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Bob Dole and the Congo Cover-Up

On By erasingbordersIn Foreign Involvement in Congo, Organizing for Change in Congo, U.N. Congo Mission, U.S. Congo Relations, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Sen. Bob Dole endorsed Trump prior to the Republican Convention and was seated to the left of Donald Trump Jr. in Cleveland. After the election, Sen. Dole’s lobbying led to the new President’s controversial phone call with Taiwan’s President.

Have you no shame Robert Dole? The former Senator from Kansas and ex contender for the U.S. Presidency Bob Dole has exposed himself as one of those mired in the swamp that Donald Trump pledged to drain in his campaign for President. As Trump himself reaches out to autocratic rulers in the Philippines, Turkey and Russia, Bob Dole just signed on to the budding campaign to improve the ties and the image of the Congo’s Kabila government in Washington, D.C.

When his law and lobbying firm office in D.C. contracted with Mer Security and Communications of Israel to further the foreign policy aims of Mobutu’s successor, it was Sen. Dole who signed the $500 k deal. Why the Congolese sought out an Israeli international security corporate power to gain influence and support in the U.S. is likely due to the moves under the Obama administration to penalize and pressure Congo’s elite to hold presidential elections as called for by the country’s constitution.

In a stunning reversal of the former administration’s policies vis a vis the Congo, less than two weeks after his inauguration, Trump’s administration had succeeded in getting both House and Senate to repeal the “Anti-Corruption” ruling of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as called for by the Cardin-Lugar Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank legislation . Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md) lamented the repeal vote in a statement noting that Section 1504 required “domestic and foreign oil, gas and mineral companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges to publish the payments they make to foreign governments”. He went on to state, “Big Oil might have won the battle today, but I’m not done fighting the war against entrenched corruption that harms the American people’s interests and leaves the world’s poor trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty while their leaders prosper.”

Congo’s day laborers make a few dollars a day while Congo’s elite reap payments from foreign mining corporations

The corruption in Congo and the “vicious cycle of poverty” there was specifically mentioned as the target in the discussions before passage of Section 1504. EXXON’s then CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were among the leading opponents of that congressional action back in 2010. With the quick repeal of the Cardin-Lugar “anti-corruption” measure, Congo’s current leaders could expect further support of the status quo by the Trump administration. The threats by Trump’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to curtail U.S. funding for the UN Congo peacekeeping mission can now more clearly be seen as a pretext for realizing the neoconservative desire to weaken the UN and jeopardize U.S. funding of the international body and not in any way intended to undermine Kabila’s government. Haley’s chief adviser at the UN, former Heritage Foundation staff member Stephen Groves, assisted the most extensive congressional investigation ever of the UN in what became known as the Iraq “oil for food scandal” in the late 1990’s.

It is increasingly accepted that one of the UN’s principal aims in Congo, the facilitating of a free and fair presidential election, is now being countered on multiple fronts by the country’s ruling elite. In a blatant violation of the December 2016 agreement between the Kabila government and the opposition leadership, the current administration named a new Prime Minister on its own in April and thereby succeeded in further dividing the opposition’s coalition. Weakening the resistance to Kabila’s rule through naming of opponents to more than 50 cabinet level posts in the governing bureaucracy, violent repression of anti government demonstrations and the closing of non partisan and opposition media outlets outline the government’s plan to prolong indefinitely preparations for the elections in what is widely referred to as the “glissement” (slipping away) strategy.

Following the 2017 death of leading opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi and Kabila’s naming of other opponents to government posts a la Mobutu, the President’s maneuvers to delay elections has met with little parliamentary resistance.

With the signing of the huge $5.6 million contract with a term of December 8, 2016 to December 31, 2017, the ruling elite’s campaign to gain international acceptance is seriously under way. In the contract, Mer Security pledges to “represent” Congo’s government and advise on “U.S. policy and political concerns regarding African security issues”. Replying to an inquiry from the U.S. Center for Public Integrity, Mer Security’s CEO said in an email the firm was hired “to explore opportunities through which the U.S. government can support the DRC government in its efforts to bring peace, stability and prosperity to the Congolese people.”

