Resolving the Political Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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RESOLVING THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION NOVEMBER 9, 2017 Serial No. 115–96 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 27–515PDF WASHINGTON : 2018 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:02 Jan 25, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\_AGH\110917\27515 SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California PAUL COOK, California LOIS FRANKEL, Florida SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii RON DESANTIS, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois TED S. YOHO, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois DINA TITUS, Nevada LEE M. ZELDIN, New York NORMA J. TORRES, California DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York Wisconsin ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York ANN WAGNER, Missouri TED LIEU, California BRIAN J. MAST, Florida FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia VACANT AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York AMI BERA, California F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas Wisconsin THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:02 Jan 25, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\110917\27515 SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Donald Yamamoto, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State ......................................................... 6 Ms. Cheryl Anderson, Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development ...................................................... 16 Mr. Mvemba Dizolele, professorial lecturer in African studies, School of Ad- vanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University ................................ 37 Mr. Fred Bauma, representative, La Lutte pour le Changement ........................ 46 Ms. Severine Autesserre, Ph.D., professor of political science, Barnard Col- lege, Columbia University ................................................................................... 53 Ms. Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director, Human Rights Watch ......................... 65 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Donald Yamamoto: Prepared statement ...................................... 10 Ms. Cheryl Anderson: Prepared statement ........................................................... 18 Mr. Mvemba Dizolele: Prepared statement ........................................................... 40 Mr. Fred Bauma: Prepared statement ................................................................... 49 Ms. Severine Autesserre, Ph.D.: Prepared statement .......................................... 55 Ms. Ida Sawyer: Prepared statement ..................................................................... 68 APPENDIX Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 92 Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 93 The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: Material submitted for the record ...................................................................... 94 Prepared statement by His Excellency Francois Balumuene Nkuna, Ambas- sador of the Democratic Republic of Congo .................................................... 102 Written responses from the Honorable Donald Yamamoto to questions sub- mitted for the record by the Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State of Wisconsin ................................. 105 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:02 Jan 25, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\110917\27515 SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:02 Jan 25, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\_AGH\110917\27515 SHIRL RESOLVING THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 o’clock a.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order, and welcome. And I think the committee is privileged to see our distinguished chair- man, Ed Royce, joining us, chairman of the full committee. And I thank him for his leadership on Africa having once been chairman of this subcommittee. So great to see you, Ed, and thank you for your ongoing leader- ship and for yesterday’s important briefing with Nikki Haley, our Ambassador to the United Nations, and a major portion of that im- portant briefing late in the afternoon was on the Democratic Re- public of Congo. So thank you, Chairman Royce. The Democratic Republic of Congo was supposed to conduct elec- tions 1 year ago this month in order to achieve the required transi- tion of political power by December 19th. However, after years of stalling on making preparations for elec- tions, the Government of the DRC failed to hold elections last year and relied on a constitutional provision that President Joseph Kabila could not step down until an election was held to select a replacement. Both Chairman Royce and I, Karen Bass, our ranking member, and others, have had ongoing meetings with DRC officials, includ- ing high-level people who have flown here to Washington. And time and time again, we have admonished them, urging them to stick to the schedule and hold these elections, and ensure that they are free and fair. The interpretation by President Joseph Kabila of the Constitu- tion is an apparent contradiction to other constitutional provisions requiring elections to be held on time and limiting President Kabila to two terms. The Election Commission has just announced that elections cannot be held until sometime in late 2018. We were told by Ambassador Nikki Haley they are talking about December 2018, and how often have we seen those timelines slip? And then we would be in 2019. And I think Ambassador Haley made it very (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:02 Jan 25, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\110917\27515 SHIRL 2 clear in yesterday’s briefing that there are an abundance of sanc- tions, almost like a sort of Damocles, that would hold over the heads of those who, again, would push to delay. And I think that is very real, and I hope it is very compelling pressure to ensure that they do exactly what they say they would do, because this is what the people of the DR Congo want: They want a free and fair election; they want to choose their next leader. Polling has indicated that the majority of the Congolese want Kabila’s government to end and be replaced by a transitional gov- ernment until a new one can be elected. We don’t take sides, but we do want free and fair, and we want to make sure that the peo- ple’s will prevails. Enduring conflict hotspots in Eastern DRC has seen recent flare- ups. And I would note parenthetically, back in 2005, I traveled to Goma, along with my good friend and chief of staff, Greg Simpkins, and we saw, on the ground, and met many of the people who had been raped, many of the women who had been so horrifically sexu- ally abused, but we also, like Africa Compassion, an organization that did wonderful work with helping to heal and to mitigate the damage of such abuse, saw that there were people on the ground, indigenous Congolese who cared so much that they were going the extra mile to make sure that the fighting stopped and also that there would be a way forward for those who had been abused. In two other regions, Kasai and Tanganyika province, the con- flicts in Kasai and Tanganyika alone have caused the displacement of nearly 2 million people since mid 2016. This is in a country, where a war that