Congo E-Book

Thomas Turner

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Global Political Hot Spots
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 389

Beschreibung

The Democratic Republic of Congo has become one of the world's bloodiest hot spots. 2003 saw the end of a five-year war in which millions lost their lives - one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II. Despite recent peace agreements and democratic elections, the country is still plagued by army and militia violence. Congo remains deeply troubled, since the deep-rooted causes of conflict have not been adequately addressed. The conflict in the DRC has divided opinion; some call it a civil war, or a war of aggression by the country's neighbours; others a continuation of Rwanda's Hutu-Tutsi conflict on Congolose soil, and a war of partition and pillage. The prevalence of rape and sexual violence has led some analysts to mark it out as a hidden 'war against women'. Tom Turner's insightful book reveals how each of these descriptions accurately captures the separate elements of this complex and multidimensional political conflict. In exploring each of these contributory factors, he shows how current attempts to rebuild the shattered state and society of DRC are doomed to fail. So long as the full complexity of the Congo crisis is not taken into account and a clear consensus as to its precise dimensions reached, the future looks bleak. The DRC, he argues, will likely remain a global hot spot for some time to come.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Maps

Abbreviations

Preface

Author’s Note

Introduction: Congo, a Perennial Hot Spot

Congo and Its “Free State”

The Structure of This Book

1 Congo as a Playing Field

Extra-continental Actors

Conclusion

2 African Players on the Congo Field

Rwanda and the Congo Wars

Uganda’s Role in Congo

Burundi and Its Back Door

Angola

Realism in Central Africa

3 Identity as a Driver of Conflict

Locals and Strangers

Language and Politics

Ethnic Consciousness in Congo

Ethnicity and Autochthony in the Kivus

Ethnicity, Province, and Nation in Katanga

Religious Identity in DRC

The Absence of Class

4 Congo’s War Against Women

Killing and Raping: The Numbers Game

The Rape Toll

HIV/AIDS and Congolese Women

An “Epidemic” of Sexual Violence?

Culture of Violence and Impunity

The Armed Forces and Sexual Assault

Trauma and Trauma Healing

Trauma Healing on Three Levels

Conclusion

5 Congo’s “Resource Curse”

Greed and Grievance in Central Africa

Conflict and “Conflict Minerals” in DRC’s Hybrid War

Tackling the Supply Chain

Minerals in the Former Government Zone

The Future of Congo’s Oil

Conclusion: Who Will Get a Slice?

6 The Responsibility to Protect

Responsibility to Protect, Globally and in DRC

End of the Tunnel or More of the Same?

Justice and Protection

Bibliography

Index

Copyright © Thomas Turner 2013

The right of Thomas Turner to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2013 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4843-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4844-6(pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5672-4 (Multi-user ebook)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5673-1 (Single-user ebook)

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Maps

1 Democratic Republic of Congo

2 Distribution of national languages

3 Presidential election, 2006, first round, results by province

4 Congo minerals

Abbreviations

ABAKOAssociation des Bakongo pour l’Unification, la Conservation et l’Expansion de la Langue Kikongo/Association for the Maintenance, the Unity, and the Expansion of the Kikongo Language (1950); also Alliance des Bâtisseurs du Kongo/Alliance of Builders of Kongo (present day)ABIRAnglo-Belgian India Rubber CompanyADFAllied Democratic ForcesADPAlliance Démocratique des Peuples/Democratic Alliance of PeoplesAFDLAlliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre/Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-ZaïreALiRArmée pour la Libération du Rwanda/Army for the Liberation of RwandaAMISOMAfrican Union Mission in SomaliaANCArmée Nationale Congolaise/Congolese National ArmyAPLArmée Populaire de Libération/People’s Liberation ArmyAsadhoAssociation Africaine de Défense des Droits de l’Homme/African Association for Defense of Human RightsAUAfrican UnionBCKCompagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas – Congo au Katanga/ Lower Congo–Katanga Railroad CompanyBDKBundu dia Kongo/Kingdom of KongoCCUConvention des Congolais Unis/Convention of United CongoleseCEEACCommunauté Économique des États de l’Afrique Centrale/Economic Community of Central African StatesCEPGLCommunauté Économique des Pays des Grands Lacs/Economic Community of the Great Lakes CountriesCIATComité International d’Accompagnement de la Transition/International Committee in Support of the TransitionCIRGLConférence Internationale sur la Région des Grands Lacs/International Conference on the Great Lakes RegionCNDDConseil National pour la Défense de Démocratie/National Council for the Defense of DemocracyCNLConseil National de Libération/National Liberation CouncilCNDPCongrès National pour la Défense du Peuple/National Congress for the Defense of the PeopleCNSConférence Nationale Souveraine/Sovereign National ConferenceCOJESKICollectif des Organisations des Jeunes Solidaires du Congo-Kinshasa/Collective of Organizations and Youth Associations in Congo-KinshasaCONAKATConfédération des Associations Tribales du Katanga/Confederation of Katanga Tribal AssociationsDOCSDoctors on Call for ServiceDRCDemocratic Republic of CongoECOWASEconomic Community of West African StatesEIBEuropean Investment BankEJCSKÉglise de Jésus Christ sur la Terre par son Envoyé Spécial Simon Kimbangu/The Church of Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon KimbanguFACForces Armées Congolaises/Congolese Armed ForcesFAOFood and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsFARForces Armées Rwandaises/Rwandan Armed ForcesFARDCForces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo/Democratic Republic of Congo Armed ForcesFAZForces Armées Zaïroises/Zaïrian Armed ForcesFDLRForces Démocratiques du Libération du Rwanda/Democratic Forces for the Liberation of RwandaFLECFrente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda/Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda EnclaveFLNCFront de Libération Nationale du Congo/Congo National Liberation FrontFNLForces Nationales de Libération/National Forces of LiberationFNLAFrente Nacional de Libertação de Angola/National Liberation Front of AngolaGAOGovernment Accountability OfficeIACInternational Association of CongoIRCInternational Rescue CommitteeLRALord’s Resistance ArmyMIBMission d’Immigration des Banyaruanda/Banyarwanda Immigration MissionMIBAMinière de Bakwanga/Bakwanga MiningMLCMouvement de Libération du Congo/Congo Liberation MovementMONUCUnited Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the CongoMONUSCOUnited Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the CongoMPLAMovimento Popular de Libertação de Angola/Popular Movement for the Liberation of AngolaMPRMouvement Populaire de la Révolution/Popular Movement of the RevolutionMRCMouvement Révolutionnaire Congolais/Congolese Revolutionary MovementMRLZMouvement Révolutionnaire pour la Libération du Zaïre/Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of ZaïreOAUOrganization of African UnityONUCOpération des Nations Unies au Congo/United Nations Operation in the CongoPALUParti Lumumbiste Unifié/Unified Lumumbist PartyPDSCParti Démocrate et Social Chrétien/Democratic Social-Christian PartyPPRDPeople’s Party for Reconstruction and Parti du Peuple Pour la Reconstruction et la Démocratie/DemocracyPRPParti Révolutionnaire du Peuple/People’s Revolutionary PartyPSAParti Solidaire Africain/African Solidarity PartyR2PResponsibility to ProtectRANURwandese Alliance for National UnityRCDRassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie/Congolese Rally for DemocracyRCD-MLRCD-Mouvement de Libération/RCD-Liberation MovementRPARwandan Patriotic ArmyRPFRwandan Patriotic FrontSADCSouthern African Development CommunitySECSecurities and Exchange CommissionSFVSSynergie des Femmes pour les Victimes des Violences Sexuelles/Women’s Synergy for Victims of Sexual ViolenceSMTFSociété Minière de Tenke-Fungurume/Tenke-Fungurume Mining CompanySOMIGLSociété Minière des Grands Lacs/Great Lakes Mining CompanySPLASudanese People’s Liberation ArmyUDEMOUnion of Mobutist DemocratsUDPSUnion pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social/Union for Democracy and Social ProgressUFERIUnion des Fédéralistes et des Républicains Indépendants/Union of Federalists andIndependent RepublicansUMHKUnion Minière du Haut-Katanga/Upper Katanga Mining UnionUNAMIRUnited Nations Assistance Mission for RwandaUNHCRUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the UN Refugee Agency)UNITAUnião Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola/National Union for the Total Independence of AngolaUNMISUN Mission in SudanUPDFUganda People’s Defense Force

Preface

This book is the fruit of decades of study of Congolese politics, from a variety of perspectives. Teaching in Congolese universities, I learned a great deal from my colleagues and from my students. My stints at the University of Nairobi, the University of Tunis-El Manar, and the National University of Rwanda also were very fruitful.

