Congo - Thomas Turner

The Democratic Republic of Congo has become one of the world'sbloodiest hot spots. 2003 saw the end of a five-year war in whichmillions lost their lives - one of the deadliest conflicts sinceWorld War II. Despite recent peace agreements and democraticelections, the country is still plagued by army and militiaviolence. Congo remains deeply troubled, since the deep-rootedcauses of conflict have not been adequately addressed.

The conflict in the DRC has divided opinion; some call it acivil war, or a war of aggression by the country's neighbours;others a continuation of Rwanda's Hutu-Tutsi conflict on Congolosesoil, and a war of partition and pillage. The prevalence of rapeand sexual violence has led some analysts to mark it out as ahidden 'war against women'. Tom Turner's insightful bookreveals how each of these descriptions accurately captures theseparate elements of this complex and multidimensional politicalconflict. In exploring each of these contributory factors, he showshow current attempts to rebuild the shattered state and society ofDRC are doomed to fail. So long as the full complexity of the Congocrisis is not taken into account and a clear consensus as to itsprecise dimensions reached, the future looks bleak. The DRC, heargues, will likely remain a global hot spot for some time tocome.