involved in rescuing Zaire from misrule. In 1995
the conflict entered a new, confusing phase in this
region of the Congo. Previously settled by Tutsi
refugees from Rwanda, it was the centre of a
rebellion against Mobutu led by Laurent Kabila’s
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation
of the Congo. The Tutsis and Kabila joined forces
and attacked the refugee camps to drive the Hutu
militia and civilians out of the Congo and back
to Rwanda. Once again the UN, lacking Western
support, was unable to prevent thousands being
massacred as others fled into the forests of the
Congo. Kabila’s army then marched west, rein-
forced by many deserters from Mobutu’s and
in May 1997 he captured Kinshasa and drove
Mobutu into exile. He subsequently blocked all
attempts by the UN to investigate the killing of
the Hutus. There was little regret following the
fall of the corrupt Mobutu; he had been in power
for longer than any other African leader.
The second half of the 1990s was even worse
than the first. Laurent Kabila was unable to estab-
lish the authority of the Kinshasa government
over the whole country, half of it was in the
clutches of marauding rebel groups. The diamond
mines provided the means to secure weapons and
keep up the internal strife which spilled over into
Rwanda and Uganda. Control of the mines was a
powerful incentive for Congo’s neighbours to
intervene. A year after Kabila had been installed
with the help the rebels had secured from Uganda
and Rwanda, Uganda and Rwanda invaded again
to overthrow Kabila. Kabila called for foreign help
and Mugabe after securing diamond mine con-
cessions sent troops from Zimbabwe, which were
joined by troops from Angola and Namibia. The
mines and natural resorces fuelled the conflicts.
Inside the Congo murderous militias fought each
other as well. In this bloody quagmire Rwanda
and Uganda once allies, also began to fight each
other. Then Laurent Kabila was assassinated and
his son Joseph succeeded. In the midst of all this
a small, wholly inadequate UN force is supposed
to help re-establish peace. Ceasefires, troop with-
drawals, treaties and mediation came and went.
Understandably, the countries of the developed
world were reluctant to send soldiers to assist the
UN and risk death for a peace that no one on the
ground was prepared to keep. Meanwhile, armed
Hutu veterans who were responsible for the
slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda camped in
the eastern Congo along the shores of Lake
Tanganyka and Goma, destabilising the region.
In the new millennium other murderous bands
also terrorise, loot, kidnap the villagers on the
border and rape the women. International aid
workers sent to help dare not penetrate the most
dangerous areas. Since fighting was renewed in
1998 more than three million people have been
killed or died from starvation, a drawn out geno-
cide without an end in sight. The developed
world paid scant attention, their response in
sending some troops in 2003 and 2005 wholly
inadequate. Unless national interests are involved,
humanitarian needs are not enough to secure
their commitment.
The early history of independent Uganda is
scarcely happier than Zaire’s. This once fertile
and rich country suffered decades of conflict and
destruction. The path to independence also
involved overcoming difficulties special to Uganda.
It was not the white settlers who impeded the
granting of independence. There were less than
10,000 of them, and Asian settlers – although
70,000 lived in Uganda – were hardly considered.
The path to independence was bedevilled by old
colonial agreements, which had preserved tradi-
tional local monarchies; the most important was
that of Buganda, ruled by the kabaka. This
arrangement was a matter of colonial expediency, a
form of indirect rule as was later developed in
northern Nigeria. The kabaka and the Bugandans
still wanted to preserve their autonomy and
customs, which by then were in conflict with the
rise of African nationalism in the rest of Uganda.
Even so, the usual process towards self-rule was
followed: first African representation on the
Legislative Council was increased in the 1950s,
then in 1961 parliamentary elections were held.
Milton Obote, leader of the Uganda People’s
Congress, which sought early independence, fol-
lowed a tactic adopted by politicians in other
divided African countries of forming temporary
political alliances in order to persuade the colon-
ial power to grant independence. Irreconcilable
1
FREEDOM AND CONFLICT IN CENTRAL AND EAST AFRICA 741
