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Article: Amid the haunted history of Congo, a dozen forces compete.(The Dallas Morning News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- October 10, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SAKE, Congo _ Two women. Two blankets on two concrete floors to call home. A thousand miles apart, two lives degraded.
One's child dead, the other's mother missing, Victorina Bwera and Mamy Tende are left to wonder why they have to suffer so.
Between the shell of a pig shed where Tende has taken refuge and the abandoned flour mill that shelters Bwera, the vast expanse of Congo holds the reason. It is, simply put, men with guns and the diamonds that pay to load them. Both women have fled pillaging, raping bands of these men, washing up on different sides of the front line but sharing mystification about the broad and vicious strife that is Africa's first ...