Dancing in the Glory of Monsters

by Jason Stearns

  23 Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 129.

  24 Quoted in the film Afrique en morceaux (1999), directed by Jihan El Tahran.

  25 Gordana Igri, “Alleged ‘Assassins’ Were No Strangers to France,” in Balkan Crisis Report, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, November 26, 1999.

  26 James Astill’s interview with General James Kabarebe, Kigali, May 2004.

  27 Author’s interview with Colonel Fely Bikaba, Kinshasa, July 2006.

  28 Prunier, Africa’s World War, 142.

  29 “Canadian Deal Worth Millions to Zaire’s Rebels: $50 Million Investment Likely to Find Its Way into Kabila’s War Chest,” Associated Press, May 10, 1997.

  30 Mark Sherman, “McKinney Reassured About Zairian Refugees, Elections,” Atlanta Constitution, May 14, 1997.

  CHAPTER 9

  1 Robert Gribbin, In the Aftermath of Genocide, U.S. Congress Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, December 4, 1996, 198.

  2 No one really knew exactly how many refugees remained in Zaire. At one point, the UN refugee agency suggested the number could be as high as 600,000, the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs said 439,500, while the U.S. general Edwin Smith put the figure at 202,000 and the Canadian general Maurice Baril at 165,000. Filip Reyntjens, The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 85–86.

  3 Quoted by Johan Pottier, Re-imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 175.

  4 Ibid., 175.

  5 Beatrice Umutesi, Fuir ou mourir au Zaire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000), 131.

  6 Ibid., 147.

  7 Forced Flight: A Brutal Strategy of Elimination in Eastern Zaire, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), May 1997, www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?component=report&objectid=A63A4532-BEA0-4BB1-A7AE1EEB4BD27AC7&method=full_html.

  8 According to Doctors Without Borders, mortality rates were as high as 21 deaths per 10,000 people in some camps. By comparison, the mortality rate in a healthy population is around 0.6 per 10,000, a rate of 2 per 10,000 constitutes an emergency, and 4 per 10,000 is an out-of-control emergency.

  9 Forced Flight.

  10 Ibid.

  11 See Kisangani Emizet, “ The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law,” Journal of Modern African Studies 33, no. 2 (2000): 173–179; Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 148. Both of these authors, however, use 1.1 million refugees as a starting point, a figure of unknown accuracy, given the lack of a census in the camps.

  12 Alan L. Heil Jr., Voice of America: A History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 264.

  13 Report of the Mapping Exercise Documenting the Most Serious Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Committed Within the Territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Between March 1993 and June 2003, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 2010, 278.

  14 Ibid., 77–116, 273–277.

  15 Colin Nickerson, “ Refugee Massacre Unfolds in Congo: Witnesses Tell of Slaughter of Hundreds by Kabila’s Soldiers,” Boston Globe, June 1, 1997, A1. The figure of nine hundred bodies buried comes from Andrew Maykuth, “ Tutsis Slaughter Hutu Refugees,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers, June 8, 1997. UN investigators, who were barred from visiting Mbandaka, suggested that between 200 and 2,000 people may have been killed there.

  16 Nickerson, “ Refugee Massacre Unfolds in Congo.”

  17 Author’s interview with Beatrice Umutesi, Brussels, August 2009.

  18 Thomas P. Odom, “Guerrillas from the Mist: A Defense Attaché Watches the Rwandan Patriotic Front Transform from Insurgent to Counter-Insurgent,” Small Wars Journal, n.d., smallwarsjournal.com/documents/swjmag/v5/odom.htm#_ftn11, accessed March 20, 2009.

  19 Howard French, “Kagame’s Hidden War in the Congo,” New York Review of Books, September 24, 2009.

  CHAPTER 10

  1 Much of the material for this chapter stems from several interviews with Kizito (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) in Bukavu in early 2008. I also interviewed six other former AFDL soldiers, all of whom had similar experiences.

  2 All commanders were called afande, a word derived from the Swahili and Turkish effendi, an honorable person.

  3 Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict, Country Report: DR Congo, www.watchlist.org/reports/files/dr_congo.report.20060426.php?p=15, accessed July 29, 2010.

