[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: SECURING PEACE IN THE MIDST OF
TRAGEDY
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Minus 20 pts for each extra line of title deg.HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 8, 2011
__________
Serial No. 112-46
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California
TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina
VACANT
Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director
Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas KAREN BASS, California
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
Mr. Donald Y. Yamamoto, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary,
Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State............ 9
Ms. Rajakumari Jandhyala, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau
for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development.......... 25
Mr. Ben Affleck, actor, writer, director, & advocate............. 50
Ms. Francisca Vigaud-Walsh, sexual and gender-based violence
advisor, Catholic Relief Services.............................. 68
Mr. John Prendergast, co-founder, The Enough Project............. 79
Mrs. Cindy McCain, philanthropist................................ 88
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Mr. Donald Y. Yamamoto: Prepared statement....................... 12
Ms. Rajakumari Jandhyala: Prepared statement..................... 28
Mr. Ben Affleck: Prepared statement.............................. 55
Ms. Francisca Vigaud-Walsh: Prepared statement................... 71
Mr. John Prendergast: Prepared statement......................... 82
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 108
Hearing minutes.................................................. 110
The Honorable Russ Carnahan, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Missouri: Prepared statement...................... 111
Mr. Ben Affleck: Material submitted for the record............... 112
The Honorable Donald M. Payne, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New Jersey: Material submitted for the record..... 119
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: SECURING PEACE IN THE MIDST OF
TRAGEDY
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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
and Human Rights
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:10 p.m., in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order. Good
afternoon, everyone. I want to thank you all for joining us on
this very important hearing on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo at this critical juncture in its history. As one might
conclude from the significant media interest evident in the
room, we do have a special guest witness joining us today to
spotlight attention on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I
am grateful to Ben Affleck for agreeing to be here to share his
perspectives and that of the Eastern Congo Initiative that he
founded. He is to be highly commended for contributing his
time, finances, and fame to bring the world's attention to the
needs of the people who have suffered far too long and in a
great deal of obscurity.
I would also like to recognize Ms. Cindy McCain, who is
also with us today. Ms. McCain is a founding member of and
investor in the Eastern Congo Initiative and shares Mr.
Affleck's dedication to ending the suffering in this region.
She also has dedicated her time and energy to a number of other
very worthwhile projects. For example, she serves on the boards
of directors of several nonprofit philanthropies, including
Operation Smile, which provides reconstructive surgery to
children with facial deformities, and the landmine removal
group, The HALO Trust.
Mr. Affleck and his organization are making a major
contribution in focusing political will on resolving the crises
in the DRC and bringing constructive recommendations to the
table. But just as importantly, he is setting an example for
all of us as to the need to direct whatever resources and
influence we may have to help those who are less fortunate and
without a voice to help themselves. And for his presence,
perspective and example, the subcommittee is most appreciative.
I am also grateful for our distinguished witnesses who are
here as well. We look forward to examining the administration's
current strategy for and involvement in the DRC with the
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African
Affairs, Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, and USAID's Deputy
Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Africa, Rajakumari
Jandhyala. We will hear about the Catholic Relief Services'
experience in the DRC as well, particularly in addressing the
abhorrent and widespread practice of sexual violence as a
weapon of war from their sexual and gender-based violence
advisor, Francisca Vigaud-Walsh.
And finally, the subcommittee again welcomes John
Prendergast of the Enough Project to learn from his
extraordinary expertise in the region, particularly on the
issues of conflict minerals. Mr. Prendergast reminds us boldly
in his testimony that the conflict minerals provision, Section
1502, requires the administration to develop a strategy for
addressing linkages between the trade in conflict minerals,
armed groups and human rights abusers in eastern Congo by
January 17th. This strategy has not yet been submitted;
however, I hope it is coming soon, and that will be an obvious
question for Ambassador Yamamoto.
An individual from the DRC was invited to testify at this
hearing, but fortunately arrangements could not be made in
time. I can assure you the DRC will be an ongoing focus of our
subcommittee, and I am certain that we will hear from DRC's
citizens and indigenous activists at a future hearing.
My friends, I had the privilege of traveling to the DRC
back in 2008, and I still have vivid memories of both the
suffering and the courage of the Congolese people. A highlight
of my visit was meeting Dr. Jo and Lyn Lusi, founders of HEAL
Africa Hospital in Goma. I met with several women who had been
subjected to severe sexual violence, including rape, and spoke
to many women who were in the process of healing and recovery.
The courage, the resilience, and the resolve of these victims
to overcome all that had affected them was truly astonishing,
and the meticulous care and compassion of the hospital staff
was absolutely remarkable.
I am pleased to know that USAID has supported fistula
prevention and treatment in the DRC since 2005, including 1,000
repairs at the HEAL Africa and Panzi Hospitals in Fiscal Year
2010. In 2005, I would note, I sponsored legislation that
included authorization of assistance to establish centers for
the treatment of obstetric fistula in developing countries.
This legislation passed the House but did not get through the
Senate for unrelated reasons. However, Mr. Kent Hill, the USAID
Assistant Administrator for Global Health, agreed to
significantly bolster USAID's funding for fistula programming.
The women of the DRC, together with thousands of other women
around the world, have benefited as a result.
As the prime sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000, I am especially interested, and I hope the
administration witnesses will address this, in the DRC's Tier
III ranking as an egregious violator when it comes to human
trafficking. Has it improved since the Trafficking in Persons
Report was submitted and what has and can be done to
reintegrate former child soldiers?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has an abundance, as
we all know, of valuable natural resources, water, arable land
and people, making the DRC a potential leader in terms of
prosperity and development on the continent. But like too many
of its neighbors, it faces enormous challenges.
The people in the DRC have endured ongoing violence and
bloodshed for decades and often have not been paid attention
to, again why I think Ben Affleck, in the appearance today,
finally brings us much needed, often neglected attention to the
DRC.
The country has been the scene of one of the longest and
deadliest manmade humanitarian crises in the world,
characterized by two major civil wars involving seven
neighboring countries; multiple cross-border conflicts;
fighting by and among foreign proxies, militia groups and rebel
movements; the illicit activities, including the illegal
exploitation of mineral resources; an absence of governance;
human rights atrocities directed against civilians by all
parties, including the predatory Congolese military; and an
unreliable U.N. peacekeeping force, which I am told is getting
better. Millions of people in the DRC have died from wars and
war-related malnutrition and disease since 1998 and nearly 2
million are displaced. The sufferings of war have been
compounded by horrific human rights abuses committed against
innocent women and children.
The country as a whole faces enormous challenges. The DRC
is one of the five poorest countries in the world, with 80
percent of its people living on just $2 a day. Corruption is
rampant, as evidenced by the DRC's ranking 164 out of 178
countries surveyed by Transparency International's 2010
Corruption Perceptions Index. The country is tenth among the
world's 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries, and malaria
accounts for 35 percent of the deaths of children under the age
of 5. Life expectancy is only about 51 years. An estimated 8.2
million, or one out of every eight people in the DRC, are
orphans and vulnerable children.
Clearly, this country and the surrounding region are in
desperate need of peace and the coordinated efforts of the
world community to prevent a complete loss of its people's hope
for the future.
The upcoming Presidential and parliamentary elections in
November render this a particularly critical time to focus our
attention on the U.S. strategy for addressing the many issues
confronting the Congolese people and government. And given that
today is International Women's Day, this is a particularly
appropriate occasion to recognize the courageous women of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to the hardships
that unduly impact women in situations of conflict and under
development, the women in the DRC have had to endure years of
brutal victimization of rape and other forms of sexual violence
used as a weapon of war. An estimated 200,000 women have been
raped there since 1998. Their physical and psychological
suffering has been compounded by the ongoing absence of
measures to prevent future attacks, the impunity with which the
perpetrators continue in their communities or the military, and
the stigma wrongly placed on the victims by Congolese society.
A recent report by a U.N. panel detailed interviews held
with victims of sexual violence in the DRC. While the plight of
all the victims is heart wrenching, the interviews with those
in the Kivus who are still experiencing ongoing armed conflict
are worth emphasizing. These women are desperately in need of
the most basic necessities--medical care, housing and a means
of supporting themselves and their children. But when asked
what they would like to have done to restore their lives and
regain their dignity, virtually every one responded that peace
and security is their first and most immediate need. They
pleaded with the panel to convey this message to the world
because without peace and security, anything else they might
acquire could be lost again at any time. Our primary goal of
this hearing is to answer these women's plea.
I would like to turn to my good friend and colleague, Mr.
Payne, for any opening comments he might have.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. And let me congratulate
you, Mr. Smith, on assuming chairmanship of this subcommittee,
and I certainly look forward to our continued working together
on these issues of mutual interest and concern that we have had
over the years. I certainly want to also welcome the new
Democratic members to the committee. He is not here right now,
but Mr. Carnahan is a former chair of the subcommittee that in
the last Congress had jurisdiction over human rights, which, as
you know, our subcommittee has expanded that, so he will
certainly bring in experience there, and is a dedicated
advocate for the rights and the needs of refugees and displaced
persons, women, and is passionate about assisting child
soldiers, as well as empowering women as peace builders. Mr.
Carnahan's commitment to Africa runs in his veins. His
grandfather, A.S.J. Carnahan, became the first United States
Ambassador to the newly independent Sierra Leone in 1961, and
so he has a very strong interest and has had a number of
conversations with me about Africa.
We also are pleased to be joined by Ms. Karen Bass, who is
not only new to the committee but she is new to Congress;
however, a former Speaker of the California Assembly, the first
African-American woman to hold a Speaker's gavel in the history
of this Nation. And so we are very pleased and honored to have
her as a member of our committee. And so she is no strange to
legislating. I welcome the opportunity to help Ms. Bass turn
her experience and interest in health, women's rights, and
economic empowerment into policies that can benefit the
enterprising women of Africa and their children.
I am excited to have this small but powerful team with us
here on our subcommittee. I want to also recognize
Representative McDermott, author of the bipartisan Conflict
Minerals Act, which is an important tool for accomplishing
long-term stability and economic growth, and he is also the
author of the AGOA Act. We have called him the father, but he
has gotten older so we call him the grandfather now of the AGOA
Act. So it is good to have my classmate Mr. McDermott here
today.
It is fitting, Mr. Chairman, that we begin our subcommittee
business for the 112th Congress by highlighting a foreign
policy challenge that resonates in the hearts and minds of so
many Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans. The
humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has captured the attention
of thousands of Americans from all walks of life. Our
commitment to solving this problem exemplifies that Americans
care deeply about these issues and really want to see a
resolution. As a former teacher, I know that we must understand
a problem before we begin to tackle it. We must understand the
history of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, perhaps the
richest, most fertile area on the continent.
Many here today will talk about the ravaged militias that
continue to terrorize the eastern part of the country. I want
you to understand that the ravaging began in the late 1880s
when King Leopold of Belgium savagely and gruesomely sought out
to strip the Congo of its vast natural resources, which
continued to be a source of conflict in that country back then
and continues on today. Leopold's nightmare reign in the Congo
left 58 million Congolese dead and even more maimed. The
atrocities that we witness today are the vestiges of Leopold's
bloody enterprise. For decades this region's wealth washed
ashore in ships at ports in Antwerp and Congo's loss became
Leopold and Belgium's gain. As destructive as their rape of the
Congo was on the country's natural resources, the impact on its
people is immeasurable and still plays out today, yet its
impact is still misunderstood and underestimated.
As we contextualize the gruesome violence in Congo, we know
that this gruesome history is no excuse for the ugly reign of
terror that armed groups such as the FDLR and the LRA have
perpetrated against the people of the Congo. There is no excuse
for impunity. The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has
captured the attention of thousands of Americans across this
country. Rape and sexual violence are used as a weapon of war
in numbers that are simply unimaginable. In addition to the
Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, continues to havoc
on parts of the DRC.
The DRC continues to face insurgency from armed major
groups and a major humanitarian crisis continues, especially in
the eastern Congo, fueled by a resource grab. The integration
of many former domestic rebels from the CNDP into the Congolese
Army has presented serious challenges with professionalizing
the security sector. The current reconfiguration of the
Congolese Army units in the Kivus, in an apparent effort to
eventually draw down the U.N.'s Amani Leo peacekeeping
operations, have the potential to leave civilians in some areas
of the east at the mercy of the FDLR and other non-state armed
groups. All of this is compounded by the troubling political
developments and turmoil in Kinshasa and the lack of overall
preparedness for the upcoming elections scheduled for November.
The American people and indeed the world are not willing to
watch idly by as women and children in the DRC are victimized
time after time, time and again, year after year. They have
advocated over the last few years, and we have advocated
bipartisan legislation such as the conflict minerals bill and
the LRA legislation. Americans from red, blue and purple
districts come together for the people of the Congo. That is a
united effort. The people of the Congo deserve to see firsthand
the resounding impact that our relatively small foreign aid
investment can have on the world's most vulnerable population.
Indeed, while the human needs are enormous, the required
economic commitment is miniscule when compared to the $100
billion yearly committed in Afghanistan and trillions of
dollars we spent in Iraq during our course of time there, and
the potential impact is monumental. The United States must
leverage the good will that the American people have for the
people of eastern Congo by devising--and having a coherent and
a focused policy toward the Congo, and that is what I hope we
can have as a conclusion of these hearings as we move forward.
I must close by saying it is fitting, as Mr. Smith
mentioned, that this hearing is on the 100th anniversary of
International Women's Day. Ending sexual violence as a weapon
remains one of the greatest challenges to the protection of
women's human rights. While the survivors can be as young as a
girl or her grandmother, we must do all we can to end this
scourge. The White House, the State Department, Capitol Hill
and the American people all understand the importance of
reducing violence in eastern Congo. This means regulating trade
and conflict minerals that act as an economic fuel to the
conflict, creating the political will to reform the Congolese
National Army from predators or making them from predator to
protector and tackling impunity for war criminals and illegal
actors that continue to enable those most responsible for mass
atrocities.
The United States in its role on the U.N. Security Council
recently demonstrated strong leadership on the passage of U.N.
Resolution 1960, which requires the Council and member states
to honor commitments to combat sexual violence and conflict,
investigate abuses, and hold perpetrators to account. I
encourage the United States to continue to lead on this issue
by developing a strategy to tackle the root causes of sexual
violence and other human rights crimes in eastern Congo.
The United States is the largest contributor to the United
Nations Mission in Congo, or MONUSCO, and the first country to
pass the law monitoring publicly traded companies using
minerals mined in the Congo or its neighbors in an effort to
reduce the direct or indirect financing of illegal groups. The
Departments of Defense and State are engaged in initiatives to
build capacity through military professionalization and justice
training. We must also ensure that we continue strong programs
and policies that give women in the Congo back their dignity.
We all want to see a day when the women of eastern Congo are
able to feed their families, earn a decent living, protect and
defend their communities, and sit at the peace building table
with the men.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate this meeting and
look forward to our very distinguished panel of experts. Thank
you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Payne. The Chair
recognizes the vice chairman of the subcommittee, Jeff
Fortenberry.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for convening
this very important hearing, and I think it is important to
note that it is especially poignant that today is International
Women's Day, as we hold the hearing for the more than 200,000
women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have been
heinously victimized in recent years. Last year alone nearly
15,000 new cases of sexual violence were reported in the
country, thousands of which involve children, and those numbers
don't reflect the many women who must remain silent. But this
hearing today breaks that silence.
The intense human tragedy in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo continues to weigh heavily upon all of us. While numerous
signs of democratic progress have been seen in recent years,
civil strife has reached an unfathomable high in some areas,
particularly in the eastern part of the country. The social
emergency is seen quite clearly in a recent study that revealed
rape has increased 17-fold within the country.
In the last Congress we made two significant strides toward
mitigating two sources of the conflict by passing the Lord's
Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of
2009, as well as the conflict minerals provisions in another
law. We also directed millions of dollars in humanitarian
assistance to the victims of sexual and gender-based violence.
But aid can hardly keep pace with the staggering numbers of new
rape victims each year.
Sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is
the worst in the world in both its pernicious scope and
unrelenting brutality. The scourge of rape is especially
prevalent in the Kivu provinces where we saw last year a
particularly monstrous series of systematic rapes by rebel
fighters. As we later learned, these vicious attacks were
committed less than 20 miles from a U.N. peacekeeping base,
which only learned of the month-long attack a week after their
end. Since that inexcusable lapse, the U.N., with the Congolese
Government and other nongovernmental organizations,
successfully brought to trial and convicted nine FARDC
soldiers, including their commanding officers, for crimes of
mass rape last month. I join with the United States Government
in commending this conviction. The rule of law did prevail, but
there are many, many more perpetrators who not only elude
justice, but flout the most basic notions of humanity through
their brutal acts of extreme violence toward the daughters of
the Congo.
But our human rights concerns lie not only with the scourge
of gender and sexual-based violence in the DRC, child
conscription by rebel forces, but purportedly by the Congolese
military itself, continues. UNICEF released a new report this
past Friday warning that despite the reintegration of as many
as 5,000 former child soldiers in the DRC, forcible child
recruitment is an ongoing problem.
As we give attention to the victimized women and girls of
the DRC, we must also give special consideration to the plight
of girl soldiers who are often victims of grotesque sexual
slavery and violence as well. These girls, stripped of
innocence and dignity, face heartbreaking stigma and challenges
as they seek to reintegrate into their families and their
community.
So today, Mr. Chairman, I do look forward to hearing the
U.S. State Department and USAID's efforts to help bring peace
to this tragedy worn country, as well as the unique on-the-
ground perspectives from the Eastern Congo Initiative, Catholic
Relief Services, and the Enough Project. Thank you all for
coming today, thank you for your important work, and I look
toward to our hearing.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Fortenberry. I now yield to Ms.
Bass.
Ms. Bass. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking
Member Payne. Since this is our first subcommittee meeting, I
wanted to start by expressing my sincere enthusiasm about
serving on this committee on Africa, Global Health, and Human
Rights. It is also an honor to serve with Chairman Smith. I
know that you are committed to improving lives around the world
and are particularly passionate about preventing sex
trafficking. I look forward to learning about your legislation
and working with you.
And to Ranking Member Payne, Representative Payne is well
known in my district in Los Angeles. And I represent a section
of my district as Little Ethiopia, and I have a number of
African residents who live in the district. And Representative
Payne is well known there, as he is throughout the country, for
his effective leadership and ability to move policy that makes
a significant difference around the world.
I would like to thank our witnesses for your dedication and
to establishing peace and prosperity in the DRC. Your work
truly keeps people alive and contributes to global security.
The State Department and the USAID have played an important
role in generating progress toward stability in the DRC, but
the United States must continue to increase our strategic
leadership in the Congo. Secretary Clinton's visit in 2009 was
a great start, but the severity of the violence and instability
requires heightened and focused U.S. engagement. In fact, U.S.
leadership is needed now more than ever as we approach the
November elections, and we expect President Kabila to lift the
ban on conflict minerals in the east as early as March 10th.
I want to join my colleagues in acknowledging International
Women's Day. It has been referenced several times, the
consequences of the rape of women and girls, but one of those
consequences is that women make up a significant majority of
HIV infections in the country with little access to basic
health services. USAID has led the effort to provide health
care and services to Congolese women and children. UNICEF
coordinates effective programs for women and girls that reduce
infant, child and maternal mortality rates and improve access
to clean water and sanitation and increase primary school
enrollment, particularly for girls, who are often denied equal
access. In the face of grave atrocities in the DRC, we must
ensure ongoing investment in these programs.
I look forward to hearing the testimony of our witnesses
today to learn more about how we can best support the Congolese
people in addressing these hardships and ultimately transform
their potential into prosperity.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. Anybody else on the subcommittee that would like
to be heard? Mr. McDermott is with us, and I know it is a
little bit of a breach of rules, but I would like to yield to
him if he would like to make some opening comments.
Mr. McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In 1987-1988, I
lived in Kinshasa and was a regional medical officer with the
State Department and saw the beginning of the AIDS epidemic as
well as the conflict that ultimately led to Mobutu Sese Seko
leaving and followed by Kabila and all of what has followed. I
have many friends out there. The Lucis are people I have known.
A friend of mine from Los Angeles that I went to college with
has been one of the big supporters of that organization, and I
have been there several times. I really came to listen today.
So thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. McDermott, thank you very much. I would like
to now introduce our two distinguished witnesses, leaders in
the field, who have done much. Ambassador Yamamoto is no
stranger to this subcommittee, having been before us many times
in the past. He has served since 2009, though, as the Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs of
the U.S. Department of State. His prior assignments included
serving as U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia from November 2006 to
July 2009, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the
Bureau of African Affairs from 2003 to 2006. We are also joined
by Ms. Jandhyala, who has served as USAID's Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Africa since October 2010. In this capacity
she oversees the Offices of Sudan Programs and East Africa
Affairs and also has a great deal of experience at the
Department. And I would, without objection, include both of
your full bios in the record.
Ambassador Yamamoto.
STATEMENT OF MR. DONALD Y. YAMAMOTO, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ambassador Yamamoto. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It
is indeed a great honor to appear here before the subcommittee
and I wish to express my congratulations to you, Mr. Chairman,
on your appointment, and also to the great work of your
predecessor, Congressman Payne, and also before the
distinguished members of the subcommittee.
President Obama, Secretary Clinton and this administration
have demonstrated a firm commitment to the challenges in this
region. The violence, the human rights abuse, the suffering of
the people in the Congo, exploitation of minerals and resources
are unacceptable, and none of us should tolerate it and we will
not accept it. The work raised by the good works by your main
witnesses, Mr. Ben Affleck and by others, by Cindy McCain,
really are a testament to what the power of what individuals
can do in the Great Lakes area, and I also notice that my good
friend John Prendergast and the other NGO groups who are here
whose work has helped a great deal in moving this process
along.
Let me tell you, Mr. Chairman, that the United States
continues to play a very significant role to make a difference
in the lives of the people in the DRC and wherever there is
suffering and tragedy. In the tense years following 2003, we
led an international effort through our Tripartite Plus peace
process to address the causes of violence and to end the
tragedies that promote violence. I was greatly honored to help
lead the process for nearly 4 years, making some two dozen
trips to the region. Secretary Clinton traveled to the DRC in
2009, as have other senior administration officials in the last
2 years.
Our overarching goals and objectives in the DRC to resolve
it lies in governance and security. You need to have a
government that is accountable to the people. You need a
security which is reliable and dependable and not part of the
problem. The U.S. has focused first and foremost on the complex
security challenges facing the DRC. The shocking incidences of
mass rape and other human rights abuses that continue in these
areas are symptoms of several factors that fuel or enable
violence, each of which requires its own responses.
One key factor is the continued presence of violent armed
groups. Among the most notorious are the Democratic Forces for
the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR, and the Lord's
Resistance Army, or the LRA, retain a violent and committed
corps fully capable of carrying out brutal attacks on
civilians. The U.S. Government has provided significant
diplomatic and programmatic support to disarm and demobilize
these groups. Defined capacity of many of these groups has been
significantly reduced in the last few years, but much more
slowly than we wished it to happen. The forces of the former
National Congress for the Defense of the People, or the CNDP,
remain only partly integrated into the Congolese Army serving
under the effective command of known human rights abusers and
retaining in their ranks significant numbers of children
soldiers.
The DRC security forces often compound the threat to
civilians. Developing and reforming these forces is a massive
undertaking that will require years of persistent support. Our
assistance in this effort is aimed at both short-term and long-
term progress and includes training of a vetted Congolese
battalions, capacity building assistance for the DRC's military
justice institutions, training to officers on the principles of
leadership, civil-military relations, human rights and command
responsibility.
The illicit trade and minerals and other natural resources
also encourages violence, and the effective Congolese response
and regional international responses by governments and
industries will be key to resolving these problems. The United
States is focused on helping develop civilian regulatory
capacity, helping to end the role of illegal armed groups,
criminal networks within the security forces, and promoting
corporate due diligence and supporting the development of
regional and national mechanisms to certify and trace the
minerals trade.
We appreciate the support of the Congress that has provided
these efforts, and we are consulting with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, as you have directed, Mr. Chairman, as
they develop regulations to promote rigorous corporate due
diligence.
Underlying every element of the international community's
response to the DRC security challenges is MONUSCO, the U.N.
peacekeeping operation in the DRC. Under the leadership of the
former U.S. Ambassador Roger Meece, MONUSCO has taken welcome
steps to improve its effectiveness in civilian protection. We
are also encouraged by the improved relations between MONUSCO
and the DRC Government.
A second theme is governance. The national elections
scheduled for November of this year are an essential step in
determining Congo's democratic future. We are watching closely
to encourage elections that are well and transparently
administered and that are conducted in an environment conducive
to free political expression.
Our other preoccupation in the area of governance is human
rights. The lack of adequate state capacity and discipline of
existing state forces continues to fuel existing abuses against
civilians. We are undertaking substantial programmatic efforts,
expanding on the Secretary's 2009 pledge, $17 million in
assistance to respond to and prevent sexual and gender-based
violence. We are also supportive of modest but encouraging
recent developments in a few key areas, including the arrest
and conviction of a handful of high profile alleged abusers and
the DRC Government's proposal to develop specialized judicial
chambers to prosecute those who committed atrocities. The
general situation, however, remains one of impunity, and many
more positive developments will be required to reverse this
trend.
The third theme is economic recovery, which is essential in
providing alternatives to enlistment and armed groups and
laying a foundation for development. We are encouraging the DRC
Government to take the necessary steps to improve the
investment climate and to enhance transparency in the mining
sector. With soliciting a ban on mining the DRC's eastern
provinces expected on March 10th, we encourage all stakeholders
to work to ensure that minerals leaving the DRC can be traced
to their origin and that abusive armed forces are cut out of
the trade.
Finally, it is worth emphasizing that the renewed
cooperation among the DRC and its neighbors is a cornerstone of
this region's future progress. The cooperation, while vastly
improved over the last 2 years, will need to deepen further in
the face of new developments, such as the emergence of an
independent southern Sudan. Helping empower the Congolese
people and their government to address the challenges they face
will take time and persistence. The U.S. Government intends to
remain a strong partner over the long-term.
The DRC has focused attention of the United States
Government and the activities that are directed onto the
Assistant Secretary of African affairs, Johnnie Carson, and
coordinated with our ambassadors in the field, the interagency
and our NGO community partners, and also the donor community.
Mr. Chairman and members of this subcommittee, thank you
for giving me an opportunity to speak to you today, and I will
submit a longer version for the record. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Yamamoto follows:]
Mr. Smith. Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for your
testimony. I would like to yield to our second distinguished
witness.
STATEMENT OF MS. RAJAKUMARI JANDHYALA, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR AFRICA, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Ms. Jandhyala. Good afternoon, Chairman Smith, Ranking
Member Payne, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for
inviting me to discuss the foreign assistance activities of
USAID in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is
particularly relevant in recognition of the International
Women's Day today.
My name is Rajakumari Jandhyala. I am the Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Africa Bureau since October 2010, and prior
to joining the government I had an opportunity to work on the
continent for 17 years, including the Congo, in the months
after the Global Accords that were signed in 2003.
My testimony adds to the themes that Ambassador Yamamoto
has raised about peace and security, progress toward
governance, economic development, health and well-being of the
population.
As part of the Presidential Policy Directive on Development
which was issued recently and in support of our foreign policy
toward the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Administrator
Shah's efforts to look at our review and look at our approaches
to assistance on the continent, we really have taken an effort
to look at Congo as a very complex challenge in terms of like
Sudan and in Somalia. So we really have a strategy review that
is going on to look at our complex operations on the continent.
DRC is yet another example of a place where diplomacy and
development are critical to assisting the Congolese in finding
solutions to their current challenges, lay the groundwork for
meeting the aspirations of its population at the end of the
day, and build a nation that contributes to regional stability.
And in that effort we work with both regional organizations,
international partners and national institutions, both in the
short term and in the long term.
The U.S. recognizes the enormous challenges and financial
resources required to improve conditions, and in that regard
the U.S. Government continues to be the largest donor in DRC,
providing $306 million in bilateral assistance in Fiscal Year
2010, plus support to the U.N. peacekeeping operations,
MONUSCO, multi-lateral institutions like the UNDP and U.N.
agencies. U.S. foreign assistance is coordinated among agencies
through a country assistance strategy that outlines our plans
for U.S.-Congolese cooperation in addressing the immediate
needs as well as long-term development needs.
In addition, we are one of 19 bilateral and multilateral
donors participating in the common assistance framework
established in 2007 with the Government of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. This gives us the opportunity as the
international community to really leverage our assets and how
we bring pressure and establish a dialogue with the Congolese
on development objectives in the Congo.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to now review the major
development challenges in DRC and current summary of USAID
activities to address them. A written testimony has been
submitted.
The DRC, and in particular in the east, continues to
experience instability, violent conflict, and widespread
population displacement. A key area of concern remains the
Lord's Resistance Army. USAID promotes stability through
community reconciliation, infrastructure, livelihood recovery
and ex-combatant reintegration. Our Offices of Foreign Disaster
Assistance and Food for Peace have ongoing commitments to
provide emergency humanitarian and food relief where LRA are
active. We are currently working on a regional strategy in
support of LRA issues, as part of our northern Uganda strategy
as well, to find the linkages in CAR, Northern Uganda, and
Congo.
With regards to conflict minerals, our activities are in
support of the 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation, which includes
reporting requirements for mineral origin. In DRC the legal
mineral trade fuels armed groups and undermines legitimate
economic activity. To reduce the security and governance
problems relating to conflict, and the trade in conflict
minerals which results in the violence, USAID seeks to improve
enforcement of the DRC mining code through regulatory support
and rehabilitation of roads, and build capacity for better
monitoring and transparency, including certification.
Addressing human rights abuses and sexual and gender-based
violence is a high priority for USAID. USAID activities provide
access to support services for rape and abuse survivors and
their families, including medical care, counseling and legal
aid where women are afraid to report to local authorities, and
how we deal with the local justice to support their efforts.
More importantly, we also support women survivors and
livelihoods. Many times they are not participating in the
community recovery activities that are taking place.
In addition to addressing the immediate needs of survivors,
USAID has supported drafting critical legislation and
subsequent prosecution related to sexual violence, and this
continues to be an ongoing challenge given the weakness in the
justice institutions and sectors. And we are trying to work
with both at the national level at the community justice
mechanisms at the moment.
Turning to democracy and governance, USAID focuses on
capacity building among legislators, civil society
organizations, and media. We also work to improve the
independence of the judicial sectors and bring legal services
to remote populations such as mobile courts where they are
possible.
In preparation of the DRC's Presidential and legislative
elections plan for this fall, USAID continues to build on our
strengths and citizen outreach and mobilization. More than 8.2
million voters across the DRC's 11 provinces are expected to be
reached by civic education programs, and we are attracting and
leveraging other resources to enhance the participation of the
population in a transparent manner.
In terms of social services, the health sector is our
largest priority at the moment, given the violence and in terms
of preventing a lot of the health-related epidemics we find in
the Congo. USAID seeks to strengthen primary health care. In
addition to our continued support to HIV and AIDS programs, we
also support malaria programs.
As Chairman Smith mentioned, we support two important
fistula hospitals which have treated over 1,000 women who
received repair surgeries in 2010, and we hope to expand the
outreach of those services. We have also brought together 12
providers of these services to ensure there is a network that
they learn and exchange ideas on these issues. And we also
contributed to the national fistula strategy in the Congo.
Lastly, in alignment with the Feed the Future Initiative
that USAID is investing in Africa, promoting the agriculture
sector as a means of economic growth is a high priority for
USAID. In Fiscal Year 2010, programs assisted nearly 40,000
households and more than 500 producers' associations in
improving agricultural management practices and use of
technology.
In conclusion, despite many of the complex challenges to
development, U.S. foreign assistance is making a difference
with children being reunited with their families after being
abducted, trafficked or abused. Low income women are accessing
the judicial system for the first time and we are encouraging
the expansion of that program. Health care workers are gaining
skills necessary both for preventive as well as curative
measures, and farmers are learning better ways to grow and
process and distribute their crops. Across many areas where
foreign assistance is needed we are promoting an approach DRC
that addresses short-term, medium-term, and long-term
sustainable development.
Members of the subcommittee, thank you for your attention
to development issues in DRC, and I look forward to answering
your questions and providing additional information.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jandhyala follows:]
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for your testimony. And
without objection, both of your full statements will be made a
part of the record.
Let me start off by saying that Mr. Affleck in his
testimony with regards to the elections, and I know, Ms.
