Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo[edit]

I've been improving this for a while, and have already incorporated a few of the ideas from an informal peer review. Would appreciate other suggestions on how to improve the article. Buckshot06 15:00, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

BanyanTree[edit]

Wow, that's a great expansion of an underserved topic. Here's some initial feedback:

  • The lead paragraphs include information that is not covered in the main body unlike the guideline stated in Wikipedia:Lead section.
  • The sentence "Ugandan and Rwandan troops remains in some numbers inside the DRC, along with Rwandan rebel groups like the FDLR." requires sourcing to a current ref. It also needs rewording to clarify that the FDLR is not a Rwandan government group in the DRC, not an anti-DRC government group from Rwanda.
  • Groups with acronyms should be written out in full when they first appear, followed by the acronym in parenthesis, e.g. "Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)."
  • Rather than referring to the list at Second Congo War#Glossary of armed groups, a list of currently active groups, including those being integrated, should be added to this article. I do realize that figuring this out can be baffling, as they seem to change every month.
    • I think I've now named them all - comments welcome!Buckshot06 19:41, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Neat. One thing is that the RCD-Goma remnant led by Laurent Nkunda is no longer considered a part of the government forces, at least as far as the last news report I read, so is described in the wrong section. - BanyanTree 01:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • The very early history could do with some detail of the colonial structure with officer corps composed of Belgiums, as the line "new army suffered from a dramatic deficit of trained leaders, particularly in the officer corps" is otherwise unexplained. Similarly, there should be mention of how this flowed into the Congo Crisis, especially in the rebellion of the enlisted ranks and Mobutu's coup.
  • I would also like to see a bit more of how Mobutu increasingly used the military from the 1970s as a check on internal dissension, e.g. by creating units charged with overlapping responsibility for his protection responsible only to him, which harmed the effectiveness of his army but kept his potential enemies busy currying his favor and looking out for knives in the back, both figuratively and literally.
  • The section titled "History 1960-1993" goes to 1999.
  • I'm a bit obsessed with the conflicts in the Great Lakes of the mid-1990s, but I don't think I'm out of line in asking for a bit more detail on the development of the conflict from the Great Lakes refugee crisis to the AFDL invasion, in particular in how the FAZ basically proved to have been hollowed out by the mismanagement of the previous decades, which of course echoed the general decline of the country under Mobutu.
  • The section "Organisation Today" is a valiant attempt at making sense of the mess and I think it does a good job saying what is known and what is basically guessing.
  • The section "Land Forces" would be a good place for the list of groups outside of the government, as well as those integrating, which I mention above.
  • Please format refs so you aren't using naked links.
    • Also, please format your references so the title of the work is linked, while author (if available), institutional affiliation and date are included. Note that links to allafrica.com, which is a great resource, are to items that were already published in other African news outlets. As allafrica.com archives articles for a paid subscription, please try to find the link to the original source, or at least detail the original source before you lose access to that information behind the subscription. - BanyanTree 01:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I was considering recommending the creation of Military history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the history section, but I think the length of this article is OK and the history goes a long way towards explaining the structure, or lack thereof, of the military.
    • You make a fair point on my talk about how this isn't necessary. - BanyanTree 01:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • - BanyanTree 05:42, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Some nice improvements. I have no doubt that the article, as it stands now, is one of the better sources on the subject available on the net. I am particularly like the paragraph on reintegration, the importance and difficulty of which is matched by the degree to which it is undercovered in most media sources. Like Aldux below, I would like to see still more detail. But I think the simplest course is to recommend that you start adding a source for every paragraph or contentious assertion. As you do so, I have no doubt that you'll find that you want to expand and rearrange some content. - BanyanTree 01:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Aldux[edit]

I also would like to express my admiration for the work Buckshot's making: it's really impressive! Trying to be ultra-fiscal to find some flawes, I'd say:

  • my deepest objection is to the treatment of some of the sections of the land forces. I don't know much about the military structure in Congo, but in African Francophone countries the structure is 1)main army 2)police (as in Francophone African countries it is generally a gendarmerie, or militarized police, that maintains public order) 3) Presidential Guard (generally an extremely important pretorian unit, often deliberately seperated from the bulk of the army and subjected directly to the President). 4)I also that you speak of "a government paramilitary force". That seems to be called "National Service". It's official role in the armed forces should be cleared, and if there is any law justifying it's existence.
  • All these sectors of the armed forces should be treated IMO to a higher level of detail, possible with a section each; and more in general, particularly important, I think some effort should be done to better clear the structure of the army corps with relation to the central command. For example, are the National Service and Republican Guard depend from the commander in chief of the land army or submitted, directly to the Chief of Staff Mbandakulu. Maybe giving a look at the constitution can help you here, as it often delineates the main corps of the army.
  • The third paragraph of the section "Land Forces" seems unsourced.
    • If you mean the reform process and brassage, there is a footnote saying it's from the ICGBuckshot06 06:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Regarding the beginning section, maybe an expansion on why the Mobutu army disentegrated so fast in 1997 wouldn't be bad. Maybe it could also be interesting to know about the composition of the new Armed forces, and if there is some continuity among especially the current officers and those that served under Mobutu.

Keep on with the good work,--Aldux 23:02, 4 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

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