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Peace Building & Conflict Resolution Interactive Game with Inklewriter Software:
“Chaos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,”
Kushal Ismael, Joya Mukherjee and Regan Johnston
POLI 450 Rex Brynen
Thursday April 18, 2013 McGill University
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The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the game, “Chaos in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo,” using the software, Inklewriter. This game is intended to create a realistic and informative
atmosphere for the player. This interactive game gives the player an opportunity to engage in peacebuilding
activities through small and robust tasks that are all interconnected. As such, the game has an ambitious goal of
attempting to highlight what the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The game also
allows players to participate in the UN through: the coordination to deliver aid; providing rule of law,
information, shelter, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR); and helping the conflict-‐run
country to become a stable and strong state.
This game if successful will demonstrate that when presented with a set of bad choices, an intelligent
actor will always select the best relative choice, to create the most favorable outcome. At every level the actor is
presented with a set of unfavorable options, which makes it seem like a generally satisfactory solution is
unachievable. However, after playing the game, we have learned that combinations of the best of bad choices
can produce outcomes that exceed expectations. That being said, every actor has to make bad choices even to
successfully win the game, however if the actor accumulates too many bad choices they will fail the game. The
intention behind the structure of the game is to make it painstakingly obvious that what actors are doing is not
working, and that there will always be trade-‐offs in reality between acting quickly and having the most favorable
outcome.
The setting of the game is in the DRC, Goma. This was a strategic choice as this is the world’s, “rape
capital” and also said to be the location of “the Third World War,” which has made it almost impossible for the
United Nations (UN) to conduct a successful peacekeeping operation, let alone tackle post-‐conflict
reconstruction and recovery operations. The game consists of two main actors, a UN Field Officer and a Radio
Okapi Journalist. These actors were also chosen with a specific intent, as they allow the player to gain
information and perspectives from many angles of the conflict and peacebuilding operations.
Summary
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The DRC is the perfect choice as the setting for
the game because of the decades of violence that
have ravaged the country, left the state incapacitated,
millions displaced and/or dead, and created what
many call “the Third World War.” Although a ceasefire
has been signed twice now, in 2003 and 2013, fighting
has continued in the far east of the country around
North and South Kivu provinces, home to heavy
deposits of tin, gold, coltan, and other minerals. The remote area is very diverse ethnically and has seen clashing
between government troops and various militias from the Congo itself, as well as encroachments by its
neighbors, Rwanda and Uganda, and Burundi. Remnants from previously conflicts in the region have spilled over
into the DRC and by some accounts there are over 24 different armed groups involved in the fighting and
accusations of massacres, rampant human rights abuses, extortion, and pillaging are common. According the UN
Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, “there is almost total impunity for rape in the Congo.”
Given the nature of this conflict, an array of actors are involved through peacekeeping and
peacebuilding operations, and humanitarian efforts. With that said there are also many actors with resources to
gain from a prolonged conflict, as it is a conflict over minerals and who controls the minerals. The UN has
attempted as aforementioned to come to the aid of the Congolese people, with the largest UN peacekeeping
mission in the history of the UN. More importantly, this mission as of March 2013 has been enhanced to include
a more aggressive and offensive military brigade to deal with the numerous rebel groups. These events and
plethora of factors allow for greater flexibility and creativity when creating the game. Lastly, due to the failures
of countless peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions in the DRC, there are many ways to shine the spotlight on
what is problematic and what is effective in these missions.
Environment
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Although, the M23 rebels are not a character in the game, they are potentially the most important actor
within the game that counteracts every move the
characters make. The M23 Rebels along with
other rebel/ militia groups are in large part,
puppets in the game and in real life, acting on
behalf of other actors’ interests. For example, the
M23 rebels are funded and trained by Rwanda
and Uganda. These countries continue to not only
supply these rebels as mentioned, but also train
them by supplying their own military to give them
advanced combatant skills and intelligence.
