This weekend, Islanders have the chance to learn more about the bloody but little-known conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo from people who have witnessed the strife firsthand.
Officials from Friends of the Congo and HEAL Africa as well as U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, who visited the nation in 2007, will speak about the struggle and explain what Islanders can do to help the people of the central African country.
Since 1996, more than 6 million people have been killed in a “battle over Congo’s resources,” said Harper McConnell, U.S. director of development for HEAL Africa, a nonprofit dedicated to caring for the people of Congo through education, health care and “peace building” efforts.
“Congo is one of the world’s most resource-rich nations,” she said. “The Congolese people don’t really see the benefit of their land, because it’s being exploited.”
The country borders Rwanda and Sudan, both of which received media attention in recent years because of violence there. But fewer people seem to know about the plight of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said Linda Ceriello, an Islander helping to organize the event. Some of the violence from neighboring countries has spilled into the Congo, and the fighting has since lasted 13 years in the mineral-rich country.
“What’s happening there is brutal beyond imagination,” she said.
Acts of violence have been taken against hundreds of thousands of women; communities and villages have been wiped out, she said.
“It simply boggles the mind to see that such violent treatment of one’s fellow human beings on such a massive scale is somehow justifiable in the eyes of the perpetrators,” Ceriello said. “So it begs me to try to understand it.”
She hopes Islanders will be moved to take action after they hear stories of those who have lived in the Congo.
People may become involved in the work of HEAL Africa in the United States, McConnell said, or they can join letter-writing campaigns to U.S. lawmakers and corporations.
Some major U.S. corporations may have a hand in the violence in Congo, she said, because they support governments involved in action against the nation. She and the other speakers at Saturday’s event will explain the connections between U.S. corporations and the strife in Congo.
“The conflict is in some measure due to Western desire to control the natural resources in this area,” said Ceriello. “We need the minerals from Congo to make our cell phones and other electronic devices, so we are complicit in fueling the conflict and in making these people’s lives miserable.”
Event
Rep. Jim McDermott, McConnell and others who have worked or lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo will speak at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at Vashon Lutheran Church. For more information, contact harper@healafrica.org.
