3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the persistance of the crisis in the Kivus(2014-02-18) Mumwi, Simon MarcoThis study sets out to examine the causes for the continued conflicts in the Kivu particularly after the establishment of a transitional government in the DRC in 2004 and the elections in 2006. Three factors appear to account for the continued conflicts. First is the ethnic divide between the local population and the Kinyarwanda speakers that have settled in the region overtime. This conflict is mostly centered on the land issues which were not addressed in the final agreements for the establishment of the transitional government in Kinshasa, at Sun City in 2002. It should not be surprising that this sparked new fighting in 2006 after the elections. Second is the continued existence of a central power vacuum. This is mainly because the national army is neither strong nor disciplined enough to establish its hegemony in the area. Its task was made more difficult by the continued Rwandan interests in the area, which went beyond security concerns. Thus the Nkunda rebellion was only successful because of Rwandan support. Third is the continuation of the war economy centered on the exploitation of natural resources that are abundant in the area. This has helped to fund the war in the Kivus, and as long as there are profits to be made from natural resources exploitation, conflicts and violence in the area will continue. The conclusion from this study is that peace in the Kivus needs the establishment of a central administration with both military power to secure the area, in particular the mining areas and judicial authority to prosecute the warlords and armed groups that continue to benefit from the continuation of conflicts and violence in the area.Item Role of external forces in the DRC from 1997 to 2001(2008-05-21T09:22:06Z) Nangongolo, Alain MatunduThe thesis pinpoints the responsibility of external powers in the tragic course of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as their influence on the policy making its leaders, from 1997 to 2001. It points out that, given the country’s geostrategic position in the heart of Africa and its immense natural resources, foreign governments play the preeminent role in the shaping of its destiny, particularly during the abovementioned five-year period marked by the two Congo Wars. This role had been blunt in the demise of Mobutu’s 32 year-long reckless, kleptocratic regime, as a consequence of the shift, by the United States of America aiming to safeguard its hegemonic interests in Central Africa, of the strategically pivotal pawn from Zaire to Uganda in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War. Thus, craving a great influence in the continent and sponsored by multinational companies from North America, Belgium, Australia and South Africa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, along with his ex-subordinate Rwandan Deputy President Paul Kagame, patronized in October 1996 the Alliance of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), a Congolese rebel group led by Laurent Kabila and committed to oust Field Marshal Mobutu who bit the dust on 17 May 1997. The superseding AFDL reign will be mainly featured by the takeover of key positions of the state authority by Rwandans and Ugandans (keeping President Kabila in the thrall of his two eastern mentors), the throttling of the democratic process, the conditioning by major powers of any funding of Kinshasa’s triennial development programme to the Kabila regime’s observance of democracy, human rights and a UN investigation of the mass killing of Hutu Rwandese refugees on the DRC’s soil. That international community’s stance infuriated the Congolese leader who reconsidered all mining contracts signed with multinationals, developing anti-West discourse, promoted South-South cooperation, and expressed Rwandans and Ugandans from the Congo. The Western-backed Rwanda and Uganda bounced back by undertaking a military toppling of Laurent Kabila; but they reaped a fiasco because of three factors: intervention of Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Sudan siding with Kinshasa; dissention within the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD); and tension between Kigali and Kampala that initiated the creation of a new rebel group: the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC). The stalemate brought about by this situation and the involvement of the UN, the OAU, the SADC, the US, France and Belgium compelled the warring parties to conclude the Lusaka Agreement, setting up a roadmap for the war end, the inter-Congolese dialogue, a new transitional government, and an electoral process toward the democratic rebirth in the DRC. However, the Lusaka Agreement will be implemented thanks to the rise of Major General Joseph Kabila, after the assassination of his phantasmagoric father Laurent Kabila, paving the way to the Third Republic.