On two occasions, in Zaïre (DRC), and in Rwanda, I experienced a dictatorship establishing its control over the university. In Kenya and in Tunisia, in contrast, the campuses were restive under well-established authoritarian rule. I do not claim to have foreseen the electoral defeat of Kenya’s Daniel arap Moi or (even less) the Jasmine Revolution by which the Tunisian people ousted the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, but the advance signs were visible. I remember riding on a tourist boat operating out of Lamu, flying the Kenyan flag upside down, the universal sign of distress. In Tunis, I attended an evening party at which Tunisian intellectuals excoriated Ben Ali (in French, presumably for my benefit) until one of the wives interjected, “At least he is protecting us from the Islamists.” Each of these situations was unique, yet each offered interesting insights into the roles of intellectuals as critics and sometimes as collaborators with authoritarianism. I have tried to draw on these experiences in writing this book.

I would like to thank my professors, my colleagues, and my students, who have taught me so much. I have to begin with Henry Hart, Crawford Young, and Jan Vansina, my professors at the University of Wisconsin. Many of my classmates from Madison have been very helpful over the years; Georges Nzongola, Catharine and David Newbury, Robert Smith, Sandie Turner, and David Henige deserve special thanks.

I would also like to thank Hamadi Redissi of Tunis and Korwa Adar of Nairobi, for their insights into politics in their respective countries. In Rwanda, I learned a great deal from the late Emmanuel Bugingo, Marie-Thérèse Kampire, and Déo Mbonyinkebe.

Other friends and colleagues who have helped me move forward include Augustin Bifuko, Edouard Bustin, John Clark, Charles Gilman, Ruth Kornfield, Allen Roberts, and Herbert Weiss. None of them is responsible for any deficiencies in this text.

In my early research, I tried to balance documentary research in the administrative archives in Congo and Belgium with information and insights from interviews in the field. Over the years, I came to realize the need to broaden the definition of sources. To understand how Congolese remember and interpret their history, in this book I draw on paintings and songs, including Tshibumba’s history paintings (several of which are in my collection) and Franco’s song “Candidat na biso Mobutu,” for insight into Belgian colonial rule and the Mobutu regime, respectively.

This book represents an effort to synthesize what is known about the perennial conflict that has torn apart Congo since the days of Leopold’s Congo Free State. The book is not as complete as the two major works of recent years – Filip Reyntjens’s The Great African War and Gérard Prunier’s Africa’s World War – but it updates the story of the Congo wars and broadens the geographic scope, to deal with politics, minerals, and other topics outside the war zone in the east.

There are several questions that I would like to have answered, but cannot answer at this point. I would like to be able to show at what point the United States government became committed to the Tutsi reconquista, carried out by the RPF under the leadership of Paul Kagame. Some of my colleagues – René Lemarchand for one – are convinced that the RPF shot down the plane carrying President Habyarimana, the event that set off the genocide of 1994. I remain agnostic on this point, although the ruthlessness that Kagame has shown since then, particularly in continued support for “rebellions” or “mutinies” of Congolese Tutsi, lends credence to such a claim. I would like to be able to say who exactly gave the order to kill President Laurent Kabila of DRC, in 2001, and to install young Joseph Kabila as his successor, but I cannot.