  4 Author’s interview with Colonel Fely Bikaba, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  5 Author’s interview with General Siatilo Ngizo, Kinshasa, July 2009.

  6 Author’s interview with “Trésor,” Kinshasa, July 2009.

  CHAPTER 11

  1 Michela Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo (London: Fourth Estate, 2000), 263.

  2 Quoted in the film Afrique en morceaux (1999), directed by Jihan El Tahran.

  3 The irony here was that the Bangala identity was largely the creation of colonial authorities out of a conglomeration of tribes, although Mobutu was trying to present himself as a precolonial authority.

  4 Michael G. Schatzberg, The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 72.

  5 For an example of this, see the film Mobutu, Roi du Zaire (1999), directed by Thierry Michel.

  6 Valentin Nagifi, Les derniers jours de Mobutu a Gbadolite (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2003), 52 (my translation).

  7 Scott Straus, “Americans Meddling, Zairians Charge U.S. Unpopular with Residents Convinced It Backed First Mobutu and Now Rebel Leader,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 12, 1997.

  8 Nagifi, Les derniers jours de Mobutu, 77.

  9 Howard French, “ Ending a Chapter, Mobutu Cremates Rwandan Ally,” New York Times, May 16, 1997.

  10 Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, 272.

  11 Félix Vundwawe Te Pemako, A l’ombre du Léopard: Vérités sur le régime de Mobutu Sese Seko (Brussels: Editions Zaïre Libre, 2000), 322 (my translation).

  12 Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, 274–277.

  13 Tshilombo Munyegayi, “ La chute de Mobutu et la mort Mahele racontées par le général Likulia,” Le Potentiel, July 10, 2005 (my translation).

  14 Tshilombo Munyengayi, “ La chute de Mobutu et la mort Mahele racontées par le général Likulia,” Le Potentiel, June 25, 2005.

  15 This version of the story was related to General Siatilo Ngizo and General Prosper Nabyolwa by the survivors of the incident, including General Matthieu Agolowa.

  CHAPTER 12

  1 Eric Tollens, “Food Security in Kinshasa: Coping with Adversity,” in Reinventing Order in Congo: How People Respond to State Failure in Kinshasa, ed. Theodore Trefon (London: Zed Books; Kampala, Uganda: Fountain, 2004), 48.

  2 Author’s interview with Nestor Diambwama, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  3 Information about Kabila’s lifestyle came from the author’s separate interviews with Didier Mumengi, Mwenze Kongolo, Jean Mbuyu, and Moise Nyarugabo in Kinshasa, October 2007, and from an interview with Deogratias Bugera in Johannesburg, April 2008.

  4 Author’s interview with Babi Mbayi, former minister of planning and development, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  5 Ibid.

  6 “Mandela, Museveni Meet Over Regional Issues,” Xinhua News Agency, May 27, 1997.

  7 Tom Cohen, “Kabila Sworn in as President, Promises Elections Within Two Years,” Associated Press, May 29, 1997.

  8 Gauthiers de Villers and Jean-Claude Willame, Republique democratique du Congo: Chronique politique d’un entre-deux-guerres, octobre 1996–juillet 1998, Cahiers Africains 35 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998), 76.

  9 Ibid.,
107; Uncertain Course: Transition and Human Rights Violations in the Congo, Human Rights Watch, vol. 9, no. 9 (December 1997); Howard French, “Congo’s Opposition Pays Price of Defying Kabila,” New York Times, December 3, 1997.

  10 Olivier Lanotte, Guerre sans frontiers en RDC (Brussels: Complexe, 2003), 74.

  11 Human Rights Watch, Uncertain Course: Transition and Human Rights Violations in the Congo (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997), 41.

  12 During the rebellion, the AFDL had an office in charge of nongovernmental organizations.

  13 International Crisis Group, How Kabila Lost His Way, DRC Report #3, May 21, 1999, 15.

  14 Interview with Didier Mumengi, the former minister of information, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  15 Laura Myers, “Be Democratic, Albright Tells Congo’s Kabila,” Associated Press, December 13, 1997.