Sen. Dole, and his Alston & Bird firm, will not be alone in his work on behalf of close relations for Congo’s elite with the current U.S. administration. Adnan Jalil who served as the Trump campaign’s liaison with the House of Representatives in 2016 has already received $45,000 from Mer Security for his Congo lobbying. Other than his work for Trump and as staffer for Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-North Carolina), Jalil has no experience in Congo and no background with political issues there. He stated, “the Congolese people, their safety and human rights can only improve if the United States takes an active and engaging role in the largest country in Africa”. In a deal that may be separate from the Mer Security agreement, the Kabila administration has also contracted with Cindy Courville, an Africa analyst for the Bush 2 administration, to “develop branding and public relations strategy” in the U.S. Her consulting firm will be paid $8000 per month under the contract terms.

The Politics of Congo’s Religious Leaders

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With Seating for 7500, the Protestant Centennial Cathedral Was Dedicated in 1994
With Seating for 7500, the Protestant Centennial Cathedral Was Dedicated in 1994

The leaders of the two largest Church bodies in Congo “talked politics” to their faithful in Easter Sunday sermons according to Radio Okapi.  Cardinal Monsengwo, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kinshasa, and Monsignor Pierre Marini Bodho, President of the Church of Christ of Congo, delivered messages that were “both religious and political to their faithful” in the view of the media outlet with the largest audience in the country.

An outspoken critic of the conduct and announced results of the November election, Archbishop Monsengwo emphasized on Easter Sunday that “society as a whole is charged with creating a culture upholding human dignity and free of repression and any violation of human rights”.  For his Easter sermon, the leader of the Church of Christ of Congo (ECC), made up of 72 Protestant “communions”, Mgr. Marini Bodho chose to highlight the role of Mary Magdalene in the resurrection account.  The Protestants’ leader, who has served since 1998, declared that when a society has a problem, “God can also use the weak and leave the wise on the sidelines”.

In a city charged with political tensions, the two Christian leaders have taken opposing positions on the outcome of the November election. Archbishop Monsengwo was widely quoted as saying that the official results did not conform either to “the truth or to justice”.  Responding to the Archbishop’s statement, Mgr. Marini Bodho declared that the election indicated the Congolese people had placed their confidence in President Joseph Kabila Kabange.  In an interview with French radio, the Protestant leader went on to warn against holding positions which threaten the “social fabric” and impede the President’s overcoming of the challenges to the development process in the Congo.

While Protestants have grown in numbers considerably since the fall of the Mobutu regime, they remain in the minority in the former Belgian colony. An estimated 35 % of the population worship in Protestant, including Kimbanguist, churches.  The 50 % of the Congo population who are Roman Catholic trace the Church’s roots in Congo back to the 1506 conversion of King Afonso I, ruler of the Kongo Kingdom.

Mgr. Marini Bodho succeeded the Disciple pastor Itofo Bokambanza Bokeleale who presided over the Church of Christ of Congo from 1968 to 1998.  As representatives of the minority religion during Belgian colonial days and up to the present,

74 Year Old ECC President Mgr. Pierre Marini Bodho Served as President of the Congo Senate 2003-2006
74 Year Old ECC President Mgr. Pierre Marini Bodho Served as President of the Congo Senate 2003-2006

theleaders of the Church of Christ of Congo have supported the post independence political regimes.  The Protestant Cathedral in Kinshasa was built next to the Palais du Peuple, the present day parliament building.  There is no more dramatic evidence of Mgr. Bokeleale’s ties to the Mobutu regime than the location of the Protestants’ national cathedral on the Avenue Triomphale. In the next blog we will take another look at the position vis a vis the State of the ECC leadership and the possible future costs and consequences of their current support for authoritarian rule in Congo.

Microcredit Congo Style II

On By erasingbordersIn AIDS in Congo, Congo Grass Roots Development Efforts, Congolese Daily Life, Disciples Microcredit Programs, Disciples of Christ, Microcredit, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Microcredit organizing has already boosted the income of many Disciples households and some congregations and

Nathan Weteto, Congo Disciples Communication Director, is the microcredit organizing wizard
Nathan Weteto, Congo Disciples Communication Director, is the microcredit organizing wizard

provides further evidence that the “social economy” can help drive economic development in Congo.  “Mobilising microfinance is critical to the success of social enterprises including through savings and credit cooperative organizations” observed the recent U.N. Environment Program “Post Conflict Environmental Assessment Synthesis for Policy Makers”.  The UN report touts microfinance as a means to generate employment and allow Congolese to “deal pragmatically with their own development priorities”.

