3.3.1. Research Phases
This thesis revolves around field research in the form of twenty-eight semi-structured interviews and the interpretation of secondary sources such as government reports, archives of the Belgian colonies, research reports, and academic books and papers. Additionally, my field research was enriched through attendance to several conferences and workshops on intelligence and security, where I had conversations during coffee and lunch breaks with intelligence practitioners and academics from different continents. These casual conversations have been as enriching to this research as many of the formal interviews I have undertaken.
This thesis has also been informed in many ways by other diverse elements. In relation to the qualitative researcher who is compared by Denzin and Lincoln (2005:4) to a quilt maker or bricoleur who draws together many different threads and creates tapestries and collages with what they have found, I gathered together formal interviews, made phone calls, scribbled notes recalling casual conversations, formed impressions through reading and analysis of government and media publications, and took into consideration my past experiences of taking part in secret intelligence meetings during the Congolese peace talk and of working in the DRC during the transition period when intelligence reform process began. All of these diverse elements inform this thesis in many ways.
In order to arrive to the findings of my research, I went through the following steps:
Phase One: Review of Literature
Right at the beginning of my research I conducted an initial review of literature on what had already been written about the DRC from the perspective of security sector reform particularly on intelligence reform
in order to identify a number of specific key concerns I needed to pursue in detail.
As almost nothing has been written on the Congolese intelligence services, I also looked at the findings of intelligence reform studies in other contexts, for example in South Africa, U.S. and the UK, in order to identify key issues raised in these contexts and thus help identify gaps in knowledge that might be filled by studying the DRC.
I then undertook my first research trip to the DRC in December 2009, for a period of two weeks. This served two purposes: the first benefit was that it provided me with an introduction to people who were involved in the reform of the security sector, some of whom I have known while I was working for the Congolese government during the transition period. The second benefit is that it increased my curiosity and need to know more about the different kinds of reforms that were underway – economic reform, reform of the justice system, security sector reform, etc. and allowed me to carefully observe the level of involvement of local and international actors in these reforms and to have an ideas of potential challenges that could hinder the success of intelligence reform process. These observations helped me to ground my research in the present time, rather than in the context of when I previously lived and worked in the DRC. Crucially, I was then able to collect some important documents on security sector reform and to identify individuals who would act as key informants for this study.
Phase Two: Deeper Enquiry
After synthesising the information I gathered during my first field research with my knowledge of existing security intelligence literature, I was able to identify a number of key concerns, which I needed to study in further detail.
I therefore return to the DRC for the second research trip in December 2010, again for a period of two weeks and as I wanted to know more about intelligence reform in South Africa, I also went there
for a week. During this trip I conducted a total of 23 interviews and I also had informal conversations and chats (as mentioned earlier) with politicians, academics and human rights activists during a conference I attended in Kinshasa on security sector reform.
When I returned to the UK, I analysed the data I had collected and continued to review existing literature. I was then able to continually pull together the findings of both secondary and primary sources in order to locate where gaps existed and see how best the finding from the two data sources enriched each other.
Phase Three: Formalising Results
During this final phase my main activity was to produce the final thesis by pulling all of my findings together through a continual review of literature and a process of writing. Additionally, I attended meetings of the UK Group Study on Intelligence and a 3-day international conference on the CIA where I met most of the intelligence writers I have cited in my work and some former and current senior intelligence officers from around the world. I carried out 5 additional interviews and had other informal chats with experts who have been involved in intelligence reform around the world in order to check back the accuracy of my findings and to enrich them.
3.3.2. Strategies for Data Collection 3.3.2.1 Research Subjects
The key informants of this study were local and international intelligence practitioners, politicians, academics, lawyers, human rights activists and security sector reform experts. Their selection was based on criteria I identified before I commence my field research to ensure that research subjects would best inform my research. The key informants were to be either:
• Local or international individuals with substantial experience as participants in security sector reform process in the DRC,
• Current or former intelligence officers,
• Politicians who have been involved in intelligence reform process in the DRC,
• Academics and journalists who have a broad and critical understanding of the security intelligence field and who could objectively comment on the on-going process of intelligence reform
• They to be of a range of ages and of both sex.
Respondents were selected through the process of snowballing and among them there were more males than females. This is obviously because males are more engaged in politics and intelligence work than females both in the DRC and South Africa.19
3.3.2.2 Interviews
There is a popular belief that access to information on intelligence services is very difficult due to the secret nature of intelligence work.
However, I did not experience that many difficulties in collecting data in the DRC for two main reasons. First, my past experience of working as the Chief Administrator for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during which I coordinated the work of eleven regional managers made it possible for me to be in permanent contact with all intelligence services with whom I shared some information; it is this relationship that made it possible for me to identify the right people for interviews and to access some information that would have been difficult for other researchers to get.
