Diamonds and Genocide

Abstract

The Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (The Congo) has been the largest humanitarian crisis in the last decade. Over five million people have died, and millions more have been displaced. During the conflict, the ostensibly neutral United States subtly sided with Rwanda and Uganda at the expense of the Congolese President Laurent Kabila. I test whether the media indexed their coverage to Washington policy. However, I expand my analysis to compare coverage leading in British and French newspapers as well. After careful examination, I discover that there is no significant difference in reporting. However, the real question of bias and framing includes issues of neutrality, the prominence of linking the Second Congo War with the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the persistent underreporting of economic exploitation that underpinned the violence.