Global Policy Forum

By John Shattuck*

A devastating war has raged in central Africa for nine years. This war dates to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which the world did nothing to stop. Many of those who led the genocide escaped into Zaire, which was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998 after the fall of its dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.

The war has continued while the world looks on, claiming more than 4 million civilian victims to date in Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo and destroying the most basic of all human rights, the right to live. A seemingly endless wave of attacks has been directed by cynical leaders, ethnic extremists and warlords against each other and their civilian hostages -- populations subjected to every conceivable crime against humanity, from mass killings to mass rapes, ethnic slaughter to forced starvation, village destruction to the recruitment of armies of child soldiers.

Now there is a glimmer of hope that the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe in a half-century can be brought to an end. Newly aggressive peacekeeping in northeastern Congo by a French-led multinational force and the United Nations, and the willingness of some of the warring factions in Congo to put down their arms and come together in a transitional government, have raised hopes for peace. What will it take to realize these hopes?

I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Congo to review the U.N. operation there and assess the prospects for peace. I came away with a strong impression of what must be done by other nations to advance the central African peace process, and particularly by the United States, which so far has played a passive and sometimes negative role in the region.

First, the international community must put pressure on Congo's neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda, to stop destabilizing Congo by sending arms and military advisers into the eastern provinces, promoting the plunder of Congolese resources under the guise of providing "border security." As these two countries have vied for influence over their larger, weaker neighbor, their warlord puppets in the Ituri region and the Kivu provinces have created a perpetual state of conflict. Foreign stimulation of the conflict must end, the warlords must be isolated and those who support them must be pressured to stop.

The United States in particular bears a responsibility for cracking down on the arms flow into eastern Congo. Incredibly, just two days after the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution July 28 imposing an embargo on "the direct or indirect supply" of arms or assistance to "armed groups and militias operating in the territory of North and South Kivu and Ituri," the United States announced it was lifting its own embargo on weapons sales to Rwanda, which has a history of arming its clients in eastern Congo. As announced by the State Department, this means that Washington will no longer "automatically deny export licenses or permits to companies seeking to sell arms to the Rwandan government and its military."

It is imperative that Washington re-impose an arms ban on Rwanda. In addition, the United States should make clear to both Rwanda and Uganda that further economic assistance to those countries will be conditioned on their stopping the flow of arms into eastern Congo and supporting the Congolese peace process. President Bush's praise this summer for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as a "regional peacemaker" sent a signal just as damaging to the peace process as the lifting of the arms embargo on Rwanda. The United States must get its signals straight.

Second, the international community must help the Congolese end the culture of impunity that has allowed warlords to commit human rights atrocities without any prospect of punishment. Those who oppose the peace process and the transitional government should have their foreign bank accounts frozen and their visas denied. Any further crimes against humanity should be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. And a U.N commission of experts, with Congolese participation, should be established to recommend a framework for both domestic and international institutions charged with bringing justice to the Congo.

Third, the international community must give full support to the United Nations and its specialized agencies as they work to stop the fighting, create conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and protect the transitional government as it launches a fragile peace process. At the same time, the United States and other international donors should assist the new government in creating institutions that can begin to deliver basic security, economic opportunity and democratic governance to the Congolese people. But any aid must be dependent on continuing steps by the government to end the conflict.

Finally, the world must overcome the view trenchantly expressed nine years ago after the Rwanda genocide by the heroic but tragically undercut commander of the U.N. forces there, Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire: "Fundamentally, to be very candid and soldierly, who the hell cared" about what happened in central Africa? After ignoring the region for too long, the United States can now answer that question.

*The writer, CEO of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston, is a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.

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