The attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Hartford Web Publishing is not
the author of the documents in World
History Archives and does not presume to validate their
accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.
- Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa
1993–1999
- Prepared Testimony and Statement of Wayne Madsen for
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights,
17 May 2001. The record of American policy in the DRC over
most of the past decade. It is a policy that has rested, in
my opinion, on the twin pillars of military aid, both overt
and covert, and questionable trade. Presence of a U.S.-built
military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda, near the Congolese
border. The base, reported to have been partly constructed
by the U.S. firm Brown & Root, a subsidiary of
Halliburton, is said to be involved with training RPF forces
and providing logistic support to their troops in the
DRC.
- French troops out of Congo!
- Editorial, The Militant, 16 June 2003. The
United Nations Security Council has approved sending up to
1,000 French troops to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The stated reason for the deployment,
“peacekeeping,” could not be further from the
truth.
- European intervention in Bunia
- By Tony Busselen, Solidaire, 30 June
2003. Introduction and translation by Richard K. Moore. The
European Union this week is sending an intervention
force to Bunia. 1,500 soldiers will safeguard the airfield
and protect the population in the city and in the refugee
camps against the terror of the militias. How should this be
assessed?
- French troops extend combat role in
Congo
- By Sam Manuel, The Militant, 28 July
2003. French soldiers were aggressively deployed against the
RCD combatants and collaborated with armed forces of the
RCD's rival, the Hema-dominated Union of Congolese
Patriots (UPC). Bunia has been at the center of the
five-year-long civil war, during which 3 million civilians
have been killed. More than 80 percent of Bunia's
population fled in the wake of fighting between ethnic Hema
and Lendu fostered by the government and its opponents for
control of the mineral rich region.
- UN Troops Replace French Force in Congo's
Bunia
- By Dino Mahtani, Reuters, Washington Post,
Saturday 30 August 2003. The French-led combat force, with
over 1,000 troops, had been deployed in Bunia in June to
protect civilians from attacks by ethnic Hema and Lendu
militia. They are being replaced by Bangladeshi
troops. People are reported to regret the reassurance
provided by the French troops. The new U.N. force also has a
mandate to deploy throughout Ituri, a province roughly the
size of Sierra Leone, to restore security there.
- Rich land, impoverished people
- By G. Dunkel, Workers World, 13 July
2006. The United Nations has 17,000 soldiers in the Congo in
an operation called MONUC. The European Union, in its first
major foreign deployment, has sent 2,500 soldiers to back
them up, calling its operation Eufor-RDC. German Defense
Minister Franz-Joseph Jung said that the stability of this
region rich in raw materials will be profitable for German
industry.
- Briton linked to Congo war crimes
- By Jon Swain, The Sunday Times, 18 September
2006. The conflict in the DRC, by the time the war ended in
2003, had cost more than 3m lives. The civilian toll was the
highest anywhere since the second world war. Contractor
Avient's role was supposed to be logistical, but
actually promoted Kabila by operating along and behind
the enemy lines in support of ground troops and against the
invading forces.