Mr. Kabuya and I are appearing today to lend our voice to those in Congo who have no voice.
We live in Canada, a country where human rights are very important and valued. In Congo, on the other hand, something highly unusual is happening.
A number of us maintain that there are no human rights in Congo, and that has been the case for a few years. Right now, there are still wars going on. As we speak, there are still children, men, and especially women who are being killed in unbelievable circumstances. Children are being used in wars, in the mines, and for all kinds of other cruel things.
We are appearing here because we want the committee to make the voice of the Congolese people heard. These things are all known, but no one is doing anything at all, no one is talking about it, and no one is showing an interest in resolving this problem in Congo.
A few years ago, genocides were committed in the countries neighbouring Congo and there were some deaths. More has happened in Congo than during the Rwandan genocide, but no one is talking about out or talking enough about it to stop it.
There are MONUSCO contingents in Congo, but they are not stopping anything at all. The government continues to mistreat the population throughout Congo. It continues to mistreat the opposition. Anyone who speaks out against the government will suffer some kind of atrocity, so to speak.
My hope today is that this committee will get to the bottom of this problem and look for effective solutions to help the Congolese people.
I am speaking on behalf of my people, who are dying every day, suffering, and do not have the minimum of what we have here. By that I mean the bare necessities of life: water, education, the right to health, the right to a social life, and the right to peace. None of that exists in Congo. Even though the government is trying to portray the situation differently, we all know that these things are not part of daily life in Congo.
Recently, there have once again been many deaths in small towns throughout Congo, but no one is talking about it, not even the central government. I am saying this to illustrate where we stand with our government.
We would like the support of the government of Canada and of all governments of the world for the welfare of the Congolese people. That is why I am appearing before you today.
:
Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting us.
It is truly an honour to be here today to talk about a situation that you are already very familiar with. As you know, I am an advisor to the Communauté congolaise de la grande région de Toronto, or COCOT, a non-profit organization in Toronto that works with Congolese people and helps them integrate into life in Canada.
We are appearing to talk about the wholesale violation of human rights in Congo. These violations occur every day. When I say “every day”, I truly mean each and every day.
You are aware that there have been further killings in Kasai this morning. These violations are committed by law enforcement personnel which are being exploited by Mr. Joseph Kabila. As you surely know, Mr. Kabila's term in office was supposed to end on December 19, 2016. Mr. Kabila does not want to resign, however, and he has taken the country hostage. Not only does he refuse to resign, he does not want to hold the elections that were due as of December 19, 2016.
Mr. Kabila is using law enforcement personnel, who are committing all kinds of crimes every day. These crimes involve among other things violence and rape of children, women and seniors, most of whom are among the most vulnerable members of our society.
As the Subcommittee on Human Rights, you surely know that on December 10, 1948, the 58 members of the UN Security Council adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations General Assembly. That was in Paris. I would like to recall a few of the things that were agreed upon and that all the nations signed off on.
The declaration refers to the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”, as the foundation for freedom, justice, and peace in the world. The declaration also states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” In other words, every person has the right to life, freedom, and personal safety.
In spite of this definition, to which the Congo is a signatory as are Canada and the other UN member countries, Congo is mired in unprecedented tragedy. The year 1997 marked the arrival of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, or AFDL, which at the time was welcomed as an alliance of democratic forces for the liberation of Congo. We see today, however, that the AFDL is an occupation force.
I say “occupation force” because, in 1997, Mr. Laurent-Désiré Kabila arrived in Congo with Rwandan and Ugandan military forces. Since there was a genocide in Rwanda, they claimed that the criminals who had committed the genocide in Rwanda were hiding in Congo. We now know that this was not the case. Since 1997, when the AFDL arrived with Rwanda and Ugandan armed forces, more than 12 million people have been killed: civilians, innocent people, children, in short, the most vulnerable members of our society, as I said earlier.
What is shocking to Congolese people in Canada and other defenders of human rights is that most organizations, including the UN, through its Security Council, Amnesty International, the UN High Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, the Observatoire national des droits de l'homme, human rights networks, nations' ministries of foreign affairs, including the U.S. State Department, the Country Reports on Human Rights, Global Witness, and many others, have produced reports as usual.
There is an annual report on Congo every year. These reports not only provide information about the atrocities committed in Congo, but in fact name the people behind those crimes. In the UN Security Council report and the UN mapping report of 2003, there is a list of mining companies, including some Canadian companies, that have been accused of human rights violations in Congo.
Unfortunately, they also include the names of certain political and economic leaders from Canada and other western countries, who close their eyes to human rights violations in locations where mining companies are extracting strategic raw materials.
