Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The UN’s Congo Problem

The elections are to be held soon in the Congo as of September 21st 2011 and the debate is on as to how much a role the Unitied Nations should play. Congo has of course been ravaged by a brutal series of wars that have exhibited the worst of humanity. The international community is obviously anxious to marginalize their role in these elections (90 percent funding in 06.) This is not without good reason, I mean if the Congo is to stand on its’ own than it needs to have its’ own expeditures for elections and not become just another “international African project.”

But the United Nations needs to step up and deal with the allegations of multiple voter registrations and the scores of election related human rights abuses. This task can be undertaken by merely acknowledging such abuses to the public. Without the acknowledgement of such activity, you run the very real risk of creating another African state with questions of electoral legitimacy. This is most certainly not the outcome the international donor communtity signed up for within the Congo.

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0921/Has-the-UN-Congo-mission-tried-too-hard-to-be-impartial.

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