The Nexus between Artisanal Mining and the Recruitment, Reintegration and Re-recruitment of

439 Pages·2016·3.07 MB·English

The Nexus between Artisanal Mining
and the Recruitment, Reintegration
and Re-recruitment of Combatants in
the Kivus, Democratic Republic of the
Congo

Gimba Magha-A-Ngimba, C.

Submitted version deposited in CURVE March 2016

Original citation:
Gimba Magha-A-Ngimba, C. (2015) The Nexus between Artisanal Mining and the
Recruitment, Reintegration and Re-recruitment of Combatants in the Kivus, Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Coventry: Coventry University

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author. A copy can be downloaded for
personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item
cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in
writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold
commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright
holders.

Some materials have been removed from this thesis due to third party copyright. Pages
where material has been removed are clearly marked in the electronic version. The
unabridged version of the thesis can be viewed at the Lanchester Library, Coventry
University.

CURVE is the Institutional Repository for Coventry University
http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open
The Nexus between Artisanal Mining and
the Recruitment,

Reintegration and Re-recruitment of
Combatants in the Kivus,
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Charles GIMBA MAGHA-A-NGIMBA

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the
University’s requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

December 2014

Coventry University
Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... ii
List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vii
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ viii
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... ix
List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. xi
Chapter One: Researching on the Nexus between Artisanal Mining and Reintegration of
Ex- combatants in the Context of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ...................... 1
1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Setting the Context: the Democratic Republic of Congo ........................................ 3
1.3 Political Economy of Armed Groups vis-à-vis Mining Sector in the Kivus ......... 10
1.3.1 Artisanal Mining ............................................................................................. 16
1.3.2 Security Provisions in Artisanal Mining in the Eastern DRC ........................ 20
1.3.3 Cassiterite, Coltan and Gold in the Eastern DRC ........................................... 22
1.4 Gaps in the Literature ............................................................................................ 24
1.5 Research Design and Field Research Methodology .............................................. 25
1.5.1 Qualitative Research Paradigm and Social Constructivism ........................... 29
1.5.2 Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach to Qualitative-Interpretative
Research 32
1.6 Organization of the Thesis ..................................................................................... 51
Chapter Two: Resource-based Conflicts in the Post-cold War Context .............................. 54
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 54
2.2 New Geography of Conflicts ................................................................................. 54
2.2.1 Defining Civil War ......................................................................................... 56
2.3 Absurdity of Abundance Theory: Root Causes of Conflicts ................................. 59
2.3.1 Greed Hypothesis ........................................................................................... 63
Coventry University ii
Contents
2.3.2 Grievance Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 76
2.4 Economic Dynamics of Armed Conflicts: War Economy ..................................... 79
2.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 84
Chapter Three: From Recruitment to Re-recruitment of Combatants: The Failure of
Reintegration Process? ......................................................................................................... 86
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 86
3.2 Resource-Conflict Nexus through Armed Groups Dynamic ................................. 86
3.3 Skimming the Root-Causes of Recruitment, Reintegration and Re-recruitment ... 91
3.3.1 Combatants’ Recruitment ............................................................................... 91
3.3.2 Pull-and-Push Factors for Child Soldiering.................................................... 95
3.4 DDR as Peacebuilding Process .............................................................................. 98
3.4.1 Reintegration as a DDR Component ............................................................ 102
3.4.2 Reintegration: From Minimalist to Maximalist Perspective ........................ 110
3.5 Reintegration Outcomes and the Problem of Re-recruitment .............................. 114
3.6 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 120
Chapter Four: State Failure and Protracted Armed Conflict in the DRC ........................... 123
4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 123
4.2 From the Congo Free State to the Independence ................................................. 126
4.2.1 The Independent Congo................................................................................ 127
4.2.2 Rise and Fall of Mobutu ............................................................................... 129
4.2.3 From Economic Reforms to Economic Breakdown ..................................... 132
4.2.4 DRC after the End of the Cold War ............................................................. 133
Coventry University iii
Contents
4.2.5 Divide to Reign Strategy: Ethnicity, Citizenship and Land ......................... 136
4.2.6 Impact of the Rwandan Genocide in the DRC Crisis ................................... 145
4.3 The Rise of Laurent Kabila and the AFDL: The 1996-1997 War of Liberation . 149
4.3.1 Laurent Désiré Kabila and the AFDL........................................................... 151