M23 rebels came to the forefront of the conflict when they captured the city of Goma in November
2012. This event has spurred widespread criticism at the UN by the international community for its inability to
formulate an adequate response to this rebel group. In the Kivus, there are an estimated two-‐dozen rebel
groups. It was essential that we focused on one group to make the game as coherent as possible. The M23
rebels were also strategically placed a few kilometers outside of Goma, in 2012, UN IDP camp Mugunga III.
Mugunga III is another focal point in the game because of the large amount of problems that the camp
encounters on a daily basis, which allowed for even the most dangerous situations to seem likely. Housing over
150, 000 IDPS, Mugunga III struggles to maintain a safe atmosphere, as the conditions within Eastern DRC
worsen. The upcoming elections have caused many people to flee in fear of retaliation from the Kabila regime.
As a result of the mass upheaval, UN camps have been forced to accommodate for this influx of people, under
conditions of already being at over-‐capacity. Security of Mugunga III is also compromised due to its location, at
the center of the mineral trade.
M23 Rebels and Other Rebel/ Militia Groups
Why We Choose the UN IDP Camp, Mugunga III
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The camp and near by camps are prone to looting by rebel groups, who threaten IDPs on a regular basis
for their food rations and women. Mugunga III struggles like the rest of the region to control gender based
violence, as rape continues to be an epidemic in the camps. Many assess this situation can claim that is based on
a culture of impunity. However, through interviews with ex-‐combatants and women, we realized that it was
much more. There are incentives to gender based violence, due to existing cultural norms, to destroy the enemy
(through raping a mans wife) and to evoke a reaction from the enemy. Additionally, it is not only the rebels that
have committed these crimes but also DPKO members, the people that were supposed to be protecting them.
To ‘win’ in the game, the gamer must make a series of decisions. The goal is to not fail more than three
times as an actor. The game warns actors along the way to encourage them to make better decisions.
The game is structured to emphasize that no choice is the ‘perfect’ choice as a way to demonstrate the hard
decisions that people must make while working in the DRC.
Writing this game depended on the utilization of two handwritten mind maps as a way for to see how
each of the choices progressed. Each actor started off with one decision that spawned into various pathways,
depending on if either choice ‘A’ or choice ‘B’ was taken. Each actor goes through a series of six or seven choices
minimum, with some choices resulting in the same consequences (called looping).
The crucial part of our project was the amount of collaboration that went into the gaming process. The
actors were not divided up between the three group members to ensure that the game flowed and its events
How To Win The Game
The Planning Stage
To fail as a Radio Okapi journalist, the actions have to result in the following results:
a. Government shutdown of Radio Okapi; b. Listener complaints; c. A journalist is killed or receives a death threats; d. The news reported puts people in danger; and e. The government threatens to shut down Radio
Okapi.
The UN Field Officer’s actions can fail should their choices result in:
a. An attack on the UN Camp; b. Multiple IDP deaths; c. A staff’s death; and d. Less security/stability in the camp,
three times.
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matched up. Each actor took about two weeks of intensive
‘mind mapping’ because both the UN and Radio Okapi
characters had real life protocols that we wanted to include, to
make the experience more realistic. Furthermore, trying to
find an online resource to formulate mind maps proved to be a
failure as the programs we tried were inefficient or did not
save our work. Which added to the amount of time devoted to
this project. Lastly, rules had to be created, other wise the
game would never end. The rules also make it harder for the
character succeed and allow us to have more control over the
environment.
UN Field Officer: The events that the UN Field
Officer was thrown into were adapted from real events that
happened in the DRC during last decades of conflict. Due to the tense atmosphere exacerbated by M23’s
presence near Mugunga III, it was plausible to have events and choices created by the utter chaos and for the
camp to have to sacrifice supplies for safety (i.e lockdown). We chose to integrate weather related problems
because every summer the DRC has an abundance of disease outbreaks that exacerbate the conflict, which
cause an influx of IDPs to migrate to Mugunga III. Regarding, diseases, we simply choose a few diseases from the
many that are rampant in the DRC. The Field Officer’s interactions with UN headquarters relied on MONUSCO
guidelines for guidance. The criticism the Field Officer receives as a leader stems from the criticism that the UN
faces in DRC on a daily basis, in local and international news.
