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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Privatisation and Criminalisation of Public Space in the Geopolitics of the Great Lakes Region |
Author: | Reyntjens, Filip |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
Volume: | 43 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 587-607 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Great Lakes region Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Subjects: | civil wars State collapse international conflicts Inter-African Relations Politics and Government international relations Law, Human Rights and Violence |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876320 |
Abstract: | The Great Lakes region has been in profound turmoil for the past 15 years. Through the game of shifting alliances, and because of geographic proximity in an area with porous borders, conflicts have tended to merge, thus giving rise to a huge zone of instability. There is a clear though convoluted line from the small-scale invasion of Rwanda by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in October 1990 to the second Congo war, which started in August 1998. Conflicts have been compounded by the export of war to neighbouring countries, and the extreme weakness of the Congolese State has led to the 'satellization' of large parts of its territory. This has in turn led to the privatization and criminalization of public space, to the advantage of both neighbouring countries and local, regional and international 'entrepreneurs of insecurity'. From political, ideological, ethnic or security-induced, violence has become predominantly predatory, with loyalties and alliances essentially based on the search for personal or factional enrichment. In human terms, the damage caused by the occupation and plunder of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been colossal. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |