Return to Congo

Poverty, rape, torture, villages burned, children taken by militia groups to be used as child soldiers, or work the gold mines, this is life in the Congo. My heart tells me people are inherently good, but what I have experienced and witnessed suggest otherwise.

 

  Rwanda on left-Congo on right

Thousands of people are trying and hoping to get out of the Congo!!!
I was trying desperately to get into the Congo!!!

After 1 1/2 days at the border, I was allowed in.
First, visa issues, then being a photographer, what I was doing there and everyone wanted money, lots of money.

 

The CID (Central Intelligence Department) arrived at my hotel at 7:30 am asking questions and wanting to search my camera bag, then I had to get authorization from the government.  Then another visit to the CID, passport photographs, calling my hotel to ask if I was there.

Many thanks to Women for Women International, Christine, Pierre, and Gertrude who got me authorization letters, photography permits, a one month visa for Bukavu and then another for Goma.  It was not like this the last time I came.  This country gets more and more greedy, not the people the government, it's organizations, and many departments.

    

                                                                             Bukavu

Does this country have something to hide, that being a photographer is a threat?  The answer is yes, and what is hidden here must be exposed. I listed them above in the first sentence.
When the authorities should be out catching the thieves, and helping it's people, no they want to hassle a woman photographer that is here, trying to help the women, children and men have a safer, healthier, peaceful life. Well that's nothing new.

 

 

 Streets of Bukavu

This country is so beautiful, like a garden of Eden.

 

 

The Congo donated $2,000,000 USD to Haiti.  A generous amount for a country that has so much poverty.  I know Haiti needs help and donations, but I think the Congo could have used at least half of that to deal with it's own problems.  A few militia groups could have been wiped out with the money.  Schools could have been built, health care is a major issue here, and the poverty matches Haiti.

History: King Leopold II
The Belgium were the first to chop off limbs in Africa.  King Leopold took one hand for every 100 slaves, this included children, to keep them in line.

After a number of unsuccessful schemes for colonies in Africa or Asia, in 1876 he organized a private holding company, disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society.

In 1878, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley to establish a colony in the Congo region.  Much diplomatic maneuvering resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, at which representatives of fourteen European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area he and Stanley had laid claim to. On February 5th 1885, the result was the Congo Free State (later becoming, successively, the Belgian Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC — not to be confused with Republic of the Congo formerly owned by France), an area 76 times larger than Belgium, which Leopold was free to rule as a personal domain through his private army, the Force Publique.

Forced labor was extorted from the natives. The abuses suffered were horrific not only in the rubber industry, including enslavement and mutilation of the native population. Missionary John Harris of Baringa, for example, was so shocked by what he had come across that he wrote to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo saying: "I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit." Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million. Determining precisely how many people died is next to impossible as accurate records were not kept.


It's people are hungry, many illiterate, they are living in constant fear of militia attacks, and war.
It has been many years of conflict and crisis in the Congo.
They say the red Earth comes from all the blood that has been shed.
When will the Congo get International attention and help, as it desperately needs it, NOW!!!

Zainab Salbi - Women for Women International

Zainab Salbi founder of Women for Women International had a conference with all the Country Directors of her organization in Kigali, Rwanda.  This organization helps women survivors in war torn countries rebuild their lives.  Zainab a compassionate, gracious, beautiful, strong and empowering woman had a vision in 1993, and made this vision her reality. Women who were victims, become survivors and not active citizens.

                                                    Zainab Salbi

The woman love when she comes to visit them, as they know without her vision, their lives would not have changed into what is is today. 

 

The women are taught to read and write, vocational skills, importance of educating their children, farming, basket weaving, clay pottery and tiles, soap making, jewelry from recycled paper, made into beautiful beaded necklaces and ear rings, tye dying fabrics, and batik. Among many other artistic talents and skills.

After 1 year with the program they are self reliant. They have learned about family law, their rights as women, personal hygiene, prevention of AIDS, how to deal with stress, and many other life changing lessons.  These women become business women, start community centers in their villages for domestic violence. They come in weak and fearful. Then graduate with hope, strength, and self esteem.  They become strong, and courageous women.

 

The Country Directors of Women for Women International were all in Rwanda, and I had the honor of meeting them all and many of their staff.  Country Directors from Rwanda, Congo, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Sudan, and Iraq.

Kosovo - Hamide Latifi

Nigeria -Ngozi Eze

                                                                                       

Their goals are to make women stronger, and with stronger women comes stronger countries.  This organization has changed the lives of over 250,000 women in our world. Which means many children that would have never gotten an education, now will,  the cycle of ignorance is broken.

I attended 2 graduations in Rwanda, from Women for Women International, the women tell their testimonies of how their lives have changed. They share what their life was like before and the progress they have made in 1 year.  These women dance with joy and gratitude, as they are now stronger, know their rights, some have bought their own land, built houses, and opened a business.

                                                               Zainab rocking out......

