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TechnoratiCongo marks independence amid rights abuse row
The Democratic Republic of Congo celebrated a half-century of independence from Belgium on Wednesday with a military parade joined by UN peacekeepers, attended by dozens of foreign dignitaries, including the king of Belgium.
Some 15,000 soldiers marched down Kinshasa’s "Boulevard Triomphal", which was given a makeover for the celebrations.
Some of the 20,000 UN troops in the DRC that are part of the world’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation also took part in the parade. The force is being scaled down and President Joseph Kabila has been pushing it to leave completely by next year.
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Hundreds of dignitaries attended the ceremony, including African heads of state, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Belgian King Albert II, whose country has an uneasy relationship with the DRC because of its colonial past.
“We’ve shared the history of our colonisation with the Belgium kingdom. They were the ones that colonized us and we both signed the independence act in 1960. So we decided to share this event with them and mark the friendship with our former coloniser," DRC’s Information Minister Lambert Mendé Omalaga told RFI.
He added that it seemed less of a problem for the DRC to invite Belgium, than it was for Belgium to accept it.
But correspondent Thomas Hubert said that the mood wasn’t as festive across the country. The main opposition party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), as well at the country’s main trade union boycotted the celebration, saying DRC is still experiencing many social and economic problems and that there is no reason to celebrate.
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“Definitely, when you look at some infrastructure developments in the capital, when you look at general economic growth and investment from foreign companies, you can see that the situation has improved even in the last two years. But when you look in terms of general progress, like for health and education, you can see that the situation is still very difficult,” Hubert told RFI.
Today DRC is one of the world’s poorest countries, still recovering from an eight-year war from 1996 to 2003 in which some three million people died.
Kabila, who took power in 2006, today faces international criticism of the way he has been running the country. The UN has warned of the rise of armed groups and the recruiting of child soldiers and violence against civilians.
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Human rights groups have criticised the high-profile independence celebrations in the face of ongoing human rights abuses.
Saturday was the funeral of the country’s most prominent human rights activist, Floribert Chebeya, whose body was found earlier this month after he was summoned to a meeting with Kinshasa police. His family believes he died as a result of torture.
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