Breaking the Silence on Congo
Published 11 May 2009, 9:32 am -
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Members of Parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo overwhelmingly passed an amnesty law last week for rebels in the country’s eastern Kivu provinces. Set to be signed into law by President Joseph Kabila, the amnesty would absolve “acts of war” committed since 2003, but would not be extended to those accused of committing war crimes. To that end, the detained former leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, Laurent Nkunda would not be eligible for amnesty. Arrested in late January, Nkunda has been detained in Rwanda while the Congolese government is negotiating to have him extradited. Despite these developments, the International Committee of the Red Cross is still reporting serious difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid to the North Kivu province citing ongoing instances of murder and rape in the conflict between the Congolese government and the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda. In the U.S. media, reporting on the violence in Congo, which has claimed more than 5 million lives since 1996, has been neglectful at best. According to research in the latest issue of Extra, the magazine of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, only one segment on the Congo has aired on the CBS Evening News in the past five years.
GUEST: Kumbale Musavuli, Spokesperson and Student Coordinator with Friends of the Congo, Julie Hollar, Managing Editor of Extra! the Magazine of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
For more information, visit www.friendsofcongo.org, www.congoweek.org, and www.fair.org.
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