THE HISTORY OF THE CONGO

"A Country Still Bearing the Imprint of Its Colonial Past"

Nearly 4 million people have died from war-related causes in the Congo in the past 8 years alone, according to the International Rescue Committee; the world's deadliest conflict since world war II. It's the continuation of violence that has raged for more than a century in this country. The short explanation for the ongoing, relentless violence is that the Congo is "cursed by its natural resources" (says Didier Gondola- Author of "The History of Congo").

Despite centuries of trade with European powers, there was no direct penetration of the interior of the Congo until the 19th century when, in 1877, the interior was opened to exploration. The area was officially colonized in 1885 as a personal possession of Belgian King Leopold II as the Congo Free State.
King Leopold accumulated a vast personal fortune from ivory and rubber through Congolese slave labor. 10 million people are estimated to have died from forced labor, starvation, and outright extermination during Leopold's colonial rule. In 1907, administration shifted to the Belgian Government, which renamed the country the Belgian Congo.

Protests prompted the Belgian government to take over control from Leopold in 1908, turning Congo into a Belgian colony. It remained a colony for nearly 6 decades until violent riots in 1960 led to the Congo's independence. It got off to a rocky start, however, as in months, the first elected Prime Minister was assassinated. After years of rebellions, the main Western-backed military candidate, Colonel Mobutu Sese Seko, seized power in 1965. He renamed the country Zaire.

Mobutu was a corrupt leader. At one point, his personal fortune was equivalent to the national debt of the entire country. His reign of corruption would last nearly 3 decades, spanning the term "cleptocracy" ("ruled by thieves"). Towards the end of his reign, violence once again erupted as decade old conflicts between the rival Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups spilled over from neighboring Rwanda in 1996.

Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe), who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government, had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as a basis for incursion against Rwanda. These Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn, these Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks.

The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. They invaded the Congo the same year, slaughtering Hutu refugees in an effort to "stamp out Hutu militias".

In 1997, the locals made a local rebel leader, Laurent Desire Kabila president, and Kabila consolidated power around himself and his coalition group. He also renamed the country, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The civil war began in August 1998 when Kabila, who had ousted Mobutu the year before, attempted to consolidate his regime by expelling the Rwandan military officers who had brought him to power. Various anti-Kabila Congolese joined the Congolese Democratic Movement (RDC), which began fighting to overthrow Kabila, with help from Rwanda and Uganda. The war, persecution, division of the country, collapse of the formal economy and government services, and abuse of power in all four zones contributed to the misery of the population. With the economic collapse, Kabila's government and the various rebel movements were each financed by the sale of easily transported non-renewable wealth, such as gold, diamonds, and ivory.

The 1998 civil war became known as "Africa's first world war" with at least 8 different African nations joining in the fight. The struggle became no longer a war as such, having degenerated into a series of isolated conflicts in which the participants are principally concerned with securing access to the country's still substantial mineral resources.

Kabila was gunned down by his own bodyguard in 2001 and his 29 year old son, Général Major Joseph Kabila, has taken over the presidency. A year into his term, Joseph Kabila signed a peace deal with warring factions. But the violence continues.

Corrupt military units and rebel factions still terrorize, rape, and murder the Congolese people. In fact, the United Nations estimates that more than 1200 people die a day from malnutrition and disease. Not to mention the staggering number of violent sexual rape that is used as a weapon of war against women and children in an effort to exterminate a population.