4.4 The AFDL Collapse and the Breakout of the 1998 Congo War .......................... 155
4.4.1 Attempts to the Peace Settlement ................................................................. 161
4.4.2 The Eastern DRC and the Ongoing Armed Movements .............................. 165
4.5 DRC’s Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Process ...................... 169
4.5.1 DDR Institutional and Financial Considerations .......................................... 171
4.5.2 DDR Outcomes ............................................................................................ 172
4.5.3 The Kivus Unending Violence ..................................................................... 174
4.5.4 DRC’s Peacebuilding Failures...................................................................... 178
4.6 Understanding Current Conflict-Mining-Recruitment in Light of Conflict’s Multi-
layered Factors ................................................................................................................ 183
4.6.1 Unveiling some Historical Facts of the Colonial Era in the DRC ................ 184
4.6.2 AFDL: Foreign Interest in the DRC ............................................................. 192
4.6.3 The Geopolitical Stakes of the Multinational Corporations in the DRC ...... 197
4.7 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 203
Chapter Five: Nexus between Artisanal Mining and the (Re-) Recruitment of Combatants
............................................................................................................................................ 209
5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 209
Coventry University iv
Contents
5.2 Autopsy of Stuttering Security Sector Reform and Fainting State-Building
Processes ......................................................................................................................... 209
5.2.1 State-building, SSR and Security Governance in the DRC: A “One-Size-Fits-
All” Approach? ............................................................................................................ 220
5.2.2 Governance, Development and Security: A Blank Slate in the DRC? ......... 222
5.3 Political Economy of the DRC’s Mining Sector ................................................. 226
5.3.1 Security Provisions of Mining Sector ........................................................... 227
5.3.2 The DRC’s Land Rights: Bakajika Law ....................................................... 232
5.3.3 Mining Code ................................................................................................. 233
5.3.4 Organisation of Mining Sector ..................................................................... 235
5.4 Mineral-based Conflict: The Cycle of Combatants’ Recruitment and DDR ....... 237
5.4.1 Nexus between Mining and Armed Movements .......................................... 238
5.5 Combatants’ Recruitment .................................................................................... 247
5.6 Combatants’ DDR in the Kivus: Towards a Problem-solving or a Plight? ......... 254
5.7 Combatants’ Re-recruitment: The Phenomenon of Combatants without Borders
264
5.8 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 268
Chapter Six: Demilitarisation of Mining Zones ................................................................. 272
6.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 272
6.2 Towards Solving the Artisanal Mining-Combatant Nexus .................................. 273
6.2.1 Severing the Artisanal Mining-Combatant-Recruitment Relationship ........ 274
6.2.2 From Demilitarisation of Mining Zones to Militarisation of War-affected
Zones Administration: Toward a Community-based Approach .................................. 280
Coventry University v
Contents
6.2.3 Need for New (Ex-) Combatants’ DDR Programme: Reconceptualising
Combatants’ Reintegration in the DRC ....................................................................... 292
6.2.4 Restructuring of DRC’s Security Sector ...................................................... 299
6.3 Arms and Finance Traceability: Avoiding History Repetition ............................ 309
6.4 Need for an Internal and External Mining-Development Geopolitics ................. 316
6.5 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 320
Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................... 322
7.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 322
7.2 Main Research Findings ...................................................................................... 323
7.3 Key Recommendations ........................................................................................ 338
7.4 Future Research ................................................................................................... 342
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 344
Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 408

Coventry University vi
List of Figures and Tables
List of Figures
Figure1.1: Geographical location of the DRC (Source: Congolese Geographic Institute
2013) ................................................................................................................................ 5
Figure1.2: Overview of macro-level contributions of mining in DRC ................................... 9
Figure1.3: Mineral deposits in the North Kivu (Source: www.ipisresearch.be/mapping.php)
....................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure1.4: Mineral deposits in the South Kivu (Source: www.ipisresearch.be/mapping.php)
....................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure1.5: An example of a Memo from the Fieldwork. ...................................................... 44
Figure 4.1: DRC and its crown of wealth .......................................................................... 190
Figure 5.2: Nexus between artisanal mining and (ex-) combatants (Own composition) ... 238
Figure 6.1: Local ownership and authorship of community-based approach to the
demilitarisation of the mining zones in the Kivus ........................................................ 279
Figure 6.2: Understanding of structure and dynamic in a new DDR and SSR in the DRC
..................................................................................................................................... 295