This book would not have taken the form it has had I not spent more than five years as a Country Specialist on DRC for Amnesty International USA. Amnesty International has an enviable record as an advocate for the cause of human rights over the past half-century. This is particularly the case as regards DRC and the neighboring states of Africa’s Great Lakes region. In the late years of the Mobutu dictatorship, Amnesty was a leader in denouncing the violence against democracy protestors and against ethnic minorities, especially Luba-Kasai and speakers of Kinyarwanda (both Hutu and Tutsi). Following the Rwanda genocide, Amnesty pointed out the problems resulting from Hutu soldiers and allied militias (ex-FAR and Interahamwe) operating from Zaïrian territory. Once the Rwandan army and its Ugandan and Congolese allies had crossed the border in 1996, Amnesty was among the first and most consistent critics of Rwandan army abuses committed on Congolese soil, targeting Rwandan and Congolese Hutu and their presumed sympathizers. Ever since, the organization has maintained a consistent record of defense of human rights in the Great Lakes, efforts that are especially important given the efforts of the Rwandan, Congolese, and American governments to rewrite history and obscure their responsibility for these events. I am proud to have played a part in publicizing these abuses, and thank Amnesty for giving me a chance to do so. I was able to refresh my knowledge and understanding of the ongoing crisis in DRC, not least by preparing attestations on behalf of a number of Congolese seeking asylum in the United States.

Finally, I should say that I have learned a great deal about Congo from my wife, Irène Safi Turner, an International Development worker and Ph.D. candidate in conflict analysis and resolution. This book is dedicated to Irène, born in Bukavu, South Kivu, and to our daughter, Benita Olame Turner, born in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Author’s Note

This book deals with a state that has been called successively the Congo Free State, the Belgian Congo, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zaïre, and again the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The name “Congo” derives from the pre-colonial state of Kongo or Congo, which had its capital at Mbanza Kongo (later São Salvador) in northern Angola. The river that flows into the Atlantic through Kongo territory became known as the Congo or Kongo River. The people of the region began to be called Kongo (Bakongo) in the nineteenth century, and their various dialects, Kikongo.

The partition of Central Africa (1885 and thereafter) divided the Congo River basin into three main parts: the Congo Free State, the French colony of Moyen Congo (the present Republic of Congo), and Portuguese Congo. Portuguese Congo comprised two distinct blocs of territory: the northwestern portion of Angola and the tiny exclave of Cabinda, separated from Angola by a narrow neck of DRC.

The Congo River basin, as discussed at the Berlin Conference of 1884–5, extended to the “Crête Congo-Nil” or the Congo–Nile divide. Portions of the present Rwanda were considered to be included in the Congo Free State. Subsequent negotiations between the colonial powers (Congo Free State/Belgium, Britain, and Germany) set the boundaries that continue until today. As in the west, these colonial boundaries cut across political and cultural boundaries.

The following time-line summarizes these changes:

1885–1908Congo Free State (“Free” in the sense of independent, not belonging to another state). Leopold II, king of the Belgians, was head of state of the Congo Free State in his personal capacity.1908–60Belgian Congo (colony of the Kingdom of Belgium).1960–4Republic of Congo.1964–71Democratic Republic of Congo (name changed under Constitution of Luluabourg).1971–97Republic of Zaïre (name changed by President Mobutu, as part of his “Authenticity” campaign).1997–present       Democratic Republic of Congo (reverted to previous name when Laurent Kabila ousted Mobutu).

Map 1 Democratic Republic of Congo

Introduction: Congo, a Perennial Hot Spot

The territory occupied by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its historical precursors has been an arena of conflict since King Leopold II of Belgium created the Congo Free State in 1885. The extreme violence of the state, which the king held as his private property, led to a huge international scandal and obliged the Belgian parliament to annex it in 1908. The ill-prepared decolonization of the Belgian Congo in 1960 led to the secession of mineral-rich Katanga province, the ouster a few months later of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba by Colonel Joseph Mobutu, the murder of Lumumba in Katanga, and a series of Lumumbist rebellions. Congo stayed in the headlines for several years until a second American-sponsored coup by Mobutu in 1965 ushered in over thirty years of dictatorship.

In 1996, Congo became a hot spot yet again, when Rwanda and Uganda invaded eastern Zaïre/Congo (with the participation also of Burundi and Angola). Rwanda put a Congolese face on the invasion by creating a coalition of anti-Mobutu forces, the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo/Zaïre (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaïre, AFDL). Laurent-Désiré Kabila, a Lumumbist opponent of Mobutu since the 1960s, was spokesman for the AFDL. When the invading forces seized the capital, Kinshasa, and forced Mobutu into exile, Kabila proclaimed himself president and restored the name “Democratic Republic of Congo” that had been used between 1964 and 1971.