The International Crisis Group estimates that throughout the Congo “over 1,000 people continue to die each day from conflict-related causes.”

December 28, 2007 8:10 am henrymunsonjr Congo War

Christian Parenti, Congo’s crisis, Congo’s history - International Herald Tribune, December 27, 2007

The horrors of violence in the eastern Congo demand some explanation. Reports from the ground paint a picture of a hell on earth, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. But too often these reports, providing little context, can leave an implicitly racist aftertaste. The implication seems to be, “Well, these people are just savages.” Some history makes the madness appear slightly more logical, if no less evil.

Several months ago, I visited Goma, a city on the Rwandan border. The surrounding countryside of North Kivu Province is the epicenter of Congo’s violence. In the lush mountains outside the city, UN troops and the national army - such as it is - face an array of competing militias. Among them are General Nkunda’s Tutsi forces, who fight against elements of the old Hutu Interuwama of Rwanda (the FDLR). Nkunda also fights the government’s army: a largely unpaid force of ragged former militiamen and boys. The government and the UN want Nkunda to disband his forces as part of the peace process.

Further north are the Mai Mai, some of whom began as followers of the leftist independence leader Patrice Lumumba, but that was long ago. These days they fight naked, protect themselves against enemy bullets by washing in water, and commit atrocious human rights abuses. Around the time I visited Goma, a band of Mai Mai raided a village and systematically raped scores of women - a crime all too common. The International Crisis Group estimates that throughout the Congo “over 1,000 people continue to die each day from conflict-related causes.”

Many of the militias finance themselves by exporting illegal timber, diamonds, gold and other resources to Rwanda and Uganda. Both countries export these products in amounts that seem to far exceed their own natural supplies. This traffic in “conflict resources” makes the elites of Rwanda and Uganda rich, and helps the general development of both economies.

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