Op-ed (It may not be NYtimes quality but at least you don’t have to pay for it!)

In Kinshasa a Congolese journalist, Bapuwa Muamba, was recently shot to death in his home. He had previously written articles condemning the interim government. Street theft is high in Kinshasa; violent crime in one’s home is not. The possibility of Mr. Muamba being the victim of an isolated occurrence of military aggression given his professional and political position seems unlikely. Nonetheless, there has been hesitation to label Mr. Muamba’s murder as political. With the first election in over 45 years in Congo less than three weeks away this fact warrants further consideration.

The international community is widely criticized by the political opposition for favoring the current president, Joseph Kabila, in the upcoming elections. Labeling Mr. Muamba’s death as political would put the current government as well as the international community that backs him (whether this support is real or perceived) in a precarious position.

If Kabila, or his political allies, sanctioned the killing of Mr. Muamba his candidacy for President should be immediately revoked. Such an event would, however, set the most expensive elections for foreign donors to date into a tailspin. Violence would most likely ensue in the grab for power and hundreds, potentially thousands, of civilians could be caught in the crossfire.

So the question: what to do? Should the international community (either jointly or individually) investigate Mr. Muamba’s death more carefully and if necessary denounce Kabila and his supporters? Or should the current status quo of condemning human rights abuses be maintained without more serious searches for actual perpetrators? Support for the latter option may result in as many civilian deaths as the first, albeit over a longer time period. This is because continued passivity toward events such as Mr. Muamba’s death directly undermines the legitimacy of the elections by shattering the already tenuous Congolese confidence in democracy.

International supporters and organizers of the elections have always faced a skeptical Congolese population, and understandably so. Mobuto was after all installed and backed by the West while he raped the country for over 40 years under the protection of the Cold War. Therefore, as a large player in the upcoming elections (both in terms of financial and military support), with a tarnished image of neutrality (again, real or perceived) the international community must not only claim its neutrality but also prove it. Pushing for a direct investigation into the death of Mr. Muamba would be a step in the right direction. Not demanding such an investigation from the government will only strengthen the growing Congolese perception that democracy is not a form of government but rather yet another Western export to be swallowed or else.