Archivo etiqueta «República Democrática del Congo»
Por Ferran Requejo, catedrático de Ciencia Política en la UPF y autor de Las democracias, Ariel, 2008 (LA VANGUARDIA, 26/02/09):
La situación de los derechos humanos sigue mostrando un panorama desolador en buena parte de los estados del planeta. Ello supone un incumplimiento grave de la Declaración Universal de la ONU de 1948. Que el tema sea muy conocido no lo transforma en menos grave. Pero buena parte de las democracias liberales también presentan incumplimientos concretos en la protección de dichos derechos. De los últimos informes independientes pueden presentarse los casos de RD Congo y España como ejemplos de … Seguir leyendo
Por Mario Vargas Llosa (EL PAÍS, 28/12/08):
Durante muchos siglos, la empresa colonial fue transparente: un país, aprovechándose de su fuerza, invadía a otro más débil, se apoderaba de él y lo saqueaba. Nadie ponía en cuestión semejante estado de cosas porque se trataba de algo que se venía practicando desde la noche de los tiempos y todos, colonizadores y colonizados, aceptaban o se resignaban a esta cruda realidad como a una fatalidad inevitable, consustancial a la historia.
El descubrimiento y conquista de América por los europeos introduce una importante variante. Por primera vez y por razones religiosas el colonizador … Seguir leyendo
By Herman J. Cohen, the assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1989 to 1993 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 16/12/08):
THE conflict in eastern Congo over the past 12 years has been as much a surrogate war between Congo and neighboring Rwanda as an internal ethnic insurgency, as a United Nations report underscored last week. The only way to end a war that has caused five million deaths and forced millions to flee their homes in Congo’s two eastern provinces is to address the conflict’s international dimensions. The role of Rwanda — which borders the provinces and which denied … Seguir leyendo
By Giles Foden, the author of The Last King of Scotland and professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia (THE GUARDIAN, 16/12/08):
In 2001, I was in a bar in Kigoma, on the Tanzanian side of Lake Tanganyika. As I sipped my beer, I could hear the clipped tones of a South African speaking into a radio transceiver. He was ordering supplies for the United Nations peacekeeping mission known as Monuc, then operating out of Kalemie on the lake’s Congolese side. At the time, Monuc’s blue berets were just about managing to keep a lid on … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Gerson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 12/12/08):
The HEAL Africa hospital has a feeling of newness that is rare for this part of Africa, mainly because its previous facility was destroyed by lava from Mount Nyiragongo in 2002. One building holds people with bullet wounds — shot through the pelvis, the thigh, the jaw. Another ward contains women recovering from fistula repair surgery — the quiet victims of extreme sexual violence who tend to avoid your eyes.
In another room, families whose children have congenital defects such as clubfoot and cleft lip are gathered. A surgeon at the hospital introduced … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Gerson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/12/08):
The setting of this city is all contrast and drama — nestled along a vast, placid lake but dominated by a volcano that steams by day and glows faint and red on a clear evening. A city living in the shadow of sudden violence.
Driving north from Goma, one passes through wide lava fields — black, broken and sharp to the feet. About seven miles along the rutted road, the uniforms of the soldiers change, from the solid green of the FARDC (the Congolese military) to the camouflage of the CNDP (the rebel … Seguir leyendo
Por Mario Vargas Llosa (EL PAÍS, 30/11/08):
En la ciudad de Boma, capital de este inmenso país cuando se llamaba el Estado Libre del Congo y era propiedad privada del Rey de los Belgas, Leopoldo II, el señor Placide-Clement Mananga está entregado a luchar a favor de la civilización y contra la barbarie. Ésta, para él, no tiene la cara atroz de las violaciones, las matanzas, las epidemias y el hambre que adopta en otras regiones de su país, sino la del olvido. Monsieur Placide estuvo cuatro años de joven en un seminario católico, preparándose para ser cura. Pero el … Seguir leyendo
By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/11/08):
While world leaders gathered here to unleash soothing words on the financial tsunami swamping their economies, the daring “responsibility to protect” doctrine adopted by U.N. members three years ago was being buried in the killing fields of eastern Congo.