Jandhyala, you made the point as well, says that there is a
$350 million gap as it relates to the upcoming elections, and I
would ask you if you could address whether or not you think
that gap will be bridged and by whom. And in his testimony Mr.
Affleck says he requests that the U.S. Government take a hard
look at its current commitment to support the elections and
asks if offering the assistance needed to truly support a free
and fair election is actually there. He asks a number of
questions and he says, the time for decision is upon us. With
national elections only 8 months away, the U.S. is not focused
on the Congo.
How will that gap be bridged, if you could, Mr. Ambassador?
And secondly, with regard to the conflict minerals strategy,
which was due in mid-January, is that going to be forthcoming
soon or perhaps has it been sent up today? If you could give us
a timeline for that and maybe give us an idea about what will
be included.
The issue of army reform remains a very serious issue, and
I wonder if you could update us on how military reform is
proceeding. On trafficking, Congo obviously is a Tier III
country now. It has dropped. In the recommendations made in the
TIP Report, one of the key recommendations is to investigate
and punish military and other law enforcement personnel accused
of unlawfully conscripting child soldiers, and then it goes on
from there. And I am wondering if you could tell us, because
obviously this report was issued last year in the beginning of
summer, whether or not any progress has been made in the area
of trafficking both for sex and labor and for child soldiering.
If you could address that.
On the fistula repair, congratulations and kudos to the
USAID for the work you are doing on repair. At 1,000, do you
anticipate that the numbers will go up in terms of actual
repair of fistulas, and by how many? Do you have a glide slope
as to how you will build out the capacity for fistula?
And on the issue of faith-based organizations, we will be
hearing from Catholic Relief Services in our second panel, and
they make a very cogent argument as to why faith-based
organizations are critical in Congo, and I would argue for all
of sub-Saharan Africa, if we want to mitigate HIV/AIDS, if we
want to combat all health issues. The estimates are that up to
70 percent, as you know, of health care in Africa is provided
by faith-based organizations or churches and seemingly we would
want to more faithfully utilize that mechanism. And if you
could speak to whether or not that is where you think we go in
the future as well as in the present.
And then on MONUSCO, during my trip part of what caused me
to go there was the ongoing problem, you know it is bad enough
that soldiers in the Congolese Army and militia groups are
committing heinous crimes against women, but to our shock and
dismay we discovered that the peacekeepers in like manner, but
in a much smaller number, were committing these kinds of crimes
against young children. Mr. Payne will remember that I actually
had three hearings on the abuse by peacekeepers. We heard from
Jane Holl Lute from the U.N., who was then heading up the
office. She is now over at Homeland Security as number two. But
she was emphatic that there needs to be a zero tolerance policy
vis-a-vis peacekeepers and women and children. At the time we
were talking about zero compliance, and I know that has
changed. But we are told that there are some 33 allegations of
sexual misconduct since January 2010 to February of this year,
and one of my arguments has been you need investigators to make
sure that if there is an allegation it is followed up on. There
are now only two OIOS investigators in Goma, which I think
enables, however unwittingly, these crimes that are committed.
So if you could address that as well.
Ms. Jandhyala. In terms of the elections that are being
held in November, USAID sees it as part of a broader
international strategy required to build a coalition on
democratic transformation in Congo, and we have multiple
challenges. One is a partner in terms of financial resources.
We are contributing to a basket fund at the moment, and we are
working with the European donors to see how that gap can be
filled and how rapidly it can be filled in the coming months.
The second issue we are facing is the capacity of the national
institutions to actually take international support and
technical assistance with some degree of support from our
regional organizations.
So in terms of funding we have contributed $5 million to
voter education and we are working with our other partners to
see how we can fill the gap at the moment.
Mr. Smith. Could I ask during the last elections how much
we contributed?
Ms. Jandhyala. I would have to get back to you.
Mr. Smith. It was significantly higher, I know that.
Ms. Jandhyala. It was well over, I think, $80 million.
[The information referred to follows:]
Written Response Received from Ms. Rajakumari Jandhyala to Question
Asked During the Hearing by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith
USAID provided $12.0 million in support of DRC's 2006 elections.
Ambassador Yamamoto. Just to follow up on the elections,
during the 2006 elections I was an observer with the U.S.
Government observers. And also the Ambassador was Roger Meece,
who is now head of MONUSCO. And as you know, Mr. Chairman, it
was a very difficult, it was a very challenging process to
register and just to identify who the voters are. And we used a
variety of resources; the Catholic Church, who registered the
parishioners, faith-based groups who were working throughout
the area. And so we used very innovative and creative ways to
do it. And in going to the criticisms of the electoral process,
we try to make it as transparent as possible in each successive
election to be better than the last one. And we have a country
with so many challenges as the DRC. And more importantly is the
lack of capacity and institutions. Those are challenges that we
work with our partners and also with the DRC to overcome, in
order to ensure that these elections are better than the ones
before and that there is a system of progress.
I guess we should go to your other questions?
Mr. Smith. If you could.
Ambassador Yamamoto. On the conflict minerals legislation
that has been completed, these should be submitted to the
Congress. And as you and the Congress have directed, we have
addressed the issue on Securities and Exchange regulatory
process. And just to kind of briefly, oversight. On the
conflict minerals we are really enhancing how to protect those
areas in conflict, enhance civilian regulation of the resource
trade, protect artisan miners in local communities, strengthen
regional and international efforts to monitor and protect
civilians, and then to promote responsible trader resources.
And as you know, Mr. Chairman, the DRC is perhaps one of
the richest countries in the world. It is extraordinary lush,
it is green, it could be the breadbasket. I want to give you
one story that, you know we have been talking to other donors
in other countries who are benefiting from these minerals and
resources, the Chinese. One thing that the Chinese told us we
found fascinating. There is more arable land in the Congo than
all of China, yet China is able to meet the basic needs of a
population that is 20 times greater than the DRC. Why is that?
What is it that we need to do more with our Congolese partners
to ensure that we have a rich country that meets the benefits
of its people and also the region? And the water productivity
in that area can fuel energy for half of the African continent.
And so these are things that are really dramatic and things
that we are trying to work on, and we are very excited about.
The other issues, too, that I want to get to is on the TIP
Report. On the TIP the DRC is classified in Tier III. We have
of course removed the DRC reluctantly from AGOA benefits. But
it came after 2 years of consistently asking the DRC Government
to address certain human rights abuses. And we offered
assistance and help and support, and we will continue to do so.
We wanted to see that to the benefit of the people it has to be
part of AGOA, but it also has to address the needs of its
people. And those are some of the things that I know you are
very passionate about, Mr. Chairman, and we have addressed
those issues.
The next thing that you address is the efforts of faith-
based groups such as CRS and other groups. You are absolutely
correct, you know, we provide right now on the continent
anywhere from $6.4 billion, about $6.8 billion in total
assistance to the African continent. Of that, 85 percent is
administered through NGO groups. Most of them are faith-based.
And what we have learned on the faith-based is that it has
tremendous accuracy, low overhead cost, and they have very
creative and innovative approaches. This is a lot of the other
groups that we have worked with. And we must commend a lot of
the work that they have done to address some basic problems
that are facing Africa today. And let me just highlight one
thing that addresses what my colleague Raja and what we in the
United States Government is trying to address, is how do you
address the violence against women.
And one of the things that we have worked with on the
faith-based groups is some innovative programs which try to
elevate the status of women. Without the elevating of status of
women, to show girls that their moms are really the heroes in
the family, then we are going to have problems. And one of the
creative programs that we have is we have community-based
development, in others we have kids who are going to community
schools. Then we have moms who we give loans. And we now know
that women on average will repay loans at a rate of 95 percent,
much higher than men. And then for the men, looking at
agricultural techniques and technologies. And then have that
community strengthen and bonded and sustainable. And what
happens we have found is that it raises the status of women,
helps girls' education and expands to other communities. And so
those are things that we have learned in working with our NGO
and faith-based groups to expand.
The next thing is, and I want to turn to Raja, is on the
FARDC and on the MONUSCO problems. In our approach, our $306
million area, we are looking at security sector reform. Without
the security sector reform, you are not going to have a
security force which is reliable, dependable, and accountable
to the people. You want forces that are going to protect you,
not be a problem and a source of crime and violence against the
people. What we are doing right now on one area is to promote
accountability through training and prosecution. You need to
have accountability and to hold people responsible for their
actions.
The other issue is advocating demilitarization and
strengthening payment systems to ensure that the security
forces are going to be paid. We are looking at mobile banking
services to ensure that money gets into the accounts so that,
let's say the commanders are not pilfering the money of their
NCOs or the other military trainees. The other thing is to
train police forces to serve as a basis to help protect
civilians and protect the rights of civilians.
The other issue is on MONUSCO. As you remember, Mr.
Chairman, and of course when Congressman Payne was also there,
we looked at the abuse of MONUC. And at that time the SSRG was
Ambassador Bill Swain and the Ambassador was Roger Meece. We
worked extremely hard to look at how we can do training and
advancement programs. So right now we are looking at our
programs and projects on how we can advance and promote the
professionalization within the FARDC troops but also within
MONUSCO now to ensure that you have the highest quality.
In that context let me just tell you, in the State
Department we have over the last decade trained 120,000 troops.
That is 36 battalions in 24 partner countries. And what they
are doing now is to address African problems through African
solutions. Of those 120,000, 77,000 remain in peacekeeping
operations. We monitor them, we keep track of them. And of
those, 33,000 are in U.N. operations. And we know that their
quality is good and that they are attracted and maintain a high
quality. And that is what we need to do, not only in the DRC,
but in other parts of Africa where we see instability.
Ms. Jandhyala. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On the issue regarding trafficking in persons, we are
approaching it as a human rights issue; and, in that regard, we
have spent approximately $3 million in anti-trafficking
projects in DRC, working with UNICEF in Ituri district to
reintegrate former soldiers, help them put in systems to
monitor families and communities where this is taking place.
In addition, we are working with the International
Organization for Migration to build awareness and capacity in
the Government of the DRC to stop this and to address the
issues raised in the Tier III status that they have been given.
On the issue of fistula repairs, we are finding in our
assessment of our current activities that, so far, we have
dealt with repairs as part of the violence generated in the
war, in the conflict situation. But we think there are also
fistula issues regarding the domestic violence and frequency of
birth and the population increases that are happening in
communities. So we are approaching it both as a treatment for
gender-based violence as well as domestic violence and sort of
population issues regarding young girls who are having children
at a young age as well as the number of children that they are
having, which is also another reason for the fistula situation
in the Congo.
On the issue regarding faith-based organizations and
working with communities, we believe the fundamental issue of
community reconciliation has to be done through local
organizations. Promoting community reconciliation can't be done
at the state organizations or at the level of national
institutions. So we are at the moment working with our
colleagues in OTI and other places in the east to see what
organizational networks, social networks that exist currently
and how we tap into those social networks, including churches
and mosques and other institutions on the ground.
In terms of elections, that is another challenge we are
facing. As my colleague Ambassador Yamamoto said, we view this
as a transformation. How do we set benchmarks for assessing
progress in that process?
In 2006, I also was in Congo with Ambassador Swing's office
at that time and we see that each election is an opportunity
for us not only to fund the event, the idea of an election, but
all of the consequences that we would have to deal with on the
parliamentary level. What institutions do we have to build for
the next election? So we are managing our resources between the
immediate event investments as well as what it requires for
state building and capacity on the parliamentary level.
We are also preparing for the state-level elections that
have been postponed to see how we can encourage and revive that
strategy with the government a little bit more.
And, lastly, in terms of all of these issues, Mr. Chairman,
that we are dealing with ungoverned spaces. So development in
ungoverned spaces means currently we are dealing with the
consequences of ungoverned spaces. So of the 11 provinces in
Congo, seven are viewed in the eastern areas which are
considered sort of ungoverned on many levels. But there are 40
million other people in the rest of the Congo that we are
balancing the immediate interventions for conflicts and crises
but also continuing to invest in the other parts that are
stable.
So those are the issues that we are managing at the moment.
In terms of the budget, Administrator Shah is coming up to
the Hill next week, and I would leave that to him to talk about
Congo as part of the broader budget issues.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I thank you both.
Just a note, not a question, I want to thank you for
including in your written submission some of the very laudatory
and outstanding accomplishments, especially in the area of
mitigating maternal mortality. As you point out, we have
enabled over 351,000 deliveries. And, as we know, the greatest
way of mitigating maternal mortality is by having a skilled
birth attendant available to deal with complications,
especially if a caesarean section might be needed. So that is
very good news contained in your testimony.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
As has been mentioned, Secretary Clinton visited the
eastern Congo, and she really was very moved and gave a very
strong report about what was going on there. I was on that
trip, although I left before she visited the Congo.
My assessment, the U.S. needs to refocus all parts of our
Government on achieving clear results in two critical issues
which were actually mentioned on her trip. The first priority
should be to bring greater stability and to reduce civilian
suffering in the eastern Congo, and the second priority will be
to ensure next year's elections that will take place will be
fair and free. So I just wonder if you could just comment very
quickly on those two.
I have a series of questions.
Ambassador Yamamoto. You are absolutely correct, Mr.
Congressman. Stability is key, and that is really part of our
security sector reform approach which I just explained in the
testimony.
And the other issue is on the elections. Yes, the elections
are a key indicator for the progress; and, yes, there are going
to be problems. Yes, there are going to be areas that we need
greater improvement on; and, yes, there will be questions on
it. But as long as we can continue to make the progress and
development we have since 2006, we should be in good shape as
we head to the next elections as well.
Ms. Jandhyala. In terms of the elections, after USAID's
experience in Sudan recently and the enormous international
lift that it took to make the referendum happen, I think we are
working toward what institutions we can lay the groundwork for
now as we set the tone for both the subnational elections that
we hope will take place. And I think it is a commitment to the
democratic transformation of Congo. It is a critical element of
our aid strategy at the moment.
Mr. Payne. And you didn't have the dollar amount that we
contributed to the 2006 elections and what is in the budget for
the 2011 elections.
Ms. Jandhyala. Right. The 2006, I can come back to you with
that. I am sorry about that.
[The information referred to follows:]
Written Response Received from Ms. Rajakumari Jandhyala to Question
Asked During the Hearing by the Honorable Donald M. Payne
USAID provided $12.0 million in support of DRC's 2006 elections.
Ms. Jandhyala. On the 2011, it is part of the budget
discussions that Administrator Shah would like to talk with as
part of the overall DG budgets we are looking for within the
agency, both for Africa and for the agency.
Mr. Payne. Because, of course, we can almost guarantee
failure if we do not supply the appropriate--it was daunting at
the last election, which I attended, also. And simply the
logistics of getting ballots to remote places, you had to use
helicopters; and I was thankful, as I mentioned, that South
Africa was able to bring in aircraft to deliver ballots and
then pick them up after the election. Congo was so important.
And we could almost, like I say, guarantee a failure if we
don't have the proper amount of--which, of course, comes to the
Congress. You all don't appropriate. That is something that we
need to perhaps have a discussion with us on this side of
Washington.
Could you give me a definition of the difference between
MONUC and MONUSCO? It tends to get gray sometimes.
So would anyone want to try to take a shot at that? I don't
want either one of you to jump at it, but----
Ambassador Yamamoto. The issue was--the progress between
MONUC and MONUSCO was on the mandate. In other words, to
articulate exactly what the precise mandate would be for the
U.N. operation. And one of the things that was additional or
added to that was, in what circumstances will these forces
address, you know, the FDLR, the LRA process? And one of the
additions to the MONUSCO mandate was looking much more at the
LRA problem.
But I would have to go back to you and refer to other
experts who know the precise technical and legal distinction
between the two.
[The information referred to follows:]
Written Response Received from Mr. Donald Y. Yamamoto to Question Asked
During the Hearing by the Honorable Donald M. Payne
Following the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement in July
1999 between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and five
regional states, the UN Security Council established the United Nations
Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) by
its resolution 1279 of November 30, 1999. MONUC initially observed the
ceasefire and disengagement of forces and maintained liaison with all
parties to the Ceasefire Agreement. Later, in a series of resolutions,
the Council expanded the mandate of MONUC to the supervision of the
implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement and assigned multiple related
additional tasks. In accordance with the Security Council's May 28,
2010 resolution 1925, MONUC was renamed the United Nations Organization
Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)
to reflect the transformation of MONUSCO into a stabilization force.
