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College research paper essay about civil war in congo 2006
conflict in Congo essays
conflict in Congo essays
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or as it has been called by the U.N as “the rape capital of the world” has been having problems since almost 1994. The armed group, M23, has committed dozens of war crimes including rape, citizen executions, and forced recruitment of children. Women, and girls have been left with burned flesh, broken bones, and even missing limbs. Even some perpetrators have even shot and stabbed these women in the vagina with shards of glass, rifles, and other objects. The violence in the DRC is unspeakable, many of the survivors have received devastating damage to their reproductive organs. Men have been held at gun point and forced to rape their own wives, mothers, sisters, and even their daughters. Throughout the entire ordeal, the government of the DRC has let many of the perpetrators of these war crimes cross over to neighboring countries, who act as a sanctuary. In turn these people have not been charged for these crimes. The Congolese army and government have been much to blame for the violence and atrocities happening in the country. Back when they made the M23 treaty, they needed to follow through with their promises to the integrated soldiers. The weaknesses in their government ruin attempts to prevent atrocities and protect civilians. With these problems affecting the population every day, they need to start getting help from other countries in order to fix its state and help its people. The Congolese army and government have been much to blame for the violence and atrocities happening in the country because they needed follow through with their promises to the integrated soldiers, the weakness in their government ruin attempts to prevent atrocities and protect civilians, and they need to stop lett... ... middle of paper ... ...erpetrators. This sort of weakness in their government is what ruins attempts to prevent atrocities and protect civilians. With this much to fix on their plate, they need to start getting help from other countries and providing help of their own in order to fix the state it’s gotten into and help its people. Because they mistreated the M23 rebels and did not stick to the promises that they made in the peace treaty, they caused them to rebel again and intern damned their people. With a suffering army and government state they are useless in stopping the rebels. The Congolese government needs to get help with from neighboring countries in order to fix some of their piling problems. They need to start assisting the groups that are helping their civilians dealing with the violence and charging those perpetrators responsible for the heinous acts against the population.
Genocide is a pressing issue with a multitude of questions and debates surrounding it. It is the opinion of many people that the United Nations should not get involved with or try to stop ongoing genocide because of costs or impositions on the rights of a country, but what about the rights of an individual? The UN should get involved in human rights crimes that may lead to genocide to prevent millions of deaths, save money on humanitarian aid and clean up, and fulfill their responsibilities to stop such crimes. It is preferable to stop genocide before it occurs through diplomacy, but if necessary, military force may be used as a last resort. Navi Pillay, Human Rights High Commissioner, stated, “Concerted efforts by the international community at critical moments in time could prevent the escalation of violence into genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing.”
...on people face a similar fate in Darfur….” says one website. They say that America made promises to prevent any more bloodshed in the country, but never held up that promise. “The Khartoum government has systematically obstructed access to Darfur and blocked international efforts to establish a relief program,” says the web page. Because of the lack of effort Darfur suffers from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. In all of these events the UN will take steps after to rectify the situation and prevent it in the future. There is little to no way to guarantee that these kinds of tragedies will never happen again, however the UN can make steps to improve the world’s response and overall international and national laws to prevent future case as best as possible. Which is why the UN continues to update policies to keep up with the ever changing times.
For decades, Uganda’s economy has suffered through disappointing economic policies and instabilities. These setbacks have been put forth by a chronically unreliable government, leaving it as one of the world’s poorest countries. Uganda’s weak infrastructure and corrupt government are two of the primary constraints against a continuation of economic growth. Uganda has ongoing military involvement in the War on Congo, wrongly taking money from the already deprived country and into the war. Many villages in Uganda also have to waste their precious money and time in pursuit of hiding places. They are faced with a group known as, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). LRA is infamous for their twenty years of massacre and slaughter in Uganda, causing an estimated 1.5 million internally displayed persons. Several people are questioning why the LRA is still terrorizing the country and criticizing the government’s commitment to putting an end this horrific group. The Inspector General of Government (IGG) ...
