Situation Report: The Impact of Slow Military Reform on the Transition Process in the DRC, Stephanie Wolters and Henri Boshoff

After nearly three years and a number of delays, the transition period in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now set to come to an end by 31 July 2006. A new constitution was adopted by referendum held in late 2005, paving the way for presidential and legislative elections, which are now set to take place on July 30.

This will be the first Congolese government to have been elected in free and fair elections since the first post-independence government of Patrice Lumumba in 1960. It is not only for this historic reason that expectations are high, however; over 4 million people have died over the last eight years of war and turmoil, most of them because they had been displaced from their homes, were too poor to pay for proper medical care, or because the health infrastructure has simply collapsed. Millions of people are displaced or living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries; the formal economy has disintegrated and is not yet sufficiently recovered to absorb the country’s vast unemployed population. Life has been unbearably difficult for most Congolese and they are waiting desperately for things to finally take a definitive turn for the better. Unfortunately, the holding of elections – however free and fair they may turn out to be – is unlikely to usher in the new era of peace, stability and economic recovery that the country and its people so desperately need.