UNSC resolution 1925 also permitted a reduction of up to 2,000 of the
Mission's 19,815 uniformed personnel in areas where security has
improved. The MONUSCO mandate emphasizes civilian protection.
Mr. Payne. Initially, they were criticized--I guess it was
early on--about their lack of aggressiveness in their Chapter 7
mandate. There had been a reaffirmation of Chapter 7. Is there
a more aggressive stance on a part of the forces?
Ambassador Yamamoto. The problem with the definitions is
this ability to respond. I know that Roger Meece has requested
more air assets, in other words, to address the ability to
rapidly deploy his troops to areas of instability. And he gave
the example of ecoterror, where you had disarmed groups coming
in and taking over the airport temporarily, killing some of the
U.N. peacekeepers as well as civilians.
But those are some of the major challenges that are facing
MONUSCO today. It is not only the budget but also the capacity
to respond quickly.
Ms. Jandhyala. We have also made a commitment. We have
reinforced our message with the U.N. agencies that we are
committed to a peacekeeping mission, and we wouldn't be able to
do a lot of our work without the environment being created by
the peacekeeping mission in the east at the moment. And we have
made that message clear to the Government of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo who have come around to establishing a
better relationship and improving their relationship with the
peacekeeping mission.
Mr. Payne. And about the FDLR, initially, they were very
involved with the government in Kinshasa. However, there seemed
to be a position where the Kabila government have been working
toward the infiltration of the FDLR. In other words, the
agreement between Rwanda and the DRC, is there an effort? At
one time, it seemed FDLR were even a part of the Congolese
forces. Has all of that changed? And is the--into harm's way--
and the ex-FAR that still roam around the eastern Congo, is
that still a problem?
Ambassador Yamamoto. Yes, Mr. Congressman. The FDLR, you
know, remains a continued issue. From our tripartite-plus
process to today, we continue to work with the Rwandan groups
as well as the Congolese, because the FDLR is a threat to both
countries and to the regional stability and also to the
violence against the civilians and really is a major block and
obstacle to peace and stability in the region. So that
continues to be a top priority.
Mr. Payne. I had a chance to speak to Mr. Meece earlier in
regard to even the CNDP. Now Nkunda is under house arrest in
Rwanda. Has that therefore lessened the tension there in the
area or are his forces still roaming and doing destructive
work?
Ambassador Yamamoto. No. Nkunda's detention or house arrest
in Rwanda is one area, but you still have continued members of
the FDLR who continue to roam, and then you also have other
high-profile individuals who are creating havoc. And one of
them, of course, is Bosco Ntaganda, who is an ICC-indicted war
criminal and part of the groups. As you know, he fought with
Kabila's forces, and he is extremely well armed. So that
remains a problem.
Ms. Jandhyala. And, also, I think one of the issues we are
facing with the FDLR in terms of community development and
reconciliation issues is that command and control is not clear
on different parts of the east, of where they have impact and
where they don't in terms of command and control. So I think
both the bilateral agreement between Rwanda and Congo gives one
framework, but I think we will have to work as an international
community at many levels both at the political level but also
within communities who have reached out under the DDR program
and other reconciliation efforts to see how we can minimize the
damage that they do to the communities.
Mr. Payne. Okay. My time has just about expired, but I just
wonder, what is the prospect of a special envoy being
appointed? We wrote a letter back several months ago asking
that a special envoy be considered once again. Mr. Swing was
very effective. And what is the status now?
Ambassador Yamamoto. We are continuing to take that under
advisement. After the departure of Howard Wolpe last year, we
will continue to do the work that he has started through our
ambassadors and through Johnnie Carson who has made trips as
well as the Secretary and other senior officials.
But, again, depending on the budget and other objectives,
et cetera, we continue to take that under advisement, Mr.
Congressman.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.
Mr. Fortenberry.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you again for coming, and thank you for your
testimony.
The United States is constantly called upon to clean up
messes throughout the world. And now that is a testament to the
generosity of the American people as well as to the
philosophical ideals that guide us and perhaps as well our
unique position as an exceptional world power. But, with that
said, what is the relative nature of our assistance compared to
European assistance, particularly France and Belgium, given the
colonial legacy here?
Ms. Jandhyala. In terms of the United States, we are still
the largest donor in terms of our support in bilateral
assistance, but our support through the peacekeeping agencies,
in terms of our support through the U.N., service agencies like
UNICEF; and we continue to lead on this.
It depends also on certain sectors where our European
partners have taken the lead in terms of the security sector
where the EU is in the lead. But in other areas and other
sectors we continue to lead in regards to this.
Mr. Fortenberry. Do you feel this is disproportionate in
terms of the responsibility?
Ms. Jandhyala. We are working with our partners to
continuously find ways, because we partner with them on a
number of other countries that are a priority for the U.S.
Government. So it is a balancing act between Congo, Sudan,
Liberia, and many other countries. So we are in constant
discussions with our British partners, our Norwegian partners,
the EU, the World Bank, both on the bilateral to see where we
bring our relative expertise, we lead, and where they bring
their relative expertise and political will. So it is a
constant negotiation between us and our partners.
Mr. Fortenberry. All right. The second question--and
perhaps, Mr. Ambassador, you could answer this. It is against
the law in the United States to provide military assistance to
countries who use child soldiers. Now we have exceptions for
that in terms of national security waivers, and this country
has received one. But, with that said, that doesn't absolve our
responsibility from continuing to push at the highest possible
diplomatic levels to end this pernicious practice. What
specifically is being done in this regard?
Ambassador Yamamoto. You know, overall, on the child
soldiers, it is not just in the Congo but it is throughout the
continent and, of course, around the world as we establish on
our GTIP rankings and address--to work with these countries to
address those problems and to ensure that they understand those
problems and that they address them and that we work together
to find the solution.
And throughout Africa and other parts of Africa, from Chad
and to other countries where there are reports of child
soldiers, we have worked with those troops that we have helped,
let's say, train not only on vetting but to ensure that they
observe all the precepts and legal aspects that we have under
our laws in distribution of funding and assistance.
In the Congo area, it remains a challenge, but we remain
committed to ensuring and to working hard so that the
battalions that we train and also those that we work with are
meeting the legal notes established by you in the Congress on
the distribution of the assistance.
Mr. Fortenberry. That perhaps is certainly an appropriate
response for those areas that are under our direct influence,
such as military assistance, direct military assistance and
training. But in terms of a robust diplomatic push at the
highest levels, what are we doing?
Ambassador Yamamoto. Right now, we are working with the
FARDC troops, which is a major challenge, to work on military
justice and also to ensure that they develop the justice
systems to bring to justice those individuals who are in
violation, not only those who have violated the law in
participation in rape and human rights abuse but also those who
have conscripted and trained child soldiers. That becomes an
accountability issue under the judicial and legal system that
we are trying to develop within the DRC, and that is something
that our USAID colleague is working on. And our part is working
to ensure the professionalization of the military as well as
the police to follow up and to work with the communities and
sectors so that these abuses do not occur. But, again, it is
going to be a long-term process, but we are making those
efforts.
Mr. Smith. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Carnahan.
Mr. Carnahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and congratulations
again on your chairmanship and leadership of this subcommittee.
It is great to be here with the ranking member, Mr. Payne.
We notice a slight New Jersey tilt to the leadership here, but
we do appreciate you being here and really bringing attention
to this topic today.
I just wanted to say a personal welcome to Ambassador
Yamamoto for his leadership and for the time we spent with him
in Ethiopia and for the great work that you did there.
This topic is very timely in terms of assessing our
effectiveness and the international community's efforts to
address these challenges from ethnic conflict, government
corruption, extreme poverty, and widespread human rights
abuses. And, in particular, the sexual and gender-based
violence against women and children here on this day I think it
is especially important being International Women's Day.
Also, we have heard many talk about the high risk of
relapse there. When there was a concerted effort around the
elections in 2006, many believe that we mistakenly scaled down
our efforts there in terms of democracy assistance and
political engagement. So certainly as we lead up to this next
national election, I think it is important that we have a
robust international engagement there.
I have seen some statistics with regard to there being over
14,000 new cases of sexual violence reported in the DRC,
including thousands of child victims. And my question is, how
is USAID and its bilateral assistance working to specifically
address the needs of children in the eastern Congo? And how is
the U.S. assisting UNICEF in their efforts to address these
challenges?
And I would like to start with Ambassador Yamamoto.
Ambassador Yamamoto. Thank you, sir.
We continue to look at--you know, when I was traveling
throughout the DRC before my Ambassadorship to Ethiopia and now
here--is the issue of the high rate of violence not only
against women but civilian areas and the high rate of death.
You are talking anywhere from 800 to 1,100 deaths from violence
each and every day in the Congo. It is unacceptable and
prohibitively high.
What we tried to do through our budgeting and assistance--
and not only us but also in coordination with our donor
community and with other groups--is to look at how we can
address the needs of the communities to ensure not only
security sector reforms but also to look at how we can bring
strength and dynamism to these communities to protect
themselves against the violence. And that encourages not only
security sector reforms to address the training of forces but
also on the other side on the justice system to hold people
accountable and that they go through a course in procedures and
processes.
I want to turn to my colleague, Raja, who can kind of go
into the details on the programs that we have implemented.
Mr. Carnahan. Thank you.
Ms. Jandhyala. In terms of the sexual- and gender-based
violence, we work on three levels. One is, survivors have
access to critical care and treatment and that both women and
children come through our service providers. Second is to
expand the current--we have got 5,000 local service providers
that we want to expand, the number of those providers that
provide services to children. And then, lastly, we deal with
250 local organizations to deal with psychological counseling
and treatment.
And in terms of UNICEF, we have worked with them in Ituri
in eastern Congo on protection, on medical services, on
psychosocial services; and about 1,000 children have gone
through all three of them. They come in in waves, and we
support UNICEF and fund them for these services throughout
eastern Congo, and they then use those services to deal with
the community. Issues of women and children--at least in the
USAID portfolio--we deal with in terms of reconciliation at the
community level, livelihoods. We have youth issues. A large
part of it is youth. And then we also deal with them through
health care and then local administration issues.
So we kind of view it as a cross-cutting issue, where we
have opportunities to support women and children. It should be
something that goes across all of our interventions in addition
to the targeted interventions we provide for specific
treatments.
Mr. Carnahan. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Ms. Bass.
Ms. Bass. Both of you have made several references to the
upcoming elections. And I just wanted to ask you, if you could,
to specifically talk about what specific steps you think the
United States could or should take immediately and in the
upcoming months to assist in helping to prevent a fraudulent
election. If there is hope that it could be done in a way--
given the decision that was made to revise the constitution in
January to reduce the number of election rounds from two to
one, is there hope that it could be viewed legitimately?
And then what contingency plans are the U.S. and
international community discussing should violence occur? I
know it is not an automatic that because they made that
constitutional change that it is going to be viewed
fraudulently, but----
Ambassador Yamamoto. Very important on the violence is,
obviously, the MONUSCO plays a critical role as far as on the
security but also on the electoral processes. In 2006, they
were very key in getting the ballots out and bringing the
ballots back. Right now, USAID has provided $5 million for
training, voter registration, and voter education, which
remains key, and also to continue to reach out through
educational processes to bring in as many of the people who are
eligible to vote, to vote, to be a participant in the electoral
process.
The other issue, too, is on the ballot counting as well.
What we have done is to ensure that all the opposition groups
do have members at the areas where the ballots are being
counted.
We have met very rigorously with all the opposition leaders
who are potential candidates for the presidency as well as many
of the local candidates--on the Presidential level, that is
Mobutu and Kamerhe, the former speaker, the parliamentary
speaker, as well as President Kabila himself--and to understand
and not only to have a dialogue among all the groups and
parties but to work out systems and mechanisms and measures to
work together to ensure that the ballot counting and the vote,
there is a process in place which can be lived by and lived
with by all the parties who are contesting the election.
Ms. Jandhyala. USAID looks at this in terms of what
institutions are critical to ensure that it is transparent,
limits fraud and really addresses the systemic changes that we
need to do. So we are providing technical assistance to the
independent elections commission in the country. We are working
with the Parliament to ensure that whatever elections
legislation that is coming through is viewed through a critical
eye; and, lastly, working with provincial administration at
local levels to see how they can participate in this elections
process to prevent it.
The other critical element for us is the population. How do
we get the population involved in ensuring that the fraud
doesn't take place? How do they get information out there? How
do we educate voters so they report on the instances where they
do find weaknesses in the process as it goes? And lastly is we
were in discussions with the other donors about elections
observation teams from the international community and how to
organize that in the coming months so that we, as an
international partnership, are able to provide some views on
what is going on in this process.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Ms. Bass.
Mr. McDermott.
Mr. McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have a question for both of you. To what extent do
you think the legislation that Senator Durbin and I got into
the bill in terms of conflict mineral is actually going to have
a positive effect in reducing the amount of money available to
the rebels to carry on the chaos that has gone on in Kivu for
the last 5, 6, 7 years?
Ambassador Yamamoto. Well, Mr. Congressman, we worked very
closely with your staff members on that legislation. And let me
say that that has remained a key aspect in our dealings with
the DRC since the last several years and not only monitoring
the conflict minerals but also tracking it and also how it is
being utilized and denying those illegal traders from
benefiting from those conflict minerals.
What I think the legislation does is strengthen and support
what we have been doing over the last several years which is
to--the people and the civilians, in areas where you have
tungsten, titanium, and timber, have them benefit from the
resources that are being mined. And I think that legislation
helps us in this regard, and it strengthened those communities.
And then the other issue, too, is to hold not only traders
but also smelters and end users accountable to ensure that
those moneys and funds will benefit the people as well as those
who are trading.
Ms. Jandhyala. I think the impact of the legislation has
been that the due diligence that the companies are taking, are
taking this seriously. We see a lot of companies that we are
working with the government to say, How do we establish a due
diligence in this regard?
The second area of impact is our ability to have them look
at it as part of a broader extractive framework, that we are
providing technical assistance.
And largely at the community level, again, is what role do
they play in monitoring and tracking? And, in that regard, we
have invested in infrastructure to access these remote sites;
and by preventing people from traveling in between these sites
they have been able to keep this process going. So we are also
investing in rural infrastructure to access these areas where
we think that there is a high instance of trafficking in
conflict minerals.
Mr. McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. McDermott.
I would like to thank our distinguished panel for your
testimony. I would just echo the words of my good friend, the
ranking member, Mr. Payne, both he and I strongly hope that you
will consider a special envoy or a special representative.
Mr. Affleck makes a very strong and impassioned appeal for
that in his testimony. I hope you stick around to hear it.
And Mr. Prendergast does the same. As a matter of fact, he
even says, why is U.S. policy failing and what could be done
about it? And that is one of his chief recommendations.
So the sooner the better. Please name that special envoy so
we have a truly coordinated strategy.
I would like to now welcome our next panel, panel number
two, beginning with Mr. Ben Affleck, who is the founder of the
Eastern Congo Initiative in addition to a successful career as
an actor, writer, and director. Mr. Affleck is also a
passionate advocate and philanthropist.
In March 2010, he founded the Eastern Congo Initiative, or
ECI, an advocacy and grant-making initiative with the mission
of helping the Congolese people support local, community-based
approaches that create a sustainable and successful society in
the long-troubled region. ECI is the first U.S.-based advocacy
and grant-making initiative wholly focused on working with and
for the people of eastern Congo.
Since 2007, Mr. Affleck has made multiple trips to Africa,
with a focus on eastern Congo. He is focused on understanding
the causes and consequences of conflict on the continent and
learning about African solutions to the problems affecting the
DRC.
We will then hear from Ms. Francisca Vigaud-Walsh, who is
with Catholic Relief Services as a sexual and gender-based
violence advisor, spearheading the effort to incorporate SGBV
prevention and response into CRS programming in conflict and
disaster-affected communities worldwide.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh has nearly a decade of refugee camp
management and protection experience with the U.N. and various
NGOs, working with displaced communities in the Balkans, Latin
America, and Africa, and has spent a considerable amount of
time in eastern Congo helping CRS and its local partners design
effective responses to psychosocial, medical, and economic
needs of survivors of sexual violence.
We will also then hear from Mr. John Prendergast, who is a
human rights activist and best-selling author who has worked
for peace in Africa for over 25 years. He is co-founder of The
Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes
against humanity affiliated with the Center for American
Progress.
