Muffling the Sound of Murder: Reinterpreting Zimbabwe's Strategic Choices in the Congo

TY - JOUR

T1 - Muffling the Sound of Murder:

T2 - Reinterpreting Zimbabwe's Strategic Choices in the Congo

AU - C, Nutt

AU - Smith, M.L.R.

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Zimbabwe’s military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1998 and 2002 has not been analysed in detail. Scholars have either taken the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) regime at its word or been too distracted by Zimbabwe’s domestic turmoil to cast a critical gaze on what must rank as one of Africa’s most disastrous military interventions. This article addresses this lacuna by discussing three aspects of the intervention: Zimbabwe’s motives; the military’s performance in the Congo; and ZANU-PF’s efforts to obscure the reality of the intervention from the Zimbabwean public. While Zimbabwe’s motives were more nuanced than many scholars acknowledge, the military’s performance in the conflict was an unmitigated failure borne of poor training and leadership, corruption, weak allies and poor strategic choices. At home the intervention wrought a generation of veterans infected with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a bankrupt exchequer and a military thoroughly depleted by an unnecessary war.

AB - Zimbabwe’s military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1998 and 2002 has not been analysed in detail. Scholars have either taken the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) regime at its word or been too distracted by Zimbabwe’s domestic turmoil to cast a critical gaze on what must rank as one of Africa’s most disastrous military interventions. This article addresses this lacuna by discussing three aspects of the intervention: Zimbabwe’s motives; the military’s performance in the Congo; and ZANU-PF’s efforts to obscure the reality of the intervention from the Zimbabwean public. While Zimbabwe’s motives were more nuanced than many scholars acknowledge, the military’s performance in the conflict was an unmitigated failure borne of poor training and leadership, corruption, weak allies and poor strategic choices. At home the intervention wrought a generation of veterans infected with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a bankrupt exchequer and a military thoroughly depleted by an unnecessary war.

KW - Zimbabwe

KW - Strategy

KW - Congo

KW - Africa

U2 - 10.1080/13698249.2011.599999

DO - 10.1080/13698249.2011.599999

M3 - Article

SN - 1369-8249

VL - 13

SP - 232

EP - 258

JO - Civil Wars

JF - Civil Wars

IS - 3

ER -