Vatican City – The Congolese National Bishops' Conference is calling on all Congolese to refrain from violence as the country's October 29th presidential elections draw near, urging all people to use their fledgling civic powers to prevail on the country's rising leaders to ensure the process passes off peacefully and legitimately.

Saturday marked the official kick-off of campaigning for the elections, which will finally decide the winner between the two candidates who garnered the most votes in the first round on July 30. Joseph Kabila, president of the Congo's interim government, won roughly 45% of the votes cast, while an interim vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, garnered about 20%. Neither won the 50% majority needed to win the election in the first round of voting.

In a statement released on October 5th, the bishops' conference, known as CENCO in the Congo, said it "invites the national and international community, while there still is time, to reject evil so that in this way the elections will usher in a better future, because the Congo is in danger."

The statement also condemns the acts of violence that broke out in the capital Kinshasa, where the personal armies of both candidates clashed shortly after the preliminary results of the first round were released, killing at least 30 people.

"These events led to several deaths and resulted in destruction [of property]. They created panic and great concern for the normal completion of the electoral process. They planted a serious seed of doubt over the willingness of those in power to do away with logic by force of arms in order to participate in the logic of democracy. Our people have shown clearly that they reject war, because they have already suffered too much violence. May no one bring war back to this country."

CENCO also underlines the importance of bringing to account those responsible for the violent flare-ups during this important and fragile election period, so that fear and intimidation can in no way influence the vote.

"It is of the utmost importance that the causes of this violence are brought to light if we want to guarantee the credibility and the possibility of a satisfactory result from the vote on October 29, 2006. The two candidates [] must show their commitment to ridding themselves of armed militias that threaten to take the people as their hostage. Without this proof, it is feared the people will not participate in a ballot that could replunge them into violence."

The bishops call on the Congolese and all the international observers involved to see the process through, so that the wishes of the Congolese people as deposited in the ballot boxes are respected and reliable.

Call for Unity
CENCO calls on the Congolese people to engage in and monitor the political process to secure their country's future, in essence making a leap of faith in facing their fears of exclusion, abuse, and reprisals that have marked the Congo's violent past. It calls for them to be courageous in showing national unity, instead of giving into forces exploiting ethnic rivalries to split the country into east versus west factions.

"With the people we say no to any attempt to balkanize the Congo to weaken it and exploit it at a whim…. National integrity and national sovereignty are not negotiable. We ask the people to remain vigilant to bar the way of anyone who wants to divide the Congolese for hidden interests."

The bishops' conference also denounces the continuing lack of attention given in the international media to the fact that the Congo's vast mineral resources continue to be pillaged by external powers, fuelling conflicts internally in the country that continue to kill innocent people.

"We know that the election process is yet imperfect, we are asking for a certain amount of patience as well as participation on the part of the Congolese people," said Bruno Miteyo, deputy director of Caritas Développment Congo, CENCO's humanitarian arm.

"We realize there were irregularities in the first round of voting, but with time and dedication, the process will be honed. These certainly are no reason to de-rail the entire process," he explained.

The national bishops' conference is also calling on the future elected leaders of the country to break with the past, to root out corruption and to serve the people as truly democratic leaders should. Their reconstruction programmes should be scrutinized in the lead-up to the final vote just about a week and a half away.

Meanwhile, Church leaders in the Congo remind us that human suffering in their country is far from over.

"Beyond the electoral process, which takes up all the headlines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are still humanitarian crises that mustn't be overlooked," Fulgence Muteba, the Bishop of Kilwa-Kasenga in the Congo's conflict-torn Katanga province.

More than 4 million people have died in the Congo, mostly from hunger and disease, since a regional war broke out from 1998-2003.

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.

For more information, contact: 
Nancy McNally, media officer
Tel: +39 06 69879752
mcnally@caritas.va
www.caritas.org

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