ABSTRACT
A t first glance, Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic ofCongo, seems to have cruised through the Cold War impervious to the tur-moil that wreaked havoc in the rest of the country, as the newly independentrepublic was transformed into one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the war. Conflicts, atrocities, and unrest ravaged the eastern half of the country and took their toll not only on armed combatants but also on unarmed civilians and on the region’s pristine flora and fauna. Hemmed in by the Great Lakes, eastern Congo boasts some of the world’s most abundant and rich mineral ores, including cobalt, copper, manganese, diamond, gold, uranium, tin (cassiterite) and coltan (columbium-tantalum). But eastern Congo seems doomed by what political scientists have termed “resource curse.” Kinshasa, however, has always been shielded from military disturbances due to its westernmost location in an area of the country devoid of vast mineral deposits. Yet the capital of Congo has borne the brunt of the mineral conflicts and ethnic unrest that have thwarted the country’s development since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
