Congo Kinshasa
David Robert Lewis*: 
A call for peace in the DRC

The facts speak for themselves: Witness an African Civil War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with 50 million people affected in a country the size of Europe. The external protagonists: Uganda and Rwanda versus Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe - neither sides committed to peace or economic stability. The scramble for scarce resources is plain to see as is the expansion and political intrigue of an African-sponsored form of Imperialism. 

Since its beginnings in the Rwandan/Burundi crisis and subsequent overthrow of Mobutu, the conflict in the former Congo, has become the broadest obstacle to our vision of a united Africa. The substance of President Mbeki's pan-African Renaissance is slowly withering and dying and with it the continents renewal, alongside our hopes and dreams.

It is imperative in this climate of war that we return to the basic assumptions made during our transformation from a divided nation into a non-racial, non-sexist, nuclear-free democracy. Increasingly we seem to have lost touch with our grassroots independence and the peace movement that culminated in the changes of 1990. FW de Klerk's capitulation in the face of a world-wide protest and Mandela's acceptance of a cessation of conflict, should not be allowed to go unnoticed, the events of more than a decade ago deserve to be remembered. Nor can we risk forgetting the peace deals and protests which marched our country away from the brink of war.

Like thousands of young South Africans, forced either into conscription, or the civil unrest in the townships and the war bordering the front-line states, along with innumerable and nameless patriots, activists, comrades and cadres, I took a stand. Dodging the draft and avoiding military service, meant doing my term of duty at countless End Conscription gatherings, Women's day meetings, Mayday parades and counter-cultural events which had become a part of the world-wide anti-apartheid movement. There is no need to utter these self-seeking remarks other than to remind myself and others that this country experienced a liberation as well as a struggle.

Now more than ever before the spirit of liberation is needed - a commitment to pacifism, freedom and non-aggression, - if we are to avoid becoming embroiled in a continent-wide conflict, fuelled by arms-traders, as well as the ideological instability and the shifting borders of a new world order.

South Africa needs peace in the DRC as badly as the United States needs a peace settlement in the middle east. The question is, are we peace-keepers or dogs of war? The latter would seem to be a truer statement of our country's goals, which is why the present debacle over our nations re-armament, like the rearming of Germany, is fraught with intellectual and ideological contradictions.

Chief of these problems is our seeming inability to remain neutral in an economic block that includes states already involved in the war - like Namibia and Zimbabwe. The crisis' apparent contradiction is also a paradox of our own making - what we may believe to be simple negotiation is also an eagerness to spread influence, what others still see as peddling armed conflict or touting for military work. But unless the states involved in the DRC war are completely isolated from our arms industry and a war-making apparatus there can be no hope of any form of peace in the short term. The isolation of our neighbours, one hopes, would have been swift but instead of enforcing sanctions, our country has become merely another party to a central African crime.

It is plain to see what the real price of this conflict may turn out to be - for one, it far outweighs any economic benefit derived from doing business, even with support of the warring factions in the DRC, our international ties and commitments are greater. Secondly, our currency and economy suffers whenever anyone sneezes in the Congo and Robert Mugabe is thus like the handkerchief pointing to the bull - more involved than anyone cares to mention. But the fact that the war is but one short step away from Harare is enough to frighten foreign investors, as the Rand continues to tumble whenever Mugabe fails to keep an eye on his pet bull. The curious link between rising and falling stock prices and events in Zimbabwe is really nothing more than a signal from the outside world, and our involvement in the region is not viewed as a simple friendship by the West.

Until there is a firm commitment from South Africa, to peace-keeping, at very least a UN-sponsored resolution outlawing armed conflict in the region, there can be no peace for either Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Namibia or Zimbabwe. The economic risks of another Rwandan killing fields, as the DRC conflict moves south are incalculable and extend far beyond anything contemplated by either the localised threat of Aids, TB or cholera.

Already, there are reports of a Polio epidemic in the DRC as the hot-zone threatens to infect our own borders, along with millions of refugees and the perception of a continent terminally racked by war.

But all of this could change in a flash. The spirit of our liberation is still alive, and its knowledge and example is among us. Where it is absent we have only to return, to point out our historic roots in ending conflict: the peace in Mozambique; the return of South West Africa to Namibia; our country's destruction of nuclear weapons, and our peaceful transition; all point to an end to war as a means of problem-solving. Therefore, as an active witness to our peace and a war-resister, I call upon our leaders, as well as our free nation to protect what little of the peace that remains in this conflict, and to avoid sacrificing future generations to either war or armed conflict.

*David Robert Lewis (South Africa) is a war-resister who has worked for South and New Nation

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