Google Earth Community: Waiting for Peace in Bukavu, Congo (with updates)

Edit 11/18/08: This began as a post about Bukavu. Due to ever-increasing warfare in this region of the Congo, this post has expanded to cover much of the east of the country. As events develop and issues broaden to include, for instance, the mountain gorillas of Virunga, I am adding updates.

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Kinshasa or simply DRC. There's a Wikipedia post about Cathedrale Notre Dame de la Paix, which is what led me to find it on the ground. It's an impressively intact and serene building in this chaotic city of about 250,000. The more I read about Bukavu and the South Kivu Province, in fact the entire eastern region, the more the name "Our Lady of Peace" seems a statement of false hope.

Photos de Bukavu

l'Afrique.com congolais.com

Bukavu, in South Kivu Province, is in the "Wild East" region of DRC. The eastern Congo (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Katanga Provinces) is subjected to invasion, re-invasion, civil butchery (civil war is too tame), refugee-militias from Rwanda, and government armies of the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda. The eastern Congo suffered from overflow of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which would prove to be a major de-stabilizing event of the East-Central region of Africa: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and E. DRC. As you will see below, the primary vicitms - and now the primary targets - of this massive upheaval have been women and children. This madness is unfathomable, but I think it's important to know about it.

Exploitation, war and hunger have exhausted the people of this region. The DRC has had what some call "the longest civil war no one has heard of," the roots of which were encouraged & financed during the Cold War by the West - especially the US - in the early '60s (see International Crisis Group, below, for more about this). The CIA-backed "President for Life" Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled from 1965-1997, was an ego-maniacal dictator who embezzled foreign aid, pillaged the Congo's vast resources, and deprived his people of the most basic human rights. One of Africa's endless procession of evil cartoon-character dictators. He was chased into exile - along with the fortune he stole from his country - by Laurent Kabila and his band of rebels, assisted by the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries. A year later, in 1998, Kabila wanted Rwandans out of his government and another war broke out. Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by one of his bodyguards and the government was taken over by his son, Joseph Kabila. Since that time, all factions have remained at war. There is usually a pretense of political ideology, but what they really want is control of eastern Congo's natural resources. Even with a UN peacekeeping force, a constitution, and an election in July, 2006, a new fight broke out in Kinshasa between Joseph Kabila's and Jean-Pierre Bemba's supporters when neither candidate received a clear majority of votes. Another election in Oct., 2006 left Kabila the clear winner, but fighting continues in the east (Intern'l Crisis Group, below). An astonishing statistic: by most international estimates, well over 4 million have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of constant warfare between 1998 and the present, including from diease and starvation directly linked to warfare. Photos and my commentary are distilled from the list of sources below, none of which is older than 2003 and most are 2006 - 2007.

Sources for this post: For more history and political information about the Congo, go to International Crisis Group, below. For more beautiful, moving photos of the Congo, visit Photos de Bukavu et de Kinshasa and Behind the Lens. The latter even includes a well-done vid-blog by Angelina Jolie.

International Crisis Group Good overview of history + regular updates on the Congo.
Nabuur.com: The Global Neighbor Network
Photos de Bukavu et de Kinshasa Photos used are 2003-2006.
Behind the Lens: Ripples of Genocide, Journey Through Eastern Congo
MSNBC.com: UN: Congo women face atrocities, July 30, 2007
Reuters Alertnet.org: DRC, July 31, 2007
AllAfrica.com: Congo-Kinshasa, Aug. 1, 2007
PlusNews.org: HIV/AIDS in South Kivu, Aug. 4, 2007
Bukavien sur Internet / Bukavu Online, photos, info in French, late 2006 to present.
Bukavu Foundation & Panzi Women's Shelter < Please Paypal them some money!
Panzi Hospital - << In need of money. See this website for a profile of the heroic Dr. Denis Mukwege and more about this hospital.
Fomeka.Net, Congo Catholic news, most in French.

