To: The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

At Kinshasa Gombe

From: Annie Mangbenga Nzinga

Floribert Chebeya’s widow

Object: Open letter to Mr. Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Five months after the assassination of my husband Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and the disappearance of his companion Fidele Bazana Ededi, driver, and member of “la Voix des Sans Voix pour les droits de l’homme”, abbreviated as (VSV), I am writing this letter to remind you that after the announcement of the assassination of Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, my late husband, assassinated by the services of the National Congolese Police, especially the General John Numbi Tambo and his juniors on june2, 2010, you sent me your Special Advisor on Security Mr. Pierre Lumbi, who asked me what I wanted you to do for me. Mr. President, my answer is this: “tell the Head of State that he has the power and he knows how to stop and punish the murderers of my husband.” I confirm that it is General John Numbi who killed him because he had an appointment with him; I spoke with him on the phone while he was waiting in front of his office door the night of his assassination.

The only thing I want is clarification and truth on the assassination of my husband and the disappearance of Fidele bazana. Mr. President, through your Advisor you reassured us at the funeral that you will use all your authority to stop all those guilty, judge and punish them. This trust and assurance is what my children and I are waiting for you. I share the message that you sent to me with journalists all over the world, with Congolese, with defenders of Humans Rights, with diplomatic missions, and with people all over the world. Nowadays, men, women, children, young and old, all have an eye on Chebeya’ case and are waiting for the truth because Floribert Chebeya was a citizen of the world. He wasn’t just our property, but he belonged to everyone because of the work that he did.

During the first appearance of the defendants which took place on Friday, November12, 2010 at Kinshasa, in front of a purpose-built military court, it was more than indignation and anger which killed us when we saw that Mr. John Numbi, whom I cite day and night as the murderer of both my husband and Fidele Bazana, was absent in the bench of the guilty to serve as a witness. For the credibility of our institutions in the world, I will please ask you Mr. President to personally make sure that this trial ends well and that Mr. John Numbi is arrested along with all the guilty so that we will have justice and transparency. We don’t need to be in favor of impunity, which was Floribert Chebeya’s fight during his life.

To end, Mr. President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, abbreviated as (RDC), please bans from speaking your minister of information Mr. Mende Omalango for his words which are able to injure the broken hearts of Congolese and to tell lies. My children and I left the country because we had the support of diplomatic missions, of Non Governmental Organizations of human rights, of partners of “la voix des sans voix.”, of good willed people that I sincerely thank and greet for helping us to move.

Triumph to truth!!!

The latest information distributed from Wikilieaks confirm much of what followers of Congo and the Great Lakes suspected. However, one key insight that Wikileaks provided was what seems to be a more aggressive and broader data collection effort of an established practice by the diplomatic corps. This quote from the NY Times report places it in context "While the State Department has long provided information about foreign officials’ duties to the Central Intelligence Agency to help build biographical profiles, the more intrusive personal information diplomats are now being asked to gather could be used by the National Security Agency for data mining and surveillance operations. "

Some excerpts from Wikileaks include:

"Reporting officers should include as much of the following information as possible when they have information relating to persons linked to African Great Lakes: office and organizational titles; names, position titles and other information on business cards; numbers of telephones, cell phones, pagers and faxes; compendia of contact information, such as telephone directories (in compact disc or electronic format if available) and e-mail listings; internet and intranet "handles", internet e-mail addresses, web site identification-URLs; credit card account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers; work schedules, and other relevant biographical information."

A. Mineral Resources (ENVR)

-- Details on mining of diamonds, copper, cobalt, uranium, other minerals, and oil extraction: number and location of mines, production statistics and revenue generated, and extent of control given to China and other foreign governments, companies or consortiums; export statistics. -- Details on mineral, oil and other resource exploitation by rebel groups and foreign elements to include type and location of resources exploited, and revenue generated through sales, customs duties, taxation, and access control. -- Government ability/willingness to deal with environmental abuses.

Read entire leaks on Great Lakes here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/202678

The Eastern Congo Initiative released a White Paper on the Congo on today. The paper outlines nine objectives for critical support and empowered U.S. leadership.

The first five address the urgent need for security and stabilization in the region:

• Facilitate renewed political engagement
• Support a multi-dimensional strategy to protect civilians, by:
  o Strengthening security forces
  o Neutralizing and dismantling remaining foreign and Congolese armed groups
  

• Support GDRC reforms, including the 2011 and 2013 elections
• Support the GDRC in regulating the trade in natural resources and ensuring deployment of justice and administrative services
• Support IDP and refugee returns and encourage socioeconomic recovery
  

The additional four topics focus on coordinating U.S. leadership to catalyze a broadened international engagement:

• Reappoint a US Special Advisor for the Great Lakes Region
• Encourage a regional response to the crisis
• Support and complement multilateral efforts
• Engage the US advocacy community

Resource Links:
Microsite, White Paper download: http://www.easterncongo.org/whitepaper
Ben's op-ed in Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112904242.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EasternCongoInitiative
Twitter: http://twitter.com/EastCongoNews

Congo in Harlem 2 is the second annual series of Congo-related films, performances and discussions at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem, New York. This year's program runs from October 17 - 23rd, and showcases a wide range of films by Congolese and international directors, representing the most important issues facing the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most screenings will be followed by panel discussions, special events, musical performances, and receptions. Click here to see complete listing of films and discussions and purchase tickets online.

