APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 45 Gaps in the Eastern Congo Peacebuilding Process 45 bloody rebellion that lasted until 1964, when it was quelled, and the first successful legislative elections were organized. As the country prepared for presidential elections, Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in a military coup. He would rule the country for thirty-two years.7 In 1996, with the support of Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, Laurent Kabila launched a rebellion in the Kivu provinces in the eastern part of the country and ousted Mobutu, proclaiming himself president in 1997. A year later, Kabila expelled his neighboring allies, and in retaliation, they waged war against his regime. Seven countries—Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Chad—were ultimately involved, along with more than five rebel movements, challenging the government of Kinshasa. The war wrecked enormous havoc on Congolese civilians, including widespread sexual violence against women, the displacement of 2.5 million persons, widespread disappearances, and 4 million civilian deaths by assassination, execution, and death squads.8 The war came to an end with the assassination of Kabila on 16 January 2001 and the signing of the general peace agreement in Pretoria in December 2002. The agreement created a government of national unity, which led the transition process and organized the 2006 elections. The transition was marked by tensions and security problems, with the eastern part of the country permanently under threat of militia groups. The DR Congo continued to face social and structural challenges, including profound poverty, mismanagement, extensive physical, psychological, and sexual violence, political elitism, mistrust between and among communities, land disputes, and ethnic tensions. Key governance problems, including decentralization and participative and accountable management of local resources, remain unresolved. Economic and social inequalities continue to be major challenges to peace. Armed groups still roam the mineral-rich east, some originating in Rwanda and Uganda. LITERATURE ON THE CONGO CONFLICT There are scores of analyses about the crisis in DR Congo, but three schools of thought dominate the current discussion: the economic, mismanagement and bad governance, and politico-cultural discourses. The economic perspective is the most popular for dissecting events in DR Congo, particularly in the eastern region, which is rich in natural resources. Several research reports assert that international mining companies are supporting militias and other rebel groups for the opportunity to exploit the country’s various deposits.9 Likewise, the involvement of some neighboring countries (namely, Rwanda and Uganda) was not thought to have been initiated solely for political reasons, but also, and more important, because of the benefits they expected to gain from access to DR Congo’s natural wealth.10 The crisis, according to proponents of this per7. See J.-F. Bayart, S. Ellis, and B. Hibou, La criminalisation de l’état en Afrique (Brussels, Editions Complexe, 1997). 8. Olivier Lanotte, République Démocratique du Congo: guerres sans frontières, de Joseph-Désiré Mobutu à Joseph Kabila (Brussels, Grip, 2003); Rigobert Minani Bizuho, ‘La République Démocratique du Congo: la démocratie à l’épreuve de la géopolitique et de la bonne gouvernance’, Congo-Afrique, no. 423 (2008), 217–28. 9. International Alert, ‘Les activités de développement et de construction de la paix de l’Union Européen dans la Région des Grand Lacs’, Conflict Prevention Partnership, 23 August 2006, 21. 10. Bizuho, ‘La République Démocratique du Congo’.