Obama will be tested - DR Congo

Remember only 90 days ago when Joe Biden predicted that President Obama would be tested and we may not like what he does, and he may seem weak? That appears to be well underway ...

In DR Congo, a place far closer to Pres. elect Obama's hometowns in Kenya than Chicagoland corruption, he will be tested by a series of events that characterize many of the corrupt and tribal governments of Africa. If he is to be the first African President, he'll be tested to come up with a solution to centuries of poverty, corruption, disease, and government ineptitude. Basically, although colonial powers were thrown out, the citizens of these countries have yet to enjoy true democracy or rule of law.

From the Washington Post today:

Expectations for the president-elect are high not just in America. And eastern Congo will be an early foreign policy test for the administration -- its suffering not only engages our conscience, it is the most urgent expression of a difficult question: What does America do with failed states and regions?

After generations of mismanagement, the vastness of eastern Congo has become a vacuum of sovereignty. And the chaos has attracted some very bad elements -- Rwandan genocidaires, Lord's Resistance Army terrorists, militias of every ideology and description.

Hutus in DR Congo want war

FDLR's goal is to return to Rwanda and topple President Kagame - Murwanashyaka's Hutu FDLR and Nkunda's Tutsi CNDP will remain enemies forever

The gunmen who executed the Rwandan genocide and now fight in the Democratic Republic of Congo will "always" kill Tutsis because the two sides "cannot mix", according to Major Vincent Habamungu, who commands the Hutus FDLR "Tiger" unit. Read more at link above

Update: This situation is not as cut and dried as we're being told. The "rebels" think they are protecting the Tutsis, who are being killed by Rwandan Hutus from across the border. The DR Congo government may be working with the Hutus because they are fearful the rebels will try to overthrow the government. The UN is basically in the way, with little guidance and no ability to protect citizens.

Actor Ben Affleck in DR Congo

Touring the devastation of human crisis levels in DR Congo, actor Ben Affleck commenting on the Darfur crisis (with huge Hollywood concern) and the rather lackluster interest in similar or even worse problem in DR Congo

clipped from news.yahoo.com Ben Affleck visits refugee camps in eastern Congo Ben Affleck is trying to draw more attention to the conflict in eastern Congo, touring refugee camps and consulting with aid workers in the region where at least 250,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting. The actor, who has visited the Central African country four times since 2007 and has made a documentary about its problems, is also encouraging people to donate more to aid agencies working there. "I'm not an expert in international affairs or diplomacy, but it doesn't take that to see the tremendous suffering here," he told The Associated Press on Thursday in Goma, the regional capital. "It's not something that we as human beings can, in good conscience, ignore." Some fear the current crisis could once again draw in neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies.

Congo Rebel Stronghold

There's a story to be had on both sides of this civil war in DR Congo. Fighting has died down a bit, but could flare back up at any time.

clipped from www.iht.com Life in the capital of the Congo rebels From the cracked concrete steps of an expropriated government building, Jules Simpeze Banga looked out at a mass of hundreds of freshly displaced people on Wednesday morning and delivered one of his first speeches as the new, rebel mayor of this town. Most of the fighting has died down since the rebels declared a cease-fire last month after routing government troops in several strategic towns. On Wednesday, the rebels lived up to their word. They began pulling back troops from a few towns to allow aid workers better access to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people huddled in huts made out of banana leaves. The flimsy shelters are no match for the tropical rains that brew all morning and dump down every afternoon in sheets.