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The privatisation and criminalisation of public space in the geopolitics of the Great Lakes region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2005

Filip Reyntjens
Filip Reyntjens
Affiliation:
Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
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Abstract

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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. Conflicts have been compounded by the export of war to neighbouring countries, and the extreme weakness of the Congolese state has led to the ‘satellisation’ of large parts of its territory. This has in turn led to the privatisation and criminalisation 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 eastern DRC has been colossal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 587 - 607
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

The author would like to thank René Lemarchand and two anonymous referees for their useful comments on an earlier draft of this article.