CONDOLEEZZA RICE'S DISCRETE VISIT TO KIGALI, RWANDA RAISES EYEBROWS!
A VISIT IN THE MIDST OF A RE-INVASION OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF CONGO BY MORE THAN 8,000 RWANDAN TROOPS
A
SCATHING REPORT BY TECHNICAL EXPERTS TO THE UN SECURITY
COUNCIL CORROBORATES WHAT CONGO PANORAMA HAS BEEN SAYING
ALL ALONG
Issued by Antoine Roger Lokongo, a London-based
Congolese journalist
19.07.2004
RWANDA RE-INVADES CONGO YET AGAIN
History has repeated itself in the Democratic
Republic of Congo yet again.
On the night of 29.05.2004, more than
8,000-strong Rwandan troops crossed the border with the
Democratic Republic of Congo through Lake Kivu, instead
of through the Ruzizi border post as usual, thus avoiding
to arouse any curiosity from the Congolese population.
The Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) began their crossing
from Rwanda via the Idjwi Island on the Lake Kivu using
a dozen of military speed motor boats. They were perceived
on Congo's territorial waters between the Idjwi Island
and the territory of Kalehe after going round the extreme
north of the Island between the locality of Kihumba (Idjwi)
and the Rwandan Wane isles.
On the Sunday morning of the 30.05.2004,
this Rwandan troops cover up embarkation was perceived,
escorted and protected by APR military speed motor boats
et were heading towards the main land in Congo in order
to tip out hundreds of troops in the port localities of
Kabonde, Kakondo, not far away from Fomulac and Kajutsu
on the peninsula near Mugeri.
On the 4.06.2004, a brigade of 3.500 Rwandan
troops entered Congo trough the Congolese border town
of Bunagana situated at 6km from the Rwandan border, passed
the night at Matebe a farm and training Centre, before
deploying into Rutsuru territory. A second brigade which
came from Bigobwe in Rwanda was seen deploying in the
Congolese town of Rubare, according a splinter rebel movement
from RCD itself now called RCD-ML and allied to the former
government in Kinshasa and which controlled the city of
Beni and Butembo before the Pretoria peace accord.
These troops converged towards the Kavumu
airport where they joined 1,000 renegade troops led by
renegade Congolese Tutsi of Rwandan origin Général
Laurent Nkunda et encircled the airport. They then descended
on Bukavu and joined up with 400 men led by another renegade
Congolese Tutsi of Rwandan origin Colonel Jules Mutebutsi.
The latter provoked skirmishes with the Congolese army,
which led his men into massacring 27 people in Bukavu
including some 16 Banyamulenge (women and children) and
wounding 20 others. A supreme court of justice judge called
Kabamba was also assassinated by Mutebutsi's men. But
later Mutebutsi cried fool for what he called a "looming
genocide against the Banyamulenge", that is Congolese
Tutsi of Rwandan origin. What a pretext for this second
Rwandan invasion of Congo! Laurent Nkunda and Mutebutsi
have conspired against their own country and state and
therefore are guilty of treason.
The then Congolese Chief of staff, Admiral
Liwanga confirmed that Rwanda has gone too far already
in creating what he called the new "Republic of the
Volcans" using Congolese insurgents fighting under
the banner of the so-called "Front for the Liberation
of Eastern Congo", a politico-military movement.
The movement has made a deal with Rwandan Chief of staff
James Kabarebe to supply it with logistic support until
the Republic of the Volcans becomes a reality. Over our
dead body!
Mutebutsi is a long-time criminal used
by Rwanda to kill his own brothers and sisters Congolese
Tutsi of Rwandan origin otherwise known as the Banyamulenge
in Minembwe in 2002. He was twice chased away by Général
Patrick Masunzu, a patriot and also a Munyamulenge himself,
who refused to be used by Kagame for the same purpose.
As a consequence Paul Kagame sent 8,000 APR troops to
fight Masunzu. They used the latest war machines you can
buy on the market, as well as napalm to neutralise Masunzu
and his men in the hills of Minembwe, but they lost one
battle after the other and withdrew after 6 months, leaving
thousands of people dead. Masunzu has now confirmed having
seen Rwandan army trucks crossing into Congo, and denied
that any genocide of the Banyamulenge was taking place
in Congo at the moment.
