Presidential elections in Democratic Republic of Congo this month could lead to conflict if they are not free, fair and peaceful and indications show they will not be, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege said.
The elections on December 23 will mark Congo’s first democratic transfer of power and end President Joseph Kabila’s rule that began in 2001 after the assassination of his father.
Mukwege will jointly receive the 2018 prize in Oslo for his work as a doctor who helps victims of sexual violence in the eastern Congo city Bukavu. He has performed surgery on scores of women after they were raped by armed men and campaigns to highlight their plight.
Nadia Murad, a Yazidi rights activist and survivor of Islamic State sexual slavery, will also receive the prize.
“What I have seen as I was leaving my country did not reassure me,” Mukwege told Reuters, hours before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in front of King Harald.
“There is little electoral preparation and a lot of military preparation. I am worried these elections will not be free, fair, credible and peaceful and if there are frauds supporters (from losing candidates) will not accept them.”
He said election authorities were struggling to meet deadlines and violence was worsening in the eastern borderlands with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
“These elements suggest oppression is being prepared, at the very minimum and it could be a war against its own people is being prepared,” he said.
Kabila was due to step down in 2016 at the end of his constitutional mandate. The election to replace him was repeatedly delayed, igniting protests in which dozens were killed.
Kabila told Reuters preparations for the election were proceeding smoothly and he wanted it to be “as close to perfection” as possible.
He he planned to stay in politics when he steps down and did not rule out running again for president in 2023. Critics say he could rule from behind the scenes if his candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, wins.
Mukwege said Kabila had the right as every Congolese citizen to run for president in 2023 but hoped voters would remember Kabila’s “broken promises”.
“None of the elements needed to install a real democracy have been made during his time in power,” he said.
A war in which some five million people died, most from hunger and disease, ended in 2003, but violence is still a problem and militias target civilians.
Mukwege called for pressure on manufacturers using cobalt and coltan that Congo produces to control supply chains to prevent child and slave labour.
He also called for pressure on Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda to pacify armed groups fighting in eastern Congo.
He wants “serious mining players” to push government to pacify the country’s east so they can mine ethically.
It was not possible to reach a spokesman for government.
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