--- Raw Prep Notes---

Yes, because corruption is at the core of Congo’s current government

Norwegian Refugee Council 6-6-2024: Violence from gangs, extremist parties have resulted in the internal displacement of 7.2 million people in Congo.

On 3-15-2024, the Congo’s government announced that it has resumed the use of death penalties to tackle such militant violence.

This idea may seem appealing, but you may also want to consider that Congo’s government scored a disorienting 20/100 on the corruption index. Can we really trust them to operate the death penalty?

3-steps to how the death penalty is used to silence government opposition

Congo police literally use tear gas to disperse crowds of protestors. But this still doesn’t seem sufficient. 

[So the first reason why Congo's resumption of the death penalty will be used to fight political opponents is because]

1. Death penalty is a tool to engage in political repression

   1. Human Rights Watch 8-22-2023: Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have targeted leaders of opposition political parties

   2. [Same article continues]: There has been waves of arrests directed towards opposition presidential candidates and their top officials

   3. The resumption of the death penalty becomes the final stepping stone for the current government to fully eliminate the captured political opponents

The Congo government have passed specific laws to combat corruption, but the laws have remained ineffective in practice. That may just be because the officials enforcing such laws are also...corrupt.

[The second reason why Congo's resumption of the death penalty will be used to fight political opponents is because]

2. Those prosecuted are subject to judicial manipulation

a. Unlike functional democracies, the Supreme Court of Congo is dependent the rest of the government

• Judges are nominated by the president, which means the entire judiciary branch of Congo is subject to governmental influence.

b. Judges appointed are often those whose decisions appeal to president’s regime, who will act only to benefit the current government

• Amnesty 3-15-2024: Hundreds of people were put on death row following unfair trials and politically motivated charges

c. Death penalty will then be, directly or indirectly, targeted towards silencing the government’s political opponents

If you saw your friend get beheaded for publicly insulting a president, you probably would not do that. At least not publicly.

[That's why the third reason Congo's resumption of the death penalty will be used to fight political opponents is because]

3. Intimidate other opposition groups

a. In the past, it is difficult for the government to suppress political opposition since they do not have much to fear

b. Resuming death penalties becomes effective tool to intimidate opposition groups

c. The fear of death will reduce the amount of people who dare oppose the government publicly.

• This idea can be verified by looking at other regimes. For example opposition groups in Russia are afraid to speak up because they know they will get jailed and probably assassinated too

  
  

It seems inevitable that the death penalty becomes a political weapon to serve the many corrupt members of Congo's government.