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Life Onboard | LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005 | |
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“This is a difficult subject for me to talk about, because it is not just something that affected the people of Congo, but affected me personally. I am here today because I believe in forgiveness. I believe that history is history – we cannot change it, but we can learn from it. Congo is the third largest country in Africa with a population of 59 million people and 365 tribes. Seventy percent of the materials that make computers and cellular phones come from Congo. The uranium that was used to bomb Japan came from Congo. Congo has the most diamonds of any country. Congo is also the only country that was owned by one human being, Leopold II, King of Belgium. It is estimated that during this dark time, almost 10 million people died from torture and exploitation and many more people were handicapped due to the abuse they received after not meeting their quotas of ivory or gold. After years of abuse by Leopold II, during the Berlin Conference, they decided to take Congo from him and give it to the State of Belgium. For 75 years, Congo was a Belgian colony and Belgium, a small country with no minerals, was one of the most powerful countries in Europe. In 1960, Congo got its independence from Belgium and the people elected a government. It didn’t take long - just one year - before a problem arose. The problem was control of the minerals; Belgium didn’t want to give up control. Because America had become so powerful, they formed a coalition with Belgium and took political power of the minerals. Congo’s first democratically elected government was forcefully overthrown by countries that claimed to be practicing democracy. My father had been working in the previous government and became a political activist. All he was asking was to bring the democratic government back. During the Cold War, Congo became a strategic point and America began to support the Congolese army. People like my father were called communists; everyone who was against the dictatorship was called a communist. My father was a leader in the East, where all the minerals are, and was killed, along with my mother and my older sister, who was only 6 years old. When Mobutu (Congo’s leader at the time) killed my family, he thought he killed everyone. He killed my father, but I feel my father’s spirit is still very strong; it lives through me. |
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In all the countries in Africa that have mineral resources, there is war. Sierra Leone and Congo, both countries with enormous diamond resources, have millions of people dying, just because people want to show their wives love with a diamond bought with blood. The diamonds people are giving their loved ones are not helping my people, they are killing them everyday. Three million Congolese have died so that people in Europe and America can have cheap diamonds. A diamond that sells for $200 or $300 in the US sells for $1 or $2 in Congo. I’m telling you this because people don’t know. In 1967, Congolese people organized a revolution, but it failed. From that time until 1994, Congolese people lived under Mobutu, perhaps the biggest dictator in the world. During that period, Congo, one of the naturally richest countries in Africa, became one of the poorest countries in Africa. We hear about the US giving aid to Congo, while Mobutu had billions in Swiss bank accounts. In 1990, the dynamics of politics changed and they started calling Mobutu a dictator for the first time. America and European countries were the ones who made him a dictator, but in 1996, they decided that his time was over. They started looking for ways to remove him. They used Rwandan armies and took kids with nothing off the street and said “here are Congolese who want to be free” They needed an excuse. They couldn’t say it was a religious or tribal war, so they used another tactic, they said that Congo’s 364 tribes were fighting against one tribe. Bringing them together is very difficult, but the idea was that the Congolese were fighting against one tribe, the Tutsi. They started looking for a leader, someone who is the son of someone, so they could make it legal. Many children whose parents were killed were contacted and promised that if we won, they would be president. They needed someone to justify the movement. With the help of the US, Belgium, Rwanda and Uganda, the movement succeeded and Mobutu went into exile and later died. When Laurent Kabila took power, he said to America “thank you very much for this opportunity to be president, but I don’t trust you. Now take your armies home and let us take care of our own business.” But America said that that was not part of the deal. Later on, they began to support other groups who were fighting Kabila. The same people that had supported Kabila, began to fight him because he was becoming too independent. After he was killed, his son took power and is now President of Congo. Now, there is a strategic peace agreement. Some Congolese say to me that they are grateful to Osama Bin Laden because if he had not attacked America, Congo would not have become as strategic as it is today. America doesn’t want the Congolese uranium to get into the hands of terrorists, so they are working to find a way to maintain peace in Congo. I talk about the situation in Africa because I am optimistic about it. I believe something can be done to improve the situation. But I believe it is very important for people to know history. I believe it is very important for people with diamonds and gold to know where it came from. People need to know where it came from. Your diamond came from someone else’s blood.” |
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