Democratic Republic of Congo: Another atrocity in the making?

During her 2009 visit to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the arrest and punishment of militiamen responsible for the widespread sexual violence and broader human rights violations that have devastated the eastern Congo for more than a decade. She described the situation as “one of mankind’s greatest atrocities.” But since flawed November 2011 elections led to renewed violence in other parts of the country, she has failed to defend human rights—and political rights—in the DRC with the same conviction.

Incumbent president Joseph Kabila and his main challenger, Etienne Tshisekedi, are now embroiled in a protracted dispute over the election results. At stake is control over the DRC’s vast natural resources and rapidly growing population, and both men appear willing to unravel the country’s modest democratic advancements, achieved through partly free elections in 2006, and to transform the most recent elections from a somewhat democratic process to a simple power grab.

President Kabila has an undeniable advantage in this pursuit, ironically as a result of his gravely disappointing governance record and autocratic tendencies. He used his firm control over the country’s security forces, state apparatus, and state media to undermine the electoral process. He consistently delayed electoral reforms, repressed political opponents, hijacked the country’s electoral commission, manipulated the voter rolls, rewrote the constitution, and ensured overwhelming media coverage of his campaign.

Despite these efforts, it was Tshisekedi who actually stole the limelight in the run-up to election day. A politically schizophrenic veteran who alternately served and opposed the dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seko (1965–97), he emerged as an unlikely frontrunner for the presidency. He had a proven track record of sabotaging democratic processes, from his role in the 1960 coup and complicity in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the DRC’s first independence leader, to his boycott of the 2006 elections. In a moment of preconceived epiphany, Tshisekedi declared at the outset of his presidential campaign in early November that the Congolese people “proclaimed me president a long time ago,” thereby igniting the political powder keg that has ravaged the country for the past month.

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