African News Round Up, mostly from DR Congo
Zimbabwean President Mugabe is about to sign into law a constitutional amendment to allow his rival Morgan Tsvangirai to share power by becoming Prime Minister. Meanwhile, a Zimbawean judge has dropped treason charges against another key Movement for Democratic Change figure, Tendai Biti.
Sokari of Black Looks writes about how the media have been Ignoring African Wars.
I came across a site called “Stealth Conflicts” which is based on the book of the same name by Virgil Hawkins. Stealth conflicts are those conflicts which remain marginal in relation to the overall agenda of the various industrial complexes that constitute global capital – the media, academia, NGOs, policy makers and so on….
The author specifically mentions the DRC which has seen continued and unprecedented levels of violence dating back to the colonial occupation by Belgian through to independence and the murder of Patrice Lumumba and then on till today. In the past 10 years alone there have been 6 million conflict related deaths and millions of rapes in the country….
UN peacekeepers in the DRC have deployed joint civilian protection teams alongside Blue Helmets. From Rwanda comes the report that UN repatriation of former Hutu fighters from the DRC to Rwanda has picked up. Friends of Congo mistrusts the Rwandan report that DRC rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has been arrested, and is skeptical of recent cooperation between DR Congo and Rwanda. However, regional heads of state in the Great Lakes Region have issued a joint communique welcoming DRC-Rwanda cooperation against FDLR rebels.