Today's election in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a fraud - and the
rich world shares the blame
James North on December 30, 2018
Joseph Kabila
Today's election in the Democratic Republic of Congo is already collapsing
under the weight of massive fraud. Reporters who visited Limete, an
opposition stronghold in the capital, Kinshasa, reported that no voting
materials had been delivered all morning, while long lines waited patiently.
Even before the vote, the Joseph Kabila regime had banned voting outright in
three other opposition areas, falsely claiming that an outbreak of ebola in
one of them made voting unsafe. A Washington Post editorial two days ago had
already accurately called the election "a travesty," citing Kabila's
"chicanery," "repression," "subterfuge," and "electoral flimflam."
But if the mainstream news coverage is typical, the reports will be centered
on Africans, with the implication that once again they have failed the test
of democracy.
The implication is false. Of course President Kabila and his entourage are
partly responsible for the disaster. But they share blame with
non-Congolese, including:
* Dan Gertler, the Israeli businessman who has partnered with Kabila over
mining concessions in the mineral-rich central African nation. Gertler is so
corrupt that even the Trump administration had to sanction him under the
Magnitsky anti-corruption act - although Israel, where he actually lives, so
far has done nothing.
* An Anglo-Swiss mining multinational, Glencore, that teams up with with
Gertler and Kabila in looting the Congo's extensive cobalt and copper
deposits
* U.S. banks, including Citicorp and Bank of America, whose loans keep
Glencore humming along
* A well-connected Washington, D.C. public relations/lobbying firm, Sanitas
International, that orchestrated a surprisingly successful campaign to
manipulate certain U.S. journalists who parachuted in to interview Kabila (I
described the media malpractice in The Nation.)
* Successive governments in the the U.S. and Europe that have admonished
Kabila occasionally, but refuse to apply stronger pressure because they
favor what they think will be stability over justice. They now face a moment
of decision; do they let Kabila steal the election and shoot down
pro-democracy protesters?
What is inspiring about today's events is that Congolese showed up to vote
en masse, even though they all know the election is rigged. The turnout
follows weeks in which thousands flocked to rallies for the two leading
opposition candidates, risking police gunfire in some cases to show their
support. The respected Congo Research Group released an election eve poll
that showed the two, Martin Fayulu and Etienne Tshisekedi, both trouncing
Kabila's stand-in, a nonentity named Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
"All Congolese know that a free and fair election is impossible," Kambale
Musavuli, an energetic young Congolese who works with the US-based
solidarity group, Friends of the Congo, explains. "But they collectively
decided not to boycott anyway. And then they chose to use the election
campaigns as a chance to mobilize and engage politically - to an extent that
is surprising everybody."
One theme was common in mainstream media coverage; as the BBC put it, that
this election would mark "the first peaceful transfer of power since
independence in 1960." Some amnesia is at work here. The Congolese did vote
freely back then, electing a principled and courageous man named Patrice
Lumumba to be their prime minister. Right away, the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency and Belgium, the departing colonial power, plotted
against Lumumba, helping to depose him after just months and then having him
brutally murdered the following year.
Ad for Why Palestine Matters book
