Monday 9th October 2006  Congo's been bleeding to death for five centuries," John le Carré has a character declare in his new Africa novel, The Mission Song. "Fucked by the Arab slavers, fucked by their fellow Africans, fucked by the United Nations, the CIA, the Christians, the Belgians, the French, the Brits, the Rwandans, the diamond companies, the gold companies, the mineral companies, half the world's carpetbaggers, their own government in Kinshasa, and any minute now they're going to be fucked by the oil companies. Time they had a break . . ."

Time they had a break, indeed. But as the second round of presidential elections approaches in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it strikes me that le Carré could have added yet one more candidate to his magnificent roll-call of those who have royally screwed the former Zaire: the naive souls who believe in democracy's capacity to heal all wounds.