Democracy for the DRC

The Democratic Republic of Congo is not a democracy; nor is it a republic.  It is a dictatorship.  Originally a representative democracy, a Marxist-Leninist system was instituted in its early history.  The president, Joseph Kabila, now has the power of a totalitarian dictator. How has this system of government been working for the Congolese?  Let's take a look.

Joseph Kabila assumed the position of President of the DRC when his father was assassinated in 2001, and has ruled ever since.  In 2006, he was officially elected by the people to serve as President. Although the DRC appears to be a democracy at first glance, it is clear that Kabila is manipulating the government in order to gain increasing control. Kabila's second term as President is almost over, so he is attempting to change the constitution by passing a law that will allow him to stay in office for a third term. He has also been accused of paying members of parliament to create an amendment that would allow him to win the Presidency with a simple majority vote. In addition, Kabila appointed seventeen inexperienced judges into the Supreme Court who will probably make biased decisions in his favor. The Prime Minister, who also plays an important role in the government, was appointed by the President. Clearly, Kabila is appointing his supporters as government officials in order to gain more control of the country. Another issue is that since Kabila has been President, many activists and journalists have been arrested, attacked or murdered for speaking out against the government. The government in the DRC is not a democracy because the laws of the country's constitution are not being enforced.

We'll begin with an extremely vital portion of the DRC's relatively recent history:  the Rwandan Genocide.  In 1994, 85% of Rwanda’s population consisted of an ethnic group called the Hutus, and 14% consisted of a separate ethnicity called the Tutsis.  Hutu extremist groups developed such a strong hatred of Tutsis due to a Tutsi-dominated rebel group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and a long history of Tutsis being upper class and using their economic status to oppress the Hutus, violence erupted in 1994.  Hutu extremist groups, mostly the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, went on a killing spree aimed at the entire Tutsi population, political officials with the power to respond, and anybody who opposed the killing campaign.  This occurrence is referred to as the Rwandan Genocide.

800,000 deaths and 100 days later, the RPF and other Tutsi forces eventually drove the extremist groups out of Rwanda and into the Congo.  To be clear, the Congo is a region and the DRC is a government.  The now Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government appointed dictator Kabila in hopes he would suppress the "genocidaires" before they could regroup.  Instead, he rearmed them.  The Rwandan government then engineered a rebellion supported by Uganda and Burundi to topple him, but was saved by a group of five countries, the most important of which were Angola and Zimbabwe.  There was now a group of countries supporting Kabila, representing the Hutu extremist groups responsible for the Rwandan genocide, and a group of countries supporting the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government.  The DRC, as you can guess, was on the side against the Hutu extremists making themselves at home on DRC soil by violently taking control of villages, recruiting child soldiers, raping innocent women, and doing all those sorts of things.  Also important to consider, enormous reserves of diamonds, timber, ivory, and oil were located all over the DRC.  The inevitable war broke out in 1998.  This conflict would become known as the Second Congo War, also known as Africa’s World War.  The DRC had become a war zone.

Fast forward to today and take a look at how far the DRC has come from their recent history as a war-torn nation in constant turmoil and anarchy.  In nutshell, it's better, but not by much.  Eventually, the supporting nations of the Hutus and the DRC reached a series of treaties and backed out of the DRC by 2003.  This left the Hutus still in control of a large portion of eastern Congo (the side bordering Rwanda).  However, the Hutu extremist groups' main focus had been shifted during the war from the Rwandan Tutsis, to the DRC.


Today, these Hutu extremist groups have joined their forces to create an organization called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), of which is a public enemy of the United Nations.  The FDLR is often referred to as "the Rwandan Rebels."  The current situation in the Congo is a ceasefire between FARDC and MONUSCO, and the FDLR. FARDC is the French acronym for the DRC's military, and MONUSCO is the French acronym for the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. MONUSCO has deployed a group of 4,000 international soldiers authorized to use force to protect civilians. MONUSCO and FARDC are allied against the FDLR. Although there is currently a ceasefire, it has been announced that an attack on FDLR by FARDC and MONUSCO will take place in the near future in response to the rebels missing a January 2 deadline to disarm.


Democracy is not working in this country because the DRC is not democratic in the first place. Their current form of government is obviously ineffective because it has proven itself unable to produce a military capable of dealing with a relatively small rebel group that has been an ongoing problem for over 20 years. Even with help from the United Nations, little progress has been made. The DRC should amend their government so that it becomes a similar model of the most powerful country in the world. If the right form of a democratic government is instituted, the DRC will unite to become a more tightly knit, inclusive, and in effect stronger syndicate capable of dealing with such small force that has caused so many problems.