Good for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., for his continuing leadership in the Senate on Africa. On Wednesday he introduced, with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Brownback said in a statement: “With over 250,000 people displaced in the last two months, sporadic fighting between armed groups, rape and sexual violence thriving on impunity, this forgotten crisis continues to pass through each of our hands without our knowledge. Exploited minerals, used in our daily electronics, are being smuggled out of eastern Congo which in turn are funding armed groups and allowing this conflict to continue. We call on the electronics industry for transparency in their products, we call for an immediate cease-fire and negotiations towards a political solution to this conflict, and we call on the international community to not allow Congo to fall into the shadows once again and be so easily forgotten.” On Thursday the U.N. Security Council approved sending 3,100 more soldiers and police to Congo, but there is more the world community can and should do to quell the violence and respond to the resulting humanitarian crisis.
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10 Comments
True, Africa needs help from the U.N. to avoid a face to face battle with the Chinese who are already in Africa searching for natural resources. The native African people are the pawns in this international battleground for oil and other valuable minerals. I believe Kenya, on the east coast of central Africa, should be the starting place to give assistance.
In my opinion, Senator Sam Brownback is a “johnny come lately” to offer his help to solve the African continent tragedy. Basically he is looking for a State Department position after his U.S. Senator position expires in two years.
Senator Brownback should find a small Baptist Church in the South to retreat to in his retirement.
Congo is primarily a Christian country. If it was a Muslim country where hundreds of thousands of people were being slaughtered Brownback wouldn’t care.
Good morning Maggie! I see you are just a bucket of good cheer today. Have you noticed that when we say things out of dislike or outright hate, we sometimes end up looking foolish?
For instance I infer from your comment that you think that Sen Brownback only cares about Christians. Yet this same Sen Brownback was out in front on the Darfur genocide issue where almost all involved are Muslim. Sort of exposes the error of your message, eh?
Have a nice day Maggie. And try not to let your prejudices run you.
As usual too little too late, you cannot depend on the UN to be policeman. Politics rule here. The only thing that rebels and killers understand is over powering power before trouble begins and during if it happens.
The crisis in the Congo is the worst on the continent. Nkunda is a nasty thug who has destablilized the eastern Congo. To what extent this is a proxy war for the huge natural resources within the DRC, I don’t pretend to know (although the Chinese have and continue to show no concern for anything but access to resources, and have been a destablizing influence), but there is no question that Coltran and other mineral resources are funding the thugs who continue to scramble for their own little kingdom in the name of ethnic pride. I don’t care what Brownback’s motivations are in this case, anyone helping to publicize the mess there is doing something good.
Congo is a key source of lithium cobalt oxide, a an essential element for lithium ion batteries… which run your computer and are the leading technology for powering electric cars.
So this is another Mid-East waiting to happen. A hundred years ago the West discovered all those A-Rabs were living on top of our oil. So we happily turned a European war into a World War, knocked up the Ottoman Empire and carved fake nations out of the desert which lead to Iraq and Syria and Palestine and… well, it’s been in the papers.
The Congolese are in the midst of an economic civil war. The only viable long-term resolution is the Congolese reaching an economic agreement. More troops will only exacerbate the bloodshed. The UN should to what it does best: as Churchill called it, “Jaw, jaw rather than war, war.” (if you say it with a Churchill accent, it rhymes)
Oh, and we should subsidize research into battery technologies even better than lithium ion.
Sam the Sham Brownback frames this as merely a humanitarian issue. The Congo most certainly has resulted devolved into that, but his emphasis distracts from the big money interests which caused the problem.
There are a lot of places having humanitarian crises, and I want to see it stopped. We have to help the people to fight for themselves instead of fighting for them.
I have to disagree with MP and JW and agree with outlander on this. Sam Brownback HAS been out there on Darfur; where non-Arab Muslims are being slaughtered by Arab Muslims. And he is also correct in Congo where Christians are slaughtering Christians. I htink what we are seeing here is that Brownback is, in fact, a ‘real’ Christian. By that I mean that he is reacting to human suffering with a desire to do something to alleviate it.
In both of these cases I am struck by how much could be accomplished by simply providing air and logistics support to the UN and AU troops already on the ground. The ‘bad guys’ outnumber and outgun the peacekeepers - however think of the impact some warthogs and choppers could have.
BTH: I admit I am woefully under informed about the politics of the countries that make up the African continent. Even so, I probably know more than 90% of Americans. I do have contacts who know a lot about problems there. I am told that Chinese technicians are all over Africa searching for oil and other natural resources.
Obviously somehow the continent must be stabilized before the indiginous people are eliminated or worse.
A few Cobra helicopters and armed American soldiers?? Sounds like the way Vietnam and Iraq got started.
This actually might be something Obama might know about and has the will to bring about change.
“I have to disagree with MP and JW and agree with outlander on this. Sam Brownback HAS been out there on Darfur; where non-Arab Muslims are being slaughtered by Arab Muslims. And he is also correct in Congo where Christians are slaughtering Christians. I htink what we are seeing here is that Brownback is, in fact, a ‘real’ Christian. By that I mean that he is reacting to human suffering with a desire to do something to alleviate it.”
I have to say I agree with this. Apparently, Brownback has had some life changing experiences when visiting refugee camps.
The Congo has been a natural resource treasure for well over a century, and the history of this region is truly horrific since Leopold the Second of Belgium subsidized the brutalization of native slave labor to build himself a personal fortune from rubber. And Monkeyhawk, to dismiss Brownback’s humanitarian interest in the region is simply absurd, considering that since without humanitarian and conservation attention no one would be paying attention to what is happening in the region at all. Blood diamonds, rubber, timber, palm oil, chocolate, Coltran, Cobalt, etc. it is always the same damn thing. We don’t care who sells it to us as long as someone does. That is what scum like Nkunda are counting on.