What we are trying to say is that, in 1994, there was of course a genocide orchestrated by Paul Kagame and his forces, who had come to liberate and restore power in Rwanda. This action resulted in the death of 800,000 people and, as soon as this horrible thing happened, the whole international community and the UN labelled it “genocide”. On the one hand, they were right, it was truly a genocide.
Congo, on the other hand, has lost 12 million people. I said 12 million people, or a third of the population of Canada. The international community is hesitating and is slow to label these crimes what they truly are. The real name of the crimes happening in Congo today is “genocide”.
In appearing before you today, we are asking you what you can do to bring justice.
We think the Congolese people have suffered and will continue to suffer because those who are behind these crimes, which are committed every day in Congo, are in power and they intend to stay there and retain power for as long as possible, using armed force, of course.
You will not be surprised to hear that more crimes will be committed tomorrow, such as those we are hearing about in Kasai, Kivu, Tshikapa, Ituri, and now in the capital of Kinshasa.
Our hope today is that Canada will bring its full weight to bear. Canada is respected around the world and at the UN. We hope Canada can make the case for the effective establishment of democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Thank you.
:
Thank you for your question.
Kasai is just one region, located in the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The thing about Kasai is that it is full of people who, for the most part, are supporters of the Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social, the UDPS, which is the party opposing the occupation power in Congo.
Your question pertains to proportion and responsibility.
In Congo, when shots are fired, the order comes from just one man, Joseph Kabila. Joseph Kabila has now taken over all the political space in Congo. The order was issued by his ministers of the interior, Évariste Boshab, and now, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari.
Fortunately for us, thanks to social media, we have pictures. We can provide these pictures to you if you wish. They show law enforcement personnel who received direct orders from the ministers of the interior to open fire on civilians. For the most part, these civilians were children who had nothing more to defend themselves than a stick or something similar.
What we do not hear about these conflicts is that people are raped and that there are hundreds of mass graves.
I would like to mention quickly that an agreement was signed on December 31, 2016, known as the Saint Sylvester Agreement. This agreement was facilitated by the Catholic Church. Under one of its clauses, the opposition was supposed to provide a prime minister responsible for forming a transitional government for a period of 12 months, to enable that person to hold elections.
Unfortunately, Mr. Joseph Kabila once again decided to let go certain members of the opposition. He designated an opponent who he thought should lead the transition government. That is when Samy Badibanga and Bruno Tshibala arrived. The Catholic Church, the guarantor of these agreements, wanted to remind the various signatories that they had to comply with the Saint Sylvester Agreement, and the Security Council agreed with that.
To get back to your question about MONUSCO, I would say it is the most important mission that has ever been conducted in the world. It is currently in Congo, specifically in the conflict zones. It is an intervention mission against the various armed groups. Despite the MONUSCO presence in these areas, we are still counting the dead, the victims, and the wars. We do not really see how this mission can stop the shooting itself.
The mission is of course expensive and can be subject to cuts. We have also raised this issue on television. Whether there are cuts or not, we do not really see what purpose this mission serves given the crisis in Congo, which is both economic and political.
It is an economic crisis because the multinationals want access to the strategic raw materials found in Congo. These multinationals are prepared to support dictators who commit crimes and all kinds of violations in order to stay there and keep extracting these raw materials.
The African Union, through the Southern African Development Community, the SADC, has held two meetings. The other meeting, if memory serves me, was two months ago in Zambia. Joseph Kabila was once again reminded that using armed force to stay in power serves only to heighten existing tensions among the various armed groups. It also maintains the tension between the opposition and those in power.
The ultimate objective, and what the international community is calling for, is for free and transparent elections to be held on December 31, as promised in the Saint Sylvester Agreement. That is the reason for these tensions between the opposition and the government.
Ms. Kalambay, would you like to add something?
:
I can guarantee that Joseph Kabila did not win the 2011 election. The Catholic Church, which had more than 36,000 observers at polling stations, specified that Joseph Kabila had clearly not won the election. He simply imposed himself by the force of arms and has remained in power since then. The opposition created a political group called the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie. The majority of opposition members were part of that group, including Moïse Katumbi, who is running for president. Another member is Félix Antoine Tshilombo Tshisekedi, who is the UDPS candidate.
Those two leaders are extremely popular in the Congo. Last month, they held a small impromptu protest that brought out more than 300,000 Congolese. During those protests, be they organized inside or outside the country, the Congolese are making their position on a transfer of power known. However, there is a phenomenon described by the UN Security Council, the African Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie and the SADC, and that is the voting machines from South Korea. The South Korean government submitted its complaint against the company that provides those machines. It is actually believed that using them may contribute to massive fraud in elections.
We have documents and images showing that Corneille Nangaa, the President of the Independent National Electoral Commission, CENI, which is in charge of organizing elections, is part of President Kabila's political family. He is currently conspiring with the presidential majority in power to facilitate cheating during the election planned for 2018. We are asking the international community to monitor the election to guarantee transparency. That way, the people will make their choice that will be revealed with the help of the international community, which will act as an observer.
Canada can do a lot. Earlier, I was saying that Canada has credibility in the eyes of the international community. One of the main things Canada can do is to insist that voting machines be eliminated. They are frowned upon by everyone—in another words, the UN, the African Union, the European Union, the SADC, and even the opposition parties that are invited to participate in the election. Everyone is asking for a paper ballot. We are asking that voting machines be eliminated because we suspect that those machines will lead to cheating. Canada can apply pressure in that sense on the UN Security Council, on the Congo's European Union partners and on diplomatic embassies to ask that a ballot be printed.
The Congolese diaspora in Canada, specifically the francophone diaspora, is dynamic. Thanks to organizations such as COCOT, we provide training and orientation sessions under various programs to help Congolese people integrate the Canadian population better, since they become Canadians citizens afterwards. Some of our programs focus on the understanding of good governance, and we have a program for the professional and economic integration of the Congolese in Canada.
You must know, madam, that, if the Congolese are still managing to survive on the ground, it is because members of their family here—all of us—regularly send money to the Congo to help them. We believe that we, the Congolese Canadians, have structures that enable us to work directly with the government of Canada to help our people in the Congo through organizations we know that work well, are credible and understand good governance policies, as Canada expects.
I think that, if the diaspora could intervene with the government of Canada, it would be through organizations like COCOT, which represents Toronto's Congolese community. We also have other organizations across the country representing Congolese interests.
Let's now move on to diseases and the World Health Organization. You have heard about the current Ebola cases. Today, I received information on a case identified at Mama Yemo Hospital. For your information, that hospital is the main such establishment in Kinshasa, where diseases converge. At the outset, the small city of Kinshasa was designed to be home to 800,000 people, but it is now home to 12 million. Those Ebola cases need only spread in the city for us to have an epidemic on our hands.
So we think it is very important to ask the government of Canada to work once again with our Canadian organizations. Those organizations understand the importance of good governance, they understand the importance of not giving in to corruption or embezzlement and of collaborating with organizations on the ground to successfully increase the number of individuals working with sick people. There are a number of diseases. Today, we are talking about tuberculosis in the city of Kinshasa. Tuberculosis is just as dangerous as Ebola or the dozen other diseases we have in the Congo.
We believe this could be done in direct collaboration with Congolese organizations established in Canada, and with the Canadian diplomatic mission in the Congo. I was in the Congo not too long ago, and I stopped by the Canadian embassy. That diplomatic mission includes a cultural attaché. If we work together, I am sure that we could find ways to bring solutions directly to the affected population.
:
I would like to add a few words.
Right now, we are using the example of the population of Kasai, where many people have fled from their villages. We are talking about thousands of men, women and children walking on the streets, far from their village. To that is added malnutrition. Children are dying owing to a lack of food, care and appropriate places to stay. That humanitarian aspect is something Canada can bring—because it is good at that—to help those women, children and men who are driven from their village by all those wars.
In Kasai, more than 5,000 people are currently homeless because of wars that are ravaging their villages. In the community, many people have set up organizations to help those men, women and children. Canada has many ways to bring its humanitarian aid directly to the population, without going through the Congolese government. We have noted on a number of occasions that, when aid goes through that government, it never makes it to the people who desperately need it. There are a number of effective organizations in the Congolese diaspora, which could transfer that aid to the right place.
:
Thank you for your question.
During my introduction, I talked about the fact that the Congolese crisis is humanitarian, but it is first and foremost economic. Most of the conflict zones are in areas with coltan, copper, cobalt and gold, and they are mainly located in the east, such as in Katanga, North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema, and so on.
The automotive industry's current development of electric vehicles and the fact that cellphone batteries can last all day is no doubt thanks to the contribution of strategic materials such as copper, cobalt and coltan. Those are found in the devices we use.
You talked about a curse, but I don't believe in that. I rather think that we should be talking about good governance. Canada has raw materials, but there have never been any conflict areas where raw materials are mined in Canada, in the United States or elsewhere. Why are there always conflict zones in Africa? It is because people want to get their hands on raw materials. Canada is recognized globally as a country of mines.
