Background Briefing

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Summary

 

Some twenty-four million citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have registered to vote in the first nation-wide elections to be held in more than forty years. The electoral process is due to begin with a referendum on a proposed new constitution on December 18 and 19, 2005. The millions who have registered want to play a meaningful role in the political process and may hope that the election of legitimate leaders in the first half of 2006 will help to establish the rule of law and respect for human rights lacking for many years.

 

International donors too have pinned their hopes on the process, expecting that it will allow them to begin withdrawing the costly United Nations peacekeeping operation, the U.N. Mission in the DRC (MONUC), and to see some return on the aid money invested in trying to restore a functioning state.

 

But Congolese political leaders are endangering the process by delaying the integration of former rebel forces loyal to them into the national army. The continued existence of such forces poses the risk that a party could intervene by force if elections do not take place or if they produce results unsatisfactory to that party. Congolese officials also risk undermining the credibility of the process by repression of the press and civil society groups and by corruption that in part feeds directly into electoral campaigns. In addition, the failure of the government to successfully address ongoing violence and other abuses against civilians by government troops and armed combatants in eastern Congo and its’ inaction in creating a functioning judicial system means that some citizens will necessarily exercise their right to vote in conditions of serious insecurity, afraid of possible abuses against them and aware that such abuses will not be punished.

 

In the last year the government of neighboring Uganda, which once occupied parts of eastern Congo, hindered efforts by Congolese national authorities to establish order in this resource-rich area. It cited the presence of rebel groups from Uganda in eastern DRC as an excuse for ongoing meddling, including direct and indirect support to Congolese armed groups.

 

MONUC, authorized by the United Nations Security Council to engage in increasingly robust operations against Congolese armed combatants and foreign armed groups, has restored order in some parts of northeastern Congo, but lacked the troops and resources to do so in Katanga and the Kivus. Increasingly tasked in recent months with helping prepare for elections, it has devoted less attention to the problems of insecurity and disarmament of troops.

Caught up in the political and logistical challenges of the election process, many Congolese leaders as well as representatives of the donor community and MONUC seem to have accepted that little progress will be made on such major issues as army reform, establishing a functioning judicial system, and ending corruption until after a new government is installed. In interviews with Human Rights Watch researchers, diplomatic representatives stated it would be unproductive to push too hard such issues, preferring not to “rock the boat”.

 

Whether or not current Congolese political leaders welcome such initiatives, the donor community and MONUC must redouble their efforts through these next crucial months to monitor and vigorously denounce attempts to limit freedom of expression, to demand an end to corruption, and to insist on improving the security environment in which the elections will take place. Unless essential safeguards are put in place to ensure that elections are free, fair, and safe, the results of the vote will lack credibility and yet another opportunity to establish the rule of law in Congo will have been lost.

 

Preoccupied with the political and logistical challenges of the electoral process, international actors have done little to plan for the period after elections when such major problems as army integration and the creation of a judicial system will still have to be tackled. They must look beyond the immediate demands of the next six months and start planning in order not to lose the opportunity for effective action as soon as the new government is installed.

 


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