Mr. Prendergast has worked with the White House under
President Clinton, the State Department, two Members of
Congress, the National Intelligence Council, UNICEF, Human
Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and the U.S.
Institute of Peace. He has authored or co-authored 10 books and
has appeared on numerous TV programs and, as I said earlier,
has been here frequently before this subcommittee.
And I also would like to, if she would like to come to the
witness table, Cindy McCain who, as I said earlier, has been a
leader on issues dealing with health care for Africa, including
the American Voluntary Medical Team, leading several medical
missions to developing and war-torn nations. She is the wife of
the distinguished Senator from Arizona, John McCain, but she
has also worked with CARE, Operation Smile, and the landmine
removal group, the HALO Trust.
Mr. Affleck, if you would proceed.
STATEMENT OF MR. BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR, WRITER, DIRECTOR, &
ADVOCATE
Mr. Affleck. Thank you very much. I am very excited about
this. It is a great honor. So thank you all very much for
including me today.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, and members of the
subcommittee, my name is Ben Affleck. I am founder of the
Eastern Congo Initiative. ECI is the only U.S.-based grant-
making and advocacy organization entirely focused on working
with and for the people of eastern Congo, an area that carries
the unwanted distinction of being the deadliest and most
volatile region of the country and one of the deadliest in the
world.
According to the United Nations, the crisis in eastern
Congo has displaced an estimated 1.7 million Congolese and has
led to over 1,000 rapes being committed every month. The
International Rescue Committee estimates that 5.4 million
people have lost their lives in the conflict since 1998. Many
of these deaths were children under the age of 5. Not all were
killed in combat but rather perished from the ravages that
accompany this horrific region: Malaria, pneumonia,
malnutrition, and diarrhea.
ECI invests in Congolese efforts that help protect the most
vulnerable among the population in the Congo, including child
soldiers and survivors of sexual violence. ECI works closely
with community based groups focused on education, economic
opportunity, capacity building, and legal reform. I thank you
for your attention to Congo and for holding this important
hearing. On behalf of ECI, I would like to submit a complete
written statement for the record.
Today's hearing occurs on the 100th anniversary of
International Women's Day, which I also think is important to
recognize; and I think it is particularly appropriate to call
attention to the particular suffering of women and girls in
eastern Congo as well as the undeniable strength they exhibit
in the face of ongoing atrocities.
I am also pleased to recognize Cindy McCain, who is with us
here today and who recently joined ECI as a founding member and
investor. Cindy and I just returned from eastern Congo where we
saw firsthand the tragedy and triumph of the Congolese people.
While large parts of eastern Congo remain under the control
of armed groups, there are many reasons--most of them rooted in
the strength and fortitude of their people--to be hopeful about
Congo's future.
I want to share with you the story of a remarkable woman
named Laba Kamana, who exemplifies the potential of the
Congolese people to transform themselves and their society.
Laba was captured by rebel soldiers at the age of 14 in South
Kivu and held as a sex slave for over 2 years. She was raped
virtually every day by her captors until she found her freedom
through the thick jungle in what makes up the second-largest
rainforest in the world. She discovered she was pregnant with
the child of one of her rapists.
The counselors of a remarkable Congolese organization
called Let Africa Live found Laba. They took her in. They
provided her with counseling and job training. And while caring
for her new daughter she used her skills to start a small
business and earn enough income to return to school.
Laba is now 22 years old. I met her. She is wonderful. She
is in her third year of studying law, and she advocates the
rights of women using her own story.
Since my first visit to Congo more than 5 years ago, I have
witnessed remarkable efforts to improve governance, promote
economic growth, and reduce conflict. Unfortunately, despite
some positive movement, the record over these last 5 years is
not promising. Congo risks heading into another deeper spiral
of violence that could lead to more fighting and suffering and
could risk destabilizing surrounding African countries.
In 2006, millions of Congolese voted for the first time in
a free and fair democratic election. Voting in more than 50,000
polling places around the country, the Congolese people elected
Joseph Kabila as President. It was a period of great excitement
and high hopes; and the United States, indeed, testified to by
some of the other panelists, played a very important role.
Starting in 2007, the U.S., along with others in the West,
drew back involvement. Instead of continuing a high level of
engagement to consolidate a new and fragile democracy, Congo
was treated as if it was a well-functioning state from which
the United Nations' mission in Congo could be safely withdrawn.
This notion was quickly dispelled when rebels waged a new
battle against the government in eastern Congo in 2007 and 2008
that brought another terrible round of death, displacement, and
destruction.
Our Government has a long history of involvement in the
Congo, from our shameful role in the murder of Patrice Lumumba
and three decades' support of Mobutu to some very admirable
recent efforts. In the early 2000s, the United States
Government helped to bring to the table various forces then
fighting in Congo. The U.S. Government also provided key early
funding for the 2006 elections and played a major role in
helping peace and development return to the Congo. Of this,
there is no question.
In the past few years, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
as also testified to by Ambassador Yamamoto, visited the
region; and USAID has escalated its efforts in eastern Congo.
Also, USAID has provided millions of dollars in humanitarian
assistance to the Congo since the mid-1990s.
This commitment has indeed paid dividends in Congo, but
with conflict persisting and elections coming up, we must
develop a cohesive strategy and be fully engaged on this issue.
Today, with national elections only 8 months away, on November
27, the U.S. is not focused on Congo, even with events like
last week's attack on the President's residence in Kinshasa.
That, paired with Congo's recent history, should remind
everybody of the fragility of the Congo's progress and
stability.
The United States Government can and should play an active
role in ensuring this November's elections are free and fair.
An electoral outcome that is questioned could easily perpetuate
another downward spiral, division, and rupture. The last time
Congo collapsed, armies came in from across Africa. And as I
said before, 5 million people died. Five million people have
died since 1998 because of the conflict in eastern Congo. We
must learn from history and do our part to see that this never
happens again.
In this time of heightened concern over Federal spending,
some suggest that austerity demands we turn a blind eye to the
crisis in Congo. I believe nothing could be more misguided. It
would simply be penny wise and pound foolish to allow the Congo
to again fall into a state of crisis or further humanitarian
chaos.
If Congo were to collapse again, as members of this
subcommittee know full well, the United States would respond
generously with humanitarian assistance. We would try to save
lives. But we have to do better. Our goal must be to avert a
humanitarian disaster by proactive investment and stronger
diplomacy.
The path to stability in today's Congo requires fostering
stable elections and preventing another disaster that could
easily require hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance. I
humbly suggest that the U.S. Government take a hard look at its
current commitment and find a way to do more. Come November, we
must be able to look ourselves in the eye and say that we did
what our principles demanded. We helped democracy emerge in a
place where tragedy is the alternative.
In November, 2010, the Eastern Congo Initiative released a
white paper--here it is--``Strengthening United States Foreign
Policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.'' You do titles
differently in DC than we do back home. This paper,
commissioned and reviewed by experts, encourages steps the U.S.
should take to promote progress in the Congo.
I would like a summary of the paper to be included in the
record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Affleck. Thank you. I have included a more detailed
explanation of the steps we believe are necessary in the
written testimony.
One, the U.S. Government must do more to support a
multidimensional strategy to protect civilians--women, girls,
boys, and men--from the onslaught of violence in eastern Congo.
Two, the U.S. Government must do more to support the 2011
elections, which we have heard about already a little bit
today. In addition to providing diplomatic support, the U.S.
should support robust election monitoring by Congolese civil
society and by credible international organizations.
Three, to ensure that the United States steps up to the
serious challenges to stability in Africa posed by the Congo,
the President or the Secretary of State should appoint a
special representative to the Great Lakes region of central
Africa. The appointment should occur as soon as possible in
order to coordinate the U.S. response to the challenges in the
Congo.
We also believe that the treatment of conflict minerals,
demobilization, and security sector reform, as well as the
Lord's Resistance Army, are a serious concern and deserve a
comprehensive approach and cohesive strategy.
This is an ambitious agenda, but it can be accomplished.
In December, 2005, then-Senator Obama introduced a bill
called the Democratic Republic of Congo Relief, Security, and
Democracy Promotion Act of 2006. This bill had a bipartisan
list of Senate cosponsors, including then-Senator Hillary
Clinton. On December 6, 2006, it was passed by the House by
voice vote. On December 22, 2006, President Bush signed the
bill into law. The majority of our recommendations are found in
this very law. They simply need to be implemented.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your very strong support of
this important legislation. We place special emphasis on full
diplomatic support for the upcoming elections and the
reappointment of a Great Lakes special advisor in the State
Department. This special advisor would serve as a point of
accountability and an important and necessary coordinating
function. Maybe most relevant in these tough economic times,
this appointment would inevitably ensure efficiencies are found
across multiple investments and diplomatic efforts.
We strongly believe that if we continue to place Congo on
the back burner of U.S. policy it will indeed come back to
haunt us. The Federal budget may indeed be a zero-sum game, but
our morality, our sense of decency, our compassion for our
fellow human beings is not. Recognizing one tragedy need not
diminish understanding and empathy for another.
Our basic humanity, our sense of compassion is not a fixed
number. It expands with our vision. It can grow with our
purpose. But our moral compass is fixed. Our sunrise, our east
as a Nation, even when we have failed, has always pointed us
toward what is right. Now, not what is easy, not what is cheap,
but what we can live with and how we can sleep with ourselves
at night.
The values we hold true are priceless to us. They are the
soul of our Nation. They are rooted in our Constitution, our
Bill of Rights, our Declaration of Independence. We believe in
being free from the tyranny of violence. We believe in life and
liberty, and we believe that basic human rights are not just
important, are not just something to be worked toward but a
fundamental right to be demanded for all mankind.
These ideas make us who we are. They make us great. But if
our foreign policy does not reflect these ideals, it completely
undermines them.
I have seen firsthand the determination and the promise of
the Congolese people. I hope you will consider visiting eastern
Congo to learn and see what I have. Any of you are welcome to
come with me.
The Congolese people simply want to live their lives in
peace, earn a decent living, and raise their families, just
like the rest of us. They want a voice in their country's
governance.
I will never give in to the naysayers who suggest Congo is
hopeless or too complex. It is not. The 70 million people of
Congo deserve a better tomorrow, and Eastern Congo Initiative
will do our small part to ensure that it does. It is in the
interest of all of us here to support the people of the Congo,
move forward toward democracy and respect for human rights, and
to move away from the multiple crises and horrors of the last
15 years.
Thank you very much. It really is an honor to be here, and
I am happy to expand on any of these points to answer your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Affleck follows:]
Mr. Smith. Mr. Affleck, thank you so very much for your
very eloquent and passionate statement; I do hope that the
White House and the Capitol, the Congress, is listening to your
strong appeal. The Congo cannot be on the back burner of U.S.
foreign policy. I think--as Mr. Payne and I have been very
clear, I think every member of our panel, we strongly want that
special envoy, that special representative yesterday. And so
your appeal today, I think could be a pivoting point for the
administration to say, Now do it. Time is running out. So thank
you so very much.
I would like to now introduce Ms. Vigaud-Walsh and thank
you for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MS. FRANCISCA VIGAUD-WALSH, SEXUAL AND GENDER-
BASED VIOLENCE ADVISOR, CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit my
written statement for the record, and I will briefly summarize.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for calling
this very important hearing today and for giving Catholic
Relief Services the opportunity to testify. I would also like
to thank the ranking member, Mr. Payne.
Mr. Smith, I know how passionate you are about advocating
for the survivors of sexual- and gender-based violence in the
Congo. And, Mr. Payne, I know that your interest in the region
has led you to travel to the Congo several times, even dating
back to when it was still called Zaire.
Let me also thank Mr. McDermott for his role as one of the
original authors of the Congo Conflict Minerals provision that
recently became law. This provision will help to curb sexual
violence in the Congo.
This morning in Bukavu, over 180,000 women marched in the
streets advocating for their own rights, today being their day,
International Women's Day. They marched behind a banner that
stated, we can stop violence against women. And they chanted
slogans that included two key demands, the first being impunity
for rapists must cease, and the second being that women must be
included in all the political processes.
As the sexual- and gender-based violence advisor for
Catholic Relief Services, I focus a lot of my efforts on the
Congo just because of the sheer magnitude of the problem there;
and in this capacity I have had the privilege of working for
and with some of the women that marched this morning.
In eastern Congo, today is a cry for women to no longer be
used as a battleground, and here it is a call for us to even
make greater efforts to help them. CRS, which has been working
in the DRC since 1961, partners with the local Catholic Church
to address the scourge of sexual violence. The Church has an
extensive network throughout the most remote networks of the
country. This network allows us to reach the most isolated of
rape survivors.
Also, in the absence of an effective and functioning
government administration, the Catholic Church has provided
most of the basic services, such as health care and education
for decades. It has thus gained the trust of the population.
In eastern Congo, I have repeatedly come across rape
survivors who have walked many kilometers from their
displacement camps to seek support at the nearest parish. The
fear of stigmatization by their fellow camp dwellers, coupled
with the trust in the Church, drives them to seek assistance
there.
Together, we have implemented numerous activities to
respond to this crisis. We have provided access to life-
changing fistula repair surgeries, psychosocial training for
counselors, and trauma healing for thousands of survivors in
four provinces, income-generating and entrepreneurial skills
for at least 1,500 rape survivors, community training to
mobilize military, police, and traditional justice leaders and,
most recently, an innovative, community-based early warning and
protection project in three provinces.
The funding for these projects do come from a variety of
sources, but the great majority of it comes from the United
States Government. This partnership between the United States
Government, CRS, and the Church in Congo extends the reach and
magnifies the impact of U.S. Government assistance into remote
areas with needy, vulnerable populations that could not be
reached otherwise.
It is critically important that the U.S. Government
maintain and expand the support for the essential responses I
have just described as well as preserving and strengthening its
partnership with the Church and other faith-based
organizations. If the DRC is to have a future, the hundreds of
thousands of women who have been raped must continue to be able
to access these services; and even within the context of scarce
resources today, the U.S. can and should do more to combat the
conditions that foster the use of rape as a weapon of war.
I would like to make these additional recommendations: One,
the U.S. must use its leverage as a donor and as a partner to
press the Congolese Government to fulfill its security mandate,
uphold human rights, and genuinely work to protect its
civilians. The Congolese Government has requested more military
support recently, such as the training of more battalions. The
U.S. Government has to link the support to measurable changes
in key areas.
Two, the U.S. should condition its assistance on progress
against impunity and survivor access to justice. As long as
ranking military officers who condone and perpetrate rape roam
free or as long as civilians accused of rape can continue to
pay the equivalent of 5 U.S. dollars for a get-out-of-jail
card, sexual violence will persist.
Three, the U.S. Government should urge the Congolese
Government to uphold its previous commitments to include women
in the political and peace processes. They should be respected
and included and prepared for elections.
Indeed, violence against women in the DRC is symptomatic of
women's second-class status and marginalization from decision
making. Women have been consistently excluded from previous
peace processes and continue to be sidelined from political
power.
One of the women who led in the march in Bukavu this
morning is the director of the Diocesan Office for Women's
Issues. When I telephoned her yesterday to tell her about this
hearing, she was ecstatic, because she knows the political
leverage the United States Government has with the Congolese
Government. She drafted a declaration alongside her
counterparts in the Muslim and Protestant communities and urged
me to make these recommendations.
Ultimately, in order to eradicate sexual- and gender-based
violence in the DRC, we need to stop the wider, more
generalized conflict. The United States Government needs to
more urgently engage diplomatically. The United States
Government can lead the process that will end the fighting and
increase women's participation in the political sphere.
The magnitude of the seemingly never-ending humanitarian
crisis and the potential for the fragile situation to get even
worse demands a proportionate response. At this critical
juncture, with elections coming, the United States Government
must rise to the task, as it did in the Sudan; and as long as
violence persists the U.S. must continue to support the
lifesaving partnership with faith-based institutions in the
DRC.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Vigaud-Walsh follows:]
Mr. Smith. Ms. Vigaud-Walsh, thank you so very much; and
thank you for the absolutely encouraging news about the 180,000
women marching. That is just incredible.
Hopefully, in a small way, this hearing and the follow-up
that we will do, it is all ongoing, but I think this is an
important venue to say, Now is the time for the administration
to do much more, and that goes for us as well. So thank you for
that wonderful news.
