International coverage of the Democratic Republic of Congo often focuses either on scenes of horror playing out in the eastern parts of the country, or the urban chaos of its capital, Kinshasa. “For me, it was also this whole middle ground of the daily life: a post office worker, a fireman, somebody working at a railway station,” said director Kristof Bilsen in the Q&A that followed the preview screening of Elephant’s Dream at the Frontline Club on Monday 9 February.

Elephant’s Dream director Kristof Bilsen

In the film, Bilsen poetically portrays the “limbo” in which workers of three State-owned companies slowly languish day after day.

When asked by an audience member what the greatest challenges were that he encountered during filming, the director confessed that it was a frustrating process to accurately depict the “vicious circles” in which many citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo are stuck.

“Some people really get angry because they think that I should show things that are moving forward, that are positive. And I think for me it is very positive (…) the fact that they dare to say how absurd the situation is.”

Bilsen also commented on his desire to break away from traditional structures, and criticised the tendency of numerous other films on similar subjects to treat characters “in a kind of a victimised way.” He added: “They get maybe a quote or two from journalists who present the mic and ask how difficult and painful their situation is, but this shouldn’t take too long and if they are lucky they get their names as a title.”

Bilsen began shooting Elephant’s Dream in 2010, as part of a short film project ahead of his graduation from film school. The director continued to return to Kinshasa over the three years which followed, in order to document the development, or lack thereof, in the lives of the film’s protagonists. This long-running process brought positive consequences not only to the director.

“She [Henriette, one of the film’s key protagonists] has been very, very happy that she went through the film-making process with me, because it really made her question the situation and be more assertive to the bosses,” he explained.

The audience brought up the question of China and its growing influence in the DRC and the rest of Africa, which Bilsen addresses only briefly in the film: “I did it consciously. I did not want to shed too much light on it because it sort of distracts the attention from the characters that we engage with.”

Although he kept the political context of the region in mind during filming, Bilsen was keen that Elephant’s Dream be a personal and poetic piece. He considered a brief shot in which President Joseph Kabila’s face appears on stamps to be the “most political statement of the film,” and even considered removing this from the final edit.

Bilsen remained enthusiastic about returning to Kinshasa in the future, to find other stories and to document the progress of the protagonists of Elephant’s Dream. First, however, he is keen to screen the film in Kinshasa itself: “I dream of the idea of going with a generator and a mini-van to the post office and showing the film there.”

For more information on upcoming screenings, visit the Elephant’s Dream website.

On Tuesday 3 June, with just a week to go until the start of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Frontline Club hosted a fully booked event on preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict, with specialist reference to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

From left: Liz Ford, Sarah Cotton, Serge-Eric, Fiona Lloyd-Davies and Dr Juliet Cohen at the Frontline Club.

In her opening statement, Dr Juliet Cohen, head of doctors at UK-based charity Freedom from Torture, said:

“I don’t know how many of you have ever been on a demonstration, felt compelled to write to the newspapers or protest in some way publicly. I went to a demonstration last year about the legal aid authority cuts and I could go and stand on the soapbox and say my piece and be identified by my name. I could be photographed, I could stand in the crowd afterwards and when it was time to leave, I could just walk away and go home knowing that nothing would happen to me. . . . What’s so chilling is to find how dangerous it is for some people in other countries to do what seems like such a simple thing.”

Cohen added a statistic which the panel itself found astonishing:

“I don’t think it’s widely known but in this country Home Office statistics show that almost 90% of victims of rape never disclose to the police and around 38% tell no-one at the time of the crime.”

After the opening statements from the four panelists the question and answer session began. The chair of the discussion, Liz Ford, deputy editor of The Guardian’s Global Development website, asked why we need this upcoming conference on sexual violence when we have already had six UN resolutions since 2000 in some way related to the issue of sexual violence.

Fiona Lloyd-Davies, a filmmaker who has been working in DRC since 2001, answered:

“Is anything concrete going to be achieved after all this talking, after people have come all this way? Because . . . as all of us know here, whether it’s in Shabunda or Minova . . . there are women and men and children who every night are terrified that the perpetrators will come again. . . . It’s a great opportunity but something concrete has to happen. . . . Is it really possible to make concrete policy decisions about reforming the Congolese judiciary in half an hour?”

In response, Sarah Cotton, the public affairs and communications advisor for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mission in the UK and Ireland, said:

“Firstly, there’s a lot to be said for continuing to bang the drum. . . . There has to be a degree of realism about what can be achieved but it’s being spoken about and this is going to be extremely high level. There is a lot of energy that’s gone into this conference and its an issue – and we are all here today because it’s an issue – and we’re not dealing with it well.”

