Africa's world war : Congo, the Rwandan genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe / Gérard Prunier.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-514) and index.

Abbreviations -- Glossary -- Maps -- Introduction -- 1: Rwanda's Mixed Season Of Hope (July 1994 - April 1995) -- Immediate aftermath -- Politics of national unity -- Justice and the killings -- Rwanda outside Rwanda: the world of the refugee camps -- International community's attitudes -- 2: From Kibeho To The Attack On Zaire (April 1995 - October 1996) -- Kibeho crisis -- Collapse of the national unity government -- Refugees and the Kivu cockpit -- North Kivu: ethnicity and the land conflict -- South Kivu: the Banyamulenge and the memories of 1965 -- Impact of the Rwandese refugees on the Kivus -- Burundi factor -- General Kagame goes to war -- 3: Congo Basin, Its Interlopers, And Its Onlookers -- Into the Zairian vortex -- Interlopers -- Sudanese and Ugandans -- Far from the Great Lakes: the Angolan conflict -- Standing by, trying to keep out: three uneasy onlookers -- 4: Winning A Virtual War (September 1996 - May 1997) -- Rwanda in Zaire: from refugee crisis to international war -- Laurent-Desire Kabila and the birth of AFDL -- Bogey of the multinational intervention force -- Refugee exodus -- Long walk into Kinshasa -- War and diplomacy -- Mining contracts: myths and realities -- Fate of the refugees -- 5: Losing The Real Peace (May 1997 - August 1998) -- Kabila in power: a secretive and incoherent leadership -- Diplomacy and the refugee issue -- Economy: an ineffectual attempt at normalization -- Between Luanda and Brazzaville: the DRC's volatile west -- African environment -- Unquiet east: the Kivus and their neighbors -- 6: Continental War (August 1998 - August 1999) -- Commander Kabarebe's failed Blitzkrieg -- Heading for an African war -- Kinshasa's friends: godfathers and discreet supporters -- Kinshasa's foes -- Fence-sitters and well-wishers -- Fighting down to a stalemate -- Behind and around the war: domestic politics, diplomacy and economics -- Lusaka "peace" charade -- 7: Sinking Into The Quagmire (August 1999 - January 2001) -- War is dead, long live the war -- East: confused rebels in confused fighting -- Westwards: the river wars -- Rwanda drives south into Katanga -- Shaky home fronts -- Congo: an elusive search for national dialogue while the economy collapses -- Angola: the pressure begins to ease off -- Zimbabwe: trying to make the war pay for itself -- Rwanda and Uganda: the friendship grows violent -- International dimension: giving aid, monitoring the looting, and waiting for MONUC -- Mzee's assassination -- 8: Not With A Bang, But With A Whimper: The War's Confused Ending (January 2001 - December 2002) -- Li'l Joseph's new political dispensation -- Diplomacy slowly deconstructs the continental conflict -- Actors start jockeying for position -- Negotiations, national dialogue, and disarmament in competition -- South African breakthrough -- Bumpy road toward a transitional government -- Economy: slowly crawling out of the abyss -- Eastern sore: the continental conflict shrinks into sub-regional anarchy -- 9: From War To Peace: Congolese Transition And Conflict Deconstruction (January 2003-July 2007) -- Conflict's lingering aftermath (January 2003-December 2004 ) -- Peripheral actors drop off -- Rwanda and Uganda refuse to give up -- Attempt at violently upsetting the transition -- Tottering forward in Kinshasa -- Slouching toward Bethlehem: the transition slowly turns into reality (January 2005-November 2006) -- Pre-electoral struggles -- DDRRR, SSR, and assorted security headaches -- Elections -- Morning after syndrome (November 2006-July 2007) -- Risk of internal political paralysis -- Economy: donors, debts, and the Great Mining Robbery -- East refuses to heal -- 10: Groping For Meaning: The "Congolese" Conflict And The Crisis Of Contemporary Africa -- War as an African phenomenon -- Purely East African origins of the conflagration -- Antigenocide, the myth of the "new leaders," and the spread of democracy in Africa: the world projects its own rationale on the situation -- New Congo, between African renaissance and African imperialism -- From crusading to looting: the new leaders age quickly -- War as seen by the outside world -- What did all the diplomatic agitation achieve? -- Moral indignation in lieu of political resolve -- Attempt at a philosophical conclusion -- Appendix 1: Seth Sendashonga's murder -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.