Second, the Congolese politics is ethnically polarised. From independence in 1960 till the end of dictatorship in 1997, the DRC was ruled by people from the western part of the country. But since May
19 See Appendices 1 and 2 for full details of respondents profiling and sampling.
1997 the country is being ruled by presidents from east where I come from. All important government positions, specifically within intelligence services, are occupied by people from east and where someone from other provinces is made head of any government department or institution, his/her deputy is always from east and usually more powerful than their superior. It was therefore easy for me to get all information I needed because many senior security and intelligence officers are either from my home province or from other provinces in the eastern part of the DRC. Also, I have very good relations with the current DRC ambassador to the UK who has assured his superiors in Kinshasa that I am not against the regime as are many Congolese of the diaspora especially here in the UK.
During my research trips I conducted semi-structured interviews and used open ended interview technique to generate information from respondents. This technique enabled respondents to express themselves freely, which allowed for more and in-depth discussion. As already mentioned, a total of twenty-eight interviews were conducted. The limitation in the number of interviews/communications conducted is owing to the difficulty in identifying precise individuals in a foreign country and in gaining access to them, especially ministers and senior intelligence officers.
Because I needed to do some kind of comparative analysis of other cases of intelligence reforms to complement this in-depth analysis of intelligence reform in the DRC, I asked a series of common questions to all respondents during interviews paying attention not to force them into a predetermined framework of interview. I was able to examine respondents’ relevant areas of experience and I also allowed free flowing dialogue between the respondent and me. In many instances this methods led to completely new lines of inquiry but I made sure that the free flowing dialogue does not generate into an anecdotal gossip. This is a ‘romantic approach’ which, as Alvesson argues, reduces the risks of
the interviewees talking what the interviewer wants to hear, and it makes the interviews more honest, morally sound, and reliable (Alvesson 2002:
108-109).
Through reflexivity and awareness, I made sure that my forceful presence is not undermined by respondents’ experience in the field of intelligence as most of them answered my questions in ways I did not anticipate, often questioning me along the way to test my understanding of the world of intelligence. Such questions blurred the lines between researcher and subject and ultimately made this research highly reflective and stronger.
My approach during interviews was motivated by the need for research subjects to reach beyond their role as passive subjects to play an active role, which is recognized as an enriching approach to any social science research.
The simultaneous use of two interview techniques advocated by the two schools of interviewing20 (Roy Hay cited in Thompson 2000: 225) brought best results and suited my personality.
Regarding other semi-structured interviews and communications made in Europe, I tried to collect broad accounts of former Congolese intelligence officers in the Diaspora and foreign intelligence officers who had contacts with Congolese intelligence or have been involved in security sector reform around the world. I developed two focus areas as the research progressed. Firstly, actors who worked and who are working for security institutions were prioritised as the key informants on the nature of intelligence services of the dictatorial and apartheid regimes and on what has been achieved through the intelligence reform processes. Secondly, non-Congolese actors who were engaged in the
20 One school of interviewing prefers the use of ‘objective/comparative’
approach usually based on a questionnaire, or at least a very highly structured interview in which the interviewer keeps control and asks a series of common questions to all respondents. The other school of interviewing suggests a free flowing dialogue between interviewer and respondent, with no set pattern, in which conversation is followed wherever it leads
provision of support to Congolese intelligence services during the Cold War period and those who support current intelligence reform process were also approached.
Congolese officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the two chambers of Parliament, and different intelligence agencies were targeted for data collection. These officials were involved in the reform of the security sector from the beginning of political transition in 2003; they were therefore well placed to provide information on government’s effort to make intelligence services more democratic. The key questions were around their perceptions of problems caused by intelligence agencies in the past and how these can be avoided in future; intelligence control and oversight;
participants’ ideas for improving security situation in the DRC; and their views on the impact of globalisation on intelligence. The reason for the involvement of politicians in this study is that politicians are involved in national policy making and as such they are in a good position to know about proposals by the government concerning democratic governance of intelligence agencies; Cabinet ministers and two members of DRC’s National Assembly’s Permanent Committee on Defence and Security - one from the opposition another from the ruling majority as well as two from the Senate’s Permanent Committee on Defence and Security were interviewed and they provided valuable information on DRC’s new strategic orientation and on what is happening in terms of oversight of intelligence services.
I also interviewed exiled intelligence officers of the former dictatorial regime in order to attain the same depth of understanding of former intelligence agencies. However, I limited their number to avoid information overload and as the experience of former intelligence services are beyond the scope of this research. My membership to the UK Study Group on Intelligence has made it possible for me to secure interviews with exceptional intelligence practitioners and academics in
South Africa who provided valuable information on the reform of the South African intelligence services and the analysis of intelligence reforms in the DRC, UK and U.S.A. I was also able to interview members of non-state institutions, namely, the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the South African Institute for Security Studies because some of the work of these institutions focuses on intelligence and security. Their professional and research experience were very useful for this research.