Mr. Prendergast.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN PRENDERGAST, CO-FOUNDER, THE ENOUGH
PROJECT
Mr. Prendergast. Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking
Member Payne, for your ongoing commitment to Congo and human
rights throughout Africa.
I would like to ask that my testimony be submitted into the
record and to People magazine--a hat tip to Mr. Affleck.
I would also like to set aside my written testimony to say
a few things this afternoon about this unique moment that the
Congo is facing.
While women from marching in Congo in Bukavu this morning,
the 180,000, two of my colleagues from Enough were in Goma this
morning and talked with one of the leading women's rights
advocates in the country, Justine Masika, who everyone probably
on this panel knows and some of you know and Secretary Clinton
met when she was in Congo in 2009.
For this hearing, Justine wanted to say the following:
``The link between conflict minerals and mass rape here in
Congo is crystal clear. So the first and foremost priority for
ending the war here in Congo is to set up a system to regulate
the minerals trade.'' And the upcoming election, she said, ``is
the critical window to push the Government of Congo on this
issue since it will try harder to please the population before
the vote.''
Now I was in Congo twice in the last 6 months, and I would
strongly concur with Justine's assessment that this is an
unparalleled moment of opportunity to make real changes in
Congo. The election is the primary internal factor, no
question. But the U.S. Congress' conflict minerals legislation,
spearheaded by Congressman McDermott, is the primary external
factor; and it has created a moment full of uncertainties and
anxieties but also of huge opportunities in the country.
Now before we get to these opportunities, I wanted to make
one commercial time-out on why we focus so much on the
economics of Congo's war. Of course, we believe the conflict
there is about more than conflict minerals, but let's take a
look at the broader agenda and how it is compromised by the
Mafia-like economy there.
Now everyone wants to reform, for example, the military.
However, the military officer corps is the primary beneficiary
of mining in the country. President Kabila stays in power by
allowing these officers free reign to make as much money as
they can and cratering the rule of law throughout the eastern
third of the country.
Number two, everyone wants to reform the justice system, of
course. However, the military and civilian beneficiaries in
government of this conflict minerals trade do not want a
strong, efficient government. The rule of law will subvert this
illegal economy, and the money now going into their pockets
will go to the Treasury. And that is simply unacceptable to
this Mafia.
The third thing I want to bring up is everyone, of course,
wants to stop the FDLR and the other militias. However, they
sustain themselves through mineral profits and everyone knows
that and they often trade increasingly with the military
itself, the Congolese military.
Fourth, everyone wants clean elections. However, who in
power would give up this gravy train? You lose, and you are
out. It is winner take all. They can't take that chance, and
they will fix it.
Everyone supports peace agreements, no question. However,
even the peace deals in Congo can make matters worse if we
don't deal with the economic fuel for war. One-and-a-half
million Congolese people have been displaced since Presidents
Kagame and Kabila signed their agreement 1\1/2\ years ago. That
is a tragic record.
Back to the people of Congo. Ryan Gosling and I went there
over Thanksgiving. We met an extraordinary Congolese woman
named Marie. Marie is a rape survivor twice over, and she has
overcome her own trauma to found a women's organization that
helps other women who survive sexual crimes.
We asked her what she recommends, and she said the
following: ``Please stop this bloody business. You are fueling
conflict. Families are being torn apart, women are being raped,
communities are being destroyed so armed groups can profit from
the mines. Companies should stop supporting this and do ethical
business.''
Well, the good news is that because of the congressional
legislation, because of your legislation, every one of you
champion this, companies have to start trying now to do this
ethical business. And some companies are already moving ahead
even beyond what the legislation is requiring them to do. But
they need help from the United States Government. And the key,
I believe, as it has been on so many critical foreign policy
issues in Africa, the key is the United States Congress. Two
critical processes are coming to fruition now that this
subcommittee and the wider Congress can influence.
First, the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to
issue very soon implementing regulations for your conflict
minerals legislation. We need to ensure that these regulations
have serious teeth and do not delay the implementation of the
bill. We have a letter that we are releasing today from
Congolese Civil Society Organizations making this very point,
that we cannot countenance a delay in the implementation of the
bill. Strong regulations will send a major signal to the actors
in the supply chain that foment violence, that subvert the rule
of law, that undermine good governance, that they have to clean
up their act.
The second major opportunity we have now is that the
conflict minerals legislation as it was discussed requires the
executive branch to develop a strategy for dealing with
conflict minerals and ending the violence. That is a first the
executive branch hasn't been required by Congress to have a
strategy to actually end this thing. We have always wanted to
deal with the symptoms. The bill says, how are you going to end
it? Well, that strategy was due over a month ago, but it is
still being debated inside the administration. That is a good
thing. That means you can have influence over what the Obama
administration comes out with. This is a huge opportunity for
the United States to make a critical difference in the Congo.
We think Secretary Clinton should lead in putting together
a stakeholders meeting that involves the regional governments,
with the Congo at the center, the companies that matter, the
United States and the European Union, all together to launch a
process that would result in an international certification
system to end the conflict minerals trade in central Africa.
And we need a senior envoy to help spearhead this and all the
other efforts that my fellow panelists and you have all spoken
about and written to the administration about so passionately
in the country and throughout the region.
U.S. leadership has helped do this with diamonds. We have
done it with forestry. We have done it with fisheries. We have
done it with a number of other products where, when the United
States helped lead in bringing the companies and governments in
question together, standards were changed, and this positively
has impacted the lives of millions and millions of people.
Well, now it is Congo's turn.
So if we act on the deadly minerals trade, it is not a
magic wand, but it is a catalyst, and it is a domino that will
help topple the edifice of greed and militarization that kills
and rapes people in Congo at a higher rate than anywhere else
in the world. Thank you for your leadership.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Prendergast follows:]
Mr. Smith. Mr. Prendergast, thank you so very much for your
passion and for your insights and counsel which you have
provided to this subcommittee and in Congress for many years.
Thank you so much. As previously discussed and agreed by my
friend Mr. Payne, the ranking member, and I, I would ask
unanimous consent to welcome Ms. Cindy McCain to speak and
participate as a witness on this panel, even though we had not
prior noticed it.
STATEMENT OF MRS. CINDY MCCAIN, PHILANTHROPIST
Mrs. McCain. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I don't intended to take long at all. But I would like to
thank you and the committee members for taking your time in
hearing what we have to say with regards to such a critical
issue that is facing our world.
My first trip to the Congo was in 1994 during the Rwandan
genocide. And so my history with Congo is dicey at best. But
what I have learned through these years is that what is most
important are organizations just like this, particularly
organizations like ECI that go in and take not only a strong
look at what is going on but become active on a community-based
level. These NGOs, organizations like this are the most
important for what we are doing, but we can't do it alone. We
are here today to ask all of you, and I know some of you in
this room right now have been to Congo and have taken an active
interest in Congo, to please come. But most importantly, we are
depending on your voice to spread the word.
We are going to lose a generation of women and children in
Congo unless we do something now. I am only a humanitarian
relief worker. That is the only thing I have ever done. It is
the only thing I know with regards to this region. But I also
know what is right. And we can't leave behind these women and
children. So we rely on you when we talk to you today with
great hope that you will lead this charge and not forget about
these wonderful human beings in a rich culture that has so much
to offer to this world.
I leave it to the experts to tell you today what is most
important, but I would hope that you would ask those people who
are on the ground to not only help you but for you to let them
know that you are behind them and most importantly to let the
women and children know that they are not forgotten.
I particularly want to thank Ben Affleck for allowing me to
be a part of this today and for allowing me to be a part of
ECI. We are strange political bedfellows. We are the odd couple
perhaps in politics. But that is the beauty of this, because
this transcends political parties.
So thank you so much for what you are doing. Most
importantly, thank you for listening to what they have to say.
And thank you for many, many NGO workers that are on the ground
that need your help. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Ms. McCain, the thank goes to you and to the
three other distinguished witnesses for leading and leading so
well by pouring yourselves into these humanitarian efforts. I
would like to ask Mr. Affleck, I know that you have been to
HEAL Africa and that ECI actually aids them. Could you just
provide some additional insights into the work of HEAL Africa
and other like-minded NGOs and hospitals that you have
supported?
Mr. Affleck. Sure. Unfortunately, there are not very many
hospitals in that part of the country. We were initially
attracted to them because, of course, they are Congolese-run
and based, and that is the kind of organization that we want to
be supporting. Sometimes we support grass roots organizations
that don't have that level of infrastructure and high level
education. But these people are--they are a Congolese-run
hospital that started out very small, primarily of course doing
fistula repair, because the need for fistulas was so urgent
there. And they have grown. They have grown because of their
skill, their talent, what they are providing and who is doing
the work. And it is one of the few that actually has attracted
a decent amount of attention from people. And they provide just
top level--I mean, obviously, there is emergency care.
I visited them and met soldiers who were recovering from
gunshot wounds. One guy showed me that he had his wallet in his
pocket, and he had been in the war. He took the wallet out and
the bullet had gone into his pocket and hit the wallet and
saved his life. He had some other wounds that he was being
treated for, but they were on the front lines of the war, and
they are on the front lines of building the peace. And I don't
know what people would do without this kind of hospital there.
And they are receiving more. We are working with them, and
others are as well, and they are really pretty exceptional.
The other, of course, a really well known hospital is Panzi
Hospital that Dr. Mukwege works at, which is in Bukavu in South
Kivu, and he also is just doing exceptional work. He is the guy
who is himself personally, early on, doing 10 fistula surgeries
a day at the height of this epidemic. And it still goes on, but
he doesn't have to do all the surgeries. Then they started
training other doctors and became sustainable. And those two
organizations are spectacular.
There are many others that we are working with. Part of
what we try to do at ECI is to recalibrate people's perceptions
about Africa and about who is doing what. If people go, oh, we
were going to throw money down there, it is money down a rat
hole; it is not the case at all. Really, in our experience,
people who are doing it and solving these problems, maybe it
was Congressman Payne who was talking about this earlier, it is
Congolese solving Congolese problems. And that is what is so
inspiring to me. And both those hospitals are really emblematic
of that. And I have other stories, but I will spare you.
Mr. Smith. In your testimony, you, and Mr. Prendergast in
his, make a very strong appeal for the special envoy.
And Mr. Prendergast, you actually point out that Howard
Wolpe, who used to be chairman of the subcommittee years back,
actually had his capability diminished, his resources and
influence cut at a time when, of course he has been ill
recently, but even when he had the position. It seems to me
that the message we need to send to the White House, because
they need to do this, like I said before, yesterday, is to name
that special envoy and properly resource that individual.
If you both, and perhaps any of you who would like to speak
to that issue, it seems to me that we don't have a point person
who can in a rapid way with the ear of the President and the
Secretary of State, you know a phone call away, this window of
opportunity, as one of you said in your testimony, could
quickly evaporate.
Mr. Payne and I were talking about this in between
testimonies, you know $5 million expended so far on the
election. Last time it was about $80 million, and when the
administration testifies that there is a $350 million gap, that
may doom this election unless quick corrective action is taken.
And the special envoy would have that ability to say, you know,
``We are going to make this happen.'' So if you could speak to
that.
Mr. Affleck. I will just give a quick answer and then John
can go into the nuance policy detail stuff. There is a lot
going on. We have heard other people talking about what the
U.S. Government is doing, what other folks are doing. A big
part of this is about synthesizing all this stuff, of taking
all these strands. And as many of you know working in the
private sector, you can have a lot of people doing stuff and
maybe doing their jobs well, but if they are not working
together and they don't know what the other hand is doing,
frankly, you just have a lot of waste. So we have got resources
dedicated that are now being frittered away because they are
not working collectively; they are not working cohesively. You
know, somebody is supposed to be doing elections. Somebody is
supposed to be doing gender-based violence. There are people
designated to liaise with regional governments, like Burundi,
Rwanda, Uganda and others. But without somebody sort of taking
a lead and being able to do that kind of shuttle diplomacy
where they move across those folks, it just really isn't going
to be successful.
In fact, we are under utilizing what we are already
deploying in effect. And I have talked about the stakes a
little bit, and I will let John.
Mr. Prendergast. Just a footnote. What Ben is saying there
is, when I worked at the White House and the State Department,
I just found it to be endlessly frustrating because so much
issues and countries were stovepiped and kept in their
categories. And what a special envoy--and you got--you know, in
Central Africa, you have got cross border issues; you have got
multiple issues that bring equities in from all kinds of
different departments throughout the U.S. Government. So you
need someone to be able to break through this stovepiping. And
it can't be a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who gets
dual-hatted to be doing something else besides their regular
job, which is 20 hours a day anyway, with the beeper going off
every 30 minutes in the other 4 hours. You just got to have
someone whose full-time job is focused. And it is someone with
influence, someone who can pick up the phone and say, Secretary
Clinton, it is actually time for you to say or do something
now, and someone who can actually move the system, move the
needle away from the inertia that just pervades government.
You know, this is just where it is. People are well
meaning, but the system is systemically tilted toward the
status quo. To be able to move that needle away from the status
quo toward action, that is what you need a special envoy for.
And you should collectively, civil society and the legislative
branch, press the executive branch to do this as soon as
possible. We know President Obama moved on the special envoy in
Sudan because of George Clooney. Maybe he will move it in Congo
because of Ben.
Mr. Affleck. Well, I don't think it will have much to do
with me. But from what I have heard, and we spent a lot of time
asking people around this town, I know that if we had the
support of Ambassador Yamamoto and Assistant Secretary Carson,
we would go a long way. So I urge, Yamamoto, you are still
here, and Carson, wherever you are, help us out. This can be a
collective effort and I know we can get there.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
And I couldn't agree more. Ms. Vigaud-Walsh, in your
testimony, you reference a CRS project that aims to prevent
sexual violence against women by sensitizing communities and
mobilizing local leaders, that is done through training
transitional justice leaders, military and police officials who
then become community sensitization leaders. Can you tell us
how successful that program has been?
And secondly, and Mrs. McCain, you might want to speak to
this as well, the issue of microcredit financing is huge in
Africa. And dollar for dollar, I can't think of a better way of
helping to empower women, especially because most of those
grants or loans, I should say, go to women. And with a small
amount of money, someone can not only get gainfully employed,
but they end up hiring four, five, six people in many cases.
For those women who have been so sexually abused and
traumatized, do you find that microcredit financing and job
skills training helps them mend, not only helping to provide
for themselves and perhaps their families, but also is part of
the healing process?
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Thank you, Chairman.
With regards to our project with the Catholic Church, we
train traditional justice leaders. The program is critical, and
it is very effective, because we have to step back for a moment
and look at the context. We are talking about a country where
there is no rule of law. The justice system is in shambles. So
there is nothing but traditional leadership in justice. So the
fact of the matter is we are working in communities where the
view of justice still is embedded in cultural ideas that are
attached to the stigma, how to overcome the stigma or how to
reduce stigma.
And what I mean by that is a girl that is perhaps as young
as 14 years old, in order to avoid that stigma, she is forced
to marry her rapist. And that is the traditional justice
system.
So we have been working with hundreds and hundreds of
justice leaders, traditional justice leaders, in order to work
with them on making their policies, shall we say, more gender-
sensitive and more sensitive to the needs and protection of the
women and girls. That is on the first point.
And with regards to the microcredit financing, absolutely,
absolutely critical. And I am glad that you noted that it is
part of the healing process, in fact. Through our savings and
lending schemes, we have helped rape survivors that had been
ostracized from their communities and, therefore, lost their
breadwinners once their husbands abandoned them. And one
particular case that I am thinking of right now, she was
actually able to save the equivalent of $600--U.S. dollars--to
build her own house. This is a woman who would have been living
in the street, quite literally, after having been ostracized by
her community.
Those kinds of programs work so much on the self-esteem.
And the self-esteem after rape is so critical to being able to
move on and to be able to remake one's life, even in the face
of having been ostracized by the community. So these programs
are critical, and I strongly suggest that they continue to be
supported. And I do thank the U.S. Government for all the
support that we have received for these programs thus far.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mrs. McCain, did you want to comment?
Mrs. McCain. The only thing I would add to that, you are
exactly right. Microfinancing is, in my opinion, key to this.
