Operation Broken Silence

PHOTO: A United Nations convoy, heading to Rutchuro to relaunch UN operations in the area passes by the dead body of a Congolese soldier. (1)

Despite the arrest of Congo’s most powerful rebel leader months ago, tens of thousands of women are threatened daily with rape, children are being kidnapped, molested, and forced into war, and U.N. peacekeepers continue to carry out joint operations to destroy the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who are responsible for carrying out the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda.

In the lawless eastern provinces of Congo, hundreds of thousands remain displaced by fighting as entire villages empty at night as civilians find safety in the forests from the roving militias, rebels, and government troops, all of whom are responsible for looting, raping, and massacring. The United Nations has responded to escalated fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with an appeal for $38 million in emergency international aid.

Despite improved relations with neighboring military powerhouse Rwanda, tensions remain high along the border region as the FDLR has yet to be defeated. The FDLR is the key issue facing Rwanda and Congo, prompting Rwanda to invade it’s much larger neighbor several times over the past several years. Several months ago, however, Rwandan troops and Congolese troops participated in a joint operation that flushed the extremest FDLR rebels out from territory they controlled. The Rwandan soldiers left after the operation, and the FDLR has returned to take up positions in their military strongholds.

Meanwhile on the justice front, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled Monday that former DR Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba will stand trial on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors claim Bemba had sent 1,000 to 1,500 troops to the Central African Republic to retain control of the border area with the Congolese province of Equateur in a war between his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and then DR Congo leader Laurent Kabila, father of the current president. While there, the prosecution alleges that MLC militia brutally gang-raped men, women and children, and tortured and murdered civilians. The trial could run from several months to a year long…