Tom,

I'm currently doing research on this war and detailed military information on the war is quite sparse(as with most of the modern post colonial African wars) and I heard you were in a front row position during the war(U.S. embassy in Kinshasa) and I have a few questions:

1. Was the Second Congo war mainly between A Tutsi dominated Rebel movement vs. a Hutu dominated Congo government with the minor ethnic groups going for either side?

2. How big were the military commitments by the foreign African countries involved?

My info was that the Ugandans and Rwandans had large numbers of troops in the Congo supporting the Rebs but the Rwandans was in the forefront of spearheading reb attacks while the Ugandans were largely confined to the North East. On the Gov side, the Zimbabewean and Angolan militaries had the most troops but were restricted to the west. The Rebs had no or little air support and the gov side had some air support, mainly from the Zimbabwean and Angolan air forces(piloted by foreign mercs).

3. How bad was the siege of Kinsasha?

From the info I have, Kinsasha resembed Beirut though I think only the outer parts of Kinsasha was under siege.

4. What did you think of the quality of the combatants invovled?

I did read that the Rwandans had the best quality troops among the combatants and the Angolan, Zimbabwean and Ugandan troops were the best equiped(they had the tanks and vehicles etc.).

5. What did combat look like on the ground? Was it guerilla mobile combat?

I read that combat was similiar to the Ethiopia Eritea war, something like World war 1 without the extensive trenchlines(combat happened when assaults on enemy fixed positions rather than mobile battles).

6. What books would you recomend on the war?

I have War Dog by Al Venter which I thought was good while being sparse and i read the book by Thomas Turner which I thought was also quite sparse.