So are free and fair elections. And unless we can do both, we
are never going to have a society of women that will have any
kind of rights at all. So that would be the only thing I would
add to that.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Well, let me certainly thank all of you for your
testimony. And I think that the interest of all of you in this
issue really assists us in Congress to try to highlight the
problems without people like you, Mrs. McCain and Mr. Affleck,
and of course Prendergast is the agitator behind all of this
stuff, and of course the work that Catholic Relief Services
does. We probably would have a difficult time filling the room,
probably only have a third of it covered. So I think that
people don't realize the importance of people in your
categories that you can bring attention to issues. And I think
it is important.
Once we get the attention, we know what to do, you know,
Congressman Smith and myself and the other Members of Congress.
But you do help us highlight the problems. And I really, once
again, thank you all for your interest in these issues.
It seems, and it is very clear, that we definitely need to
have a special envoy. I recall--maybe, John, you were a
member--when we went with President Clinton to Africa. And
during our time there, we just simply had a meeting of the
Great Lakes Region Presidents, I mean because so much is
interrelated. Uganda was arguing a little bit with Burundi. You
had Rwanda looking over at what was happening in Zimbabwe. It
is so interrelated that a special envoy, not only should deal
with the problems of the Congo but to be able to coordinate.
As a matter of fact, Uganda was the recipient of a
terrorist attack because Uganda was assisting in Somalia with
their troops to protect the government of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed and the transitional Federal Government. And without
Ugandan troops there, the situation would be much worse. Well,
that is all connected that at the World Cup game, Uganda
suffered the loss of 20-some of their citizens by Al-Shabaab
planting a bomb as people were simply watching the World Cup
because they were Ugandan troops helping in Somalia.
So it is so all connected that it seems it would certainly
make a lot of sense that we do have an envoy, especially to
deal with the DRC, but also to have the surrounding countries
there involved. And the fact that so many--and the tragedy of
the Congo, as I mentioned earlier, with King Leopold and how
the country was just devastated, and then once they decided to
move forward, the conspiracy of the West to come together and
have Patrice Lumumba murdered, that was really--and I am glad,
Mr. Affleck, that we can't forget the past. We don't need to
dwell on it, but if we know the past, we know why we are in
positions we are in. In Congo, with the leadership of Lumumba
and those who were emerging at that time could have had a total
difference on the way the Congo is today. But by us propping up
Mobutu, who raped the country for decades and decades, we find
ourselves now struggling again to try to get democracy moving
and trying to get this whole question of rape, which should be
despised by society, but it is something that people sort of
shrug their shoulders and say, well, that happens.
So I really, like I say, I really commend you for your
efforts.
I know Ms. Vigaud-Walsh, you all work with child soldiers.
And I know that perhaps some of the abusers who are involved in
rape now were probably child soldiers before. And so I wonder
what your organization is doing as it relates to child soldiers
in the DRC.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. To illustrate what we are doing with
child soldiers, I can speak of a program we had in North Kivu
in partnership with the Caritas Goma and Caritas Rome, as well.
We were supporting centers through which demobilized children--
or children were transported to after being demobilized,
providing a trauma healing therapy, working with them to
prepare them for reintegration back into society.
The problem is that clearly these kinds of services aren't
enough. The number of children that were needing DDR services a
few years ago was much, much greater than the funding, level of
funding that we had. Thank you.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Mr. Affleck, maybe you and Mr. Prendergast might be able to
deal with the question, what do you see us needing on the
ground in order to make these elections work?
Mr. Affleck. Well, first of all, I want to go back to an
earlier question that I don't think I answered, that the
difference between MONUC and MONUSCO is two letters which stand
for stabilization and organization, the idea being that it has
got an expanded mandate for, well, stabilization, among other
things. And you know Meece, who replaced Alan Doss, seems to be
doing a fine job. He is an American, and people are optimistic,
and there have been some appreciative changes.
Now that entity plays a real role, obviously, in elections.
As you know, you were there, they played an instrumental part
in elections last time. What I hear from people in this
environment is, well, the second election is always harder. It
is the one fewer people want to pay attention to. It is the one
that can either cement democracy, or it can all fall backward
and become unwound. We need to have monitors. We need to have,
like I said, internationally credited monitors. We are hoping
the Carter Center will up the ante a little bit on what they
are willing to do. I think the IRI is going to come in. I think
NDI will then follow.
But we also need a fully committed effort, and frankly, we
need to maintain that piece of stability. You asked about the
FDLR and CNDP to sort of more fully address that. Where we are
right now is that, yes, because when Nkunda got taken away by
the Rwandese the CNDP folded up into the FARDC. However, they
cut a deal with Bosco Ntaganda, so Bosco is now kind of the de
facto leader of the CNDP inside the FARDC, which creates a kind
of tension, and it is one that has to be managed by MONUSCO
because if you arrest him, you may create a lot of problems,
and you may go back to the war that you had before. It is
tricky.
When we were there recently, right after we flew out, the
airport was the scene of a huge shooting and chase, and Bosco
had brought in gold. They had brought in a bunch of gold that
they were smuggling, and there was a big police chase up there.
So this is a guy acting with a lot of impunity and creating a
lot of instability. And the Kamane RDF FARDC efforts to go
after the FDLR, on the flip side, which I think represented, to
get to your question, a further break between the FDLR and the
FARDC and Kamane and those guys, who really were kind of on his
side during the war, but it got stopped a bit because the FDLR
were smart, and they knew if there were enough civilian
casualties, that they would leave, and then come back and kill
a lot of civilians, and they knew that that would stamp down
enthusiasm for further military actions. The Rwandese of course
left.
These intractable thorny issues need to be solved as well
as the other practical electoral stuff, vis-a-vis the
elections. So you have a lot of logistical stuff that needs
support. You need people there saying this is how we should do
it. You need MONUSCO flying people around; you need MONUSCO
fully dedicated. And it also needs increased diplomatic
involvement and engagement to help to continue to--and this is
a place where the U.S. has done a lot of really good work, you
know Tim Shortly at the State Department, who was over there
several years ago and working closely within Nkunda and the
peace accords and such, that we need to continue to push that
toward peace. Because any of these guys, the Boscos and so on,
that if those situations flare up, it could easily trigger
further instability in elections. That was more than you wanted
to hear.
Mr. Payne. You are pretty up on this stuff. You are very
impressive.
J.P.
Mr. Prendergast. The only thing I would add there--and that
was indeed a great answer.
Mr. Affleck. Thank you. I paid him to say that.
Mr. Prendergast. But I would add to just actually highlight
the diplomatic effort that you just spoke of as part and parcel
the larger thing and put a little meat on those bones and say
what you need, of course, as we do in other countries that
matter to the United States, is you create these unified
coordination mechanisms. Call them donor coordination, call
them diplomatic coordinators. They then craft multilateral
carrots and sticks related to electoral benchmarks. And you
deploy them early enough that they can actually influence the
process as it unfolds. Because, of course, anyone who wants to
steal an election is watching to see what the world will do.
And if the world does nothing but put out a little press
release saying, bad, you know, slap on the wrist, of course,
they are going to go ahead because of the reasons we have
talked about for so long. The money, the gravy train will be
lost if you lose the election. So we need that multilateral
unified voice of the governments that have influence to develop
the carrots and sticks, create the watchdog actions that will
blow whistles when there are problems and do it early enough,
create this thing early enough so you are not just waiting
until the day of the vote to say, Wait a minute, there is
something wrong here, but we can actually watch and see how it
unfolds. We will know months in advance whether this is going
to be a credible election. And if the answer is no, then we can
deploy and say, wait a minute, we are not going to support
this; you are going to have to change it for anyone to take
this seriously. And then it is up to the Congolese Government
to develop their own calculation about whether or not they want
to reform it. So I think that is what we really--that is one of
the elements of many, as Ben said, that we need to be engaged
in to try to make a difference here.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
I guess my time is just about expired. I won't ask you Mrs.
McCain about elections. I just want to say that elections are
so important.
I just want to remind the chairman that we have the problem
in Cote d'Ivoire, where the President who lost the elections
just decided I am not going to leave. I mean, this is
unbelievable with everyone saying, AU, ECOWAS, ICAD, the EU,
U.S., saying you lost, you should step out. So I think that we
really have to keep the pressure on Gbagbo to step down. And if
we could move that legislation forward to have the Congress on
record with the rest of the world saying, get out, because if
he stays in, it is going to be a bad example for all of these
other elections. There are about a dozen elections coming up in
Africa this year. And if this is the principle, where you lose
and you stay and you say, well, I am not leaving, then we are
going to be in a world of trouble in these elections coming up,
including the Congo. So, once again, thank you all for your
testimony.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Fortenberry.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
A question for you, Mr. Affleck and Mrs. McCain. I am
curious, how did you choose the eastern Congo as a focus of
your passion and interest? The reason I say that is because
those of us who sit on this committee and others where global
human rights is a concern and a deep interest and essential,
the insults to humanity, the effrontery that comes across our
desk daily in so many places throughout the world can almost
just be exhausting. So I am curious, how did you choose this
particular area?
Mr. Affleck. I came to it, I won't go into my own personal
journey, because that may be inappropriate for this, but I
think really for me it was--frankly, it was reading. I was
looking at some other stuff, trying to cast around looking at
advocacy, and I came across this. Well, of course it pales in
comparison with the millions of deaths in eastern Congo, and I
was, on the one hand, shocked and, on the other hand, really
ashamed. How could I not have known this? You know, I read the
newspaper and yet I had no idea. And so I thought, well, maybe
this is a place where I can at least show up, I don't know
what.
And I started studying, and I started learning. I took a
couple of years. I didn't want to be, you know, kind of a
celebrity dilettante sort of person that doesn't know what they
are talking about and irritates everyone, because I thought
that wouldn't help any.
Mr. Fortenberry. Well, that is very impolitic of you to say
but very well received, I should say as well.
Mr. Affleck. So I really did a lot of studying--Whitney
Williams, who is here, was instrumental in helping me do that--
and met with a lot of learned experts, John foremost among
them. And when I ultimately got to a place where I wanted to--I
wanted to build an organization because I kind of identified
the best people I thought were doing the best work, the people
who had some skin in the game, who were living in the community
every day, who knew people, who knew the militia, who knew who
the children were. I talked to people who were taking kids
out--child soldiers out of the militias. And they would go to
them and address them kind of personally and bargain; look, at
least you don't need him, well, give me her, and then while
that was happening, already found a place for the child to live
in the village rather than an institutional home and the like.
And I thought, gosh, this is what happens when something bad
happens in your community and you are dealing with it because
you know the people.
And I got struck and I wanted to help empower those folks
because of course they had no money. And so we started raising
money. And I also thought nothing changes without advocacy,
without powerful people making up their minds, people like you.
And the idea to ultimately sit here and address you is a real
thrill for me. And then I wanted to surround myself with kind
of smart, thoughtful philanthropists and people who got it. And
everybody who knows something about this knows how long Mrs.
McCain has been involved. She said she was in Goma in 1994.
That is a big deal. And since then, doing a lot of work. And so
I gave her a call and hoped she wouldn't think it was a prank
call.
Mr. Fortenberry. Well, clearly, your investment, time and
passion is very genuine, and I think it is going to give
continuity to this effort, and I am grateful.
Mrs. McCain, did you want to add anything.
Mrs. McCain. Other than to say everything is always a
personal journey. And my story is no different. I won't go into
it.
But what I will say is that from my own personal well
being, Africa has haunted me in a good way. It has kept me
coming back, because I see such hope there. I see such
possibilities. And I know that, with the help of people like
Mr. Affleck and others around the world, that we can make a
difference. And so it is nothing more than a personal journey
for me as well. But it is one that has kept me coming back. And
I love it there, and I would rather not be any place else.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you as well for your time and
passion on it. I did want to raise a couple of quick issues in
the limited time I have left.
Mr. Prendergast, you had made a correlation between the
pervasiveness of a culture of rape and the conflict regarding
minerals. It is unclear to me what that direct correlation is.
If you could spend 20 seconds unpacking that please.
Mr. Prendergast. Actually, it says 40 here.
Mr. Fortenberry. I have another question though.
Mr. Prendergast. We didn't need a laugh line right before
talking about this because it is so crushingly serious.
What basically our assessment is, is that these militia
group, armed groups on the ground, including the government
army, we always talk about rebels; ``rebels'' is militias both
from Rwanda and Congo and the government army. They have used
the tactic of rape as a weapon to----
Mr. Fortenberry. I don't think this point is very clear.
And I appreciate you saying there is a correlation there, but
go ahead.
Mr. Prendergast. To use rape as a tactic of war in order to
intimidate local communities to go along with the kind of mafia
economy that we are talking about all day today. I mean, in
Sierra Leone, they used the amputations to terrorize civilian
populations. People use what works.
And if there is no consequence, if impunity reigns, then
why not this? And so there are many other factors involved.
I think you are wanting to say something in there. Can I
yield some of my time?
Mr. Fortenberry. Yes, please.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Just to clarify that also a bit more. It
is a displacement mechanism. It moves people out of the areas
where these resources are so they can move in and take control
of the mines.
Mr. Fortenberry. So this is not just some act of depravity
that happens in ungoverned spaces? It is deliberate. It is
intentional for larger geopolitical purposes.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. It is a strategy, absolutely.
Mr. Affleck. It is both. It is all of those things. What
happens is these tactics create an environment where it seems
like anything goes. But I do absolutely concur, at least from
what I have seen from these two folks is that it is about armed
groups saying we are going to go after this area and this is
how we are going to attack them. And then it becomes kind a
horrible reality where it is acceptable.
Mr. Fortenberry. I called it a culture of rape. I don't
know if that is the right description.
Mr. Prendergast. I don't think it is actually because the
vast majority of Congolese are absolutely devastated by what
has happened to their country.
Mr. Fortenberry. That is why it becomes a powerful weapon.
Mr. Prendergast. Yes.
Mr. Fortenberry. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Bass.
Ms. Bass. Thank you for your last comment about that.
But let me just start by thanking all of you for the work
that you do, and in particular, Mr. Affleck, for using your
celebrity in this manner, because it is extremely powerful, and
it is, as the chairman and ranking member said, one of the
reasons this issue has received so much attention.
And the same to you, Mrs. McCain.
I wanted to reference some comments that Mr. Prendergast,
when you described the deadly mineral trade and the mafia
economy, I think you described it very well. But I wanted to
know, in your opinion, what about the political leadership, is
it there? I mean, there is an election that is getting ready to
happen in November. Is there legitimate--we talked about the
elections being legitimate. You know, maybe they will be; maybe
they won't. But my question is, is there legitimate political
leadership to be elected?
Mr. Prendergast. Well, just in 30 seconds, you know, we
have this country, which for 125, 150 years has been just
pillaged by the international community for--going back to the
turn of the century, the last century, ivory and rubber to help
our jewelry industry and our auto industry, and then uranium
from the Congo was critical in our atomic bombs and Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, and now cell phones, laptops and all the other
things that we use every day are fueled. And what happens is
you create a system where, a political system that basically is
designed to maximize private gain and crater the public sector
because the public sector, the rule of law, would undermine
this.
So you have internal collaborators with this international
system, but it is a system that benefits us. We have cheap
phones. We have cheap computers. We had nuclear weapons that
worked. We had piano keys and all the rest of it at the turn of
the century with the ivory. So, in other words, this has gone
on for so long; it is hard to say suddenly, oh, we are going to
turn this around with one election. It is a system in which the
termites have absolutely devastated the political foundation of
the country. And until you address that economic foundation, I
don't think it--it is just changing chairs on the Titanic, on
the deck of the Titanic with these electoral processes.
Terribly important to invest in, but you got to do both the
political and economic at the same time to make a difference.
Ms. Bass. I wanted to ask another question, too. This is
about AFRICOM. The question is, the United States African
Command or AFRICOM has been engaging in pilot training of one
battalion focusing on human rights, and unit cohesion
conditions in AFRICOM is controversial. So my question is,
should the U.S. expand on this project to address other
security needs?
And then I guess just in reference to what you were saying
before, you know, I remember 20, 30 years ago, when there were
liberation movements in the various countries, and we can talk
about how all those turned out, but there were independence and
liberation movements. And I don't think you have described one
in the Congo.
Mr. Prendergast. Do you want to also say something on this,
Ben? Jump in if you want. No, I am saying if you want to say
something when I am done.
