The Congo Today

1. I am finding that there are lots of power hungry leaders of the Congo which has had some benefits, but eventually is not doing the country any good. There seems to be constant fighting there because the leaders all have ulterior motives, or there is not a stable leader in power. There are lots of political issues that have been going on throughout the Congo's history, but especially as of late. It seems like ever since they gained their independence from the Belgians that they are free but there is still lots of political turmoil and war. People are still dying and the UN is not really doing that much that will actually help the people of the Congo.

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/africa/02congo.html?scp=4&sq=congo&st=cse
This article is about how the UN just recently released a report about the killings and abuse in the Congo from 1993-2003. It is over 550 pages long and interviews thousands of people about their experiences. There are issues with the report however because the other countries listed in it are not listed favorably. There are arguments about whether genocide is the correct word to use in this situation. This is the same sort of question that Hochschild had about Leopold's regime. He said technically it could not be considered a genocide because he did not intentionally go in trying to kill any one certain race. I do think that the things going on in the Congo today and concerning the Congo were affected by the things going on during Leopold's regime.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/05/congo.rapes.arrest/index.html?iref=allsearch
This article is about how the alleged leader of a Congo military group was arrested the other day on the accusation of committing mass rapes in the Congo. A report published last month confirmed that over 300 people were raped between July and August in one region of the Congo. It focused on shortcomings of the military and their inability to protect the people in their areas. Victims were told that the main reasons for these attacks were to punish people viewed as traitors. The things that happened during Leopold's rule did have an effect on the things going on now. There are still terrible happenings just as there were during Leopold's rule. The military under Leopold's rule were abusive to the natives, just as this article is talking about for modern times.