Continuing Violence Threatens Democracy in the Congo
23 June 2006; New York Times

After ten years of conflict, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold it’s first elections in forty-one years in July of 2006. But the Congolese people above all else are in need of peace and basic necessities before it will realistically hope to make a transition to democracy, reports the New York Times.

"The election is meant to draw a line between that chaotic past and a more hopeful future. But the process of preparing for the election has been extraordinarily difficult in the troubled and violent eastern regions, where militias have battled government troops over control of lucrative industries like diamond and copper mining, and in the short term the election may cause as many problems as it solves.”

The Congolese Army, backed by United Nations’ peacekeepers, have been trying to stabilize the country and put an end to the fighting before election, but they have had limited success. Even if the fighting stops, a significant part of the population has been displaced and are suffering from hunger and disease.

"For many here, survival, not elections, is the milestone,” according to the New York Times.

The last multiparty elections in the Congo were held in 1965, after which the country was ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko, who named the country Zaire and developed a strict dictatorship. He was deposed in 1997 by rebel forced supported by Rwanda and Uganda, and the country plunged into a five-year civil war. Even though a peace agreement was signed in 2002, fighting between government and rebel forces still continues.