The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities (93 page)
Authors: Matthew White
Rwanda and Congo signed a cease-fire in Pretoria, South Africa, on July 30, 2002. Congo officially denied harboring any of the Hutu involved in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but agreed to turn them over to Rwanda anyway. In exchange, Rwanda agreed to withdraw from Congo. Another bilateral agreement between Uganda and Congo on September 6, 2002, ended that part of the war. The withdrawal of foreign troops left the various rebellious paramilitaries in place, but these were all given a place in the new transitional government.
In spite of the major shuffling of troops and reallocation of political power, scattered fighting has continued over the past few years. Some have already begun calling the new fighting the Third Congo War, but for the sake of time, space, and simplicity, let’s stop our history of the Second Congo War here.
The Style of War
The International Rescue Committee surveyed the inhabitants of the war zone and issued a report in 2005, estimating 3.8 million more deaths than usual since the outbreak of the Second Congo War, mostly from the disease and famine that spread in the wake of the devastation. Only 10 to 15 percent of these war deaths were directly by violence.
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History’s bloodiest wars often involve the most efficient and well-equipped soldiers available on the planet at the time. Armies at the peak of military efficiency, for example, fought the two world wars and conquered much of the world on behalf of Napoleon and Chinggis Khan. These were the most destructive armies of their era, and true to their training, they destroyed huge swaths of humanity.
The armies of the Congo war are in a different league altogether. This war was fought by poorly disciplined gangs of teenagers with outdated small arms and no loyalty to anyone other than the paymaster. They were scattered around a loose front, and they rarely committed to pitched battles that lasted more than a couple of hours. Discipline was brutal and life was cheap. They relied more on magical charms than training to protect them in combat. Bribery and looting were rife, and they spent more time terrorizing the locals than fighting the enemy. According to aid agencies, 60 percent of the combatants in the war have the virus that causes AIDS, and a third of the women they raped became infected.
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Singled out for human rights abuses were the Mai-Mai, a loose collection of local militias fighting in the center of Congo against the Rwandans and Ugandans, though not necessarily on behalf of the central government. The town of Kibombo changed hands several times, and each time, the soldiers would loot or extort and eventually withdraw, dragging a few women along for later. Typical is the experience of one sixteen-year-old girl:
In October, 2002, Onya and her mother were in a group of 48 women who had gone to tend the fields together, seeking safety in numbers. It didn’t work: They encountered a patrol of Mai-Mai who beat them, marched them off to their camp and began to rape them. Her mother escaped after a few days, but Onya was kept as a “wife” until last March [2004], forced to farm, cook and provide sex. Finally, the Mai-Mai fled after losing a major battle, and she made her way back to Kibombo.
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RANKING:
THE ONE HUNDRED DEADLIEST MULTICIDES
1. | Second World War (1939–45) |
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2. | Chinggis Khan (1206–27) |
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Mao Zedong (1949–76) |
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4. | Famines in British India (18th–20th centuries) |
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5. | Fall of the Ming Dynasty (1635–62) |
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6. | Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) |
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Joseph Stalin (1928–53) |
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8. | Mideast Slave Trade (7th–19th centuries) |
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9. | Timur (1370–1405) |
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10. | Atlantic Slave Trade (1452–1807) |
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11. | Conquest of the Americas (after 1492) |
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First World War (1914–18) |
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13. | An Lushan Rebellion (755–63) |
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14. | Xin Dynasty (9–24) |
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Congo Free State (1885–1908) |
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16. | Russian Civil War (1918–20) |
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17. | Thirty Years War (1618–48) |
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Fall of the Yuan Dynasty (ca. 1340–70) |
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19. | Fall of the Western Roman Empire (395–455) |
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Chinese Civil War (1927–37, 1945–49) |
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21. | Mahdi Revolt (1881–98) |
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22. | The Time of Troubles (1598–1613) |
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23. | Aurangzeb (1658–1707) |
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24. | Vietnam War (1959–75) |
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25. | The Three Kingdoms of China (189–280) |
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26. | Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815) |
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27. | Second Congo War (1998–2002) |
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28. | Gladiatorial Games (264 BCE–435 CE) |
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Hundred Years War (1337–1453) |
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30. | Crusades (1095–1291) |
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French Wars of Religion (1562–98) |
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Peter the Great (1682–1725) |
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Korean War (1950–53) |
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North Korea (after 1948) |
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35. | War in the Sudan (1955–2003) |
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36. | Expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe (1945–47) |
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37. | Fang La Rebellion (1120–22) |
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Mengistu Haile (1974–91) |
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39. | Democratic Kampuchea (1975–79) |
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40. | Age of Warring States (ca. 475–221 BCE) |
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Seven Years War (1756–63) |
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Shaka (1818–28) |
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Bengali Genocide (1971) |
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Soviet-Afghan War (1979–92) |
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45. | Aztec Human Sacrifice (1440–1521) |
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46. | Qin Shi Huang Di (221–210 BCE) |
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Roman Slave Wars (134–71 BCE) |
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Mayan Collapse (790–909) |
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Albigensian Crusade (1208–29) |
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Panthay Rebellion (1855–73) |
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Mexican Revolution (1910–20) |
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Biafran War (1966–70) |
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53. | Rwandan Genocide (1994) |
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54. | Burma-Siam Wars (1550–1605) |
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55. | Hulagu’s Invasion (1255–60) |
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Mozambican Civil War (1975–92) |
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57. | French Conquest of Algeria (1830–47) |
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58. | Second Punic War (218–202 BCE) |
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59. | Justinian (527–65) |
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Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–41) |
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61. | Gallic War (58–51 BCE) |
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Chinese Conquest of Vietnam (1407–28) |
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War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13) |
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Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) |
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65. | American Civil War (1861–65) |
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66. | Hui Rebellion (1862–73) |
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67. | Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598 and 612) |
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Sino-Dzungar War (1755–57) |
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69. | Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) |
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70. | Alexander the Great (336–325 BCE) |
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Bahmani-Vijayanagara War (1366) |
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Russo-Tatar War (1570–72) |
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War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) |
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Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) |
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Partition of India (1947) |
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Angolan Civil War (1975–94) |
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Ugandan Bush War (1979–86) |
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Somalian Chaos (since 1991) |
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79. | War of the Triple Alliance (1864–70) |
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80. | Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) |
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81. | First Punic War (264–241 BCE) |
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Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BCE) |
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Cromwell’s Invasion of Ireland (1649–52) |
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Mexican War of Independence (1810–21) |
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