Congo's hope

EDITORIAL - The Boston Globe: "AT THE heart of Africa is a failed state, the Democratic Republic of Congo. As large as the eastern United States, it has been the scene of a festering series of wars that have caused the deaths -- through battle, disease, or malnutrition -- of 3.5 million civilians since the mid-1990s, more than any other conflict since World War II. Its weak, corrupt, and incompetent government breeds rebellion from within and armed incursions from outsiders eager to exploit the Congo's substantial mineral riches.

Now, for the first time in more than 40 years, the nation will have a free election. The United Nations should not stint on resources for the voting, scheduled for before July 2006, and for continued peacekeeping operations.

Congo needs nation-building of the most basic kind. Its roads, telecommunications, health facilities, and other infrastructure are deplorable. Corruption is pervasive. These conditions inspired the candidacy for president of a Congolese physician, Dr. Oscar Kashala, who has worked since 2002 at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. Congo is a sick society, he says, that needs to be addressed in the way a doctor would. Improving public health will be key, he says, in a country where life expectancy is in the 40s.

The elections, which are called for in the 2003 agreement ending the civil war, are seen as a way to provide a measure of legitimacy to whatever leadership emerges. The current president, Joseph Kabila, is a son of Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated by one his own bodyguards in 2001. Laurent Kabila had led a guerrilla force that deposed the country's longtime despot, Mobutu Sese Seko, in 1997. A fragile, frequently violated peace is being maintained by 16,700 UN peacekeepers, the largest contingent in the world.

Just registering eligible voters among the 60 million Congolese will be a Herculean task. Late last month, the Security Council gave the United Nations the go-ahead to spend $103 million on election activities. Because the country's roads are in such poor condition, election organizers are relying on peacekeeper helicopters to transport balloting equipment to towns and villages.

In May, Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council for an additional 2,590 peacekeepers for Congo. Because the United States funds 25 percent of the cost of peacekeeping operations, Congress has reserved the right to vote on each troop deployment individually. It recessed for the summer without acting on Annan's request.

Now that Congress is back, it should approve the troops so the Security Council can give its own OK. A strong peacekeeping force and a fair election are the best hopes for pulling Congo out of chaos and toward progress."