Academics, journalists and human right activists were also interviewed in order to get a sense of how current reforms are perceived by the people of the Congo. They also provided valuable information particularly on informal mechanisms of control of intelligence services.
Most of the research participants wished to remain anonymous; this is why I chose to omit their names as a measure of caution.
A research questionnaire with broad themes and some specific questions was used to guide the interview and respondents21 were provided with an information sheet and a consent form prior to the interviews; however, none of them agreed to sign the consent form for fear of their security. I obtained a verbal agreement instead and was able to proceed. Interviews were conducted in French in the DRC and in English in South Africa and in the UK. Unfortunately, no interview was recorded because it could arouse suspicion in most of research participants. I had to take notes as much as I could to capture the main issues that emerged from the interview. Research data deriving from note-taking could have a degree of inaccuracy but I palliated these with other notes I took during conferences, informal meetings with intelligence experts, media reports and my own observation of the situation on the ground.
21 The profile of respondents is attached as appendix 1.
3.3.2.3 Archives
I also travelled to Brussels where I consulted the archives of the Belgian colonies at the Bibliothèque Royale and the general archives of Belgian Kingdom, the Archives Générales du Royaume as well as the archives of Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Service d’Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères. These archives provided valuable information on strategic changes in task and tasking of intelligence services in the DRC from the pre-colonial period to the end of the Cold War.
The table below explains the objectives and methods to achieve the objectives in more detail.
Table 1: Data Collection
Objectives Methods of Data Collection to Achieve the Objectives Chapter Four
To analyse the political context of intelligence operations in the DRC during and after the Cold-War and to respond to research gaps on intelligence in the Global South in general.
Primary data from interviews with Senior Intelligence Officers, Government Ministers, Members of Parliament from both
the ruling majority and the opposition, academics and human rights activists in the DRC in 2010, and 2011.
Primary data from an interview with a senior intelligence analyst of the United Nations
Peacekeeping Force in 2011.
Secondary data from sources including archives in Belgium, academic publications, security sector reform conference in the DRC, NGO and media reports.
Chapter Five and Six To suggest ways in which the Congolese state might improve its
Primary data from interviews with senior intelligence officers and academics in South Africa
governance of intelligence and to shed further light on these agencies by comparing and contrasting with agencies in South Africa;
Additionally, to conduct a comparative study on new and long established democracies in order to find out:
• Whether Western mechanisms for democratic control of intelligence can work in a country such as the DRC that has a long history of non- democratic governance
• Why it is difficult for intelligence culture to change at the same pace as the change in political culture
• How best to address these issues and challenges of democratic governance of intelligence services in the DRC.
and in the UK.
Secondary data from sources including academic publications, government websites, reports from research institutions, conference presentations, workshops of the study group on intelligence, NGO and media reports.
Chapter Seven and Eight To explain and analyse the strategic and operational tasking of intelligence agencies in the DRC by looking at:
• Past and current strategic tasks of DRC’s intelligence services and their tasking;
• Whether it is the armed conflicts and conventional and nonconventional threats or something else that drove the changes in the tasks and the tasking of Congolese intelligence organisations;
• How change in strategic tasks has led to operational changes in everyday working practices
Primary data from the interviews with former and current
Congolese senior intelligence officers, intelligence analysts and government ministers in 2010 and 2011.
Primary data from interview with a former European Spy in the DRC and a former Director General of Foreign Intelligence Services of an European country who worked in close
collaboration with Congolese intelligence in 1990s Secondary data from sources including archives in Belgium,
of Intelligence agencies. Acts of Parliament, media reports, an email from a current
Congolese intelligence officer on training in China, and conference reports.
3.3.3. Data Analysis
Phase One: My first task when analysing collected data was to check whether any new themes occurred across interview transcripts apart from the major themes contained in my research questionnaire. I also had to check whether there were any surprising observations made perhaps by one or more respondents and which could present other interesting avenues for investigations but there weren’t any.
After identifying common concerns raised by my respondents, I eliminated those concerns that were already well-explored in the existing literature, and then I drew up a list of the key concerns that corresponded with my research questions and which I needed to investigate further.
Phase Two: I began by transcribing interviews then went on to type notes from the field notebook from my research trips. Through coding, I looked for common responses across all my data in order to build answers to each of my research questions with the wish of coming up with findings that are informed of my own observations and the impressions, beliefs and experiences of respondents.
In analysing my data I was faced with the challenge of verifying if what each respondent said was true. I was also confronted with the hard task of proving the reliability of oral evidence and how it compares with documentary sources. Equally, I had to relate the evidence I have found to wider patterns and theories of intelligence bearing in mind that oral evidence brings to the surface a dilemma which underlines any historical interpretation because it takes the form of life-stories.