Monday, November 18, 2013 - After decades of misrule, war and predation by its neighbors — and a 1996 invasion of what was then Zaire by Rwanda, which brought down the three-decade-long dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko — some observers had given up on Congo and its population, by 2012, of 65 million. They even argued that the country, once a possession of King Leopold II of Belgium, no longer meaningfully exists as a state and that the international community should stop pretending that it does. Read more

Dear Secretary of State Kerry

President Obama said "Africa doesn't need strongmen; it needs strong institutions."

We urge the U.S. government to stop financing, arming, training, and providing diplomatic cover for strongmen in Africa such as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, both of whom continue to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We implore you to implement section 105 of Public Law 109-456 that calls for the U.S. to withhold aid from neighboring countries destabilizing the DRC.

We encourage you to increase support for civil society, non-violent pro-democracy forces, and strong institutions in the  DRC as outlined in section 102 of the same law, which was sponsored by then Senator Obama and co-sponsored by you and Hillary Clinton.

Thank you for making the DRC a priority!

Click here to request postcards.

December 19 - 22, 2013
A Season in the Congo at La Mama in New York City

Time: 7:30 PM
Location:
La Mama's First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th St.
New York City NY 10003

Click here for more information!

On October 1, 2010, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published the official report on the United Nations Mapping Exercise, which documents atrocities, human rights abuses and crimes against humanity committed in the Congo from 1993 - 2003. The report was delayed by a month due to a leaked version that indicated that the Rwanda Patriotic Front might have committed genocide in the Congo.

The UN delayed the publishing of the report to give governments implicated in the atrocities more time to comment on the report, especially Rwanda who rejected the notion that it may have committed genocide in the Congo.

Visit the FOTC UN Mapping Exercise Report resource center to download the report, read comments from the governments named in the report, read the latest news and analysis, watch and listen to interviews and read responses from figures such as Bill Clinton and institutions such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and Global Witness. Not so surprisingly, the genocide prevention institutions in Washington have been remarkably silent on the contents of the report and the call by the Congolese people for justice. more>>