List of Tables
Table1.1: The DRC’s history of important governance changes ........................................... 7
Table1.2:Statistics of respondents for interviews ................................................................. 37
Table1.3: Details of FGDs ................................................................................................... 39
Table1.4: Example of Opening Code: .................................................................................. 43

Coventry University vii
Abstract
Abstract
This thesis examines the artisanal mining-combatant-recruitment nexus in war torn zones.
With a case study of the Kivus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has
experienced one of the world’s worst blood-shedding over the last two decades, the study
uses a constructivist Grounded Theory approach to research in terms of both data collection
and analysis. It focuses on the existing body of knowledge on conflict analyses with a
particular reference to the absurdity of abundance theory, which singles out the endowment
of natural resources and weak governance as the main fuelling-factors of the conflict in the
DRC. Data collection was carried out using diverse methods including literature reviews,
interviews and focus groups. In particular, the study aims to explore how the
demilitarisation of the mining zones could contribute to enhancement of the Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants and promote social cohesion,
sustainable peace and security in the eastern DRC.
The analysis of the conflicts in the DRC and the acquaintance of belligerents with artisanal
mining revealed the convoluted multi-layered nature of the conflicts in the country and their
intricate causalities. The examination of the demilitarisation of the mining zones pertinent
to the nexus between artisanal mining and the recruitment, reintegration and re-recruitment
of combatants in the Kivus identified a few prerequisites in order to sever the artisanal
mining-combatant-recruitment relationship that largely swivel around “bottom-up
solutions”.
The research contributes to knowledge in three broad areas; firstly, it contributes to ongoing
academic debates on conflict analyses, the political economy of armed conflicts vis-à-vis
mining sector as well as the mining sector and DDR of combatants in the DRC. Secondly, it
offers empirical analysis and data on the combatants’ recruitment and DDR process and the
artisanal mining sector with regards to state failure and protracted armed conflict in the
DRC. Finally, it underlines the need to re-evaluate “the concept of community-based
approach”, a key approach to improving peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery in the
eastern DRC.
Coventry University viii
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
With Jesus I have everything, without him I have nothing…“My God, I am
merely servant; I have done no more than is my duty” Luke 17:10.
Completing this thesis has been a long and exciting voyage, which would not have been
possible without generous cooperation, support and help from various people. I would,
therefore, like to acknowledge their valuable contributions to my research voyage.
First and foremost, my thanks go to my loving wife Niclette and children Gauthier, Gracia
and Elliah who have been the backbone of this thesis. Niclette, you have been an endless
source of encouragement to me. Thank you for supporting me during the ups and downs of
the research voyage. You never complained even though you got to look after the little
Elliah while she needed care from both of us; rather you always filled me with prayers, fun
and joy whenever I was down. You both proved to be incredible supporter in my last days
of the research endeavour.
My expression of sincere gratitude to my parents Delphin Gimba and Elyse Kisuka who
have thought me from my earliest days to be discipline and focused in all that I am set to
achieve. I lack words to express my unalloyed gratitude to you for the life that you have
given me. I also wish to thank Mupla Mukoy, Ndomba and all my siblings. You are my
first teachers in life and affectionate counsellors.
I am undoubtedly indebted to my Director of Studies and principal supervisor, Professor
Alpaslan Özerdem who has been an invaluable source of knowledge, inspiration and
motivation in carrying out this research. Equally my humble gratitude is expressed to
Professor Alan Hunter for his constant mentoring and advices that have proved to be the
key to producing this thesis.
My sincere thanks go to all the respondents of my study who provided me with valuable
time and offered me their insights, views and experience by partaking in interviews and
focus group discussions. Without their invaluable cooperation, this research would not have
been possible.
Coventry University ix