jodawi | Conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo Deadliest Since World War II, Says The IRC

The deadliest conflict since World War II has probably never made the headlines of your morning paper. While the world’s attention has been focused on wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and now Iraq the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has claimed the lives of 3.3 million civilians.

“It’s still the biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet,” said Michael Despines, IRC senior policy and program advisor. From a base in Bukavu, he headed the IRC’s operations in eastern Congo for six years until taking on a new assignment in December 2002.

“This is not a war of troops fighting against troops,” said Werner Vansant, director of the IRC’s operations in Congo, who is based in the capital, Kinshasa. “It’s a war against civil society, where infrastructures are destroyed and looted, all medicines stolen from health posts, key people like nurses are killed in villages, agricultural fields are destroyed.”

...

But the IRC’s research found some cause for hope. While people continued to die at an extraordinary rate, death from violence in the east dropped by 90 percent compared to the previous three years of the war, and overall mortality also declined significantly.

The IRC believes a number of positive developments have contributed to greater stability and the decline in excess mortality. Peace talks in South Africa have led to the withdrawal of most foreign forces, as well as a framework for implementing a peace accord and developing a government of reconciliation. And some 5,500 UN observers have taken up position in the country. This environment of improved security enabled humanitarian aid organizations like the IRC to expand emergency health services and infrastructure support programs, particularly in previously inaccessible areas.

However, the peace process is in danger. There are new outbreaks of fighting in northeastern Ituri, and Uganda has reoccupied areas of the province. Meanwhile, Rwanda, which withdrew its forces last October, is threatening to reinvade, and militias that perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, still lurk in the forests of eastern Congo.

“Unless there is rapid and bold international investment in strengthening this peace process, all that has been gained in Congo could be lost,” said George Rupp. “We hope the findings in this report compel the international community to take action.”

http://www.theirc.org/mortality/?m_id=44

So if 3,000 dead in the WTC attack results in all that it has resulted in, we'll now all expend 1000 times that amount of effort and attention on this problem, since 3,000,000 have died in this conflict.

Right?

Candle-light vigils? Mass international debate? 24-hour coverage by Fox News? Debates breaking out in every public and private forum? Protestors clashing with police? Remaking of Africa?

Surely we wouldn't spend 1000 times less attention on this. Unless the WTC victims were a million times more important than those that die in the Congo. Or unless hypocrisy, racism, nationalism, and selfish self-interest are the true motivating factors behind much of our debate, interest, and idealistic claims?

[Poll #127288]

Despite sarcastic tone, these are not rhetorical questions.