[Channel 4 News] Horror of Congo's forgotten war 2008.03.27

By Jonathan Miller:

"The war formally ended five years ago - but the fighting didn't. It just carried on, ignored by much of the world.

One shocking statistic: every single month 45,000 people are killed. The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the most dangerous and isolated places on earth.

The accompanying video contains photographs and film which offer a rare insight into Africa's forgotten war. They show the suffering of civilians and the use of rape as a weapon of war - against children as young as two.

Congo's recent history had offered hope: a fresh peace deal agreed in January between the Congolese government and the majority of the rebel groups operating in the eastern Kivu region, next door to Rwanda.

The aim was to end months of violence that has displaced tens of thousands of people. But many of the rebel groups who signed the deal have been blamed for the continuing atrocities.

One of the most notorious of them - the FDLR, or Interahamwe - did not participate in the act of engagement deal. The FDLR is made up of Hutus who crossed the border after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Photographer Susan Schulman has just returned from north Kivu with still and filmed footage, along with other material from Medecins Sans Frontieres."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Channel4
• News
• Congo
• Democratic
• Republic
• DRC
• RDC
• Africa
• Afrique
• war
• refugees
• rape
• Kivu
• Goma
• Interahamwe
• FDLR
• Hutu
• Rwanda

[MrJoelthegreat]

at the moment are countrys are in Afghanistan fighting a war on terror which has cost hardly any lives from the actual terror itself, and fighting for human rights for the taliban women. but when theres way more people dieing in places like rwanda are countrys ignore them. that to me shows are countrys are just in Afghanistan for wealth and power gain and not really to save lives

[Remieagles]

We invaded Iraq, then executed Saddam because he killed a couple hundred people in the 80s. Yet these guys are killing thousands every day... How does that make sense??

[Lordangers]

@nonofyall I said IF

[nonofyall]

@obglobgablob I feel ya man. I dont like that ''the blacks did this'' or ''the whites did that''. Because when you say it you usually include alot of people who are completly outside this matter. I think these liberals you talk about just dont know how to say words the right way. Never heard a white person say ''this is the white man's fault'' really. You shouldnt take blame for anything you havent done, but I do recommend we all try our best to make this a better world to live in.

[obglobgablob]

@nonofyall

You were expecting empty racism, weren't you?

I'm not thinking that there aren't white people out there who've played a hand in it. I just get tired of the usual liberal guilt scenario where people try to wholly blame white people/countries in general. But at the same time pointing the finger in the same manner at Africans is considered racism, even when you'd have to be insane to deny their part in any civil conflicts. It takes two to tango, after all.

[nonofyall]

@obglobgablob wow. Positively surprised. Well said.

[nonofyall]

@Lordangers what have anybody done to ''sort things out?''

[Lordangers]

@nonofyall I don't deny that we pay congolese men for diamonds, it is a despicable trade. However my point is that if we go and sort things out, people shout imperialist.

[obglobgablob]

@nonofyall

Exactly. It's bastards using other bastards as pawns and puppets. The colour of a person's skin is merely incidental. But, that's how the cold war, and the backlash (lol, almost typed 'blacklash') was really 'fought': By the US and the USSR backing different sides in various civil wars in Africa, South America and Asia. War by proxy: It's almost as effective, and it doesn't lose you as many votes as sending your own boys off to fight and die.

[nonofyall]

@obglobgablob okay, let's skip this race thing: Let's be completly objective and say:

the american GOVERNMENT supported the reign of the anti-communist leader Mobutu, a dictator who made Saddam look like santa claus. The Soviet union suported leftist guerilla in this country. Then they clashed with eachother. So let's not say it was white men: it was a superpower who sold weapons to madmen who then used it to destroy a country beyond recognition and take away every possibility of its development

[nonofyall]

@Lordangers That's the most messed up shit. Chinese, arabs and americans pay congolese men to gather diamonds for them. When they have paid them however, these folks go and buy AK47s and kill children with them. Congo needs to be split up between the different ethnicities so they can find a way to make their living.

[Lordangers]

@MrJoelthegreat Afghanistan was a poor country we abused and got our wealth from? Infact since invading our hold on their reserves has gone down because we have reduced corruption and the deposits have gone east now to China. If we invaded the Congo we would be seen as colonisers by Pan-Africans across the globe.