Discussion Questions:
- Should the UN get involved in these matters considering their concern for the matter?
- Would the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo be considered a dictatorship, considering the extreme measures taken by the public and the authorities?
- Do the authorities have good intentions by trying to stop the protests, such as hopes of a society living in harmony? Or are their motives more driven by obeying the leader?
I think this marks a critical point in the long-term history of the Congo. This is the moment in which significant opposition from the people will prove the Congo to be a democracy or cement it as a autocracy. The UN should release statement(s) about their official position on the issue but I don't think that foreign involvement is the right decision.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the Congolese people in that Joseph Kabila should step down from presidency. The protests have gone too far to the point where the people have gotten injured by tear gas and shootings. The UN needs to deal with the matters at hand in the Congo if they are concerned. They can't just do nothing about it. The people need to find a solution to this problem because it has gotten out of hand. The longer this takes the worse it is going to get. Joseph Kabila also needs to realize that he needs the vote of the people to create a stable nation, but if they believe that he has done badly, he should know that it is his turn to step down.
ReplyDeleteYes, the UN should be involved. The UN’s Security Council's role is to maintain international security and peace. Some examples of the UN's intervention in Africa can be found on Wikipedia. - The UN has had previous involvement in the DRC.
ReplyDelete1999–2010 United Nations Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
2004-2007 United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire
2005–2011 United Nations Mission in the Sudan
2007–2010 United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad Central African Republic
The Democratic Republic of Congo should be considered a dictatorship because of Joseph Kabila recent behavior, where he is exercising absolute power. According to the New York Times’ article U.N. Condemns Congo’s Use of Force Against Protesters and Monitors, on Tuesday, security forces fired on anti-government protesters. They killed at least six protesters and attacked a United Nations official monitoring the protests. These Congolese security forces threw the United Nations official to the ground and started beating him, which is proof that the authorities do not care about hurting others and do not have good intentions in trying to stop the protests.
The Congolese people should have the right to protest against their president not stepping down after completing his second term, as I think the UN should try to prevent any security forces from promoting acts of violence on peaceful protesters. Regardless of the extreme measures taken by government officers, Congo is not a dictatorship, but a struggling "Democratic Republic." Authorities definitely don't have good intentions with hopes of peace and harmony, as they they are just trying to satisfy the government
ReplyDeleteThe people in the Congo have been struggling for a long time to have a stable government. Even though it is marked as a "Democratic Republic", the country is run more similarly to a dictatorship. If the Congolese people do not agree with their president, they have the right to peacefully protest against him not stepping down. I believe the UN should step in and stop violence from occurring but I do not think that they should go about and completely tangle themselves with the Congolese people. The UN's first priority should be the people's safety and in order to ensure that they should send officials for assuring the people. However if attacked they should have self defense as the authorities do not always good intentions and are simply trying to keep the president in power.
ReplyDeleteThe UN certainly could intervene, given its previous involvement in the DRC, as Emi pointed out. However, I would have to disagree with her that the UN should be involved. I think it would be wise to wait a little longer to see how things play out, remembering the assassination of the Congo's first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961, which the UN was suspected to be involved in.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the DRC is quite a dictatorship yet, though it is close, displaying traits of totalitarian leadership, such as media censorship and limiting access to information. Encyclopedia Britannica's definition of a dictatorship is a form of government where the leader has absolute power "without effective constitutional limitations." I might not be correct, but I don't think the DRC is devoid of constitutional methods of limiting Kabila's power.
I believe that the authorities in the Congo right now have corrupted intentions that are probably due to bribery or threats by Kabila, just as Brianna and Riddhi have stated. Squashing protests, arbitrarily detaining enemies of the government and limiting the involvement of UN monitors by targeting them is only going to lead to more conflict, and I think it is perfectly in the Congolese people's right to protest and get fair elections since they have not tasted true freedom since the fleeting years of Lumumba's leadership over half a century ago. What is important, however, is that the conflict is resolved soon, since a UN peacekeeper has already been killed in the Congo in the 3 days between the publishing of this post and my comment, which does not bode well for the future. Any further UN involvement in peacekeeping is likely to turn out this way, so in my opinion, the majority of the conflict resolution should be done by the Congolese.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.voanews.com/a/un-peacekeeper-killed-in-drc/4228286.html
I believe that the citizens have a right to be angry at their president for not stepping down as he was supposed to. The citizens have a right to peacefully protest about their crippled government, but the government wrongly took violent actions in the name of "peace" to stop those protests, when in reality they're only causing more conflict to erupt. Because of this, I think that the UN should make known their position on this conflict, though I do believe that the Congolese should primarily be the ones to find a resolution.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the authorities motives are more driven by their current leader. Although some authorities may be trying to do the right thing by helping prevent the protests, I think that most are just obeying their leader. The authorities should have nothing to do with stopping these protests unless it gets out of hand. Instead, the authorities should be forcing the leader to step down or even give him consequences.
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