Global Policy Forum

By Daniel Bases

Hunger, disease, homelessness and abuse has left a staggering 16 million Congolese -- more than a third of the population -- with their lives in tatters as a result of the country's protracted civil war, a U.N. official reported on Tuesday. Carolyn McAskie, the acting U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said the economy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had all but crumbled because of the war and decades of mismanagement and neglect in the Central African nation. Food was short, the health system had collapsed, some 200,000 people barely survived on berries in rain forests while others were used as forced labor for competing armies, she told the U.N. Security Council in an open meeting. ``Thus far, all diplomatic and military efforts to end what has been described as 'Africa's First World War' have not shown results, while the humanitarian crisis in the DRC remains one of the worst in the world, both in terms of intensity and magnitude,'' McAskie said.

Fighting began in August 1998 with rival rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Ugandan soldiers trying to topple Congo President Laurent Kabila. He in turn is supported by troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia. The United Nations (news - web sites) has fielded a small peacekeeping force of military observers but is waiting for the fighting to subside before dispatching troops. In government-controlled areas, restrictive administrative procedures often prevent access by relief workers while in rebel-held regions security and fighting has kept aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of people. Children have died in large numbers, particularly in the east where rebel activity is strongest. McAskie cited a study by the International Rescue Committee, which concluded that up to 600,000 children under five, may have died during warfare in the east, either through violence, epidemics or malnutrition.

Random Violence Prevalent

She said random violence against civilian and flagrant human rights violations were prevalent throughout the country. ``Both government authorities and rebel movements have used the war as an excuse for arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judiciary executions, widespread death sentences and the harassment of journalists, human rights activists and political opponents,'' she told the 15-member body.

McAskie implored the international community to be generous in humanitarian assistance and not let politics prevent funding emergency aid, which this year has amounted to $43.6 million of the $71.4 million requested. Most of it was for food, with health and child protection programs receiving little money. Among the estimated 16 million people affected by the war, fewer than half received assistance this year, often on a sporadic basis, she said. ``The international community must be even handed and increase support to humanitarian assistance regardless of progress in the political domain,'' McAskie said.

But with so many countries involved in the war, politics reared immediately as it has in past council debates. Netherlands ambassador Peter van Walsum said ever since the Security Council endorsed a 1999 agreement among the combatants, drawn up in Lusaka, Zambia, ``some delegations have tried to give our involvement a slighting different slant.'' The distinction, he said between ``invited and uninvited troops'' or ``allies and aggressors'' was introduced in the council while Kabila's broken promises for a dialogue with rebels were overlooked. But he said the Lusaka agreement made no such distinctions.

In response Namibia, which has a council seat and whose armies are supporting Kabila, accused van Walsum of distorting reality between the government and Rwanda and Uganda. ``There is aggression of the DRC,'' Ambassador Martin Andjaba said. ``That is a fact and we cannot change it. There are forces that are invited in the DRC and there are forces that are invited force in the DRC. ``You may wish to distort but that distortion will not change the reality,'' Andjaba said.