Aid Organizations Help Congo Prepare for Elections

At least half of the Democratic Republic of Congo's 60 million people are Catholic and the Church is very influential in this nation the size of Western Europe. The German Catholic aid organization Caritas has been active in Congo since 1994. Bruno Miteyo heads the country's office in Kinshasa.

DW-WORLD.DE: On Sunday, Congo will hold the first free elections in over 40 years. How have Caritas and other Catholic aid organizations helped people prepare for these elections?

Bruno Miteyo: The work of Caritas is the work of the Church. Our Bishop's Conference in Congo decided to train and educate people in the spirit of transition and to accompany them to this election. For the last two years, we have been all over the country. The Catholic Church is very popular here. We have parishes, churches and many different communities. We have been training people how to go to the elections, what to do and now, we are almost at the end of this transition period. Now, the elections are coming.

What about humanitarian work?

We work especially in the area of emergency measures. We are one country in Africa, which has faced a major catastrophe. During the last 10 years, 3.8 million people have died because of the war and because of the intolerance. More than 2.5 million people are internally displaced. They are running through the country and don't have anything. So, Caritas and other aid organizations are trying to give them support, food and medicine in order to give those people who are suffering a small sense of dignity.

The Catholic Church has an extensive presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. How does Caritas benefit from the Church's infrastructure?

The Catholic Church has been involved in all the infrastructure in health, in schools and in small factories. But now, much of it has been destroyed by the war.

The minimum infrastructure you can still find out in the country comes from the Catholic Church. We now have more than 1,000 observers for the election throughout the country. They can take advantage of this infrastructure. And the population across the country knows that the small support that can be given comes from the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church in Congo criticized election preparations last week, citing fears of manipulation. What is your impression of the feeling among the people about the elections on Sunday?

First of all, everybody would like to vote. There is nobody in this country who doesn't want to go to the elections. It is a wish for everybody. There is the feeling, though, that we are going to this election, but we don't see clearly where we are going. That's why the Bishop's Conference said that there needs to be a minimum of conditions to go to the election. What kind of conditions? We need transparency. We need to clarify some things, which are not clear. We need to go to the polls with the feeling of people facing a big challenge in order to get democracy, to have leaders who are going to lead the people, who are going to set up a good government. But there is something that isn't clear and we need to clarify that.