It’s estimated that 30,000 people have fled from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the last two weeks, meaning that the total number of new refugees this year is 160,000.
The tangled and brutal struggle in the Congo is now the world’s bloodiest since World War Two with the death toll standing at more than 5 million. The latest victims have been driven from their homes by the Hutu FDLR militia, many of them believed to be experienced murderers from the Rwanda genocide of the 1990’s.
Thomas Lubanga, a warlord from a different Congolese faction, is currently being tried for war crimes, but there seems no end in sight to the conflicts that have destroyed so many people’s lives. (See my blog of January 29)
Showing posts with label warlords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warlords. Show all posts
Monday, 23 March 2009
Saturday, 10 January 2009
The Real "Warlords"
January 11, 2009
Last year’s acclaimed Chinese film “The Warlords”, which may still be showing in the odd art house, tells a compelling story set during the anarchy of the Taiping rebellion in 19th century China. (And is well worth a viewing if you haven’t seen it.) One of the rebellion's key events came 158 years ago today, on January 11, 1851 when Hong Xiuquan proclaimed himself ruler of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace, Taiping Tianguo.
He had been converted to Christianity and started seeing visions after failing the Chinese civil service examination for the fifth time. The rebellion lasted more than 25 years and cost the lives of perhaps 20 million people (though Hong himself died of food poisoning in a city under siege in 1864). The Taipings were against gambling, opium, tobacco, prostitution and polygamy, but Hong kept a harem of 88 concubines. To find out more about this extraordinary story, see A Disastrous History of the World.
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