The same Mutebutsi was given a mission
by his chiefs within the RCD rebel movement to assassinate
his superior General Nabiolwa and thus provoke chaos,
ethic conflicts "à la Ituri" and thus
jeopardise the peace process, prevent the people of Congo
from going to the polls next year and compromise the reunification
of the whole country.
RCD is now part the transitional government
where Azarias Ruberwa its leader, a Munyamulenge himself,
is one of the vice-presidents and another Munyamulenge
Bizima Karaha, former foreign affairs minister under Kabila
father is now deputy in the transitional National Assembly
as well as Enock Ruberangabo another deputy in the same
transitional assembly who said that "Banyamulenge
did not need protection from criminals". He called
on Azarias Ruberwa to resign if he did not condemn the
invasion in clear terms. So there is not some sort of
"anti-semitism" against the Banyamulenge in
Congo as Claire Short seemed to suggest not so long ago.
The RCD rebel movement was founded in
1998 by Paul Kagame, the actual Tutsi President of Rwanda
who came to power after sacrificing his own brothers and
sisters in the 1994 genocide there. Since then Kagame
has always masterminded and used RCD as a front for the
Rwandan occupation of Congo.
Laurent Nkunda is a Munyarwanda of Rutshuru
and not a Munyamulenge himself. He is already responsible
for the massacres of May 2001 in Kisangani and was involved
in the assassination of President Laurent Désiré
Kabila. Nkunda has an international arrest warrant hanging
over his head as a criminal. Some of his close friends
affirm that his criminal agitation stems from the psychological
problems he has had in his childhood.
THE COMPLICITY OF THE UN MISSION IN CONGO
The role the UN Mission in Congo (known
by its French acronym as MONUC) played in the fall of
Bukavu is utterly negative. It was MONUC , which, on 27.05.2004,
stopped loyalist troops led by Général Mbudza
Mabe from advancing to completely neutralise Mutebutsi's
men near the Rwandan border, under the pretext that they
(MONUC) were going to negotiate with Mutebutsi in order
to have his men disarmed, which was not done. On the contrary
MONUC comforted a well armed Mutebutsi and his men regrouped
in the borough of Nguba and the Alfajiri College. The
same MONUC undermined the morale of loyalist troops in
order to discourage them from fighting Laurent Nkunda's
men head on when they were coming from Goma. The strategy
was the proposal for a truce and negotiation; which rather
helped the enemy to re-organise.
It was still the same MONUC which facilitated
the capture of Kavumu airport by Laurent Nkunda's men
by pretending to have it under control by a handfull of
MONUC's officers. MONUC was again and again informed of
the arrival by the Lake Kivu of Rwandan troops who were
heading towards the localities of Kakondo, Kabonde and
Kajutsu on 30.05.2004 at around 8 o'clock. The message
was handed to a MONUC officer called Igor with a geographical
map of the routes the Rwandan troops were taking at hand.
MONUC chose to lend a deaf ear to this information and
turn a blind eye to this situation as an observer.
MONUC officers have been seen patrolling
the streets of Bukavu together with the invading troops
and the latter are advancing thanks to the equipment and
transport logistics afforded them by MONUC, including
armoured cars and combat helicopters.
After the fall of the city of Bukavu,
MONUC officers quickly helped clear the streets of Rwandan
soldiers corpses in order to efface any trace or evidence
of Rwanda's involvement.
History always repeats itself in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. In 1961, The UN Mission in Congo (ONUC)
was deployed not to avert the Katanga secession as it
should have but to neutralise Patrice Lumumba, Congo's
independence hero and first democratically elected leader.
In 2004, MONUC whose troops have been abusing and raping
young girls as old as 14 in Congo, is clearly supporting
the Congo's balkanisation project, already masterminded
by Britain and America in 1998.
But the people of Congo will never accept
the partition of their country.
THE PEOPLE POWER AND RESISTANCE
We, the people of Congo have now understood
that the international community, represented by the UN
Mission in Congo is not there for us. As if MONUC came
to tie us hands and feet together to allow foreign troops
to walk easily over us. So, we have to rise now and rely
on ourselves, defend our country, our sovereignty and
the territorial integrity of our country. People power
and resistance is the order of the day just like it was
on 2.08.2004, when we were invaded by an anglo-american-rwandan-ugandan-burundian
coalition, six years ago. There is the same surge of solidarity
among all the masses who readied their support to our
armed forces and General Mubdza Mabe in the East in every
way possible. Thousands of youth and university students
have voluntarily enrolled in the army in order to kick
out the enemy out of our territory and ancestral land.
