Figuration of Uncertainty: Armed Groups and ‘Humanitarian’ Military Intervention in Ituri (DR Congo)

Abstract

This paper deals with the civil war and the international ‘humanitarian’ military intervention in Ituri (DR Congo). The relationship between non-state armed groups and the United Nations’ mission (MONUC) in Ituri was marked by the lack of a particular knowledge, a knowledge that is constructed through established patterns of interaction. Power balances were not defined leading to continual conflict. This paper interrogates the way actors dealt with the uncertainty this figuration provided and the final decision to take decisive action. It argues that uncertainty causes difficult problems for the actors involved in post-conflict intervention spaces, but that it may also be exploited as a tactical tool.

Keywords:

• civil war
• humanitarian military intervention
• non-state armed groups
• demobilisation
• statebuilding

Notes

1. MONUC official, author's interview, Kinshasa, 9 December2005.

2. Spokesperson of Jérôme Kakwavu, author's interview, Kinshasa, 11 December 2005.

3. MONUC official, author's interview, Kinshasan, 9 December 2005.

4. Hereafter, the term ‘international community’ will be capitalised to ‘International Community’ to convey its use as an identity signifier for international actors in Ituri.

5. Field research has been undertaken in the DR Congo and Uganda from September to December 2005, and March to June 2006. The sources used in this article are based on a range of interviews, but also on observations resulting from general ethnographic research. Most interview partners the author spoke to remain anonymous, to not endanger their security (mainly Congolese citizens) or their professional careers (UN officials). Likewise, internal UN documents received cannot be referenced in detail for similar reasons.

6. For a summary of events in Ituri from late 2002 to May 2003, see ICG 2003.

7. See Vlassenroot and Raeymakers 2004 for a detailed account of Ituri's civil war until 2003.

8. Several interviews with former militia members, Bunia, October 2005 and May 2006; unpublished UN reports on the security situation, Bunia, January–September 2004

9. Unpublished UN reports on the security situation, Bunia, January–September 2004.

10. MONUC official, author's interview, Kinshasan, 9 December 2005; UNDP official, author's interview, Kinshasa, 31 May 2006; spokesperson of Jérôme Kakwavu, author's interview, Kinshasa, 11 December 2005; Kisembo Bitamara, former leader of the militia ‘Parti pour l'Unité et la Sauvegarde de l'Intégrité du Congo’ (PUSIC), author's interview at an undisclosed location, 28 September 2005. For a discussion on the DCR-programme see Wolters (2005) and Bouta (2005).

11. Unpublished UN reports on the security situation, Bunia, September–December 2004; interviews with former militia members, Bunia, October–November 2005.

12. Unpublished UN reports on the security situation, Bunia, December 2004.

13. On other, less prominent cases, of semi-illegal detention under MONUC supervision, see Justice Plus 2004.

14. Various interviews with UN officials, Bunia and Kinshasa, October–December 2005.

15. The author would like to emphasize that the use of terms like ‘the weak’ for non-state armed groups is not implying any normative or moral judgement.

16. As the author had no opportunity to speak with the incarcerated militia leaders, the assumption rests on discussions held with lower ranking members of the armed groups in Bunia, April–June 2006.

17. MONUC official, author's interview, Bunia, 19 April 2006; MONUC military officer, author's interview, Bunia, 9 June 2006.

18. UN official, author's interview, Bunia, 7 November 2005. The new armed group was called ‘Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolais’ (MRC).

19. Various interviews with former members of armed groups, Bunia, April–June 2006; and general street talk in Bunia.