The military forum issue I think is--I mean, I think ECI,
if you look at their recommendations, if you look at what the
Enough Project and others that have worked on this stuff,
military forum, security sector reform is at the top of
anyone's list of what we need to invest. And now you go to the
Congo and you spend time with the Congolese leadership, and
what militaries do they respect, you know, it is not a
surprise, the United States military. So when the U.S. comes in
and says, we are going to train a battalion in Kisangani, this
makes a difference to them. People are bumping each other out
of line to sign up to be part of this. So the United States has
influence; it has leverage on this one.
And here is one where if we work more aggressively--and
this is why you need a special envoy, because we don't have
enough diplomatic firepower with the existing system to be able
to do this kind of full-time work, is to get the donors
together that actually do military training like China, like
South Africa, like Angola, the countries that actually have
influence with the Congolese Government, we work together with
them about a systemic reform of the military, and then AFRICOM
becomes a major player in all of that.
And specifically I want to highlight one element of the
larger security sector reform, and that is military justice.
Again, we have a comparative advantage there. They respect us
on this front. You have got to get at this impunity issue.
Getting at the impunity issue within the military is even as
much or maybe more important than within the broader society;
you start to see convictions for rapes and for other kinds of
crimes in Congo of military officers or soldiers who are
involved in this kind of stuff, then that sends a signal. So
these are the building blocks to a state. And I think AFRICOM,
for all the controversy in other fronts, can play a major
important role in the Congo in helping to build that particular
block of the larger foundation.
Mr. Affleck. I think the relevance of AFRICOM there has to
do with--you know, look, MONUSCO does all of the training now,
the FARDC. They work together; they train guys. They are having
difficulties. We are better at it than they are. I met some of
our guys down there doing this work. They are obviously great
guys. They are U.S. military. They really know what they are
doing, men and women. They are doing very good just training
very few units. That is good. It needs to happen.
And I hate to have all these answers come with caveats,
because then I don't want to feel like, well, you know, but you
have got to do everything. But really that has to be
accompanied by some reform in the units that they go back to.
Particularly a huge, huge problem is that soldiers just don't
get paid. A legacy from the Mobutu era was you kind of went and
lived off the people. Mobutu had destroyed all the
infrastructure and eaten up all the money, and so he sent his
army around, and it was like, well, if you want to get paid,
take what you can take; you have got a gun. There is a little
bit of that left. Not a little bit, a lot, unfortunately. I
visited FARDC battalion camps. They are like tent cities. They
are a little better than the refugee camps. In fact, they often
go and loot and pillage those refugee camps. FARDC soldiers are
responsible for 40 percent of the rapes in the country. This is
where you have a military that is deployed among the population
that is feeding off of the population. It is unimaginable to
us. Our militaries go elsewhere and secure our freedoms. This a
horrible inversion of that.
The eastern Congo would be better off, I think, if you just
took the divisions out of there. That is not practical
politically. But what is practical is to go around and just
train troops on one side. I would love for us to take over a
little bit more and do some training of the MONUSCO guys. But
on the other side, get people paid. You are going to make $40 a
month being a soldier in the FARDC, but at least it is enough
to buy what you need where you are not compelled to go out--I
mean, they walk. There are stationed in Kisangani. It is 800
miles to go somewhere. They walk that far. It is like you know,
ancient Rome.
Ms. Bass. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. McDermott.
Mr. McDermott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like you to respond to the need for PEPFAR money
being included for the Congo in the treatments, particularly in
terms of maternal-infant transmission of AIDS and the fact that
PEPFAR does not affect the Congo. That is one thing I would
like.
And the second thing is I think you get a little more
humble as you go along in this business and you realize that
passing a bill isn't everything that it is cut out to be. You
are going to have the champagne and have a good time, clap your
hands and be happy. It really is writing the rules and
regulation where it really happens. And that is going on right
now.
And I would like you, John,to talk about what the committee
can do, because you put this up as an action item, what the
committee should be looking for in the writing of those rules
and regulations as to whether they are good rules and
regulations or whether they are slippery. I have been doing
this long enough to know that you can't hardly write a law that
somebody can't figure out a way to get around. So what I am
really looking for is the best set of rules and regulations
that we can have to make this law work and what things we as a
committee should be looking at or we as a Congress should be
looking at.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Congressman McDermott, I am sorry, I
can't answer that question as I don't work in AIDS relief and I
am not familiar with that kind of programming.
Mr. Prendergast. I don't know the specific answer on
PEPFAR, but I think between us, between our staffs, we can get
back.
Mr. McDermott. I know it is a problem in HEAL Africa in
Goma, because I know where they are getting their drugs or not
getting their drugs----
Mr. Affleck. You are right, they are short on drugs in HEAL
Africa. And particularly--anyway there are shortages that need
to be addressed. PEPFAR is a great program and obviously
implementation is good, and getting people access to those
drugs is important, and we can furnish the committee with
details of that.
Mr. McDermott. I was asking a softball so you could let the
subcommittee know, but go ahead.
The more tough question is the regulations.
Mr. Prendergast. I think the top two I would say for the
SEC regulations, they are getting bombarded right now because
the industry lost that battle on the Hill. And they are mad,
and they are coming back with lots of lobbyists to try to press
the SEC to water this thing down. Like you said, so keep the
cork in the champagne, we are not done yet, you are absolutely
right.
Number one, I think that there will be stiff fines for
companies that do not comply with the intent of the law, do not
open up the books to demonstrate that their supply chains
indeed are free of conflict. And if they are not, they are at
least acknowledging, yes, we got it from there, and yes, we
know where it came from, and now, consumers, you can make your
choices. But if you try to hide it, you try to circumvent it,
you try to subvert it, then let's see you some serious fines.
Secondly, I think then is the question of when this all
should come into effect. And I think one of the big things that
you are seeing lobbyists push for now is a significant delay in
implementation. We haven't yet seen the State Department make
its own recommendations in this regard, but I talked to a
senior member of the administration last night who said that
they were going to not advocate for delay. I hope that his
opinion actually ends up being the U.S. Government's opinion.
But right now, the SEC is hearing from a lot of industry
sources that they simply can't comply with all this. Although
other companies, particularly within the electronics industry,
they have been working on this now for a couple of years,
partly as a response to the legislation, but partly also
because some of them want to do the right thing. And they have
shown very clearly that they can do what is required to do with
respect to the law.
Illustratively, Apple, 1\1/2\ years ago, Apple was not much
of a contributor to the Electronics Industry Association in its
efforts to try to clean up the supply chain. Basically their
argument if you talked to them about it was, look, we have no
idea where this stuff is coming from or how can we possibly be
expected to know; it is a war down there and where it comes
from is not really something we can control. Well, a week ago,
now we have had the legislation, we have had Mr. Jobs actually
get personally engaged, and his wife, of course, with ECI. Now,
a week ago, Apple put out whatever report that it does, and it
was the most robust reporting of any company of where their
materials are coming from, right down to the smelters, to the
processors. I mean, this is something, again, the lobbyists
said a year ago, even that were working for Apple, said it was
impossible.
So basically I think this is what the legislation is going
to be able to do. It is going to urge people to actually do the
right thing when they have said for quite a long time they
can't. They actually can, so the question is, how fast are they
going to have to do it? And instead of a delay of 1 year or 2
years or whatever some of these guys are asking for, we would
like to see the timely implementation of the regulations to
come into force very quickly after the SEC makes its rulings.
Mr. McDermott. Keep on making the publicity to keep it up
above the radar. Thank you.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Thank you. Just to add one note. Catholic
Relief Services and USCCB did write the SEC to ask for the
absolutely most strongest rules possible, and we hope for a
timely implementation as well. Thank you.
Mr. McDermott. Good. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. McDermott.
Mr. Payne, do you have anything?
Mr. Payne. I just wanted to say that we do have to really
make sure that they don't change. What was interesting years
ago, I was able to encourage Congressman Tancredo, who was
working with me on Sudan, to get a bill passed in the House
that capital market sanctions were put in. In other words, if
you were doing business with Sudan, you had to come out of Wall
Street. And we passed it in the House. That is where it ended,
when a lobbyist ran over to the Senate, even had the head of
every top one. And Mr. Tancredo, who was great on Sudan, we
didn't have champagne when it passed, but we were very happy.
And it simply died by virtue of the lobbyists saying, you can't
do that. So hopefully we will be able to push this through.
I just have comments from the International Crisis Group
that would like to add their statement for the record, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Without objection.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. I will just conclude by, again, thanking you.
I would like to ask if--and maybe, Mr. Prendergast, you
might want to speak to this--the administration's LRA strategy.
How well or poorly do you think it is being implemented? What
is it from your perspective? Anyone else who would want to
touch on it as well?
Mr. Prendergast. Thanks for bringing that up. I should have
at least in my testimony. I think it is such a crucial element
of overall security and stability in Central Africa. We battled
internally within our organizations in the groups that care
about the LRA. We were putting out this report card, and I was
trying to give the administration Ds and Fs, and everybody was
like, no, no, no, that will just demoralize everyone. Because I
feel like there is one major thing that has to be done.
I mean the elephant is swinging its tail around the living
room. It is that you have to create a focused military strategy
to apprehend or whatever the leadership of the Lord's
Resistance Army. As long as Joseph Kony continues to run
around. We have presented him with a very, very fair peace
deal, peace proposal, which he didn't even bother to show up to
not sign. And so there is a military option that needs to be
exercised.
What has happened now over the last 3 years is a broader
counterinsurgency strategy, where millions and millions of
dollars and thousands of Ugandan troops are running around
Central Africa attacking LRA units, and often those are
conscripted child soldiers. So I don't think that kind of a
broad counterinsurgency strategy has any chance of working. We
need to target the leadership, use our technical assets that
are superior to anyone's in the world, ensure that they are out
there. We robustly support a commando unit to be able to close
and act on a hot lead and take these guys out.
Hopefully, we will apprehend them and send them to Hague,
and there will be a great trial, and the ICC will have a major
success. If not, let's do what we have to do to bring an end to
this tragedy, because the attacks in the Congo are getting
worse, not better. We have seen almost an attack every week
over the last few months in northeastern Congo. And these are
remote areas no one knows. Every once in a while a report
trickles in and makes a little column in a local newspaper here
in the United States. We are not even looking at this anymore.
So we have to refocus and say, what is the thing that is going
to end it? That is the catalyst I think that will end it.
Mr. Affleck. I think he makes a really good point. I think
absolutely I have seen people. I have seen the evidence of this
stuff and people who are after it. There are really good people
involved in trying to pursue some of the goals that John is
talking about. And you do hear, every month or 2, oh, well, 400
people got killed and such and such. A lot of times, it will
take 2 or 3 days or a week to even come through. I think it is
equally important to maintain a focus on the FDLR in eastern
Congo. The FDLR really are the people that--well, still their
leadership now--committed the genocide in Rwanda, fled to what
was then Zaire, created--injected this sort of sociopath toxic
poison. It wasn't like people weren't raping one another in
Zaire. You know, that is where everyone in Rwanda was going to
party and dance when Rwanda was the uptight country in the
early 1990s. And what happened was that these people who got
pushed into that place who committed these barbaric crimes then
sort of allowed that to be--it got contagious, and they further
ruptured the social fabric. The subsequent two wars completely
obliterated any infrastructure.
These guys are still there, and they are still killing
civilians all the time. They are a big part of who is
committing the rapes, and they are the ones that we need to
stay at, and we need to support MONUSCO's effort to do that,
despite some push back. And I think it is important to remember
there is the CNDP, and obviously, they have committed a lot of
crime. They are now part of the Army that presents--you know,
Congo has openly said peace first, justice second. And they are
going to testify with that kind of thing. But there is no
question about the FDLR because they are now getting pulled
into the army and some of them are going to fight to the death.
And that part of the country will not be safe until that
militia is dealt with, as well as the LRA, who is varying from
Uganda to CAR and stuff.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
And one final statement or question. There is no doubt that
if Senator Danforth had not initiated the work with regards to
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the Congo, there probably
would not have been a comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan.
And in like manner, in Northern Ireland, had it not been more
Senator Mitchell, it is unlikely that a peace agreement would
have been hammered out there between two disparate parties that
were at each other's throats for decades.
One last appeal, when Ambassador Yamamoto said he will take
it under advisement with regards to the special representative
or special envoy, I didn't get a very strong sense of
affirmation there. If you could, all of you if you would like,
make one final appeal to the administration because time is
running. And the fear is that if we don't have someone who can
really cobble together all the disparate elements here and
really push hard, this may be an opportunity lost.
Mr. Payne. I just would like to reemphasize that. It is the
key thing if we are going to see success in the DRC, and it is
vital.
And finally, I certainly would like to commend you, Mrs.
McCain, for, you know, when you said you had been involved
since 1994, to continue to be way ahead of the curve, and I
really commend you for that and for your continued interest.
Thank you.
Mr. Affleck. Thank you very much.
On the special advisor, I haven't heard any good arguments
against it. We have been banging on it, talking about it and
going everywhere asking about it, and no one can tell me why it
is a bad idea. It is one appointment in the Federal Government
that could save potentially, who knows, 100,000 lives or
500,000 lives, a lot. It will make a difference, a big
difference. If it helps prevent another outbreak of violence
and destruction--I don't know Washington, I am not an expert.
What I hear is that it is a tough place because you have got
turf battles and bureaucracy, and fortunately, that is your
business and not mine. But I am really pleased to be encouraged
by you and to be empowered by you to continue to advocate for
this, because I, too, think it is really important.
And I know that Ambassador Yamamoto, were he to give us his
full-throated support and Assistant Secretary Carson give us
his support, it will would really help us to go to the
Secretary, even on, if necessary, to President Obama.
Thank you again.
Mr. Payne. Mr. Smith, you have been asking probably why we
should have it. Maybe you should just turn the question around
and ask them why not and see if they can come up with an
answer.
Ms. Vigaud-Walsh. Chairman, you started off speaking about
the elections, and I think that my final appeal would regard
increasing women's political participation. As I said before,
we are at a critical juncture, and we are not seeing women
represented. In fact, not only are they being sidelined, but
they are being cast out of the process.
And to give you an example, after enduring sustained
pressure by their male counterparts, three female mayors in
South Kivu, the equivalent of mayors, but actually of a
grouping of cities, quite a high position in fact,
administrative position, were forced out of office. The bishop
of Bukavu had even gone to them and tried to encourage them to
carry out their political mandate and represent women and
girls' needs, and finally, in November, they were fired. It is
unacceptable.
And if women do not represent themselves and their needs,
their health, their education needs, then who will? We are not
seeing others in the DRC represent their needs. So that would
be my final appeal. Thank you.
Mr. Prendergast. I think we need to understand that the
system is like, We have got this. We have got this under
control. The system doesn't like aberrations. They don't like
these things like special envoys and other kind of exceptions
to the rule. That is just the way institutions work, and the
State Department is no different than any other institution. My
understanding is--and this is what I fear, and I am glad we got
our last chance to say this because I want to impart this to
you, is my fear is that they are going to give this position--
they are going to create the title of it and then give it to a
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. They are going to dual-hat
a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and say, Yes, that is
going to our point person, our lead person. Again, no human
being has enough time to be a Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State of any regional bureau in the U.S. State Department and
be a special envoy to one of the most complicated countries in
the world, definitely the most complicated I have ever been in
in 25 years of working in Africa. So that would be a tragic
mistake.
And secondly, I think, that position needs juice--sorry to
use a Hollywood term. You need influence, you need gravitas,
you need somebody who can make the system respond to different
ideas, new ideas, to doing things in a way that are actually
going to get results and bring an end to something rather than
manage symptoms. And that person needs to report to the
Secretary of State as opposed to being just only in a regional
bureau. I think these are the keys of success; and if we don't
have them, it is just going to be yet another little spoke in a
wheel of failure.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Mrs. McCain.
Mrs. McCain. Lastly, I would just like to thank all of you
again for paying attention to this issue, for listening to us,
for allowing us to tell you our thoughts and where we think the
most important parts lie and, most importantly, in championing
this issue from here because we will be following you and we
are going to watch. And we really encourage you to continue in
such a whole-hearted way. As a mother--and the only thing I can
say is that as a mother, doing nothing is unacceptable there.
So thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. And the last word goes to Mrs.
McCain. Thank you so very much. Truly inspiring panel. Truly
inspiring individuals. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:12 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Hearing RecordNotice deg.
Minutes deg.
Carnahan statement deg.
__________
Affleck FTR deg.__
Material submitted for the record by Mr. Ben Affleck, actor, writer,
director, & advocate
Payne FTR deg.__
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Donald M. Payne, a
Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey