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Bloody Interlude
Violence breaks out in Congo shortly after our stay - how should FORGE react?
Last month, I posted a few blogs about an inspiring assessment mission that FORGE took to Moba, a town on Lake Tanganyika in DR Congo. To summarize those posts, we found Moba to be a bastion of hope in Congo, even though it had been ravaged by war and crippled by rebels. The people of Moba had withstood years of oppression, violence, and abuse, but they had maintained a clear vision of the peace and prosperity they wanted for the future.
Unfortunately, this vision will have to be on hold once again.
Three weeks after FORGE's mission to a completely peaceful Moba, a former mid-level rebel leader managed to stir up a riot, sparking and fueling anger with rumors that Banyamulenge (Congolese-born Rwandan Tutsis who have been largely blamed for sparking the Civil War that plagued DRC during the 1990s) were repatriating to Congo from Tanzania & Zambia.
In a matter of days, two civilians were shot, UN security forces were forced to flee, offices were raided, and the UN was evacuated by helicopter in the middle of the night. Order was restored a short time later, but lasting damage had been done. As people had enjoyed peace for well over a year, their hope was being bolstered by real evidence of change. And then it was snatched away.
It is strange and almost impossible for me to think that the UNHCR compound where we had been staying was attacked and burned. It is even stranger for me to think that this was my closest encounter with war, when people around the world have to live in and amongst it every day. I feel violated because a room that I slept and ate in for a period of a week is now in ashes – I can’t imagine how it must feel to watch the only home and the only country you’ve ever known go up in flames.
Still, I refuse to think of Moba or of Congo as a place of violence. I know all too well that it is a place of promise. Over and over again, Congolese people told us of their vision for Congo. They reminded us that it was not so long ago that America had its own devastating civil war, and that Europe was itself brutalized by war in the first half of this century. If the world’s most developed nations could conquer their bloody pasts, why can’t Congo?
As I had previously discussed, when hope springs in an area of need, the time to act is now. We’ll have to be careful and considered, but we won’t let this dampen our spirits or our plans. As long as the citizens of Congo maintain hope, vision, and determination, so shall we – right alongside them.
