They found that the Rwandan government's story hid a much darker truth. The Rwandans had a clear intention, right from the beginning: to seize Congo's massive mineral wealth, to grab the coltan mine I am standing in now and thousands like it, and to sell it on to us, the waiting world, as we quickly flicked the channel away from the news of this war with our coltan-filled remote control. The other countries came in not because they believed in repelling aggression, but because they wanted a piece of the Congolese cake. The country was ravaged by "armies of business", commanded by men who "carefully planned the redrawing of the regional map to redistribute wealth," the UN declared.The UN experts knew this because the Rwandan troops did not head for the areas where the g?cidaires were hiding out.
"Quickly!" he calls.As we drive away, I realise it is not enough that our greed for resources started this war - it is vandalising any chance of bringing it to an end. They remind me of kids on some estates I have visited, bragging about their Asbos. Are they telling the truth, or is this teenage display? As they become more and more animated describing their killing sprees, as their eyes become wider and their stories more vivid, our UN escort begins to panic and tells us we must leave. I did it for six years."His friends gather round, and some of them are more eager to brag about their kill rates. It's all done by men in uniform coming out of that camp." Joseph, a 22-year-old, tells me he joined up when he was a teenager because his village was attacked by the Rwandans "They killed my father, my grandfather and my little sister So I decided to join Mai-Mai [a Congolese militia] I can't count how many people I killed.
Yesterday they killed a man, the day before they killed a woman and some kids. They are starving.A UN source warned me: "The people in that camp are going out and rampaging into the nearby villages They do it for survival They steal to get by. Why did you come here without something for us to eat?" They last ate two days ago They have not received their $5-a-month wages for 40 days. In the corner is a soldier shivering in his bed, his face covered with the lesions that come with the final stages of Aids He opens his eyes - they recoil, wounded by the light They close again as he curls wearily into a tight ball I ask the men what life was like on the front line "We ate We had food there," they snap back I ask again, assuming they misunderstood "We had food at the front line It was better. The country's success stands or falls on whether the militiamen can be coaxed to come here and slowly build a state. Dr Adolphe Tumba, the head of the camp, takes me trudging through the mud on a tour.In the first room I see, there are nine stinking beds Men are sitting, rotting plaster covering their wounds.