially true in the eastern part
of the Congo where the population is suffering under a harsh occupation by the
armies of Rwanda and Uganda surpassing even the brutalities of the Serbs in
Bosnia.
The DRC is the victim of a disastrous aggression from Rwanda and
Uganda. The military invasion coupled with a repressive occupation has inflicted
great pain on the people of the Congo. The aggressors have destroyed civil
society, ruined the economy, and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people
who stood defenceless in their opposition to foreign occupiers.
As far
as the international community's view of the Congo is concerned, no one would
disagree that the DRC's political and economic image is negative and has been
badly damaged by the actions of the entire strata of incompetent political
leaders.
In fact, only UN supervision can help begin to turn tide toward
meaningful political reform. While forty years of independence is a very long
time, it is regrettably not sufficient to allow for a lasting peace in DR Congo.
One of the threshold questions is how to restore confidence and hope
among the Congolese people? CIDES believes that the time is comes to stop the
war and to invite the Congolese together around the table, unfortunately, the
inter-Congolese dialogue can’t help to design a new political legal framework
that will be far superior to the chaos of the past.
Can we fail to
notice that the inter-Congolse who is hardly guarantee the political and
economic stability in DRC can bring up sad political experiences that so
disordered the country in the past?
In this way the Congolese promise
for the future will be unlikely the chaos ameliorated and a negative spin on the
whole region. The original sin to all Congolese politician groups is that they
have no clear political or economic agenda for the establishment of real
political and economic stability in the DRC.
The Kabila's government
seeking to legitimise its power, despite their catastrophic mismanagement may
still be irreparably damaged by dictatorship mentality which discourages
legitimate investment capital.
The Mobutists, both within the rebellion
and the traditional political opposition wishing to return to power through the
inter-Congolese dialogue after having economically looted the country during the
past regime more than three decades (1965-1997).
What exactly do we
propose now? The entire operation of the transition should be under the overall
supervision of a United Nations Administrator appointed by the Secretary
General. A good example of such a successful operation was the UN supervision of
the transition in Namibia from January 1988 to March 1990.
Only the UN
supervisor and his staff can make sure that the elections and overall transition
are done in a neutral manner. It has an experienced election support division
includes registration of voters, distribution of equipment and training of
voting officials.
The priority at this stage is to democratically ensure
swift exit of the current un-elected regime, to recognise the integral nature of
the region and neighbouring governments. CIDES who understand the need to
establish a stable legal infrastructure, to create a climate for economic growth
and to ensure the protection of investment assets, believes that the most
appropriate role for the UN continues to be best aimed at assisting the DRC in
designing and bringing to fruition a new democratic political organisation.
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