Congolese businessmen and women rallied
under their association called FEC (Federation des Entrepreuneurs
du Congo) raised an important sum of money as part of
"war contribution and war effort" to support
loyalist troops led by General Mbudza Mabe. Many are the
women who have volunteered to cook food for the troops
fighting in the front line. The population of the City
of Bukavu have decided never to leave their city to the
invaders and they are staying put despite the fact that
100 people have been killed since the battle of Bukavu
- to count only civilians - and many wounded. Systematic
looting and rape is the order of the day since Nkunda
and Mutebutsi's men became masters of Bukavu. These are
serious crimes against humanity and they should be punished.
But the people of Bukavu are united in heart and mind
with loyalist troops and will never trust the invaders.
The invaders will never win the battle of minds and hearts.
Everywhere, all over the country, in all
major cities, including the Capital Kinshasa, Bukavu itself,
Kisangani, Kindu, Lubumbashi, Mbuji-Mayi… masses
galvanised by students rose up to demonstrate against
MONUC's complicity in the fall of Bukavu.
They targeted MONUC's headquarters in
those cities and burned UN cars and ransacked MONUC headquarters.
Three demonstrators were shot dead in Kinshasa by Monuc
Officials and Congolese employed by MONUC were evacuated
to an unknown location.
They also ransacked the headquarters of
all former rebel movements. The demonstrations were very
well organised around a specific political message: "Out
William Swing, the American Ambassador and MONUC's chief."
WHAT WAS CONDOLEZZA RICE DOING IN RWANDA?
President George W. Bush's omnipresent
special security adviser was discretely and unexpectedly
spotted on 14 june 2004 at the Kanombe airport in Kigali,
Rwanda, according to revelations made in Kinshasa by DigitalCongo.net.
She was accompanied by an American delegation of three,
all of them top brasses within the American "haute
finance". DigitalCongo's sources confirmed that Ms
Rice had a five-hour long "tête-à-tête"
with a Congolese delegation led by Munyamahoro Zébédée,
dissident General Laurent Nkundabatware, Xavier Chiribanya,
Patient Mwendanga Rundenge, a former governor of South
Kivu Province and responsible for massacres of Congolese,
Guilain Birato, Hodari Nsinga, Mungambage Franck, all
of them Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi of Rwandan origin)
and members of the political bureau of the newly formed
so-called "Mouvement Révolutionnaire pour
la Libération du Congo (MRLC) - Revolutionary Movement
for the Liberation of Congo.
They were joined by a small delegation
of UDPS South Kivu, the parti of Congolese veteran politician
Etienne Tsisekedi. Tsisekedi was involved in the death
of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's national hero and first and
only democratically elected leader since independence
in 1960, savagely murdered by the CIA and Belgian secret
services because he defended Congo's interests. Lumumba
was betrayed by Tsisekedi and Mobutu (who was hoisted
to power later by the same forces, turned out to be a
brutal dictator, a murderer and a kleptocrat, that is
a thief). The latter called Lumumba "that frog!".
When Laurent Désiré Kabila
kicked Mobutu out of power with the support of Rwandans
and Ugandans, Tsisekedi called him a "stooge of the
Rwandans". It is the same Tsisekedi, now, who is
going to bed with the Rwandans as you can see. He has
even signed a pact with Rwandan President Paul Kagame
who is now bankrolling him until he comes to power (…).
Was Ms Rice there in order to calm the
tension? Possibly! After all it was Britain and America
who lit the fire in the heart of Africa. But four Banyamulenge
living in Uganda were seen embarking on Condolezza Rice's
jet, taking with them all the files regarding the MRLC
movement. Is that where the meeting was finalised? What
were the three American financiers doing there? The jet
was flown straight back to Washington. How curious! Why
didn't she meet President Paul Kagame? Possibly because
she was in a hurry to return to Washington. We all know
that she is very busy woman at the side of the American
President.