Actors
Positives of Inklewriter: • Easy to use. • Allowed us to see the actor choices
in a finalized format with its two modes of ‘write’ and ‘read, ’
• Made easy to switch back and forth from in order to ensure the choices appeared logical.
• The ability to flag paragraphs in Inklewriter was also useful.
• Also it is very simple • Mind mapping is a bonus feature
Drawbacks of Inklewriter: • There are some design choices that
we do not agree with. • The software was made to make a
book, not a game. For example, the Haiti Game is something that we were aiming for.
• No videos or recordings or large pictures. Thus, our game depended on events and choices that could be described through text or minimal pictures.
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Radio Okapi Journalist: Founded by the UN, and broadcasting on government owned airwaves,
Radio Okapi had to play a balancing act. It is the only legitimate news source in the DRC because of its unbiased
reporting and respected reputation by the civilian population. However, Radio Okapi must also please the Kabila
regime. This is difficult in an atmosphere where the government can and has shutdown the radio without any
warning. Only a small percentage of the country is literate, and many people fleeing the violence depend on the
radio for help on how to get to UN camps for safety. Including Radio Okapi in our game was crucial to show how
the radio interacts with remote actors in conflict.
The intent of using a Radio Okapi journalist as an actor was to inform the player of the high level of
sexual violence going on both in the conflict and in the UN camps. In the UN camps, incidents of sexual assault
are not uncommon as UN peacekeepers exploit their positions to force many IDPS to engage in sexual acts for
extra food rations for their family. By interviewing the raped women, the Radio Okapi journalist provided
graphic details to game players of what it is like to reside in the DRC as a woman. The Radio Okapi Journalist
must continue to report an unbiased approach to this uncomfortable situation.
Sexual violence was also implemented to demonstrate how DDR is connected to Radio Okapi. Having the
Radio Okapi journalist interview ex-‐combatants demonstrated the cultural attitude in the DRC toward rape. The
radio program served as additional support during the reintegration aspect of DDR. Ex-‐Combatants recorded
interviews with rape victims, as part of the reconciliation process in DDR. In addition, the weekly radio program
that featured a question and answer program with the UN Special Representative to the Secretary General
demonstrated the many questions civilians had about DDR. This also highlights how important the personality of
the SRSG is in conflict situations.
Fabrice Muamba, the professional soccer player, was chosen to come in for a Radio Okapi interview
because soccer is the second most popular program on Radio Okapi. During Muamba’s interview, he talks about
the importance of giving Congolese children other avenues besides joining rebel groups to escape poverty. This
is an important aspect towards decreasing the prolonging of the conflict.
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We have two main suggestions if the game is going to be an
assignment again: 1) More time should be given for this assignment,
perhaps assigning it two months advanced. 2) Game should be done
collaboratively and that should be represented in each students grade, as
well as having a peer evaluation between team members.
Game As an Assignment
Aspects of the game relating to course material:
1) DDR (UNDPKO Handbook) and types of peacekeeping/ stabilization operations
a. Challenges of women being a part of DDR
b. Demobilization and reintegration of ex-‐combatants
2) Relief and governance a. Operational
challenges 3) Counter insurgency 4) Refugees and IDPs
(repatriation and resettlement)
a. Immediate needs b. Politics of ethnic
cleansing 5) Gendered based violence
(rape as a war crime) a. Reconciliation
6) Trade offs between long-‐term and short-‐term choices (setting priorities)
7) The effect of spoilers on choices
8) Translation problems 9) Disaster prone conflict areas
(conflict trap and resource trap)
10) Highlights the resource-‐mandate gap in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter (third generation of peacekeeping)
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