Rwanda Leaves Congo But What Really Changed?

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Friday February 27, 2009 · 11:31 AM PST

2009/02/27 · 11:31

The latest Rwandan adventure in the Democratic Republic of Congo is over. The Rwandan army has marched back across the border to the huzzahs of their countrymen, international organizations are issuing laudatory press releases, and now it's time to take stock of what was accomplished. It appears to me that, while much happened, very little changed.

Dave Donelson

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Monday February 09, 2009 · 4:19 AM PST

2009/02/09 · 04:19

One of the first publicly-acknowledged AFRICOM operations has turned into a general debacle, resulting in the death of nearly a thousand civilians and sending untold numbers of children into sex slavery and military servitude.

Dave Donelson

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Friday February 06, 2009 · 5:30 AM PST

2009/02/06 · 05:30

The bizarre dance of war in eastern Congo continues, with Rwandan troops claiming victory after victory over the FDLR, former rebel commander Laurent Nkunda either under arrest or vacationing at an undisclosed location, and now indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda calling for immunity for the crimes committed by the CNDP while it was under Nkunda's command. It's the kind of duplicity portrayed in my fictional account of Congo's troubled past, Heart of Diamonds.

Dave Donelson

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Tuesday January 20, 2009 · 6:09 AM PST

2009/01/20 · 06:09

While Americans celebrated a season of hope with the inauguration of the first black President, the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo entered a dangerous new phase as yet another foreign army went to war on Congolese soil.

Dave Donelson

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Wednesday January 14, 2009 · 6:12 AM PST

2009/01/14 · 06:12

Last night in Manhattan I spoke with Ileka Atoki, Ambassador to the United Nations from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as I gave him a copy of my novel, Heart of Diamonds. We were at a screening of Lisa Jackson's documentary, "The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo." Ambassador Ileka shed some interesting light on how the tactic of gang rape became so widely used in the DRC. He also explained what needs to be done to eradicate it. I couldn't agree with him more.

Dave Donelson

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Wednesday December 31, 2008 · 3:50 AM PST

2008/12/31 · 03:50

The free-fall in commodity markets may presage a collapse in the already-weak Democratic Republic of Congo. The BBC reports that diving commodity prices have wiped out more than 200,000 jobs in the DRC's southern Katanga province. More than 40 firms processing minerals had shut by November, with an additional 100,000 jobs expected to be lost this month. Katanga is the engine that drives the country's economy. When it falters, bad things happen.

Dave Donelson

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Thursday December 11, 2008 · 3:17 AM PST

2008/12/11 · 03:17

The United Nations is about to confirm that the rebels fighting in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been receiving support from the governments on both sides of the border. Reuters says a draft report prepared for the Security Council verifies that Rwanda has sent men (and boys) to serve with Laurent Nkunda's army while the DRC government in Kinshasa has been supporting the Hutu rebels in the region. Unfortunately, this isn't news to anyone.

Dave Donelson

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Saturday December 06, 2008 · 7:51 AM PST

2008/12/06 · 07:51

This week saw several tentative moves toward peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are baby steps, and they have all been taken before, but at least there is movement in the right direction.

Dave Donelson

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Friday November 21, 2008 · 4:17 AM PST

2008/11/21 · 04:17

The Battle of Rutshuru is over and Laurent Nkunda is the clear winner. The foreign diplomats have come and gone, their sound bites dutifully recorded by the reporters, most of whom will soon be gone themselves. The United Nations has voted to send an additional 3,000 peacekeepers to the region, a noble thought but likely irrelevant to the current situation since it may take as long as four months for them to arrive on the scene.

Dave Donelson

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Friday November 14, 2008 · 5:10 AM PST

2008/11/14 · 05:10

Renegade general Laurent Nkunda launched a new offensive in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo on August 28, capturing large swaths of territory and stopping at the edge of Goma, the regional capitol. The conflict has reportedly drawn Rwandan and Angolan troops into the region, created 250,000 new civilian refugees, and threatens to become the Third Congo War.

The question is, why?

Dave Donelson

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Sunday November 09, 2008 · 4:03 AM PST

2008/11/09 · 04:03

UN investigators are already researching war crimes against civilians committed during the latest outbreak of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kivu provinces. What they found near the village of Kiwanja is a story that could easily have come from my novel, Heart of Diamonds.

Dave Donelson

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Thursday November 06, 2008 · 3:37 AM PST

2008/11/06 · 03:37

The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to move closer to full-scale war even as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prepares to meet tomorrow with Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. In the meantime, Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) is more or less honoring its self-proclaimed ceasefire in the region around Goma in North Kivu. While Nkunda solidifies his positions surrounding the city, his troops are fighting with units of the ethnic militia PARECO in a village about two kilometers outside Rutshuru in rebel-held territory.

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