For more info about the @end_svc conference next week. More info about Fiona's film #seedsofhope head to http://t.co/oO0fNbVy6C ^OSJ

— Studio 9 Films (@Studio9films) June 3, 2014

When the discussion was opened to questions from the audience, the panel were asked whether systematic rape in countries like DRC is a problem that would be better addressed by tackling the root causes of the conflict there. Serge-Eric, co-founder and member of the Survivors Speak OUT! (SSO) network, replied:

“At the SSO network that is the first thing that we spoke about when it was asked to us. . . . The first thing that the women came up with was, ‘Look, the real problem in the Congo is the conflict going on into the Eastern Congo.’ Because of that conflict going on in the Eastern Congo, we tend to think [rape] only happens in that particular area, yet you found women that live in Kinshasa that’s been the victim of rape as well. . . . By holding the government to account, . . . ending that war means we can have a better way of preventing that happening again to the girls of Congo.”

The panel were also asked about whether the perpetrators of this horrific systematic rape in the Congo were aware of the damage that these actions were inflicting. Lloyd Davis said:

“Of course they understand. Rape has been used as a weapon of war for thousands of years so, yes they do. I think sometimes its opportune. One of the very significant things about the Minova rapes was that some of them said that they were angry that they had been forced to withdraw from Goma leaving their own families vulnerable. So they were worried about the consequences of what was going to happen to their wives and children . . . yet they took their anger and frustration out on the women of Minova.”

Serge-Eric also commented saying:

“I think we already covered that a bit by saying that torture is not by mistake, rape is not by any mistake, it’s not by any coincidence. It’s a very calculated act which tends to either put terror into the person who you might be hurting or trying to silence the person. I will not be accepting that someone, because they feel angry somewhere, will go and just rape someone – it doesn’t just happen but it’s a very manipulative act.”

Cohen also added:

“The intention of the torturer is to destroy their sexuality and their future, to destroy their virginity, their ability to marry, many people believe that they won’t be able to have children after they’ve been raped. Male victims of rape are told, ‘Now I’m making you a woman, so you won’t be able to be a man anymore, now you’ll be gay.’ . . . That’s the intention of this kind of torture, it’s to destroy people’s sexuality and their future.”

Watch and listen back here:

On 10 June, world leaders and NGOs will gather in London for a global summit with the aim to create “irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground”. Ahead of the summit, we will be joined by a panel of speakers who have been working towards this aim for many years. They will be discussing what needs to be done to make it a reality.

The eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been described as the “rape capital of the world”. Increased cases of sexual violence against women in DRC coincided with the emerging armed conflicts of the early 1990s. Although Congolese law criminalises many forms of sexual violence, these laws are often not enforced.

With a particular focus on the DRC our panel will be mapping out what is being done to help individuals and societies affected by sexual violence and what more needs to be done. We will be asking what measures can be put in place to help victims bring the perpetrators to justice.

Chaired by Liz Ford, deputy editor of The Guardian’s Global Development website.

The panel:

Doctor Juliet Cohen is head of doctors at UK-based charity Freedom from Torture. She specialises in the examination of victims of torture, domestic violence and trafficking and has written over 1000 forensic reports documenting the psychological and physical sequelae of torture, including rape, for use in international protection claims. In 2012 she provided an expert witness statement on late disclosure of sexual violence for the European Court of Human Rights and is a commentator to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the new International Protocol on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Fiona Lloyd-Davies is an award winning filmmaker and photojournalist who has worked in areas of conflict for over 20 years. She’s been working in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2001 making films for the BBC, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 News and France24. In recent years her work has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and led to the completion of Seeds of Hope – a feature length documentary that tells the story of women survivors of sexual violence in Eastern DRC through the extraordinary life and work of multiple rape survivor, Masika Katsuva. Seeds of Hope will be shown as part of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, details here. She has just finished a film about the Minova rape trial which will be shown on BBC Newsnight.

Serge-Eric is a co-founder and member of the Survivors Speak OUT! (SSO) network. SSO is a group of torture survivors and former clients of Freedom from Torture who draw on their lived experience of torture and seeking protection through asylum in the UK, to influence decision-makers and raise public awareness of the challenges facing survivors trying to rebuild their lives. The network has worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the development of a new International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Sarah Cotton is the public affairs and communications advisor for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mission in the UK and Ireland. She leads the work of the ICRC with Parliament and works in both the UK and Ireland to communicate ICRC policy, operations and concerns. She also works to develop and disseminate ICRC policy on sexual violence and violence against healthcare. In this capacity she travelled to Lebanon in April 2014 to join an assessment of sexual violence in Syria.

Photograph: Andrew McConnell, 2008. A woman who was raped by a government soldier recovers at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma. Sexual violence has become systematic in DRC with the brutality of attacks often leaving the victims with severe damage to reproductive organs, resulting in multiple fistulas and incontinence. An average of 1,100 rape cases are reported each month.

[vimeo clip_id=”29681484″ width=”360″ height=”225″]

Congolese human rights lawyer Claudine Tsongo investigates the case of Masamba, a soldier convicted of rape. She discovers that his trial was corrupt and unfair. In her journey to obtain justice, she uncovers a system where the basic principles of law are virtually ignored.

Questions are raised about the role of the international community and non-governmental organisations within the Congolese judicial system. Does their financial support cause justice to be for sale?

Justice for Sale is the third film by filmmakers Ilse van Velzen and Femke van Velzen covering different aspects of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fighting the Silence (2010) explores the consequences for rape victims and in Weapon of War (2009) military perpetrators talk about rape as a war crime.

Directed by Ilse van Velzen and Femke van Velzen
Duration: 60′
Year: 2011

The twin sisters Ilse and Femke van Velzen are internationally recognized, award-winning filmmakers. Through The Mobile Cinema they reach out to local communities by bringing back their films as educational tools to lift people out of inequality and violence.

But while Mathilde lets off steam with a photographer and a spliff, Sadhbh has her own encounter: tea with a smart, brutal young warlord she’s investigating. Or is he investigating her?

A special preview reading of Bang Bang Bang, which is coming to the Royal Court Theatre in October.

Writer Stella Feehily:

“We interviewed aid workers, doctors, human rights defenders, government advisers, journalists and photographers.  In many organizations we found the majority of humanitarians to be female. The industry – and it is an industry – is buoyed by the benevolence of women.

Stella Feehily’s previous work includes Dreams of Violence (Soho), Catch (Royal Court), O Go My Man, Duck (both Out of Joint/Royal Court) and Game (Fishamble). She was a co-winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 2006 for O Go My Man.

So General Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwanda. About time too. His thuggish rebellion scattered 250,000 people in the last months of 2008 as he flexed his muscles and played games with the lives of the families he claimed to represent. There are still questions to be answered – will Rwanda hand over to the DRC where he is a wanted man – but this, for what it’s worth, is my take on the affair…

Either General Laurent Nkunda has spent four years protecting his Tutsi tribemates from Hutu genocidaires or he is a Rwandan-backed troublemaker, intent on destabilising the Democratic of Congo depending on who you talk to.

Today it seems time has run out for the rebel leader. It may be that he has fallen out with too many of his senior lieutenants or that his arrest was the price Rwanda was willing to pay in order to send troops over the border to clear out Hutu militias hiding in Congolese forests.

Either way the man known as the Butcher of Kisangani appears to have lost support in key places. "Nkunda didn’t realise that he had lost political capital with a series of foolish moves," said a UN source in the regional capital of Goma.

"He thought he was indispensable and that he could do whatever he pleased." The forests of eastern Congo are the refuge of FDLR guerrillas, Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after the genocide. Kigali has long accused the DRC of not doing enough to clear the forests of Hutu gunmen.

As a result few doubt that Rwanda was offering assistance to Nkunda to do the job instead. A United Nations report last year cited evidence that Nkunda’s rebels were receiving cash and recruits from Rwanda, and that senior commanders had a direct line to officials in the Rwandan capital Kigali. But his leadership had been under threat ever since a breakaway faction of his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) declared a ceasefire earlier this week.

At times his comrades have been irritated by his erratic, narcissistic style promising one thing in media interviews, before contradicting himself days later. Last year his rebels sparked a major humanitarian crisis as they moved on the city of Goma. A quarter of a million people were forced from their homes. In the end Rwanda probably decided it no longer needed Nkunda’s bloody help.

"He’s an embarrassment for Kigali and he became part of the deal between Kinshasa and Kigali," said Francois Grignon, Africa director of the International Crisis Group in Nairobi. "He went too far." On Tuesday some 3500 Rwandan troops crossed the Congolese border to help DRC forces disarm the Hutu militias and Nkunda became surplus to requirements.

Photo by me: Laurent Nkunda and Olesegun Obasanjo inspect rebel troops

• Robert Mugabe dies of cholera, forensic scientists discover he was infected by contaminated ice in his gin and tonic
• Meles Zenawi announces Ethiopian troops will be pulling out of Somalia
• Kenya blacked out as rains flood hydro-electric dams
• Kenya blacked out as drought empties hydro-electric dams
• US State Department finds link between Somali pirates and al Qaeda. Somalia bombed into the, erm, stone age
• President Bashir of Sudan kicks off peace talks alone as Darfur rebels stay away. Talks break down after 24hr
• Raila Odinga, Kenyan Prime Minister, swaps his Merc for a Toyota Corolla and begins governing as the People’s Prime Minister, paying tax and everything
• Somali pirates buy Djibouti, launch bid for 2020 Olympics
• Laurent Nkunda apologises for all the trouble he’s caused in the DRC, in a statement issued by the Rwandan government
• Omar Bongo, long-serving leader of Gabon, explodes – pieces of his liver are grilled and served to diners in Gabon amid foie gras shortage

Any others?

On 29 November, Kony failed again to appear at the Ri-Kwangba assembly point to sign the Final Peace Agreement (FPA). Since April, armed actions attributed (not always accurately) to the LRA resumed in Sudan’s Western Equatoria state and the Bas Uélé district of the Congo (DRC). The LRA menace has moved out of Uganda, but the north does not yet have the certainty of sustainable peace.

Maybe even more alarmingly, the ICG raises the spectre of the LRA taking up its old role as a spoiler in southern Sudan…

It is available again as a proxy if Khartoum wants to disrupt the 2009 national elections, Southern Sudan’s 2011 referendum or restart war on the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s (SPLA) southern flank.

So how did we find ourselves in this position? Intelligence documents compiled by the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the DRC made it plain the LRA was cynically using the ceasefire to re-organise

“Simply put, Kony now has the ability to divide his forces into very simple groups and to reassemble them at will,” the report says. “When put together with his proven mastery of bush warfare, this gives him new potency within his area of operations.”

As I found out during my visit to Congo’s border with southern Sudan, LRA slaving parties were kidnapping children even as Kony talked peace and collected food, phones and cash from well-meaning charities and allies.
But what’s the alternative? Uganda’s miserable northern war has displaced millions and left thousands of children brutalised and damaged. A negotiated settlement seems the only way of ending it all. Surely Kony has to be given a chance to sign up to a deal. But at what point do his abuses constitute a breach of the ceasefire? And when do we give up on it.
Frankly, I have no idea any more. This war is too messy and Joseph Kony too elusive in too many ways to know the best way to handle him. It’s easy to say after the fact that we shouldn’t have given him so much wriggle room. But what else is there? Military solutions haven’t worked before. Will they work now?

The findings of collaboration with the Tutu rebels by the Rwandan government came on the same day that some of its leaders as well as officials from the Congolese government were meeting in Nairobi to try to negotiate a ceasefire. Those talks, according to the UN representative there, were already faltering. The Tutu rebels are led by General Nkunda, a former Congolese army general, who has said he is trying to protect the Tutu minority.

This is desperately worrying news. Followers of African affairs know that the more outlandish the dress of rebel fighters, the more violent their actions. Remember the feather boas, wigs and dresses of the Liberian and Sierre Leonian militias? Tutu fighters are seriously bad news.
(What I love about this is that this is not just a simple typo, it is repeated four times in the story – and debuts in the intro no less. Or has the Indy replaced its subs with a spellchecker?)

Lord Malloch-Brown said the region’s rich tin ore and coltan seams were a key factor in the conflict. "Not just Rwanda but all the neighbours have to make sure they are not supporting this criminal political economy by being the exit route for minerals," he said. "President Kagame has a role to play but it is a mistake to put it all on his shoulders."

Despite the accumulating evidence that Rwanda was supporting Nkunda, and Rwandan troops were fighting on his side, it seems that no-one wants to accuse a president who survived a genocide of bad things. Until the BBC got hold of a draft UN report…

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have both been directly helping rebels fighting in eastern DR Congo, according to a draft report for the UN. Rwanda is accused of supplying aid and child soldiers to Tutsi rebels. Rwanda has denied such accusations previously.

Nkunda’s commanders have been calling up officials in the Rwandan presidency, collecting cash from their Rwandan bank accounts and using child soldiers recruited by Rwandan officers, according to the report.