As the World Bank prepares to meet in Brussels to discuss aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Human Rights Watch/Africa today urged donor nations not to repeat the mistake of funding a repressive government in the hopes of achieving stability in central Africa.
Rather, the rights group called for aid to be linked to carefully calibrated benchmarks and based on an ongoing evaluation of human rights and democratization criteria. "The risk here is that donors will find themselves in the same position they were in under the Mobutu regime," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Africa. "They are getting ready to contribute to the bank accounts of a regime that is violating basic human rights and has shown no commitment to democracy."
Donors can best achieve their goal of political stability in central Africa by continuing to demand accountability for the massive slaughter of civilians that took place as President Laurent Desir‚ Kabila came to power and by insisting that the new government respect human rights and the rule of law. Attempting to buy stability by unconditioned infusions of bilateral and multilateral aid will only encourage the DRC government to continue its policies of repression, its politics of exclusion, and its rule by force. The continuation of these practices will lead to further bloodshed, as was shown by the military killings in the last few days, and in the devastation of the social and economic infrastructure built with foreign assistance.
The DRC government has both violated basic human rights and has hindered the U.N. investigation into the mass killing of civilians. Since May 1997, the Kinshasa authorities have successfully resisted international pressure, including numerous interventions by U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to let the investigation move forward. The same authorities deny the basic rights of Congolese and make little progress towards establishing a democratic state. In many parts of the country, they have engaged in brutal and arbitrary arrests of those whom they regard as political opponents and defenders of human rights. They have banned political activity by parties other than Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) and they named only ADFL members to a commission recently created to draft Congo's new constitution. They have restricted freedom of association and freedom of assembly, and have threatened journalists, human rights activists, and members of the political opposition. On November 25, for example, a leader of an opposition party was arrested after giving a press conference critical of the Kabila government. A group of ten journalists, including members of the international press corps, who had attended the conference, were also detained and whipped by police. They have warned organizations of civil society development NGOs, churches, human rights groups and others that they should expect to play only a limited role in reconstructing and re-defining the new Congo, despite their Herculean efforts over the past several years to serve the population of the decaying Zairian state.
During the last years of the Mobutu regime, the European Union and other donors brought hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance to the Congolese population through international and national organizations of civil society, while avoiding government bank accounts. Human Rights Watch urges the European Union, the United States, and other donors to continue this practice until the human rights record of the current government improves. In this way, donors may assist the people without backing their repressive leaders.
Human Rights Watch called on donors to make bilateral and multilateral assistance to the central government contingent upon: 1) demonstrable and tangible progress in the field investigative phase of the U.N. Investigative Team and ultimately in bringing the perpetrators of the massacres to justice; and 2) improved respect for the rule of law, human rights, and democratic principles by the Congolese government. The latter would include measures such as lifting the ban on political activity; guaranteeing the participation of organizations of the Congolese civil society in the reconstruction and re-defining of the new Congo; ceasing harassment of independent voices among the political opposition, media, and civil society; and a clear commitment to holding the military accountable for human rights abuses. Periodic evaluation and monitoring to ensure that benchmarks in these areas are met will be essential to guarantee that financial aid is well spent and is not serving to reinforce repressive practices, as was the case under Mobutu. In order to discourage future rounds of massive civilian slaughter in the region, it will be particularly important to progressively monitor the Congolese government's cooperation with the U.N. investigation and subsequent efforts to bring to justice those implicated in crimes against humanity. Further bilateral aid, such as balance of payments support, should be contingent upon the progressive implementation of institutional and legal reforms to guarantee respect for human rights.
Human Rights Watch fears that the opportunity to have positive influence on Congo during its formative stages may be missed. Only a firm and consistent policy on human rights and the rule of law will limit abuses by those with military power and encourage those who are struggling to rebuild their societies. To do otherwise risks creating the same destructive alliance that the West held with former President Mobutu; namely, contributing to the bank accounts of a corrupt government that trampled on the rights of its citizens and destabilized the region.
