Black lives matter in Africa too

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to request that you take a modest step in the next several days that could help save thousands of black lives in the largest country and most volatile region in Sub-Saharan Africa. A tragic history underlines the urgency of such action, which the House of Representatives recently recommended by a 416-3 vote.

{mosads}On Dec. 19, the constitutional term of Joseph Kabila, the corrupt and unpopular President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will end; but he will not be transferring power. His refusal over the last two years to organize the election of his successor has provoked large protests and strikes. His government has responded by killing well over a hundred demonstrators, imprisoning opposition and civil society leaders, and, most recently, banning all demonstrations and shutting off major media. It has rejected international pleas to engage in inclusive negotiations with major opposition groups for an orderly transition on Dec. 19 and a rapid path to free elections. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a multitude of informed Congolese are warning of a strong risk of major violence within the next several weeks. And we know from recent experience with genocide and war in Central Africa that once the violence starts, it is likely to spread across borders. 

As one who bears a surname meaning “white man,” I feel a little uncomfortable appealing to our first African-American president to help save black lives. However, I wouldn’t be writing you if I didn’t appreciate your passion for democracy and awareness of Africa’s importance for U.S. national security. I remember that as a senator, you sponsored legislation to promote fair and democratic elections in the DRC. As President, you told Africans in June 2012, “Our message to those who would derail the democratic process is clear and unequivocal: the United States will not stand idly by…” Yet even though you phoned President Kabila 20 months ago to urge him to hold elections on time, it is only in the last few months that the administration has slowly and inadequately moved to back up your words by imposing targeted economic sanctions (dollar asset freezes) on just three military officials involved in Kabila’s repression. This has encouraged the European Union to threaten its own targeted sanctions and withdrawal of assistance and reinforced peace efforts by the DRC’s close neighbors. Nevertheless, Kabila has not budged. I fear that your administration’s positive action will ultimately be condemned as “too little, too late.”

For two months, an intra-administration committee has squabbled and wobbled over additional sanctions against Kabila’s top political cronies and partners in corruption. Sadly, no action has been taken. The excuses offered for this procrastination are wholly unconvincing, as I am sure you are in a position to know. Where else in the world than Africa does the U.S. hesitate to address an impending crisis for fear it will “lose access” to the very officials who have ignored previous U.S. advice? Where else does the U.S., in such circumstances, insist that the “the Europeans should take the next step” before the U.S. leads?

Sir, recent history provides a clear warning about the consequences of procrastination. In the early 1990s, weak U.S. and Western policies permitted the decaying and besieged Mobutu dictatorship to break its promise of multiparty democracy. Then too U.S. officials wrote papers advocating economic sanctions, including targeting of the Mobutu clan’s assets, but the Clinton administration hesitated, waiting for the Europeans to join in rather than leading them. The world has paid dearly for the tragic results of this timorous policy:  violent clashes between the opposition and security forces, army mutiny and pillage, violence against ethnic communities, armed rebellion and foreign intervention, a war that left over three million dead. Your National Security Adviser named it “Africa’s first World War.” That conflict ended only when the U.S. finally exerted leadership, in conjunction with South Africa, in mediating a political settlement featuring a democratic constitution, the very one that President Kabila has been methodically dismantling.

Mr. President, in these last weeks of 2016 you still have time to take moderate actions that could curb mass deaths, protect U.S. interests in an important part of the world, and, in a phrase you often use, vindicate “who we are.”

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Weissman

Weissman is a former Staff Director of the House of Representatives’ Africa Subcommittee, author of American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960-1964.

The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.