The violence in Congo is worse than Darfur, but the west doesn’t care, says a s h smyth |
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In a continent infamous for its ethnic factionalism and civil strife, one African country continues to break all the unsavoury records. And it's not Sudan.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an estimated 4m people have been killed in fighting since 1998 (compared to Darfur's toll of some 200,000). Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped by combatants on all sides. Entire villages and tribes have disappeared.
Last month, 50,000 refugees fled fighting between rebels and government forces in the Goma region: thousands more died.
So why haven't we been reading about it? And why isn't anything being done?
The short answer is that, historically, the white man's looting and pillaging of the Congo was enough to make Cortez blush. Largely thanks to Conrad, the Belgian exploitation of Africa's most abundant country
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| An estimated 4m people have been killed in fighting since 1998. Tens of thousands of women have been raped by combatants |
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has become iconic, synonymous with greed and inhumanity. Now it's the 21st century and Africa is for the Africans: Westerners are persona non grata, especially in DR Congo.
But there are other factors. One is ethnicity. We're chary about condemning black-on-black violence, but we're all too keen to get excited about Arab-on-black violence. Because Arab means Muslim and War on Terror.
We've been anti-Sudan since bin Laden lived there in the 90s. But the Congolese only attack one another: so that's not our problem.
Then there's trade. For all their local problems, we're already getting DR Congo's goodies - diamonds, coltan, copper - and have been for decades. Belgian guilt be damned: they still receive nearly 40 per cent of DR Congo's exports. Sudan, on the other hand, needs weaning from China.
As for actually doing something, the DR Congo already hosts 18,000 peacekeepers - the UN's biggest force anywhere. This equates to one soldier per 138sq km. Liberal interventionists should bear in mind that DR Congo would make Iraq look like a picnic.
FIRST POSTED MAY 21, 2007
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