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“The next day, the fighting continued. We knew they were hunting refugees and soldiers, not Zairians, so three friends and I decided to try going home. When we arrived in our village, there were plenty of soldiers. We met some of them who said ‘You. Stop.’

“We put our hands up. ‘We are Zairians.’

“They said, ‘Where are you going?’

“We told them, ‘We are going home to get something for our families.’

“A Rwandan soldier asked us to show where we lived, to show them the key. They made us open the door. They said, ‘Tell your family they can come back here. We are not against Zairians. We are against Interahamwe and Mobutu soldiers.’

“That evening we returned to the forest and told everyone we could to come back home. Many people were killed, though. They said, ‘I’m Zairian, I’m Zairian!’ and the soldiers said, ‘No, you look like Interahamwe. We will kill you.’

“In my village, nine guys were killed by the men of Rwanda or Kabila.”

“Did you see the Rwandan refugees again?” I ask.

“They were gone.”

It’s a stunning thought. For a year and half, two million refugees were camped out in Congo. Then, overnight, they were gone. “You have no idea where they went?”

“I heard on the radio they were killed or something.”

THE CEMENT VISITOR’S CENTER at the park entrance displays a plaque that reads UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Inside, the place is empty except for a few plastic chairs, the static video looping on a monitor in the corner, and two souvenirs for sale: one T-shirt and one book. I buy the book.

I walk into a room filled with skulls piled up to my chest: They’re the skulls of gorillas, elephants, and antelope, all killed by poachers and militia. According to Eric, 450 elephants were killed between 1998 and 2003. The park’s gorilla population has been cut in half since the war started, from 260 to the 130 remaining today.

“The Second War, the RCD war, was more destructive,” Eric tells me. “Many people were killed, not because they were Interahamwe or soldiers, but just because they were businessmen. You know, you would be killed because you had studied. It was like an operation to remove anyone who could have any influence.”

Eric is quiet for a moment. “Yeah. So many people died.”

He continues: “Since that time, insecurity began inside the park. Our access was very difficult because of many scenarios: looting in the park, people passing through the park and saying that refugees now are in the forest. [The refugees are] not well located, they need food; they are killing people, looting mines. Then they started attacking rangers in the park, even killing them, and going to surrounding villages to rape, loot, kill and return to the forest.

“Our work went very, very . . . down. We were looted, lost many things. We were afraid, a bit stressed. We developed a kind of cohabitation. When you knew there was a new commandant in the area, you could see him and try to make friendship to avoid any problem.

“Once, I went with two journalists to collect information on coltan mining. Theoretically, the RCD wasn’t there. But everyone there was in Rwandan formation.”

The Rwandan army in charge of a coltan mining site? Hmmm.

Whenever I speak to groups about Congo, some keen person in the back of the room always raises their hand and asks, “So who’s making money off of all this?”

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the most mineral-rich countries on the planet. It has vast stores of more than 1,100 minerals, including diamonds, gold, copper, tin, cobalt, tungsten, and 15-20 percent of the world’s tantalum, otherwise known as coltan, an essential semiconductor used in electronics like cell phones, laptops, video games, and digital cameras.

The United Nations has accused every nation involved in the conflict of using the war as a cover for looting. According to some estimates, armed groups make around US$185 million a year from the illegal trading of Congo’s minerals. Countries like Rwanda have made hundreds of millions of dollars off of their Congo plunder. (For instance, Rwanda’s primary