Warlord
Page 38
In terms of the story of Warlord, the plot line of the abduction and murder of albino children for black magic is unfortunately true; hundreds are killed in East Africa every year. Similarly thousands of women are raped and many suffer fistulas every year in Kivu because of the overall lack of law and order and are treated at hospitals like Panzi in Bukavu and HEAL Africa in Goma. With regard to the description of Kivu regional politics, all the details of the current situation are as accurate as I could make them.
James Steel
April 2011
Acknowledgments
Firstly, I am indebted to my agent Judith Murdoch for all her help and support over the years, without which this book would not have happened.
Also, a big thank you to my editor, Kate Bradley, for her hard work and creative insight as well as the Sales and Marketing team at HarperCollins, especially Claire Power.
I am particularly indebted to the following people for giving their time to talk to me:
Sarah Bailey – Humanitarian Policy Group
Tim Butcher – journalist and author of Blood River and Chasing the Devil
Katie Eves – International Red Cross
Nick Garrett – Director of Resource Consulting Services
Katy Grant – UN World Food Programme
Simon Guillebaude – Great Lakes Outreach
Zannah Jeffries – Tearfund
Sophia Pickles – UK All Parliamentary Party Group on the Great Lakes Region
Professor James Putzel and Gabi Hesselbein – LSE’s Crisis States Research Centre
Susan Schulman – freelance journalist, for her intrepid filming on patrol with the Rwandan army in Kivu. Vava Tampa – Congo Now
Colonel Stuart Tootal – for conversations and his book, Danger Close, on the process of setting up a military expeditionary force in a hostile environment, in his case leading 3 Para into Helmand in 2006.
A lot of the international relations ideas behind the story are based on the work of Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University in his book War, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, as well as Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid. Many thanks also to the LSE and the Frontline Club for their excellent public lectures and discussions on DRC and development issues.
I also made a lot of use of Colonel Mike Hoare’s book, Congo Mercenary. This is a very well-observed and vivid account of how he put together a mercenary regiment of a thousand men, 5 Commando, from nineteen different nationalities in 1964. He was employed by General Mobutu and fought an eighteen-month-long campaign against Chinese-backed Simba rebels in eastern Congo which saved the newly independent state from collapse.
Finally, for proofreading and suggestions I am indebted to Ashley House, Charlie Leach and Alex Ingr.
About the Author
James Steel is a writer and journalist based in the UK.
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-84756-161-9
EPub Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-744329-1
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