In June 2000, the World Bank published a report on civil wars in southern countries which was widely quoted in the international press. The report sketched a ‘theory of predation’, peddled as the economist’s interpretation of movements of armed resistance. Collier’s report, even at first reading, is faulty on many counts. It questions the notion that rebel organizations such as those in Sierra Leone and Angola rely wholly on the export of gem stones and other natural resources to finance their war efforts. Yet the report does not limit itself to condemning Sierra Leonean and Angolan rebels, for it uses these examples to criminalize all guerrilla activity, depicting all movements of armed rebellion as ‘manifestations of organized crime’. This generalization quite obviously violates truth, as it glosses over the differential social and economic basis of historic and contemporary guerrilla movements. Further, in sketching a contrast between (unarmed) protest movements and (armed) rebel movements, the report poses a false dichotomy, presuming that the first category of movements originates in social grievances, whereas the latter category does not. Again, in stating that his report ‘has little or no bearing on inter-government war’, Collier falsely ignores the circumstance that governmental war efforts in Africa and elsewhere often depend heavily on exports of raw materials too.