But as is typical of Congo culture, microcredit Congo style is often different from the pattern followed in other countries and often varies from group to group.  While some groups begin with seed funding, the Microcredit Union of women in Mbandaka’s Besenge parish began with no funding other than what was brought by members of the group.  Twenty five women divided into two groups and met twice a month, each member bringing at least 1000 Congolese Francs (about $1.20) to the meeting.  One group of women is invited to take a loan on the 10th of the month, according to group leader Mama Micheline Mwami, and the other on the 25th of the month.  The next month the women return the amount taken out plus 10 per cent interest.  Some women bring more than the minimum contribution from month to month to enable larger loans and larger profits for the group.  Within a year, the Besenge group distributed among the 25 women, proportionate to their “investments”, savings and profits of just under $1900.

In the urban setting, many of the women participating in a Disciples organized Microcredit Union begin small businesses with their loans.  By contrast, in the rural setting of Bonsombo (Lofoy is its “mission post”), ten families decided to pool their funds and buy seed and tools to cultivate ten hectares of land, agriculture being the primary source of cash in their experience.  In the cash economy of Equateur Province’s capital of Mbandaka, the potential for larger investments and earnings is much greater. 

Aided by $1400 in seed funding, the Mbandaka pastors’ wives group enabled group leader  Mama Lombe to receive a total of $100 the first three months from her Union’s fund pool.  She set up a table on a downtown Mbandaka street and began selling children’s underwear, soap, tomatoes and biscuits and returned $105, 5 % interest being the group profit on the loan.  After the “Emmanuela” group’s first six months, $2417 was distributed among the members.  More recently, after two years of the growth of the group and of the participants’ small business ventures, $12,000 in savings and earnings was shared by group members.

With no banks now providing credit to the 750,000 persons of the city of Mbandaka or anywhere else in Equateur province, the Microcredit Unions have rekindled the “social economy”, the UNEP report’s term, and         

Mama Lombe on right with Mama Bonanga, the leaders of pastors' wives' Microcrdit Union
Mama Lombe on right with Mama Bonanga, the leaders of pastors' wives' Microcrdit Union

entrepreneurship in urban areas where groups have been organized.  Enthusiasm among Disciples for the Microcredit organizing has led to Pauline Ngoy presenting for students at the Bolenge Protestant University of the Equateur a lecture on “Microcredit and Evangelism”. 

You can contribute to the  Microcredit Union organizing by the Disciples in Congo by sending a check designated for “Microcredit in Congo”  to Global Ministries, P.O.B. 1986, Indianapolis, IN 46206-1986.  You can also make a gift online by going to:

http://globalministries.org/africa/projects/microcredit-congo.html

A contribution of $150 will enable purchase of a group’s “kit” – a wooden box with calculator, notebooks for each group’s three “accountants”, pens and pencils.  The more contributions received by Global Ministries, the more groups will be started with some “seed” funding as well as the “kit”.

Follow new developments in the Microcredit organizing on Nathan Weteto’s blog; English translation can be accessed at:

http://globalministries.org/news/africa/blog-congo.html

“Water, Water Everywhere ………”

On By erasingbordersIn Congo Urban Life, Congolese Daily Life, Disciples Church Development Aid, Disciples of Christ, Government Health Services, Health in Congo, Organizing for Change in Congo, Photos of Urban Congo, U.N. Congo Mission, Uncategorized1 Comment
While much of Africa suffers from a decades long drought, the Democratic Republic of Congo has no shortage of water. Half the African continent’s water can be found in the Congo. But much of the country’s water is not fit to drink.
 