A funeral in the Archdiocese of Bukavu officiated by the Bishop of Bukavu, Mgr. Francois-Xavier Maroy Rusengo of Our Lady of Peace Cathedral. He was appointed by the Vatican after the assassination of his predecessor, Mgr. Munzihirwa Christophe. He was shot in the street by Rwandan Tutsis in retaliation for his protection of Rwandan Hutus, who had fled into Bukavu to escape revenge for their militia's massacre of Tutsis. Mgr. Munzihirwa has become revered as a committed and courageous protector of any who fled violence, no matter their tribal affiliation. The Catholic Church, brought to the Congo by Belgian King Leopold II, is the predominant religion in the Congo. There is also a small Muslim minority. The church and missions provide crucial social and medical services to the residents and displaced people of this province. Whatever the horrors of the Belgian colonizers - and they were legion - or whatever the transgressions of Western churches in Africa, the current church is one of the few positive forces in the DRC. Missions are staffed by many hundreds of French and Belgian priests, Brothers and Sisters, as well as their thousands of Congolese colleagues. After decades of backing or ignoring corrupt government policies, clergy of all denominations are beginning to provide meaningful resistance.
Fomeka.Net

Lake Kivu, with Bukavu on the shore - a lush and steamy landscape and one of the most beautiful on earth. Natural resources such as copper, gold and hardwoods are being wildly exploited in the E. Congo, much of it illegally. A lot of the mayhem here can be traced to these resources, as they're fought for and murdered over. The rule of law in eastern Congo is nearly non-existent and the region is almost completely autonomous from the national government in Kinshasa (not that law prevails in Kinshasa, either). Law-abiding farmers, fishermen and transport workers find it hard to do business amidst the outbursts of violence. Desperate, hungry young men abandon their hand-to-mouth existences - as well as their families - in favor of fighting, illegal mining, smuggling, logging and poaching. Periodically, youths are kidnapped into militia service, adding to the ranks of African child soldiers. And, of course, there are the growing legions of Rwandan Hutu butchers and their sons, who gained a stronghold in the area's Rwandan refugee camps beginning in 1994.

Isn't that rapper 50 Cent on the guy's t-shirt? This photo would be amusing if you didn't know how
vicious these men are. They're members of the Mai Mai, an especially feared Congolese militia,
notorious for its use of child soldiers.

Ragtag "soldier."

Kinshasa - a band of Bemba's rebels skirmishing with Kabila's forces, Oct, 2006.
Just one of countless wars and sub-wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Scary? Yeah. And such a waste. A member of the Lord's Resistance militia from Uganda, which is a religious/military cult led by Joseph Kony. It is unlikely this youngster is smoking tobacco. The LRA is one of the heaviest users of child soldiers in the world. Above 3 photos from Bukavu Online.

Despite the breathtaking beauty and richness of this land, food shortages have lead to widespread malnourishment and even a riot in the local prison. (With or without food, could anyplace embody Hell better than a Congo prison?)

What can the future be for these little boys on their way to school?

The displaced...

Above 3: Photos de Bukavu

Bukavu is a rather attractive frontier city, as African frontier cities go. The population ebbs and flows depending on work and warfare. One of the most popular techniques for intimidating and/or displacing the population - thus gaining resources for whichever gang or dissident group has moved into the area - is mass rape (and worse) of the women and girls of South Kivu Province. The perpetrators include the national army, local police, various Rwandan and Ugandan factions and even some UN forces. Many of these fighters receive no pay and are allowed to pillage in order to eat, drink and to profit from stolen property.

A patient in the rape recovery ward of Panzi Hospital, Bukavu. The ward is so full that patients are sent home before they have recovered to make room for the endless line of women waiting for reconstructive surgery. Bukavu Online, 2007

The Bukavu Foundation helps victimized women and children build a future. This summer, they're building Panzi Women's Shelter, located just outside Bukavu. It will house and school 25 women and their children while they learn a trade and become self-sufficient.