The Dutch Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs is visiting the Great Lakes region. On the agenda: meetings with people in eastern DRC and Rwanda, visits to (local) NGOs and exchanging thoughts with local politicians and international representatives in the area.

 
Impressed by strength
Chairman Henk Jan Ormel, who’s leading the delegation, is very impressed by the people he’s met so far: “In Bukavu [South Kivu], we met with a group of women who were raped. With the help of a local organisation, they are now trying to pick up their lives again. I’m amazed by the strength of these women. They were raped, were outcasts in their villages, yet they’re fighting to come back. There’s a lot of hope here. Everybody seems to have the feeling that what happened in the past, should not happen again.”
 
In Kinshasa, the delegation met with Members of Parliament who painted a rather bleak picture of the overall situation in DRC: no state involvement, no tax payment and hardly any budget to invest in much-needed infrastructure and education.
 
Maintaining peace through economic prosperity

To Ormel it is clear that a lot remains to be done. “DRC is effectively a failed state, a fragile state in a post-conflict situation. It relies a lot on the international community. And quite frankly, I think we should show some international solidarity. By helping people in eastern DRC, by giving them some economic prosperity, we can help maintain the peace that’s now here.”
 
The Netherlands play a significant role in fostering that fragile peace. It’s one of the largest donors in the area and has an active embassy with a special envoy in Goma. A year ago, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs handed out the Human Rights Defenders Tulip to Justine Masika Bihamba from Goma, who defends the rights of women raped during the conflict in DRC.
 
Heart of Africa
Ormel, for whom this is a first visit to the Great Lakes region, is happy to be back in Africa. “The nature here is just stunning: the hills, lake Kivu. The scary thing though is that although nature gives man a lot, it can also pose a real threat. All that is present here. You really sense that we’re in the heart of Africa.”
 
Artificial insemination
Even the Congolese animals don’t fail to impress Ormel, who was a veterinarian for 20 years prior to becoming a politician. “We visited a market with a lot of big Watusi cattle, with those giant horns. There were sheep and a pig and I spoke with the farmers. I even met a fellow veterinarian who told me they just artificially inseminated a cow for the very first time. He was so proud of it and it made me really happy. For a moment, I felt a vet again, instead of a politician.”
 
The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs will travel to Rwanda on January 7th, where they will stay for three days.

Photos: Flickr, Henk Jan Ormel's private collection