The RPF decided to create a government consisting of a Hutu and a Tutsi holding the highest government positions. As the RPF took control of the government, “some two million Hutus – both civilians and some of those involved in the genocide – then fled across the border into DR Congo… fearing revenge attacks”(“Rwandan Genocide: 100 days of slaughter”). However, the violence did not stop here. The RPF then became angry at the Democratic Republic of Congo, claiming that the Democratic Republic of Congo “letting[let] Hutu militias operate on its territory” (“Rwandan Genocide: 100 days of slaughter”). As a result of the RPF’s claims about the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo two times(“Rwandan Genocide: 100 days of slaughter”). The problems of the Rwandan Genocide has led to chaos in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has caused around 5 million deaths(“Rwandan Genocide: 100 days of slaughter”). In an attempt to punish those who were involved in the genocide, a large number of people have been sent to court. This genocide goes to show you how seemingly small problems between two groups can grow over time if not addressed, and cause major problems in the
The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
Packham, Eric S. The U.N. Intervention in the Congo After Independence. Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1998.
The sheer magnitude of the death toll in King Leopold II 's Congo remains a little known fact in most Western nations, even today. The eight to ten million African lives lost during Leopold 's rule over the Congo have been forced from the collective conscious of Americans and Europeans. Perhaps the shame of inaction is too much to bare. Inaction during a genocide seems deplorable in this day and age, yet intervention by Western nations is never really guaranteed. There are several reasons, all inexcusable, why Western nations failed to intervene while millions of Congolese were being senselessly slaughtered. The atrocities committed in Leopold 's Congo went unpunished for years because of a carefully constructed smoke screen of humanitarianism,
In 1960, the Congolese finally became independent. They were no longer under Belgian rule. They finally got control over their own government, education, and resources. However, they did not have any political structure. They did not have agreeing institutions. They did not want to work together which led to a lot of civil war. The villages in the Congo are divided and don’t agree which leads to these wars. It is all because of the Belgian’s who ruled before. Many belgian’s still have high roles in the government and military of the Congo.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
Throughout Northern and Central Africa ethnic fighting and mass genocide has run rampant. Clashes between, diverse ethnic and cultural people has caused instability, these mass humanitarian disasters that can no longer be ignored. With the help of other nations South Sudan can go from another mass genocide waiting to happen, to a region supplier of much needed resources, with the help of other nations. In the 1990’s Rwanda genocide was basically ignored by the United States government and because of this hundreds of thousands were either killed or injured in the area. In the early 2000’s the war in Darfur, created a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. Again thousands of Africans were killed and the United States government and the American people ignored genocide.
When Congo gained its independence from Belgium it struggled to develop and remained a weak state. There were many factors that led to Congo being unable to progress and create strong institutions within its countries borders. “Political divisions along the ethnic lines were prevalent, though this fact could be misleading. Ethnicity became the primary source of political mobilization i...
Embroiled in “Africa’s World War” for decades now; the Congolese are no strangers to instability and violence. Located in the heart of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (commonly known as ‘Congo’) has for decades also been the centre of conflict in the formerly known ‘dark continent’.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”(UN) As said in 1st Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone should be eligible to become free in their country and not be entitled to a certain item. When reading through Anna’s Article, I begin to realize some of the main causes for the rape that is happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Big Events like the wars were happening, creating many of the men leaving families at home, without a man 's protection it created an easy way to get a women and begin with the rape. This article brings the idea back to the men in the family. Many boys around the age 13, are taken away by the government to help with the war this is happening (Warfare). Not only young boys,but also older men who are working for the families they may have, are obligated to go out and help the country they are living in. Many do not realize the rights many of the people in the country may have, with little resources, not enough information is being handed out to the lower class. Like in the 1st Article, men and women should both equally have freedom and shouldn’t be ripped out for their rights, examples are have the right to not wanting to have sex.“Any deliberate violence against civilians during armed conflict, including rape and sexual abuse, is considered a violation of international humanitarian law.”
The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more then 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country everyday. The people of Congo are being pushed farther into poverty and starvation can't handle the fighting for very much longer. I propose that the solution to the post-Civil War violence in Congo is to rid the country of all foreign nations and their problems, namely the Rwandans, and to get combatants inside of the country to hold a summit and find a peaceful and fair resolution to the problem, with a superpower like the United States acting as host and mediator. Once all quarrels are amended, the Congolese can start to focus on a economic strategy for rebuilding the country.
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.