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By Georgianne Nienaber (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Georgianne Nienaber - Writer
The State Department briefing of August 2 details your goals while in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week. So many Congolese will be happy and hopeful that you are visiting the hellish landscape of the Kivus.
From Angola, the Secretary will move on to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Congo, she will have two stops. She will go to Kinshasa first and then will proceed the next day to Goma in the eastern region. She intends to meet with President Kabila and the Congolese foreign minister. During that stop, the Secretary wants to put a great deal of focus on the issue of sexual- and gender-based violence which is occurring in the eastern Congo.
As many of you know, the eastern Congo has been torn by civil strife, a great deal of conflict since 1994, 1995, largely as a result of the movement of ex-genocidaires from Rwanda into the eastern Congo. The Secretary is deeply concerned about the gender-based violence, which is occurring in the eastern Congo, will underscore America's commitment to try to end this gender-based violence, and will meet with some of the victims who have suffered from it.
We will also - the Secretary also intends to encourage and push the Congolese Government as well as MONUC, the UN peacekeeping force there, to take a much more aggressive stance against gender-based violence. The Secretary will also encourage the Congolese Government to continue its democratic progress, and will also encourage the government to take action against corruption and to improve its economic and fiscal management so that it can - its country's resources can be used for development.
This is great, that you are going there and all, but you know, Human Rights Watch and the independent press and Eve Ensler and all kinds of folks have been documenting the horrors of rape and euphemistic "gender based violence" for quite some time now. I know you will not have a lot of free time there, so perhaps you could skip one or two interviews and go to the Mugunga II Refugee Camp. This camp has been in existence since May 2007. When I was there in January of this year, I was told there are approximately 20,360 internally displaced persons in Mugunga II. You will find a small city with no infrastructure, electricity, sanitation or medical care. The population is comprised of roughly 7,000 children, many of whom were orphaned by the war. There is a child there in block 35 and here is the photo I took. I wonder if this child is alive. Could you please find the family and let us know?




Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota, New Orleans and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
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