Word: regions
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...evocative. The Congolese town of Goma that is the center of the crisis was also where the world first had its clearest glimpse of the Rwanda atrocities. Secondly, a huge amount of the world's most important minerals, including one involved in the making of cellphones, emanate from the region and specifically from areas controlled by the combatants. (See pictures of the humanitarian disaster in Congo...
...leaders in the region are the only ones capable of bringing this crisis to an end, notably the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, and his Congolese counterpart, Joseph Kabila. But the historical entanglements of Kagame and Kabila in Rwanda's bloodbath and its aftermath raise serious questions about their willingness to do so. Meanwhile, globalization also plays its part. Armed combatants in the area, already accused of rape and genocidal murder, are profiting from Western companies doing business in the region...
...Paul Kagame's 1994 Rwanda Patriotic Front, the rebel force that routed the then-Rwandan government even as the genocide was taking place. While Kagame categorically denies that he is supporting Nkunda and his militia, the Rwandan president has done so in the past and most observers in the region believe that he still is . Similarly, Congo's president Joseph Kabila's army is widely believed to be working closely with Hutu militia, that is when they are not terrorizing their own citizens. (See pictures of Congo's child soldiers...
...Kabila and Kagame are major recipients of Western aid - from the European Union and the United States. Even if Kagame is speaking the truth when he says that he is not supporting the Tutsi rebel commander Nkunda today, few observers doubt that as a major military player in the region he has the power to rein him in. Similarly the Congolese President can stop his own army chiefs from working directly the Hutu militias and rebel groups. Both say that they have nothing to do with the current fighting; they need to be forced to account by international political...
...economic causes of the conflict need to be addressed. The minerals from the region are hugely profitable both mining conglomerates and armed groups alike - apart from their utility for end users in the developed world. Nkunda, for example, is widely believed to be profiting from the transit of minerals through areas he controls (he claims he is only policing the area to protect ethnic Tutsis). Global Witness, a London based NGO, sent researchers to the the provinces of North and South Kivu this summer and reported back that Hutu armed groups as well as members of the country's armed...