Nevertheless, it is not Condolezza Rice
who ignore the fact that Rwanda wants to annex eastern
Congo to its tiny and overpopulated territory and Kagame
is a creation of the US. After the genocide, Rwanda has
been made militarily very strong by Britain and American
who then use it as a client state in the region that safeguard
their interests just like the state of Israel after the
holocaust in the Middle East, regardless of the fact the
Congolese people and the Palestinian people are paying
the price for a crime they did not commit.
But what was the White House's N02 doing
in Rwanda when Rwandan troops have just re-invaded Congo?
It is rarely that you see her away from President Bush
during the day, not even for a few hours. There must have
been some highly important official reasons for her doing
so. If her boss could have let her off for 20 hours long,
it must have been in order to assess the evolution of
the situation in the Great Lakes Region. Time is money,
Americans say. They are pragmatic. They want result. The
time spent for something must yield result!. So what should
we in Congo expect? Events rolling out in our favour or
in our disfavour? Is the proclamation of the so-called
The African Republic of the Great Lakes imminent? Only
time will tell.
And now the so-called MRLC is seriously
and busy recruiting in eastern Congo and Rwanda itself,
following Ms Rice's visit. Congolese civil servants and
unemployed youth are offered $100 each in order to join
the MRLC. Many are biting. Even Congolese in the diaspora
are approached. The money is comes from CSS, a Rwandan
army foundation, a Rwandan insurance company called SCAR,
the BDCI, a Rwandan bank and distributed through Western
Union. Fighting has flared up in Kamanyola between Rwandan
troops and Congolese government forces with heavy casualties
of both side. But the Congolese have the upper hand and
are pushing the Rwandans back to their country.
On 20.06.2004, BBC, always war-drumming
for Rwanda, reported that the Congolese government deployed
10,000 troops in all the major cities near the Rwanda
border. That was as part of the reunification of the army
following the Pretoria accord between all Congolese parties.
Rwanda is said to felle threatened and vowed to defend
itself! At the same time the former RCD rebel movement,
a front for Rwanda is said to have warned the government
that it still had 40,000 men in eastern Congo. But the
RCD is now part of the government in Kinshasa! Rwanda
and RCD can foll no one. We know that Rwandan troops have
infiltrated Congo through and through, posing as Congolese
rebels in Kikwit, in Ituri, in Kinshasa and North and
South Kivu. So those 40,000 men are Rwandans.
What is curious is the fact that Ms Rice
met only with the Tutsi Banyamulenge in majority. And
she took only the Banyamulenge with her to Washington.
It was a meeting of two parties: the Americans and the
Tutsi Banyamulenge. The latter have been drumming weeks
long that the Banyamulenge community in eastern Congo
faced extermination. Out of the question. We are 300 tribes
uin Congo and we have never slaughtered each other the
way Tutsi do against the Hutu, vice-versa.
RWANDA BACKED CONGO UPRISING EXPERTS TELL
UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Rwanda recruited, trained and sheltered
renegade soldiers who staged a mutiny in neighbouring
Democratic Republic of Congo last month, offering them
mobile phones and cash, according to a draft U.N.-commissioned
report. The group of experts included Léon-Pascal
Seudie, a Cameroonean Police Investigator, Kathi Lynn
Austin, an American specialist in arms trafficking, Victor
Dupere, a Canadian expert in air transport and Jean Luc
Gallet, a French expert in customs duties.
Rwandan officials rounded up potential
fighters in the border town of Cyangugu and promised them
phones or $100 to fight with forces loyal to Colonel Jules
Mutebutsi and General Laurent Nkunda, said the draft seen
by Reuters on Friday.
"The group of experts concluded that
Rwanda's violations involved direct and indirect support,
both in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Rwanda,
to the mutinous troops of Jules Mutebutsi and Laurent
Nkunda," it said.
"Rwanda has also exerted a degree
of command and control over Mutebutsi's forces."
The report was prepared by a panel of security and customs
experts for a U.N. Security Council committee monitoring
an arms embargo on eastern Congo.
DISARMED OR DANGEROUS?
Contrary to Rwanda's claims, its army
had not disarmed Mutebutsi's troops after the revolt but
offered them refuge, the report said.
"Approximately 300 of them, in uniform,
remained in a coherent command structure, under the protection
of Rwandan troops. The group concludes that these troops
remain a latent threat to the DRC," it concluded
after visiting Cyangugu.