For example, Canada can use its influence to impose a code of conduct when Canadian companies are extracting raw materials. The mines that are presented as dangerous can play a positive role, that of changing the economic situation of those who live in mined areas. Once again, that could increase the performance of Canadian companies, to mention only those, when raw materials are extracted and used.
I think that we have everything to gain by promoting good governance, democratic values and all the established legal rules. So, short of managing conflicts, it will be possible to manage the beneficial economic impacts for everyone—for Canada, the Congo and the rest of the world.
:
If you read Western Union's report, every year, an amount equivalent to $10 billion is sent by the Congolese diaspora to family members. I can even tell you that, if there were no Congolese in the diaspora, the current situation in the Congo would be much worse because the Congolese government does not support anything.
I went to the Congo twice last year. I can tell you that hospitals lack everything. They have no resources. People must pay even for pills for a headache. Often, when the Congolese on the ground are facing various problems—be they social, humanitarian, economic or other in nature—the diaspora gets involved to provide funding.
As for unity in the diaspora, I must tell you that the Congolese people are independently and individually leaving the Congo to seek out a better life here, in Canada, and around the world. So we come with diverging objectives, of course, but we manage to get organized. Humanitarian work is a fairly complex field. I have worked in the francophone community here, in Ontario, at the AFO, the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, at the ACFO, the Association canadienne française de l'Ontario, and the UP-MREF, the Union provinciale des minorités raciales ethnoculturelles francophone. You could not find a single converging voice, simply because people have various ways of seeing things and different points of view.
To come back to the Congolese community, we have created at the federal level a round table called the Table de concertation des présidents de la communauté congolaise du Canada. Through that round table, we share converging ideas to see to what extent we can push the impetus toward projects that can help the Congolese get together and work even harder to provide assistance. We first must contribute to Canada's effort, since we are in Canada, and also create a dynamism we can use to help Canada benefit from Congolese people's contribution, as well. Nowadays, the Congolese community consists of doctors, engineers, economists, and the list goes on.
We have an ambitious project to create a Congolese community centre to integrate all the projects that could lead to what you are calling for—unity.
:
I'll give you an example from my own life.
In 2014, 2015, and 2016, I spent a lot of time in the Congo. One of the reasons we went there was precisely to set up organizations that would provide the structural benefits, like those Canada is hoping to see. For instance, we created a centre for entrepreneurship to help young people understand what owning a business is all about, how to run a business, which governance policy to adopt for business success, and so forth. The centre also teaches them about interacting with the government in relation to the reforms.
I think Canada has a lot to gain from working with native Congolese who are active in Canada at the community level. I'm going to let you in on a secret: I'm running for a national seat. One of the reasons we now want to become involved in Congolese politics is our experience in a culture of democracy. We have realized how a government should work. We recognize that a government should be accountable to the people, and we understand the role elected government representatives should play in serving the electorate.
I think Canada has a lot to gain from working with Congolese nationals and others who have become Canadian citizens and understand Canada's approach to government. Relying on its approach, Canada can work directly with Congolese populations. Belgium set up Schengen house to manage visa applications, study permits, and so forth.
I think Canada can follow suit and work with us. The COCOT, for example, has quite a good governance structure, having adopted sound governance policies. It has bylaws and rules in place, and elects its leadership on an annual basis. We are endeavouring not just to help the diaspora in Canada, but also to make things easier for them by lightening their load—that load being regularly sending home the little money they earn here. In that sense, we aren't really able to get ahead and enjoy the benefits of living in Canada.
The government has many projects involving the co-operation and immigration departments, among others. If you'd like, we could provide you with information on our programs so that, together, we could determine how you could extend support and work with us. We know what Canada hopes to accomplish through its humanitarian missions. Every Congolese person living in Canada or elsewhere knows how this support could take shape. I would say we are very receptive.
:
I'd like to follow up on the question that was asked a moment ago.
It is true that Canada has already done a lot to help the Congo, but we are convinced that it can do even more. The reason we are able to stand up and speak out against what is happening in the Congo, as my brother was saying earlier, is that, as Canadians, we learned how things should be done. We saw how things worked in Canada, our host country.
It is quite possible for Canada to provide further structural support to Congolese people, through the diaspora here, thereby helping those still in the Congo. In fact, the reason we are here is to obtain support for the Congolese population still in the Congo, to bring about political, social, humanitarian, and economic improvements. These are all things we learned from Canada.
That is why we are asking Canada for help. We know Canada has provided assistance before and is able to do so again, but on a much more substantial level.