  16 Author’s interview with Howard Wolpe, Bukavu, February 2008.

  17 Howard French, “In Congo, Many Chafe Under Rule of Kabila,” New York Times, July 17, 1997.

  18 Author’s interview with Ministry of Mines official, Kinshasa, July 2009.

  19 Author’s interview with business official, Kinshasa, July 2009.

  20 De Villers and Willame, Republique democratique du Congo, 121.

  21 Author’s interview with Didier Mumengi, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  22 Author’s interview with Babi Mbayi, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  23 Author’s interview with Didier Mumengi, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  24 Robert Reid, “Security Council Struggles to Get Act Together over Congo,” Associated Press, May 29, 1997.

  25 Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 157.

  26 Kisangani Emizet, “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law,” Journal of Modern African Studies 38, no. 2 (2000): 170.

  27 Author’s interview with Tony Gambino, Washington, DC, July 2007.

  28 Prunier, Africa’s World War, 166.

  29 Author’s interview with Mabi Mulumba, Kinshasa, January 2008.

  30 Author’s interview with Mulumba, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  31 Author’s interviews with Moise Nyarugabo, Kinshasa, November 2007, and Deo Bugera, Johannesburg, March 2008. One can dispute their reliability, as they later fell out with Kabila and went into armed opposition.

  32 Author’s interview with Nyarugabo, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  CHAPTER 13

  1 Charles Onyango-Obbo, “Interview with Kagame: Habyarimana Knew of Plans to Kill Kim,” Monitor (Kampala), December 19, 1997.

  2 Final Report of the International Commission of Inquiry (Rwanda), S/1998/1096, November 18, 1998, 5. Other reports, including by the human rights group African Rights, put the figure much higher, at around 30,000–40,000.

  3 Author’s interview with Paul Rwarakabije, Kigali, March 2008.

  4 African Rights, Rwanda: The Insurgency in the Northwest (London: African Rights, 1999), 45.

  5 Human rights groups differ on whether the killings by the RPA were part of a systematic strategy or due to individuals’ indiscipline and abuse. Amnesty International argued for the former in the reports Ending the Silence (1997) and Civilians Trapped in Armed Conflict (1997), while African Rights does not find evidence for a policy of killing civilians in its 1999 report Rwanda.

  6 Author’s interview with anonymous source, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  7 Author’s interview with Malik Kijege, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  8 Ibid.

  9 This section is based on four separate interviews by the author with Didier Mumengi, Kinshasa, October 2007, January 2008, and June 2009.

  10 Comer Plummer, “The Kitona Operation: Rwanda’s African Odyssey,” May 6, 2007, www.MilitaryHistoryOnline.com/20thcentury/articles/kitona.aspx, accessed March 17, 2010.

  11 Author’s interview with anonymous source, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  12 Howard French, “Pilot’s Account Seems to Confirm Rwanda Role in Congo Strife,” New York Times, August 10, 1998.

  13 Author’s telephone interview with Rwandan intelligence official, January 2008.

  14 Author’s interview with Didier Mumengi, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  15 Author’s interview with Todd Pitman, Associated Press correspondent who visited Kitona shortly after these events, Bukavu, July 2006.

  16 Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 189; author’s interview with Donald Steinberg, former U.S. ambassador to Angola, New York, July 2007; author’s interview with U.S. State Department officials, Washington, DC, July 2007.

  17 Interview with Steinberg.

  18 Author’s interview with Angolan officer, Kinshasa, July 2009.

  19 Ian Stewart, “Angolans Seize Congo Rebel Stronghold,” Associated Press, August 24, 1998. The same figure was advanced by Gérard Prunier in Africa’s World War, 421n59, citing an article in the South African magazine Business Day.

  20 Prunier, Africa’s World War, 192.

  21 Ibid., 189.

  22 Mary Braid and Ross Herbert, “Congo Civil War Draws in Rival Neighbours,” Independent (London), August 23, 1998.

  23 Gauthiers de Villers with Jean Omasombo and Erik Kennes, Republique democratique du Congo: Guerre et politique: Les trente derniers mois de L. D. Kabila, août 1998–janvier 2001 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), 28 (my translation).

