AFRICA/ RD CONGO - “What the country needs is authentic Rule of Law” say Congo's Catholic Bishops in view of approaching general elections

Kinshasa (Fides Service)- “After 45 years of delay and 15 year of a pointlessly long period of transition, the people of Congo hope with the coming elections to have at last in 2006 a rule of law” the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of DR Congo says in a message issued at the end of a plenary assembly in Kinshasa from 27 February to 4 March. The Bishops welcome the announcement of the June 8 elections: “The eyes of all our people are on the vote. May all the social forces and political parties be mobilised for this important event which we hope will herald the start of a new era for the nation”.
The Bishops stress the need to “negotiate carefully this passage so legitimate hopes will not dissolve in a nightmare as it happened following independence in 1960”.
“During our recent ad limina meeting Pope Benedict XVI urged us to assure our people of his spiritual closeness at this time when every citizen is called to help promote peace and reconciliation after long years of war which left millions dead” the Bishops recall.
They speak in the message of “signs of hope” but also “areas of shadow” which threaten RD Congo. Among the signs of hope the Bishops include the constitutional referendum last December “which took place despite many difficulties. The organisation of the referendum can be considered an important step to give our country new structures”.
The shadows mentioned by the Bishops include lack of security, “particularly in the north in Katanga, Kivu and Ituri, insecurity which represents a threat to peace”. In this regard the Bishops stigmatise “considerable delay in the formation of a unified republican army. In the meantime an under-paid and badly equipped army has become a threat for the citizens it should protect”. Another problem derives “from insufficient awareness among the people of the constitution project, absence of debate on certain constitutional articles which jeopardise the nation’s future. The Bishops denounce exasperation and ethnic distinction on the part of some political forces, self-proclaimed “original” as well as verbal violence of some political leaders.
At the social level the message underlines the poverty of the majority of the people, “inhuman and unbearable poverty” caused also by 10 years of civil war and abetted “sacking of natural resources, destruction of public infrastructures, rape, the AIDS pandemic”. It is not exaggerated the Bishops affirm “to say that Congo is experiencing one of the most serious humanitarian crises since the end of World War II.”
In this Season of Lent the Bishops call on Catholics to pray for a successful election and to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede with God that Congo may once again live in peace. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/3/2006 righe 46 parole 552)