I wish I could write like this :
Since the 1940s there has been no other conflict on the face of the earth that has caused so many deaths, so many atrocities like mass rape and so much all round suffering for millions as has occurred in the Congo in the past 20 years, yet no major conflict has been more completely ignored.
How I wish I could write like this :
"To understand the original war, consider this outrageously oversimplified analogy. Imagine a giant house whose timbers are rotten. That was the Congolese state under Mobutu Sese Seko, the kleptocratic tyrant who ruled from 1965 to 1997. Next, imagine a cannon ball that brings the house crashing down. The cannon ball was fired from Rwanda, Congo's tiny, turbulent neighbour. Now imagine that every local gang of armed criminals comes rushing in to steal the family's jewels, and the looting turns violent. Finally, imagine that you are a young unarmed woman who lives alone in the shattered house. It is not a pleasant thought, is it?
Mobutu and his underlings looted the Congolese state until it could barely stand. When a shock struck, it collapsed. The shock was the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The perpetrators of that abomination, defeated at home, fled into Congo. Rwanda invaded Congo to eliminate them. Meeting almost no resistance, since no one wanted to die for Mobutu, the highly disciplined Rwandans overthrew him and replaced him with their local ally, Laurent Kabila. Then Kabila switched sides and armed the genocidaires, so Rwanda tried to overthrow him, too. Angola and Zimbabwe saved him. The war degenerated into a bloody tussle for plunder. Eight foreign countries became embroiled, along with dozens of local militias. Congo's GREAT mineral wealth fuelled the mayhem, as men with guns grabbed diamond, gold and COLTAN mines. Warlords stoked ethnic divisions, urging young men to take up arms to defend their tribe - and rob the one next door - because the state could not protect anyone. Mass rape spread like a forest fire....."
How I wish I could write like this :
"To understand the original war, consider this outrageously oversimplified analogy. Imagine a giant house whose timbers are rotten. That was the Congolese state under Mobutu Sese Seko, the kleptocratic tyrant who ruled from 1965 to 1997. Next, imagine a cannon ball that brings the house crashing down. The cannon ball was fired from Rwanda, Congo's tiny, turbulent neighbour. Now imagine that every local gang of armed criminals comes rushing in to steal the family's jewels, and the looting turns violent. Finally, imagine that you are a young unarmed woman who lives alone in the shattered house. It is not a pleasant thought, is it?
Mobutu and his underlings looted the Congolese state until it could barely stand. When a shock struck, it collapsed. The shock was the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The perpetrators of that abomination, defeated at home, fled into Congo. Rwanda invaded Congo to eliminate them. Meeting almost no resistance, since no one wanted to die for Mobutu, the highly disciplined Rwandans overthrew him and replaced him with their local ally, Laurent Kabila. Then Kabila switched sides and armed the genocidaires, so Rwanda tried to overthrow him, too. Angola and Zimbabwe saved him. The war degenerated into a bloody tussle for plunder. Eight foreign countries became embroiled, along with dozens of local militias. Congo's GREAT mineral wealth fuelled the mayhem, as men with guns grabbed diamond, gold and COLTAN mines. Warlords stoked ethnic divisions, urging young men to take up arms to defend their tribe - and rob the one next door - because the state could not protect anyone. Mass rape spread like a forest fire....."
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