  24 The decision was made by the Inter-State Defense and Security Commission, an SADC organ that Mugabe was presiding over. Only four of the fourteen members had sent their defense ministers, while other countries had sent lower-level delegates. According to SADC statutes, the decision to send a regional military force would have required an SADC presidential summit.

  25 Patrick Lawrence, “Mugabe and Mandela Divided by Personalities and Policies,” Irish Times, August 21, 1998, quoted by Katharina P. Coleman, International Organisations and Peace Enforcement: The Politics of International Legitimacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 153.

  26 The Congolese government tried to convince the Angolans that Rwanda was backing the UNITA rebels, but it is not clear that this was the case at the time of the Kitona offensive. However, when the Rwandan-led troops withdrew under Angolan fire, they found refuge in UNITA-controlled northern Angola, which fueled speculation about earlier contacts. There is overwhelming evidence, documented in UN reports and elsewhere, that UNITA began trading diamonds through Kigali by 1999 at the latest.

  27 Norimitsu Onishi, “Congo Recaptures a Strategic Base,” New York Times, August 23, 1998.

  28 Norimitsu Onishi, “Threat Eased, Congo Leader Arrives Back in His Capital,” New York Times, August 25, 1998.

  29 “Race Charge Against Congo Minister,” BBC World Service, July 5, 2000.

  30 Author’s interviews with Congolese in Masina neighborhood, October 2007.

  31 Ross Herbert, “Rebel Suspects Die at Hands of Mob in Congo,” Independent (London), August 30, 1998. The Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers fled to northern Angola. In order to get back to Rwanda, they had to capture a local airstrip from the Angolan army with the help of UNITA rebels. As the airstrip was small, it took them a month and thirty airplane rotations to evacuate the last of their soldiers, during which time they were under constant attack by the well-armed Angolan army. See Charles Onyango-Obbo, “Daring RPA Raid in Congo, Angola; And a Heroic UPDF Unit,” Sunday Monitor (Kampala), April 16, 2000.

  32 This section is based on interviews with Martin Sindabizera and Colonel Martin Nkurikiye (retired), the former Burundian ambassador to the Congo and the former head of the Burundian intelligence services, respectively, Bujumbura, March 2008.

  CHAPTER 14

  1 Much of this chapter is based on interviews with Wamba dia Wamba in November 2007 and July 2009. Information on the RCD was also provided by Delly Sessanga, Thomas Luhak
a, Mbusa Nyamwisi, Moise Nyarugabo, Benjamin Serukiza, and José Endundo.

  2 Randy Kennedy, “His Father Is a Rebel Leader ...,” New York Times Magazine, August 29, 1999.

  3 Didier Kazadi Nyembwe, the future head of Kabila’s intelligence services, was married to Rashid Kawawa’s daughter.

  4 Author’s interview with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  5 Author’s interview with former Tanzanian intelligence official, Dar es Salaam, January 2008.

  6 Author’s interview with Patrick Karegeya, Dar es Salaam, January 2008.

  7 Michael Colin Vazquez, “The Guerrilla Professor: A Conversation with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba,” Transition 10, no. 1 (2000): 146.

  8 Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, “On the State of African Philosophy and Development,” Journal of African Philosophy 2 (2003), www.africanphilosophy.com/issue2/diawamba.html.

  9 Author’s interview with Moise Nyarugabo, former vice president of the RCD, Kinshasa, November 2007.

  10 The commander was General James Kazini. Author’s interview with former RCD leader, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  11 Author’s interview with Thomas Luhaka, November 2007. The story is a version of a parable told about Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.

  12 Author’s interview with Luhaka.

  13 Written copy of Ernest Wamba dia Wamba’s New Year’s speech, December 31, 1998.

  14 Author’s interview with Moise Nyarugabo, Kinshasa, October 2007.

  15 Author’s interview with Suliman Baldo, New York, December 2007.

  16 This was the case of Desiré Lumbu Lumbu, who was accused of conspiring alternately with the Mai-Mai and with the original RCD and beaten to death in Butembo in December 1999.

  17 Gauthiers de Villers with Jean Omasombo and Erik Kennes, Republique democratique du Congo: Guerre et politique: Les trente derniers mois de L. D. Kabila, août 1998–janvier 2001 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), 79 (my translation).