GEOGRAPHIES OF VIOLENCE AND GEOGRAPHIES OF HOPE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: INVESTIGATING THE SECESSIONIST DEFICIT OF THE CONGO WAR By Jaclyn Leigh Burger Submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of American University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In International Peace and Conflict Resolution Chair: Professor Charles Call Professor Peter Lewis ;an of the School °l !% P \i I ^ O Q ^ h afp V 2007 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1448700 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 1448700 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GEOGRAPHIES OF VIOLENCE AND GEOGRAPHIES OF HOPE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: INVESTIGATING THE SECESSIONIST DEFICIT OF THE CONGO WAR By Jaclyn Leigh Burger ABSTRACT Following the outbreak of war in 1998, many expected the Congolese state to disintegrate into a constellation of micro-states. Based on a rich history of secession, ethnic particularism, and natural resource wealth, renewed attempts at the dismemberment of the state seemed inevitable. Yet the Congolese defied expectations of secession, irredentism, and/or annexation. This paper explores the elite- and local-level dynamics that might help explain the paradoxical secessionist deficit of the Congo War. Using a conceptual framework that emphasizes notions of secession rather than notions of statehood or sovereignty, I argue that communities in the Congo did in fact secede. Creating structures of social governance, many communities affirmed empirical secession without activating its juridical counterpart. By way of examining the economics of non-secession I argue that the prevalence of the informal economy negated the need for secessionist institutions. Simultaneously, some communities actively sought recognition and regulation from the central, Congolese state. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE While working in the African IGO environment, I often interacted with the human rights activist, Mr. Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi of Heritiers de la Justice in Bukavu. Pascal was assassinated in July 2005.1 He was a tireless human rights campaigner and his quiet spirit and hope, in spite of the violence and atrocities that colored his daily life, made a great impression on me. While this research is not a study of the human rights situation in the Congo, I nonetheless hope that it is something that Pascal would have been supportive of. For research purposes, I conducted numerous interviews with Congolese individuals. The participants came from various backgrounds. Some were refugees and migrants in South Africa, some were prominent, exiled political players, some were scholars or journalists, and some were from the mining industry. In order to protect them and in the name of confidentiality, I have chosen to not mention any of my research participants by name or affiliation. If reference is made to any interviews, I have noted the place and date o f the interview as follows: (Confidential interview, Johannesburg, January 2007). While I cannot formerly acknowledge the exceptionally helpful and engaging personalities that participated in this research I would nonetheless like to extend my sincerest thanks to each and every one of them for agreeing to be interviewed and for sharing their in-depth knowledge with me. 1 For more on Pascal Kibembi see the report of Amnesty International at: http://web.amnestv.org/pages/drc-240607-action-eng and the Heritiers de la Justice website at: http: //w w w . heriti ers. or g/en glish/index. htm iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As a note to the reader: the names of places and things have changed numerous times throughout the Congo’s history. For much of Mobutu’s thirty-two years of rule, the country was known as Zaire. For the sake of coherence, however, I have chosen to use contemporary names throughout, unless directly referencing someone else. Throughout the text I have used either the DRC or the Congo to refer to the country and cities or regions are referred by their contemporary names: Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville), Lubumbashi (formerly Elisabethville), Kananga (formerly Luluabourg), Mbuji Mayi (formerly Bakwanga), Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville), and Katanga (formerly Shaba). iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed were it not for the generous support, critical engagement, good humor, and patience of my committee members Professors Chuck Call and Peter Lewis. My special thanks to Chuck for his constant encouragement, for being an exceptional teacher, for always challenging me, and for having confidence in my abilities. I would like to thank Peter for agreeing to take me on, for his support, and for being such an inspiring Africanist who treats the study of my continent with such integrity of purpose. The grace and passion which with both my committee members approach the study of peace and conflict has been a great source of inspiration to me. Their constant encouragement and useful feedback made this labor of love that much easier. Professor Nanette Levinson, whom I have worked for as a research assistant for the duration of my studies at American University, has been a wonderful mentor and I would like to thank her for her encouragement. I would also like to thank my colleagues and good friends Alison Long, Kali Glenn-Haley, and Dylan Craig who often acted as intellectual sounding boards for my ideas throughout the months of engagement with this topic. Thank you for your friendship and support. My thanks to Jacqueline Damon of INICA for allowing me generous use of their fantastic maps and also to Renee Dopplick of Inside Justice for her maps of the provinces of the DRC. My family deserves the biggest thank you for their love, constant support, and faith in me. I would like to dedicate this piece to my brothers, Marc and Nic; may you v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. both always have the strength to rediscover your own geographies of hope. My thanks also to my brother-in-law Jason for his good cheer and encouragement. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my mom, Julie, the most phenomenal woman I know. Thank you for your unconditional love and support, and for encouraging me to spread my wings. Thank you also for literally praying me through grad school. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................ii PREFACE .........................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................. v LIST OF T A B L E S ............................................................................................viii LIST OF ILLU STRA TIO N S ................................................................. ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS x Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1 II. ETHNICITY IN THE D R C ...................................................... 15 III. SECESSIONIST TRADITIONS IN CONGOLESE HISTORY 21 IV. POLITICAL BACKGROUND TO THE CONGO WAR OF 1998 TO 2003 .............................................................................. 43 V. THE POLITICS OF NON-SECESSION . 56 VI. THE ECONOMICS OF NON-SECESSION . 90 VII. C O N C L U S I O N ................................................................................ 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................112 vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES 1: An Alternative Conceptual Framework: Juridical and Empirical Statehood and Secession ......... 59 2: Le Billon’s Resource-Conflict Mode Typology .... 96 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1: Map of the DRC’s Provincial Boundaries (pre-2006 Constitutional changes) 15 2: Map of the Ethnic Mosaic of the DRC . 16 3: Map of the Congo River Basin and Political Borders . 24 4: Map of the Congo-Nile