For some it is an emotional day as they are given certificates with their names on it, for most this is the first time they have ever received anything in their own name.  The women cherish the letters they receive from their sponsors, as these letters from the outside world connect them with hope and love. 

So sponsor a woman for $27.00USD a month and connect with a sister in another country, write to her and she will have someone write back to you.

This not only changes their lives,  yours will change too.  This powerful connection of women around the world, is so empowering and when you think you are having a bad day, think about the day your sister is having and has had. When you have car problems, she's walking in the rain for many miles, to fetch water for her family, a lot of times in bare feet.

We can be the the missing link to a woman's movement that can literally change our world into a more peaceful environment for our children and theirs.  I know I want my grandson Miles to live in a world where violence, torture and rape are horrors of the past generations of ignorance.

Being a photographer, I don't have my photo taken often, but I couldn't resist giving my camera to someone to take one of me and Zainab. 

                     

What is Genocide?

Many people in our world still ask:

"What is Genocide?"

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial, or religious group such as:

* Killing members of the group.
* Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

* Deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about it's physical        

destruction.
* Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
* Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Genocide does not only involve direct violence. It can involve creating conditions -such as starvation- that will kill people. It is usually committed by a government or a group of individuals with political power.

         

                                                                                                               
Article II
  of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

                                                          

                                           

Genocides:

Hereros 1904 - 1905

Armenians 1915 - 1918

Holocaust 1939 - 1945

Cambodia 1975 - 1979

Bosnia 1992 - 1995

Rwanda 1994

Darfur 2003 - TODAY

    

 Why did the world say "NEVER AGAIN" after the Holocaust then 4 more genocides????                    

                                                                  

 

Blinded

                Diseased                 

                   Scarred                     

       For Life.        

Are humans beings so ignorant, and selfish, that because it is not happening to them we ignore it. This is a shame to the entire Human Race. Governments call it Civil War between tribes, and take no responsibility. So many labels.......and when it is finally recognized as Genocide, the damage has been done, and it's irreversible. The women and children suffer for generations, physically, and emotionally. Rape is a weapon of war, or genocide. Inhumane torture, unimaginable to most people in America.

The Eastern Congo has not been considered genocide, but,  crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) defines
crimes against humanity as:

• murder
• extermination
• enslavement
• forcible transfer of population
• imprisonment in violation of international law
• torture
• rape
• persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity
• forced disappearances
• apartheid
• inhumane acts which intentionally cause great suffering or serious injury when they are:
  "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack." 

The same torture and horrific crimes of rape as a weapon of war are being used. Roughly 3.8 million people die in a series of conflicts between the country’s corrupt, ineffectual government and armed rebels, as citizens are exploited and national resources are plundered from various outside forces. Since December, 15, 508 newly displaced people have been registered at dozens of camps, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 47 UNHCR-run sites in the region to 116,000.
At least 200,000 cases of sexual violence have been recorded in eastern DRC since 1996, according to the UN. Across the country, an estimated 2.1 million people have been displaced by conflict, including about 538,880 in South Kivu Province and 1,130,000 in North Kivu. 

Women in the Congo

Darfur is our current genocide, by most countries, the United States agrees it is a genocide. The Arab Muslims want to rid the country of the Black Muslims.  President Omar al Bashir of Sudan denies his army is killing people or that he is involved with the Janjaweed.  His land is filled with oil, value to some countries denying genocide. He lies, steal's from his people as they are starving and 2.5 million have fled to IDP's Camps in Chad. He's wanted  for war crimes against humanity, pillaging villages, raping, women, girls and boys. We the people, can put enough pressure, by writing letters, signing petitions and speaking, tell your neighbors and friends to get involved.  Stop the violence.  This is a very dangerous man, and he must be locked up forever, or given a sex change and sent back to his own country as a woman. I like that one very much.

Tibet has been suffering from crimes against humanity.  Not considered genocide, Monks tortured, women raped with electric cattle prods. These peaceful, nonviolent people, have been brutalized because they would not denounce the Dalai Lama.

                                            Honoring the 14th Dalai Lama                    

                                                                  17th Karmapa Lama

                                                                                                                                    

                                                            Monasteries destroyed

China's government, big country, lots of economic value to the world. So we just turn away and pretend it's not happening. Wake up Governments, do something to STOP the VIOLENCE. Why did you lie to us when you said "NEVER AGAIN"? The most powerful people in the world can stop this, but, they sit at big tables, talking, having expensive dinners, and wine. Then they comprise, they make a deal, no solution. They are a part of the problem not the solution. We NEED a solution, we WANT a solution, there MUST be a solution. With any problem there IS a solution, it's called take ACTION.

 

So WE the people need to take the action to pressure our Governments. Write letters, call congress men and women, senators, and not with violence, but non violence. Ghandi changed a country, with non violence. He died for it, but he died in peace. I would prefer to die in peace, than violence. As a global community WE can make change happen. It's up to us, the people.

 

Our voices are the solution!!!