Congo War
Category archives for Congo War
UN report verifies DR Congo killings “may be genocide”
Posted by Greg Laden on October 2, 2010 Nazi Holocaust: 1939 – 1945 War crimes trials: Fall 1945 DR Congo genocide: 1996-1997 War crimes trials: Still thinking about it. I guess that brackets the range of potential variation. (Note: This does not refer to the other, related genocide of Tutsi, for which trials have taken place.)
Large Scale Rape Incident in Congo
Posted by Greg Laden on September 25, 2010 The UN’s human rights chief has said the “scale and viciousness” of mass rapes in DR Congo “defy belief”, as a report into the attack was released. Navi Pillay said that, even for the region, the incident stood out because of the “extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way” it was carried out. Some 300 people were…
Dirty poor people living in slime: Missionaries and American Idol
Posted by Greg Laden on June 26, 2009 Actual missionaries As you may have noticed, I have written a series of posts about missionaries in eastern Zaire in the 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on my own personal experiences. These seven posts represent only a small number of these experiences, but they are more or less representative. They are meant to underscore the…
Rape Crisis in East Congo Tied to Mining Activity
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2009 -Activists concerned by this year’s escalation of sexual violence in eastern Congo are trying to turn up the heat on those benefitting–directly or indirectly–from illicit mineral extractions. “Conflict minerals power our entire electronic industry,” John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, told U.S. senators at a May 13 hearing on sexual violence in eastern Congo…
A rape in progress
Posted by Greg Laden on June 1, 2009 Please read the following vignette of an actual incident. I am a scientist observing the culture of the Namoyoma people. I am sitting in a shady spot just outside the village, writing up some notes, and I observe a disturbing event. Four men are trying to drag a young woman from the road into the…
The Storm
Posted by Greg Laden on April 26, 2009 This is the final Congo Memoir. The penultimate installment is here. The final installment is below the fold …. If you are interested in issues pertaining to the Congo that are quite current, consider having a look at Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (recently made quite well known by being…
Gunfire In The Streets
Posted by Greg Laden on April 24, 2009 …continued… I was just stepping out of the store, where I had purchased a piece of cloth to bring back to the US, when I heard the awful sound.
The Empty Truck
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2009 Clearly, the naval officer’s goal was to take my boat and motor. He essentially said this to me. “It is the job of the navy to confiscate any boat that my be faster or more powerful than the Navy’s boat.” “Where’s your, boat?” “I don’t have a boat.” “I see…”
The Crossing
Posted by Greg Laden on April 5, 2009 As I raised my hand in defiance of the soldiers who were seemingly about to kill me, I knew one thing for certain: This officer was never going to give the order to fire. It simply was true that his soldiers were in too close to fire with rocket propelled grenades and even automatic weapons.…
Ready … Aim … Fire
Posted by Greg Laden on April 4, 2009 The Congo Memoirs continue. The last episode was Return Of The Green Pickup.
Rwandan Sentenced
Posted by Greg Laden on December 2, 2008 One of Rwanda’s most famous singers, Simon Bikindi, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting violence during the 1994 genocide. His conviction stems from a speech he made from a vehicle equipped with a public address system encouraging ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis. bbc
Congo Rights Abuses
Posted by Greg Laden on November 25, 2008 All sides in eastern DR Congo have committed serious human rights abuses, the UN secretary general has said. Ban Ki-moon said both government forces and rebels loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda had carried out arbitrary executions, mass killings, rape and torture. The report covers July to November, when the most recent fighting flared. In a…
UN agrees to Congo troop increase
Posted by Greg Laden on November 20, 2008 The United Nations Security Council has voted to send 3,000 more troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo following renewed fighting in the country’s east. The increase means the peacekeeping mission, Monuc, will have about 20,000 troops and police on the ground – the biggest UN force of its kind. bbc
DR Congo armed forces chief fired
Posted by Greg Laden on November 18, 2008 The military chief of staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sacked after the army lost territory to rebel forces in the east. The reason for Dieudonne Kayembe’s dismissal was the urgency of the conflict, a TV statement said. President Joseph Kabila named navy chief General Didier Etumba Longomba as the new head…
Cease Fire, Congo Style
Posted by Greg Laden on November 17, 2008 Amid calls by the rebel leader in the Congolese war, intensive fighting has broken out along the front lines among troops north of Goma, between Goma and Vitshumbi. This is a fairly large area of the Western Rift Valley nestled between the western rift wall and the Virunga Volcanoes (which is where the famous mountain…
Nkunda backs DR Congo peace
Posted by Greg Laden on November 16, 2008 DR Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has told UN peace envoy Olusegun Obasanjo he will support a peace process with the government. Gen Nkunda also said he would respect a ceasefire if the Congolese government did. Mr Obasanjo said it would take effort from both sides to keep a truce. We’ll see. BBC
Aid flights arrive in DR Congo, but insecurity persists
Posted by Greg Laden on November 13, 2008 UNISEF in the Congo: NEW YORK (November 12, 2008) — Insecurity persists in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes in the last two months alone, due to fighting between the army and a rebel group. Today, two more planeloads…
Foreign troops in DRC
Posted by Greg Laden on November 13, 2008 Evidence is increasing that foreign forces are being drawn into the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eyewitnesses told the BBC Angolan and Zimbabwean troops were on the ground. Meanwhile, journalists report that some of Laurent Nkunda’s rebel fighters are in the pay of the Rwandan army. This has renewed fears…
UN appeals for DR Congo back-up
Posted by Greg Laden on November 12, 2008 The head of UN peacekeeping has asked the UN Security Council for more than 3,000 extra troops to protect civilians in the eastern DR Congo. Alain Le Roy said current peacekeeper numbers were not enough to protect civilians from violence perpetrated by rebel groups and the Congolese army. There are 9,000 UN peacekeepers in the…
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