Crisis in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Laurent Kabila

325 Pages·2011·2.508 MB·English

by  François Ngolet (auth.)

Crisis in the Congo
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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
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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
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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.