Congo in Harlem 2 will provide audiences with more than the traditional movie-going experience -- it will offer opportunities to celebrate Congolese culture, learn about the ongoing humanitarian crisis, engage in dialogue, and get involved.

Highlights of the program include:

Sunday, October 17th
Friends of Congo kicks off Break the Silence: Congo Week with a special screening by Cultures of Resistance, performances by Harlem’s own IMPACT Repertory Theatre and Toni Blackmon,
and a tribute to legendary soukous singer Kanda Bongo Man, who will participate in an engaging dialogue about the Congolese music scene and social and political situation in the Congo.

Wednesday, October 20thFollowing the films Jazz Mama by Petna Katondolo and Weapon of War by Isle and Femke Van Velzen, a discussion will ensue with Dr. Roger Luhiriri (human rights advocate and former fistula doctor at Panzi Hospital), Jocelyn Kelly (gender-based violence Research Coordinator with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative) and Dr. Lee Ann De Reus (President of the Board of Directors of Panzi Hospital Foundation).

Friday, October 22nd
The featured film is “Tragedy in the Congo” by Jihan El-Tahri. The film will be followed by a discussion with director Jihan El-Tahri, Jason Stearns (Congo researcher/analyst, former UN investigator) and Luc Côté (Lead investigator/writer of the UN mapping report), and moderated by Samar Al-Bulushi (Congo researcher) & reception.

Saturday, October 23rd
Saturday afternoon will be an engaging panel discussion focused on solutions to the child soldier problem, featuring Ishmael Beah (author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier), Jimmie Briggs (author of Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War) and Kambale Musavuli, Student Coordinator and Spokesperson, Friends of the Congo.

Saturday night, the closing night film will be Thierry Michel's expose of mining operations in Congo, Katanga Business, followed by a panel with Peter Rosenblum (Professor of Human Rights Law, Columbia University), New York Times Reporter Howard French and Congolese scholar currently at the Hoover Institution, Mvemba Dizolele.

Join us in Harlem and spread the word to your friends, family and loved ones as Congo Week takes place throughout the globe from Australia to Sweden, Japan to South Africa, Brazil to United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Congo and elsewhere.

Congolese activist Justine Masika Bihamba of Synergie Des Femmes pour les victimes des Violences Sexuelle Breaks The Silence and presented the case of Congolese Women to the U.S. Congress today. The recommendations she made are as follows:

1. Restore peace in the eastern DRC and in the whole region

2. Give attention to political developments in Kinshasa and in the other provinces as well as the eastern DRC. The DRC will remain fragile until the state is strengthened so that it has the power to reinforce constitutionalism and good governance.

3. Promote dialogue, based on mutual respect and partnership, between the international community and the government of the DRC toward genuine development and a resolution of the conflict.

4. Help the government of the DRC to create a truly unified, effective and disciplined army which is the backbone of lasting security in eastern Congo. The training of different battalions by different partners with different military cultures must be replaced by a better coordinated and complementary approach.

5. Put pressure on the government of Rwanda to open its democratic space and to allow for negotiations to find a solution to the problem of the FDLR: the solution is political.

6. Build a coherent coordinated multilateral response to the challenge of the DRC. In spite of the huge budget spent on the Congo peace process the results are still well below expectations. If the international community wants to make a difference, it must show that its members are ready to work together.

7. End impunity. Support the creation of an international tribunal based in the DRC with a system of mixed chambers where international and Congolese judges work side by side on cases of past violations of human rights. The presence of the international tribunal in DRC would ensure that it would be close to the victims and less danger of evidence corruption. Mutual control and support among international and Congolese judges would diminish the danger of corruption.

Click here to listen to more Congolese women voices>>

The Pole Institute convened representatives from diverse sectors of the Congolese society to share their analysis and prescriptions for addressing the de-criminalization of natural resources so that they can be a benefit to the Congolese people. Below are some excerpts geared towards the International community and the myriad efforts underway to address “conflict minerals.” Click here to download the full report.

Select Excerpts:
In order to rehabilitate and decriminalize the mining industry, which according to [Aloys] Tegera, generates more than two-thirds of the revenue of North Kivu, it is necessary to, in the first place, work towards the re-establishment of the Congolese state. Any efforts by the international community to re-organize and legislate for the Congolese mining industry without taking this fundamental step into account risk failure, “unless, of course, the various lobbies have in mind a Congo without the Congolese, which would clearly be absurd.” Introduction page 3

A glaring lacuna in all these efforts is the lack of involvement of the Congolese people in seeking solutions to problems that face them in their own country, and Johnson argues that unless the Congolese people are brought “back in” all these international efforts will remain, for their originators, an exercise in creating the DRC after their own image. Introduction page 4

