C&n Exploration in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 163Key Factors in the Conflict
From a general perspective, the post-Cold war conflicts in the region of cen-
tral Africa and, in particular, in the DRC, have come to be associated with
periods of domestic, economic and political liberalisation and to reflect the
impact of rapid democratisation in weak state^.^ Many developing countries
may be ill prepared for the political tumult and economic stresses caused by
global trends such as rapid conversion to a market economy and democrati-
sation, reawakened ethnic identity, etc, which the post-Cold War era
unleashed. In this sense, these characteristics form what the conflict analy-
sis literature has come to describe as background conditions, namely funda-
mental (economic, environmental, demographic, historical, etc) circum-
stances which can make a society vulnerable to violent conflict?
Proliferating conflicts in central Africa also reveal how internal conflicts
can generate armed forces that, in the absence of effective national and
regional conflict settlement mechanisms, can export as well as nurture vio-
lence in neighbouring countries. For instance, this phenomenon was
observed in 1994-95 in the DRC, during the massive influx of Hutu refugees
who had been pushed out of Rwanda after the genocide. While the
Interahamwe and ex-FAR forces were continuing to launch insurgencies into
Rwanda in order ultimately to reinstate a Hutu government, their presence in
the refugee camps also had a negative effect within Zaire and led to renewed
internal ethnic clashes and hatred. In this sense the impact of the presence
and engagement of third parties in the territory of the DRC will prove a criti-
cal factor for the lasting resolution of conflict within the Congo.
Closely related is the realisation of the limited sense of regionalism in cen-
tral Africa and absence of functioning conflict prevention and mediation at an
interstate level. The second wave of violence in 1998 brought this particular-
ly to the fore, in the form of an international trans-state conflict across sev-
eral borders. This development occurred despite the fact that most of the cen-
tral African countries share links through commerce, sometimes a common
French or Belgian colonial and linguistic legacies and political ~ultures.~
Certainly, the lack of effective regional interstate mechanisms must have
proved a contributing factor in the further escalation of conflict in the DRC in
1998, as well as the regionalisation thereof.
Other Causes of Conflict
Some analysts argue that the basic cause for the two successive conflicts in
the DRC in 1997 and 1998 rests with the deterioration of the authority and
reach of the Zairian state in the eastern parts of the country as a result of the
corruption and mismanagement of the regime of M~butu.~ These factors