Post-Election Violence in the Congo
Violence again in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
“IT STARTED with burning tyres and rocks thrown by protesters. Then gun battles erupted between rival soldiers using heavy machine guns, mortars and rockets. The fighting at the weekend in Kinshasa shows that peace in Congo is not yet assured. The battle brought the centre of the capital, a city usually bursting with people, to a standstill.” (from The Economist)
The BBC’s coverage is particularly interesting, however, as it dovetails with the observations of a friend of mine. The BBC mentions that an “analyst who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC that there were serious questions about the validity of some ballot papers, especially a large number of votes cast by voters outside their home areas.” Compare this with a blog entry from my friend Sophie, who was working as an election monitor in the DRC:
“Election day security and proceedings were generally good, with the exception of one potentially unstable situation that we were confronted with involving initially about fifty people unable to vote due to being away from their polling centers. We went into the polling station outside which the very loud and obviously angry crowd was gathered and talked to the chief of the centre de vote. He emphasized that he was following the election code and reported that the crowd was threatening to stone them if they continued to be unable to vote, the police being insufficient to control them…“On the whole the election was peaceful and pretty orderly, but what we saw represents the psychological aftereffects of a war like the Congo’s – a disrespect for the rule of law and a lingering presumption that when push comes to shove, violence can solve problems. So rather than saying “hey, I’m not able to get back to where I’m registered to vote; I’m really mad about that, but it’s the law and I’ll just have to be prepared to vote next time,” the response is “I’m Congolese, I have my voter’s ID card, but I’m not going to be able to get to the place where I can vote, so I’m going to make them allow me to vote.” It’s going to take a long time for enough trust in the justice of the law and the strength of the state to be established to prevent incidents like that. I just hope the Congolese have enough faith and the new Congolese government can produce enough results for them to stick with it.”