Left: Jane Rasmussen (holding a hat) and the AID delegation meet with a senior Congolese police officer in Goma.
	Left: Due to a shortage of materials, instructors at the police training academy have been writing on walls with charcoal to illustrate their lessons.

he new government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has formally transferred responsibility for internal security from the military to the civilian sector by creating a national police force under the Ministry of the Interior. This is "a critical step" in building a civil democracy, but a lack of funds makes the effort precarious, says Jane Rasmussen, a lawyer with the U.S. Institute of Peace's Rule of Law Initiative. To aid the Congo--in a gesture of good will and support as well as concern for regional stability--South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda are providing new uniforms and training for the civilian force, says Rasmussen, an expert on the Great Lakes region of Africa. She traveled to the Congo August 22-September 12 as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development delegation to assess justice and security issues and recommend possible assistance for public education and to strengthen the civilian police and courts.

Despite the help from its neighbors, however, Congo's new government will find it extremely difficult to address some of the country's major justice and security issues because it is almost without financial resources, Rasmussen stresses. The previous government under Mobutu Sese Seko had lost its competence and credibility and left the economy a shambles. Government employees had not been paid for years and depended on bribes for personal survival. The new government will have a hard time eradicating corruption until it is able to pay salaries, Rasmussen notes. Although the Congo is rich in natural resources, especially copper, getting them out of the ground and putting a tax structure in place will take some time. "The new government is facing an almost impossible challenge," Rasmussen says, but adds that it has started taking the right steps to turn the country around.

Recommendations

Rasmussen recommends a broad range of assistance. To strengthen development of the civilian police force, the United States can help with curriculum development, instructor training (including training in conflict resolution to help contain ethnic tensions), transport and communications equipment, and civilian police uniforms. Also, the basic infrastructure in provincial and local police stations and in the national training academies needs rehabilitation, including repair and furnishing of basic facilities and equipment.

Assistance to military courts should include seminars on the proper relationship between civilian and military authorities, Rasmussen says. Civilian courts at the national, provincial, and local levels are in need of basic infrastructure rehabilitation, including office and transport equipment as well as uniforms such as black robes for judges. Continuing education courses for judges and prosecutors might emphasize ethics and conflict-of-interest rules, using models from other countries.

In the area of public education, assistance could include seminars to help promote constructive dialogue between civil society and government, including the military, such as on the proper role of the military in a democracy, ethics and corruption, and accounting for the past.

It would be important at first to focus efforts on certain geographical areas, Rasmussen concludes, such as Kinshasa, the center of national government, Lubumbashi, an important, and possibly model, economic center, and north and south Kivu provinces, which are volatile "hot spots" of ethnic tension.

Back to the top | Dec. PW Home

| Balkan Leaders | Elections in Nigeria | Profile: Chen Jian | Saddam Hussein |
| Clinton-Jiang Summit | Macedonia | Institute People |