Crisis in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Laurent Kabila PDF
Preview Crisis in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Laurent Kabila
Crisis in the Congo This page intentionally left blank Crisis in the Congo The Rise and Fall of Laurent Kabila François Ngolet CRISIS IN THE CONGO Copyright © François Ngolet, 2011. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-1-4039-7575-1 All rights reserved. First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53645-0 ISBN 978-0-230-11625-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230116252 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ngolet, François. Crisis in the Congo : the rise and fall of Laurent Kabila / François Ngolet. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Congo (Democratic Republic)—History—1997– 2. Congo (Democratic Republic)—Politics and government—1997– 3. Kabila, Joseph. 4. Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo Kinshasa. 5. Political violence—Congo (Democratic Republic)—History—20th century. 6. Ethnic conflict— Congo (Democratic Republic)—History—20th century. I. Title. DT658.26.N465 2010 967.5103′4—dc22 2010019024 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: January 2011 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Tristane and Malina This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Introduction by Ch. Didier Gondola xiii Part I Collapse of the ADFL Alliance 1 Origins of the Rebellion against Kabila 3 2 The Rebellion 21 3 The Humanitarian Dimensions of the Crisis 39 4 A Flurry of Diplomacy 61 Part II Kabila: An Obstacle to Peace 5 The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement 83 6 Violations of the Ceasefire Agreement 107 7 Social and Humanitarian Strife on Both Sides of the Front Lines 135 Part III From Kabila to Kabila 8 Kabila: A Prisoner of Himself 175 9 Upheaval in Joseph Kabila’s Congo 199 10 The Inter-Congolese Dialogue 237 Notes 247 Index 307 This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is a history of a critical period in Africa’s first continental war, a history that was researched and written—but not finished—by François Ngolet. A brain tumor took him from us quite suddenly on April 11, 2005. One day, he seemed fine; the next day, he was in the hospital; three days later, he was gone. François’s death left everyone who knew him stunned and shattered. I and the rest of his colleagues in the College of Staten Island’s history department staggered through the rest of the school year in a daze; I daresay the department has yet to fully recover from losing François. He was, in many ways, the heartbeat of the place. François joined the depart- ment in 1995, the first historian hired in twenty years, and in time became equal parts big brother and mentor to nearly all who came after him. He welcomed us, took us under his wing, pushed us to remain focused on our research, and ran interference—taking committee assign- ments so we would not have to—to protect us. As anyone who knew him could report, François possessed a spectac- ular smile and a musical laugh; if you were his colleague, he made you happy to go to work; and if you were his student, you felt lucky to be in his classroom. In any setting, he could play equal parts comic, intellec- tual, and catalyst for lively discussion. We knew him as a kind of hallway pundit and philosopher, leading discussions on current events with National Public Radio blaring in the background. His students knew him as a passionate and engaging teacher, stalking back and forth in front of the classroom, slapping the board with his hand, and emerging from each class meeting as if from battle, his smart suit spattered in chalk dust. In the days and weeks after François’s passing, the conversations in the department’s corridors and stairwells had an amazing consistency: stu- dents mourned their favorite teacher, and colleagues marveled that so many of us thought of him as our closest friend. For the entire time that I knew François, he had been working on this book. In the spring of 2005, he felt close enough to finishing the book that he paused to draft an introduction; sadly, just days before he went into hospital, his computer crashed, and he lost the introduction. And then it seemed, when we lost him so suddenly, that the book would not ever be completed.
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