 
 

 

women collecting water
Disciples President Rev. Bonanga visits the UNICEF funded water station at Bolenge. Several Disciple strong communities have benefited from the Church's collaboration with UNICEF on rural water projects

Fifty one million Congolese or three fourths of the country’s population do not have access to safe drinking water according to a report released this week by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

The head of UNEP’s Congo office Mr. Hassan Partow noted, “the stark reality is that the DRC has one of the fastest urbanization growth rates in the world and this is not being matched with adequate water and sanitation service delivery”. The study calls for an investment of $169 million over a five year period to upgrade the water delivery infrastructure, especially in urban areas.

Rural Congo is just as threatened by unsafe water as UNICEF’s Congo Director pointed out on World Water Day March 22. Ms. Pierrette Vu Thi stated, “A child living in a Congolese village is four times more likely to drink contaminated water than someone in town.” Current statistics hold that 2 million children under the age of 5 regularly suffer from diarrhea, usually caused by contaminated water in Congo. This makes unsafe water a leading cause of death among Congo’s infants, whose mortality rate is over 20 per cent in

Ikalenganya village well. Probably safe as Disciples trained village health worker reported low incidence of diarrhea and infant mortality

many areas of the country.

Strongly recommended by the U.N. study are undertaking low cost solutions such as communal taps and rainwater catchment systems.

To read the UNEP report Water Issues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Challenges and Opportunities go to the following web address: http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_DRC_water.pdf

The 90 page report includes an in depth assessment of Regideso, the water supplier for urban Mbandaka and other cities of Equateur Province.

Micro Credit Training for the HIV Positive

On By erasingbordersIn AIDS in Congo, Congo Grass Roots Development Efforts, Disciples AIDS Office, Disciples Microcredit Programs, Disciples of Christ, Microcredit, UncategorizedLeave a comment
 

 

Nathan Weteto, Micro Credit Trainer and Organizer

 

From the blog of Nathan Weteto http://natana.tumblr.com as translated by Dr. Gene Johnson from the French 

 

46 Persons Living With HIV Ask for Micro Credit

Yesterday, December 9, 2010, the Community of Disciples of Christ in Congo completed the launch of the micro – credit for people living with HIV (PVV). Planned for 40 people, the project welcomed the first 44 and
then 2 more were added making a total of 46 beneficiaries.

 

In fact, the CDCC, with the support of the United Evangelical Mission (MEU) has turned to a new category of persons as part of its program of micro – credit. After women in general and the wives of pastors, it’s the
turn of PVV

The MEU has provided funding for making two kits for the administration of micro – credit as well as U.S. $ 800 as seed money for PVV..

After 3 days of training on the administration of a group of micro -credit, 2 groups of 23 persons each were formed and the beneficiaries have saved, before receiving aid, a sum of 285,000 FC, slightly more than
U.S. $ 300. The cycle thus started will end in June, 2011. We hope that everything will go well, and to the great satisfaction of the beneficiaries.

 

Read more about the Disciples’ organizing of micro-credit groups in the article “Banking in Mbandaka” on this blog. Enter that title in the search window found in the upper right of the home page.

 


 

 

Congo Disciples Commemorate World AIDS Day

On By erasingbordersIn AIDS in Congo, Church Medical Services, Disciples AIDS Office, Disciples Church Development Aid, Disciples of Christ, Health in Congo, Uncategorized1 Comment

Translated by Dr. Gene Johnson, this posting is from the blog of Nathan Weteto of the Disciples headquarters office in Mbandaka, R.D.C. The blog address is http://natana.tumblr.com.

World AIDS Day December 1, 2010 was a first for the Community of Disciples of Christ in Congo. Indeed, for the first time, the CDCC has participated in festivities marking the World AIDS day, despite the existence of an AIDS office in the General Secretariat and various actions that the Community has undertaken in the sense of awareness for the prevention and encouraging voluntary testing. The CDCC has not only participated in these events, on Friday, December 3, 2010 it launched the activity of micro – credit for people living with HIV (PVV) in the presence of many dignitaries of the Provincial government and the Church. 44 PVV are involved in this project which will give them financial opportunities that will enable them to reintegrate into society without hang-ups. The hardest task will be the psychological training of these people for their rehabilitation because they were often stigmatized and often lived on the margins of society.

