Posted by:
cludgie
(
)
Date: March 15, 2018 02:44PM
I was stationed in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, between 2005 and 2008. There was a lot of chaos and military violence during that time. I've probably talked about it too much, but it was one of those pivotal moments in mondo mio. During this time, an LDS church security employee came through and interviewed a couple of us American Mormons regarding the security situation and how bad it was. We (I think only three of us) agreed that the church should shut down the mission, or conduct the business from another country, such as Cameroon, a far safer place that was still in the mission. The only American LDS missionaries in Kinshasa were the senior missionaries who were on the mission staff in one capacity or another. They were clueless old people, who didn't speak the language and had no connection with the culture, other than to constantly talk about how stupid the Congolese were. There were no white American boys in the DRC, only black African kids; it would seem they are more expendable than the white American kids. White American kids assigned to the Kinshasa mission only operated in the much safer Cameroon (still in the Kinshasa mission), transferring back and forth between Douala and Yaounde. I have no idea what may have changed.
After Mark the security guy departed, there was another round of bad military violence, and he contacted me for input. When scanning an old hard drive today, I re-found my response. Here's what I wrote:
Dear Mark,
I’m just now getting back to you regarding your big question about the Vodacom building [location of the mission office and mission president's flat]. You asked if it was now safe there because Bemba’s guys are not in the immediate vicinity anymore. My answer is that it’ll never be safe. We fully expect more rounds of violence to flair up regularly, if not frequently. Each time they do, Vodacom will be a big target for one reason or another. Any future fighting is destined to occur there or close by it. It sticks up some eight or nine storeys, and becomes a place where many bullets and RPG rounds hit.
I am alarmed more than ever by local missionary attitudes here. We had dinner with them last night, and they were showing a slide show of the scenes of violence that they witnessed. I said that you and your office needed to see the pictures to get a good idea of what happened and how dangerous it was, and they actually said that they couldn’t tell your office everything, and you didn’t need to know how bad it got. This means, of course, that they are wilfully withholding information from you because of what the information indicates, namely just how dangerous it is here. Anyway, you need to just casually ask them if they wouldn’t mind sending you any pictures they had of the activity.
I don’t know if you have heard, but the mission president’s home took four bullets and two RPG rounds. The RPG’s didn’t make it inside, fortunately, but one hit the balcony, and one hit next to the laundry area. If they had retreated to the mission president’s apartment as they did last time, someone would likely have been killed. The building is a total wreck, even if the mission office was spared.
I also don’t know if you know that the [missionary couple's] apartment building, located right in the midst of the worst fighting this time, was hit by an RPG a couple of floors above the [missionary couple's apartment], and a mortar round hit the parking shed and destroyed a vehicle. The worst part is that a man was killed in the apartment above the [missionary couple], and no one picked up the body. So they aren’t going back to their place until the body is disposed of, and have been in the [missionary couple 2] place for over a week now. Today they are staying in the [missionary president's] place, but they would not allow me up there to see it because they don’t want me photographing it and sending you the pictures.
I find all this alarming, and I want to get the word out to your whole office. I would like, therefore, to get your E-mail alias that will go to the entire staff. That’s where I’d like to begin, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll just go higher. Someone has to get the missionaries on track here regarding their own safety, and it doesn’t look like they are going to do it. Of course, you could forward all this info for me, too, but you need to promise me.
Everyone needs to also know that the American Embassy cannot do anything for non-official people living in whatever country the embassy is responsible for. That is not the job of an embassy, and Americans can find no refuge or help during any times of civil strife by turning to the embassy. Many or most do not seem to know this. [Missionary couple wife] was completely unaware, for instance, that she could not come to the embassy for routine medical help from our small staff whose job it is to keep us in malaria pills, and to send us to South Africa when we have any real problem. Apparently many people, including the missionaries, are naïve and not armed with enough information to keep them safer.
The truth is, no one can be safe here. In addition to a long history of regular political and military strife, there is no medical care, no hospital transport, and nothing to help you in case of accident, heart attack, head trauma, or any severe medical trouble. If the missionaries were injured in a car accident, the only thing they could depend on would be that bystanders would steal them blind, taking even their shoes and clothing. If the bystanders thought that the missionaries were at fault for injuring or killing someone, they would beat them, perhaps kill them, and set the car on fire. This is what happens here. I am safer because I have diplomatic license plate, but there is nothing to save them from injury or death caused by excited bystanders and onlookers in the case of an accident where they seem to be at fault.
In short, there is no kind of guarantee of any sort of safety here, most particularly with the missionaries’ current situation. They need to be moved to a safer place, and begin operating under a different set of rules if they are to stay. It’s really best to move them, whether or not it means shutting down the mission. The mission can be run from somewhere else.
So, I’ve had my say. Jeff won’t write to you because he’s too ticked off about the whole affair, but I thought I’d get in one last grab. I don’t mean to set you off, or anything. I hope you’re doing okay. Let me know what you think.
mt
The good news is that my letter got them to send missionaries to Congo via South Africa, where they went through a 14-day orientation about safety in the Congo, and I believe the mission subscribed to one of the several South African personal security companies that--for a very large fee--will evacuate their charges in emergencies. I have no idea if they still do this.