The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), located in Central Africa:
Congo is a country of immense beauty, vast landscapes and one of the biggest mineral reserves on Earth. The DRC has been called a “nightmare in heaven”, heaven because of the previous description, and a nightmare because… well, that takes a little bit more to explain.
First, I want to introduce you to someone: a friend named M’MBELA Stany.
Stany is an admirable man. He is 21 years old, a student of engineering sciences at the University of Goma, and he speaks fluent French, English, Swahili, Kimbebe and Lingala. Stany also runs a Non-Profit Organization named Flamme d'Avenir Group / Flame of Future Group, that aims at empowering the youth of his country. Stany lives in Goma, Eastern Congo. If you have been following the news, you know that Goma has been attacked and held hostage by the M23 rebels, which are fighting the government (more info here, use Google Chrome to translate). The rebels killed and raped hundreds of people. Just like all other Congolese, Stany wishes for peace. He wrote this personal letter:
"I am called M’MBELA Stany, I am Congolese, and I live in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in the eastern of the country and I live in one of the most difficult regions of the world. We live in the face of overwhelming obstacles.
I was born in a family of 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls, and the members of my family are all in life. I am 21 years old and I was born in a little village called KASAKWA in 1991. I started my studies in 1997 when we escaped the war of 1996 of Mr. Laurent KABILA. I started my studies at Tanzania refugee’s camp ‘’LUGUFU’’. In 2000 my family and I came back to DRC after the war. I continued with my studies here in DRC and I got my diploma in 2010. This is my third year at the University of Goma. I learned English in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, at the international languages center (ILC). On the 20th of November 2012, the M23 rebels attacked the region of Goma and the situation was very sad; people died, were injured, were harmed…
I escaped to Kigali for a week and then I came back to Goma when the rebels began to take their baggage and go 20 km from Goma city. Women were being raped. It was very sad. Children were abused and some died. Oh Congo, we want peace !!!!"
Stany sent me pictures of civilian casualties, the many pictures that Stany took himself are soul wrecking...
Check them out in the following link (WARNING: strong images): http://4freedomwwp.tumblr.com/
Stany sent me these 3 pictures. In the first one you can see a woman that was quartered; her legs and arms are not attached to her body... In the second one there's a man that survived a machete attack (he had his back cut in half), and in the third picture there was a mother shot in the head in front of her children...
I can't imagine what Stany or the victims felt... How did the children that watched their mothers being raped feel? What about the children that watched their mothers being killed? The horror that they must have felt... How does one recover from such tragedy?
And these pictures are what we, Westerns, never see because the international media won’t show us. These pictures are not an isolated case.
Below are statements published in international newspapers:
"I am called M’MBELA Stany, I am Congolese, and I live in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in the eastern of the country and I live in one of the most difficult regions of the world. We live in the face of overwhelming obstacles.
I was born in a family of 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls, and the members of my family are all in life. I am 21 years old and I was born in a little village called KASAKWA in 1991. I started my studies in 1997 when we escaped the war of 1996 of Mr. Laurent KABILA. I started my studies at Tanzania refugee’s camp ‘’LUGUFU’’. In 2000 my family and I came back to DRC after the war. I continued with my studies here in DRC and I got my diploma in 2010. This is my third year at the University of Goma. I learned English in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, at the international languages center (ILC). On the 20th of November 2012, the M23 rebels attacked the region of Goma and the situation was very sad; people died, were injured, were harmed…
I escaped to Kigali for a week and then I came back to Goma when the rebels began to take their baggage and go 20 km from Goma city. Women were being raped. It was very sad. Children were abused and some died. Oh Congo, we want peace !!!!"
Check them out in the following link (WARNING: strong images): http://4freedomwwp.tumblr.com/
Stany sent me these 3 pictures. In the first one you can see a woman that was quartered; her legs and arms are not attached to her body... In the second one there's a man that survived a machete attack (he had his back cut in half), and in the third picture there was a mother shot in the head in front of her children...