[Dominic] Johnson argues that because of this failure to include the Congolese people in crucial debate on ‘their’ issues, the international community has made a serious error of judgment in not recognizing that the situation in the east of the DRC goes beyond just a presumed squabble over minerals and raises fundamental questions of the structuring of state power which have to be taken into account by anyone hoping to work with the Congolese state in order to reform the Congolese mining sector. Introduction page 4

It is imperative that the various people and organizations of good will who are determined to ensure that the minerals of Kivu are ‘clean’ or conflict-free first work towards a definition of the basics necessary for the re-establishment of the Congolese state. Only when this is in place will the control of the mining industry be possible. The various initiatives will not be effective unless this basic condition is met. Aloys Tegera page 11

It is argued that important aspects of the regulatory model now emerging are partly based on an erroneous and outdated analysis of the conflict dynamics in Eastern Congo and that this is likely to weaken its effectiveness on the ground. The error consists in regarding competition around minerals as the main reason for conflicts in Eastern Congo and the establishment of government authority as the main mechanism for ending such competition and thereby the conflicts themselves. Reforms centered around strengthening the rôle of the state in Eastern Congo rather than the people will, we contend, exacerbate conflict instead of ending it, even if they succeed in curbing the excesses deriving from mineral trade. Dominic Johnson page 22

It is therefore perfectly possible, under the certification and due diligence schemes now on the table, to claim to have solved a decades-old conflict about control of a mineral-rich region and the control of the trade of its produce without addressing any of the issues involved, without resolving conflict on the ground and without contributing to peace and
human security in a manner visible to the local population. Dominic Johnson page 43

However, beyond the possibility or even the impossibility of an international intervention to render the minerals of eastern DRC ‘clean’ for use, in other words conflict-free, it is important to emphasize that the criminalization of the mining industry underestimates the fact that more than two-thirds of the revenue of a province like North Kivu depends on mineral exports. Aloys Tegera page 8

Click here to find out more about the Pole Institute.

Also find here prescriptions for addressing Congo’s challenge from select Congolese groups:

Women scholars and activists
http://friendsofthecongo.org/resource-center/womens-voices.html
Elected officials
http://congofriends.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Congolese youth
http://conflictminerals.org/conflict-mineral-critique/

Human Rights
http://congofriends.blogspot.com/2010/06/long-live-spirit-of-floribert-chebeya.html

Remember to join us for Congo Week from October 17 – 23 as ordinary people throughout the globe join in solidarity with the people of the Congo in their quest to fulfill their enormous human and natural potential.

The narrative that is being pushed by the United States government and former government officials who head “grassroots” organizations is that the source of Congo’s conflict is solely rebels who control mines and rape women. This narrative is a gross distortion of the root causes of the conflict in the Congo and the loss of over six million lives since 1996. It obfuscates the heinous crimes and the massive looting in which the United States, Canada, Europe and other nations and corporations have been implicated over the past 14 years.

Stanford will vote "yes" on shareholder resolutions asking companies to report their efforts to avoid using "conflict minerals" from Congo Stanford will vote "yes" on shareholder resolutions asking companies to report their efforts to avoid using "conflict minerals" from Congo. The new policy is narrowly drawn and broadly supportive of efforts by electronics companies to address the problem of conflict minerals in their supply chains.

The Stanford University Board of Trustees recently approved a new proxy voting guideline that says the university will vote "yes" on "well-written and reasonable shareholder resolutions that ask companies for reports on their policies and efforts regarding their avoidance of conflict minerals and conflict mineral derivatives."

The 32-member board approved the new guideline at its June 9-10 meeting. "The proxy voting guideline to support resolutions asking companies to address the issue of conflict minerals reflects Stanford's values as a socially responsible investor," said Leslie Hume, the board's chair. "It is narrowly drawn and broadly supportive of efforts by leading technology and electronics companies to address the problem of conflict minerals in their supply chain." The trade in Congo's conflict minerals – tin, tantalite, tungsten and gold, which are used in cell phones, laptops and MP3 players – is a major source of funding for armed groups in eastern Congo whose members commit atrocities against civilians.

Hume applauded students for bringing the issue to the university's attention. "Stanford students, through diligent research and constructive advocacy, played a key role in bringing this issue to the attention of both the university's Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, and to the board's Special Committee on Investment Responsibility," she said.
The student group is Stanford STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition. The university's Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility & Licensing unanimously approved the proxy voting guideline in April, and then forwarded it to the Board of Trustees. The advisory panel is composed of 12 people, including four members of the faculty, four students (two undergraduates and two graduate students), two members of the university's staff, and two alumni.
Related information:
Stanford Student Anti-Genocide Coalition
http://www.standnow.org/chapter/stanford
Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility & Licensing
http://ucomm.stanford.edu/apir/
Investment Responsibility at Stanford: A Brief History
http://ucomm.stanford.edu/apir/history.html
COMMENT: Lisa Lapin, University Communications: (650) 725-8396, lapin@stanfod.edu
Media contact: Kathleen J. Sullivan, Stanford News Service: (650) 724-5708, kathleenjsullivan@stanford.edu