A forgotten war in a forgotten country may end.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

A war with over 4 million dead and 1200 still dying DAILY goes almost completely unreported and is ignored. Could it possibly be that, like the genocide in Rwanda that led to this war, it has anything to do with it being fought and endured by black people? Consider that a rhetorical question.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061029/wl_nm/congo_democratic_dc_6

Congolese vote to end war and exploitation

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Millions of Congolese voted on Sunday in a presidential election they desperately hope will end decades of war, pillage and kleptocracy and open a new chapter of reconstruction in the mineral-rich but destitute nation.


The enthusiasm of many Congolese for the vote across a country the size of western Europe was palpable.

Despite driving rain, Isidor Kaombe arrived to vote before his Kinshasa polling station opened. "We need this vote to put an end to the mess. With God's help we will," he said. In war-ravaged Ituri, 1,000 miles east of Kinshasa, Jules Katasko could not hold back a smile after posting his voting paper into the bright orange ballot box.

"For most of my life we had Mobutu Sese Seko, a dictator. If he said 'Yes', we all had to do it; he said 'No', we all had to stop it. Now it's us who decide whether it's 'Yes' or 'No'."

The election is the final step in a peace process after five years of the bloodiest conflict since World War Two.
More than 4 million people died in the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war, which ended in 2003, and 1,200 still perish every day. Thousands of gunmen roam the country.