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Conor Loughlin, Irish Independent, 29th July 2006
People of Congo go to the polls hoping for peace writes
Conor Loughlin in Brazzaville.
Mukoko Dickson is an articulate man, not yet 30 but with a world
of burden on his shoulders.
One year ago in August, he fled his village in south-east Congo
because of ongoing attacks from guerrilla groups. He tells me he
is the ‘President Des Deplacés’: the president
of the displaced people.
His group, numbering 2,226 families, have been in and around the
village of Kahongo for almost a year. They were chased from their
villages by Mai-Mai, the ragtag guerrillas that terrorise much of
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Typical in this part of the former Belgian colony, the mud and
brick houses in Kahongo are well-spaced and separated from each
other with low, spiky hedges. It is remote in a sense that is difficult
to grasp in Ireland – three hours on dirt roads from the town
of Manono, which is a three hour flight from the eastern city of
Goma, itself almost a day by plane from the capital, Kinshasa.
At almost the size of Western Europe, the DRC is Africa’s
third largest country: yet it has less than 500 kilometres of paved
roads. The elections happening here tomorrow – the first in
45 years – have been a major logistical challenge. With so
few roads, the UN mission here – the largest in its history
with 17,000 troops and costing $1.3bn per year – has been
furiously flying election kits and ballot papers to some 50,000
polling stations all over the country.
But not everybody has been reached. The compilation of the voting
register was taking place at the same time as Mukoko’s people
were fleeing their homes. Mai-Mai were active in the area and the
registrars refused to come to Kahongo. So, the displaced people,
along with the permanent residents, were left with no choice but
to walk 65 kilometres to the town of Malala to register. To vote
they’ll have to make that trip again, leaving the children
alone the village.
As I spoke to Dickson, other local people shouted at me that they
need a local ballot box. The village chief, Bwekale Mwiliam, told
me that 8,000 adults from the zone will make the four-day trip to
vote, but it seems a lofty wish.
The importance of tomorrow’s elections cannot be overstated.
Peace is desperately needed in this country where up to five million
died in the civil war of 1998 to 2003, and where more than 1200
people – more than half of them children – still die
every day from starvation or disease. Tomorrow’s ballot is
being seen as a litmus test for the ultimate hope of democratising
and stabilising the whole of Central Africa. In the words of William
Swing, head of the UN mission here, “This is the one situation
that has the chance to change the face of Africa.”
The later stages of campaigning have been fraught with violence
and unrest. The country is tense. With many presidential candidates
boycotting the ballot because of what they perceive as attempted
rigging and vote manipulation, the greatest fear is that disenfranchised
candidates – former rebel leaders most – will use September’s
results as a reason to take back up arms.
With a life expectancy of just 43, the most people here have never
witnessed a free, democratic ballot. In Kahongo, where GOAL has
been providing the displaced people with simple kits containing
such items as mosquito nets, pots and blankets, the challenges -
and motivations - seem far greater.
As often happens, it is the poor that are most vulnerable. But
they are determined to take part. As Bwekale Mwiliam told me, “For
the first time we are citizens, and citizens vote.”
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