I can't imagine what Stany or the victims felt... How did the children that watched their mothers being raped feel? What about the children that watched their mothers being killed? The horror that they must have felt... How does one recover from such tragedy?
And these pictures are what we, Westerns, never see because the international media won’t show us. These pictures are not an isolated case.
- “The International Rescue Committee which said that the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Congo had taken the lives of some 5.4 million people since 1998, and that 45,000 people continue to die there every month.”
- The U.N. has labeled the DRC, Africa's second largest country, as the "rape capital of the world", 160 women are raped per week in North and South Kivu, mainly by armed men.
- The wars in that country (DRC) have claimed nearly the same number of lives as having a 9/11 every single day for 360 days, the genocide that struck Rwanda in 1994, the ethnic cleansing that overwhelmed Bosnia in the mid-1990s, the genocide that took place in Darfur, the number of people killed in the great tsunami that struck Asia in 2004, and the number of people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- all combined and then doubled.
This video explains very well why Congo is a nightmare. It's only 26 minutes long and it explains 130 years worth of history:
Nations and multi-national organizations profit from this evil system, while the civilian population of Congo is held hostage doing slave work. We all contribute to this system, from the Coltan that’s in our cellphone or the Beryllium that’s in the airplanes that we fly, we blindly contribute to this genocidal system.
If you wish to understand the Coltan industry better, watch this documentary:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/blood-coltan/
As another Congolese friend of mine described: "The congolese government that is currently in place under the President's leadership is one of those Mafias that couldn't care less of what others (population) want. Their voices are ignored and the government in place uses power as an abuse to simply enrich themselves, leaving the population to their own misery."
In The Shade of the Palms (1907), Edward Wilhelm Sjöblom, a missionary that arrived in Congo on July 31, 1892, explains:
"A small boy of about nine is ordered by the soldier to cut off the dead man's hand, which, with some other hands taken previously in a similar way, are then the following day handed over to the commissioner as signs of the victory of civilization.
Oh, if only the civilized world knew the way hundreds, even thousands are murdered, villages destroyed, and surviving natives have to drag their lives along in the worst slavery..."
It seems like not much has changed in the last 120 years; thousands of Congolese are still being murdered every month.
If you wish to understand the Coltan industry better, watch this documentary:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/blood-coltan/
As another Congolese friend of mine described: "The congolese government that is currently in place under the President's leadership is one of those Mafias that couldn't care less of what others (population) want. Their voices are ignored and the government in place uses power as an abuse to simply enrich themselves, leaving the population to their own misery."
In The Shade of the Palms (1907), Edward Wilhelm Sjöblom, a missionary that arrived in Congo on July 31, 1892, explains:
"A small boy of about nine is ordered by the soldier to cut off the dead man's hand, which, with some other hands taken previously in a similar way, are then the following day handed over to the commissioner as signs of the victory of civilization.
Oh, if only the civilized world knew the way hundreds, even thousands are murdered, villages destroyed, and surviving natives have to drag their lives along in the worst slavery..."
It seems like not much has changed in the last 120 years; thousands of Congolese are still being murdered every month.
My urge is for you not to feel hopeless because I have hope. I believe that humanity is better than this, I believe that we live at the time that people tell governments what they can and cannot do, and we must tell our governments that this MUST STOP NOW. How many more lives need to be lost in this absurd war; how many more talented and benevolent people have to die in the hands of tyrants for things to change?
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You must sign this petition to the White House:
Use your consumer power to make more responsible purchasing decisions. Send messages to companies you purchase from, reminding them how important conflict-free from Congo is to you:
Support my friend and his non-profit organization, empower the people on the ground, like his Facebook page and be updated on his work:
Finally and very importantly, educate other people. Spread the word, make use of the powerful tool that you have access to: social media! SHARE AND TWEET IT!
I'll leave you with this quote:
I'll leave you with this quote:
"You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions."
Sven Lindqvist
Follow me on Twitter: @Gimenez365
Sven Lindqvist
Follow me on Twitter: @Gimenez365
Thank you Pedro for your support !
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your lives with us. Peace.
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