For the sake of your bank account, hope that the international community can protect dollars, euros and yen more successfully than it protects the lives and safety of people who happen to live in failed or rogue states.
In three years, “never again” has become “sorry about that.” Humanitarian intervention — proudly proclaimed as … Seguir leyendo
Por Mario Vargas Llosa (EL PAÍS, 16/11/08):
PIEDRA DE TOQUE. Congo, el país que recorrió el explorador británico, padeció la colonización más inhumana. Hoy, millones de personas viven allí una pesadilla cotidiana rodeados de ruina, miseria y tristeza.
El Museo se encuentra en el Monte Ngaliema, una comuna de la capital congolesa, en un terreno de las Fuerzas Armadas, y desde lo alto de esta elevación se divisa -un espectáculo soberbio- el gran río africano en todo su esplendor, con las dos capitales -Kinshasa y Brazzaville- contemplándose la una a la otra desde las dos orillas.
Allí, en el mismo … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Jenkins (THE GUARDIAN, 05/11/08):
The Guardian headline on Monday was clear as mud. It read “Stop killing in Congo or else, leaders warned”. Everything was left hanging. Which leaders? Warned by whom? Or else what? The story was that western spokesmen had warned various African leaders, albeit via the press, that they would be “held to account, or else” if they did not do what they were told. This clearly implied military intervention and there were briefings to that effect, though only a few hundred soldiers were mentioned.
The threats were from the new prophet of Blairite interventionism … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 03/11/08):
Talk of sending British forces to the eastern Congo is a diplomatic fantasy – and one that could quickly turn into a nightmare. Even if well-prepared, well-equipped troops were available (which is not the case given Britain’s other involvements), a deployment would be neither sensible nor responsible without major commitments by other EU countries. As the French presidency has discovered, there is zero appetite across Europe for more African adventurism of this kind. Given the history, that is no surprise.
The highly public weekend effort by Britain’s David Miliband, France’s Bernard Kouchner, the US … Seguir leyendo
By Paul Collier, the author of the forthcoming Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (THE GUARDIAN, 03/11/08):
Much of my work has been on conflict in Africa, so the latest catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo has unsurprisingly generated questions of the form “What now?” My buck-dodging answer is: “Don’t start from here.” We are where we are because of the persistent failure of the international community to face reality. Part of that reality is that the UN is ill-suited to a reactive mode of operations: reaction requires decisions and logistics that are usually stymied by … Seguir leyendo
Por Ángel Expósito Mora, director de ABC (ABC, 18/08/08):
Lo que está ocurriendo desde hace años en la República Democrática del Congo es un perfecto ejemplo del puzle imposible que lo peor de la globalización ha traído consigo. Luchas étnicas, fuerzas armadas incomprensibles, fronteras inexistentes, antiguas potencias coloniales desaparecidas, nuevas potencias sin escrúpulos, riqueza inimaginable en el subsuelo, violencia sexual y una caprichosa geografía que rodea los Grandes Lagos; es decir, todos los ingredientes para el horror ante la pasividad de esta parte del mundo a la que pertenecemos, desde donde asistimos entre ignorantes y disimulados al infierno de … Seguir leyendo
By Anna Husarska, senior policy adviser at the International Rescue Committee (THE WASHINGTON POST, 12/01/08):
The roads here are awful, partly because of perennial disrepair and partly because of a 2002 volcanic eruption that covered large areas of Goma with black lava. Now the town is the site of a major peace conference, so a few potholes were filled with sand. One can only hope that whatever results from this meeting has a firmer base.
The conference opened Sunday and is scheduled to end next week. Some 1,300 people are attending. Congolese television showed the inaugural speeches, full of … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 19/12/07):
John le Carré’s latest novel, The Mission Song, describes an MI6-backed plot to mount a coup in the eastern Great Lakes region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). An anonymous business syndicate, eyeing the mineral riches of North and South Kivu provinces, encourages rival militia leaders to join forces under the auspices of a sinister populist, Mwangaza the Enlightener.The fictitious plotters’ idea is to throw off the authority of the “fat cats” in the far-off capital of Kinshasa, weaken Rwandan influence, and set up some sort of autonomous, ostensibly democratic state. But … Seguir leyendo