Nathan Weteto or “Weteto” as he is known by friends and colleagues fills several positions at the “Secretariat”, headquarters of the Disciples “Community” of the Church of Christ of Congo. He is Director of Communications, Head of Personnel, and serves on the Development Committee which oversees such projects as the “Centre Agro Pastorale” at Ikengo.

CONGO (And the U.N.) on TRIAL

On By erasingbordersIn Contemporary Congo Politics, Organizing for Change in Congo, Photos of Urban Congo, U.N. Congo Mission, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Bumping over the potholes in downtown Mbandaka  this summer, I shot this picture from the car window and then realized it was the headquarters of Jean-Pierre BEMBA GOMBA’s s party, the MLC (Movemment for the Liberation of Congo).  Several political parties have offices in the provincial capital, but this is the largest I saw and reflects the widespread support for BEMBA and his party in his home province of Equateur.  In fact most people I talked with about the election of 2006 disputed the announced results and declared that BEMBA was the actual winner.

This means many voters in Congo will have a hard time trusting the process of next November’s presidential election. But the stakes are high especially for those who would challenge President Kabila’s hold on the presidency.  Those who have opposed presidential rule in Congo have in the past ended up in prison, in exile or dead. Following his arrest by Belgium in 2008,  Jean-Pierre BEMBA’s trial has finally begun under the auspices of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

BEMBA’s trial leads to several questions regarding  Congo’s 2011 presidential election: “Will his party be permitted to run another candidate in his absence” and “Will the MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force,be permitted to remain until after the election?”  And finally, “If the U.N. troops remain in the country, will they be able to preserve the peace and minimize fraud during what will surely be a highly contested election?”

“A Prayer for Congo”

On By erasingbordersIn Congolese Daily Life, Organizing for Change in Congo, UncategorizedLeave a comment

 

So now it’s my turn

  After all the petitions from friends and strangers;

It becomes tiring and so predictable

   You cringe inside and then they tell you their story.

So why not ask for it to be easier,

   The response to “what does this one really need?”.

We’ve had enough experience getting what we want

   How about asking for it to be easier on us all?

Yes, do make our world more beautiful,

    And cut our hearts with the truth;

Plant seeds of courage and passion

   And give them their due.

Narrow the gaps between us,

   And if it be a struggle name us all righteous,

United and armed with the matchless love,

   And give them their due.

If this be not the time give us vision

   To make all our small acts seem larger

In the unfolding of our story

    And give them their due.

And when we come before you

    And know your humbling glory,

Let us see how we came together for you

   And gave them their due.

Written by Doug Smith for Congo Week October 2010

"the more things change……" April 5, 2010

On By erasingbordersIn Rev. Elonda Ifefe, Uncategorized

Well it wouldn’t be travel to Congo if political unrest wasn’t part of the picture. I awoke this morning to the email from Indianapolis Disciple headquarters that Mbandaka had been attacked on Easter Sunday by a force of 200 rebels and a UN soldier and one other person was reported killed. NPR had already reported the rebels’ attempt to seize the Mbandaka airport. Presumably without success.

By the end of the day I was thinking about my arrival in Kinshasa in June 1969 on my way from Zambia via Lubumbashi. On arriving in “Kin” I was feeling pretty good about the fact I had entered Congo and gone through Customs in the Katanga capital without paying any “corrumption” to anyone. We had not been made aware on the plane that Kinshasa was under military lock down, streets deserted, the city of nearly 2 million quieted after over 80 students, reported as 8 by the local press, were shot and killed by the Army. Later that summer Mobutu quelled the continued grumbling of the students by conscripting the entire student body of the National University into the Congolese Army.

The dictator was at the height of his power at the time and the regime’s true character was never more publicly and more alarmingly displayed than on that day. I arrived about 1 in he morning but the desk clerk at the Mission Guest House had been alerted and was waiting with the key. “Are you willing to share a room with a Congolese?” he wanted to know. Even in my near unconscious state I did rouse myself enough to respond, “Well I guess I better if I’m going to spend the next two years working with them.“ It was the first evidence that relations between black and white were tense even in the Church in Congo that year. My entering the room woke up the President of the Disciples in Congo, Rev. Paul Elonda, my roommate.