Something I should have added in the original article:
If former warlords and other divisive and crooked politicians were to be excluded in future elections(a necessity in DRC), then they should be paid a generous salary for life to ensure their continued cooperation with future governments. This is a very small price to pay to save millions of people from being killed in future wars.
These former senior warlords/senior political crooks cannot be more than 300 in number. Their pay would hardly dent the US$24 Trillion in DRC mineral wealth. This wealth has made powerful global forces lay the groundwork that has resulted in over 6 million Congolese civilians being killed as they pitted one community against the other through incitement - keeping peasants busy massacring each other, as the powers-that-be raped the country.
1996–1997: 250 thousand – 800 thousand civilians killed. 1998-2003: 4.7 million civilians killed. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/08/congo.jamesastill
Civilians get killed regularly up to this day. Currently, “there are over 70 armed groups operating in the DRC.” https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/atrocity-alert-no-116-1-august-2018
And now, these same powerful forces are not concerned about the fate of the sick and homeless civilians and the fact that the country is too divided and unstable, and an election now will only exacerbate the instability and violence. All they want is their kin to become president so they can grab the minerals from the front gate.
RE: War & Peace in the Congo(DRC)