Rwandan forces had also maintained "semi-fixed
positions" in remote parts of Congo's North Kivu
province in Virunga Parc, a world heritage, threatening
the few gorilla left there, the report said, citing satellite
images of fixed heavy weapons encasements and discussions
with sources in both countries.
It also said trucks had been seen ferrying
weapons to Congo through Rwandan and Ugandan border posts
and cited weapon serial numbers as well as details of
transit dates and routes.
The report says President Museveni is
still militarily supporting Jean Pierre Bemba, the leader
of the MLC rebel movement and one of the vice-presidents
in Congo's transitional government, as well as other Congolese
militia such as PUSIC led by Chief Khawa and FAPC led
by Jerôme Kwakavu who continue to loot the mineral
wealth of Congo and share the bootie with Museveni. Arms
from Uganda and Rwanda are ferried to Congo through Lake
Albert and Lake Kivu, or by Antonov to Gbadolite, Bemba's
stronghold. Five Antonov26 full of arms landed in Gbadolite
airport between 20th and 22nd of January 2004, clearly
violating the arms embargo as stipulated by UN Security
Council Resolution 1493, paragraph 19.
Tiny Rwanda - together with Uganda and
Burundi (supported by well known superpowers) - has invaded
its neighbour twice in the past eight years, under the
pretext that it had an obligation to hunt down Hutu rebels
who took part in the country's 1994 genocide.
Congo has moved some 13,000 reinforcements
to the border region after the Bukavu insurgency. Its
army has clashed with Nkunda's forces in recent days,
U.N. and military sources say, and civilians are reported
to be fleeing as some 2,000 government soldiers advance.
Congo has repeatedly said it plans an offensive against
Nkunda, diplomats and U.N. officials say. It was unclear
whether the latest violence marked the start of the showdown.
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS YET AGAIN
FAILED CONGO
The international community is surprisingly
silent about the current situation in Congo, including
South Africa which hosted the Congolese inter-dialogue.
It is also very curious that the so-called Congolese dissidents
sport brand new uniforms, brandish brand new weapons.
Where do they get them from? They look very well organised
betraying a fact that they have undergone a long-term
military training.
We have always said that "former
rebels" within the transitional government constitute
a "Trojan Horse":
Hubert Olange, a mercenary from Brazzaville
was hired by Bemba, the leader of the MLC rebel movement
made of Mobutuist remnants, to assassinate President Joseph
Kabila. An attempted coup organised by the same Mobutuists
failed, the rebels are using their position in the transitional
government to embezzle money and to let Congo be infiltrated
by Rwandan troops, in Kinshasa and Kikwit notably. Arms
cachés were found in Bukavu in the residence of
Major Kasongo, a former RCD rebel movement officer as
well as in Kinshasa (belonging to MLC rebel movement)
and now Bukavu has fallen. History has proven us right.
But it is they, not the people of Congo who will be trapped
in their own snare.
"Don't cry for me, my dear Pauline,"
Lumumba wrote in his last letter from jail to his wife
Pauline Opango. " I know that my country that is
suffering so much will be able to defend its independence
and freedom and liberty. Long live the Democratic Republic
of Congo, one and indivisible."
PRESIDENT JOSEPH KABILA: "WE WILL
TAKE THE WAR BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM"
As President Laurent Désiré
Kabila put it on 2.08.1998 when we were invaded by an
anglo-american-rwandan-ugandan-burundian coalition, and
as President Joseph Kabila has repeated it, "the
war will be long and popular, until it will be taken back
where it came from, from Rwanda that is!"
President Kabila used his prerogatives
as head of state to put an end to this unending humiliation
of his people. A state of emergency was decreed and the
President requested a French military intervention along
the border of Rwanda with the Democratic Republic of Congo
while deploying more troops around hot spots to prevent
the invaders made of troops from Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
even Somalia (according to the report by the Civil Society
in North Kivu province) from advancing.
In his address to the nation President
Joseph Kabila called on his people to keep their composure
and deplored the massacre of innocent people by the invaders.
He said he understood the anger of the demonstrators and
the worry that their have for their brothers and sisters
in the East. He insisted that MONUC was there in order
to help the government implement the transition's ends
and objectives but he also called on MONUC to lend support
to government efforts to liberate Bukavu. He said he was
always concerned with the living conditions of the people,
and that he has never accepted the occupation of Congo.
He pledged to do everything as head of state and head
of the armed forces to liberate Bukavu and to continue
with the transitional process until free, fair and transparent
elections are held.
President Joseph Kabila also told the
French daily Le Monde:
"History has repeated itself yet
again in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Once more Rwandan
troops have crossed the border. They already control Bukavu
and the tension is palpable in other cities of the east.
A new war is imposed on us. Trough this invasion, Rwanda
has shown clearly that it does not want peace neither
in Congo nor in the Great Lakes Region. The government
is going to take its responsibilities. It is true that
the country is on its knees and the living conditions
are miserable. But we have no choice but defend the territorial
integrity of our country and our independence.
"I have launched the procedure for
the proclamation of a state of emergency. The government
is already for a total mobilisation for the defense of
our country. This country is rich in natural and mineral
resources and the Congolese are totally mobilised. Our
military capacity is building itself up with time, but
even if the war is going to be long, we will end up taking
it back where it came from, from Rwanda that is! For that
we have to organise ourselves. The successive wars which
have ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo have taught
us that we have to rely on ourselves first of all.
"I am very disappointed with the
inaction and the lack of solidarity from the international
community and the United Nations. They must do more. Despite
its armament and its mandate, MONUC did not prevent the
fall of the city of Bukavu. It is rather busy with bureaucratic
procedures. We don't need that. More than 5 million Congolese
have been massacred by invading troops since 1998 as a
consequence of the wars that have been imposed on us.
That must stop.
"The government has adopted a common
position. And the former RCD rebel movement [a front for
Rwanda] was represented at the government's extraordinary
council. But the developments in the East of Congo are
not good. Trust has been violated. All the Congolese must
react together. There are 300 ethnic groups here in Congo.
The men who took the arms in the East have pretended to
do so in the name of the Banyamulenge. That is wrong!
The Banyamulenge community is not under threat and it
will never be. They are among the 300 ethnic groups that
are part of the foundation of the Congolese nation. The
mission entrusted to me consists in protecting all those
300 ethnic groups, all the 60 million Congolese inhabitants.
They are united, and with their support, I will fulfill
this mission."
Latest news: Loyalist troops have now
retaken the city of Bukavu and Kamanyola after flashing
out Rwandan troops and Mutebusi's men. Certain indiscretions
revealed that Congolese troops crossed the border into
Rwanda and occupied the Rwandan border town of Ciangugu
for four hours before being ordered by President Joseph
Kabila, the Supremme Commander of the Congolese Armed
Forces to pull back.
Another failed coup attempt rocks Kinshasa:
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
has been the scene of a presumed attempted coup, on the
night of 10.06.2004. A colonel of President Joseph Kabila's
special guard, one Eric Lenge, allegedly took control
of the state television and radio from 02.00 to 05.00
this morning (11.06.2004), broadcasting a statement announcing
the suspension of the transitional institutions provided
for under the 2002 peace accords. The security forces
reacted quickly, and after two or three hours the Congolese
army had resumed control of the situation. The presumed
coup-makers are currently surrounded on the hill near
the Thachi military base, to which they had withdrawn.
It is rumoured that negotiations are underway between
the presumed coupists and the Congolese security forces
for a peaceful surrender. The government has appealed
to the population to be calm, stressing that the situation
is under control.
"The institutions of the republic
are in place," President Joseph Kabila said Friday
in a national television address.
"Stay calm, prepare yourself to resist
-- because I will allow nobody to try a coup d'état
or to throw off course our peace process," he said.
"As for me, I'm fine."
What a life! The people of Congo have
had no respite since the Berlin Conference. But Congo
is not just a heap of minerals. People live there! That
is why on 30 June 2004, we did not even celebrate our
independence day. We spent it in meditation.
Joseph Kabila then afterwards gave an
exclusive and extensive interview to the London daily,
the Financial Times on 23 June 2004:
William Wallis, FT's Nairobi correspondent
and David Lewis of Reuters news agency spoke with President
Kabila, as a fresh insurgency in the east of the Democratic
Republic of Congo threatened to derail the country's year-old
peace process. Here are edited highlights.
The question everyone is asking themselves
is whether the transitional power-sharing government can
survive this current crisis?
JK: The transition has survived for the
last 12 months. Of course this is one of the worst situations
we have encountered during those 12 months. But since
the beginning I have stated that it was not going to be
a honeymoon. We were bound to encounter obstacles. The
most important thing is how we deal with those obstacles.
We are either going to avoid them or we are going to bulldoze
them.
At the moment it looks like you've chosen
to bulldoze them.
JK: Well it could be a bulldozing path.
But whatever the solution, the important thing is that
the transition must stay in place and that we attain the
objectives we set.
Do the power sharing agreements of Congo's
peace accords need to be adjusted or renegotiated in order
for them to withstand this crisis?
JK: It took us three years to negotiate
what we have put in place. Of course, when we were negotiating,
the objectives were to find a solution to a given problem.
That given problem was the division of the Congo into
two or three areas. The solution was to bring everybody
together, so it was a power sharing agreement that was
signed. Nobody thought that these institutions could be
perfect institutions. But the solution is not to play
around with the structures that we have. The solution
is to give more speed to the structures that we have,
to make it such that politicians within these structures
are more determined to achieve their goals.
But there seem to be groups ranged on
all sides, both inside Congo and outside, who want to
derail the process?
JK: It was to be expected. In this part
of the transition, there will be losers and there will
be winners. Let it not be that the winners take all. That's
not what we want. We were bound to encounter people that
were going to be against the transitional institutions-
that was the test. There were people who did not want
to sign (up for peace), but those are elements that I
want to minimise.
Are they not getting the upper hand as
we speak?
JK: No, not at all. They can never get
the upper hand. I believe that 99% of the Congolese people
want the institutions to succeed. By the success of the
institutions, I mean the organisation of elections (due
in 2005). That one per cent we can crush them.
There are people in the east of the country,
in Goma, who have refused to swear allegiance to Kinshasa.
Do they constitute part of the 1 per cent?
JK: I wouldn't like to point to Goma in
particular. I'd like to point at individuals. There are
of course individuals who would like to go back to the
good old days when they were the masters, where the confusion
that was being entertained allowed them to profit as individuals
and not necessarily as a people. Those elements are there.
Do you believe that the current crisis
(sparked when renegade ethnic Tutsi commander Gen Nkunda
occupied the eastern town of Bukavu) has been partly orchestrated
by Rwanda, across the border?
JK: The government has clearly stated
from day one that the attacks on Bukavu were not only
an orchestration from Rwanda but those attacks were assisted
militarily by Rwanda. These are hard facts and these are
reports that not only come from the population. They also
come from the UN.
Do you think at this stage that a war
with Gen Nkunda and possibly with Rwanda, is avoidable?
JK: We have never wanted to fight a war
with Rwanda. It's not in our interests. It's not in the
interests of our people. It's not in the interests of
the region. With Nkunda, the government has stated clearly
that either he surrenders his arms and himself so that
he goes to a military tribunal, or we will deal with him
militarily. If dealing with Nkunda militarily means dealing
militarily with Rwanda, that's something else.
Why has it been so difficult for Congo
to deal with the Rwandan Hutu militia threat in the east
of the country? (The Hutu and " interahamwe"
militia based in eastern Congo, some of whom participated
in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and that have served as
Rwanda's principle justification for the invasion of Congo
in 1998 )
JK: Well, lets go back to the signing
of the agreement in Pretoria. Since then, and these are
figures from the UN, I believe that over 15,000 of these
ex FAR have been repatriated to Rwanda. Those efforts
were ongoing until Mutebusi (another insurgent) started
his adventures and until Nkunda started his adventures.
Our commitment to disarming these people and their eventual
repatriation under UN auspices is still the principle
that we intend to respect. But let's look at the reality.
How do you go after the Interahamwe when you have Nkunda
and Mutebusi making trouble? One of the conditions for
us to take care of the ex FAR or any of these threats
is that the situation in Bukavu, or South Kivu must be
calm.
I have heard reports of the Congo sending
10,000 men to the east to fight Rwanda. No, we are sending
10,000 men to the east to retake control of areas like
Kamanyola (scene of fighting) yesterday and eventually
resolve the situation with Nkunda. Later these troops
will stay in the area to deal with the threat of ex FAR
(Forces Armees Rwandaises) and any other armed groups
in the area.
There are reports that pro government
forces are now mobilising these Rwandan Hutu militia (as
allies)?
JK: It's not in our interests to deal
with ex FAR or any other groups. The Congo has 60m inhabitants.
Nobody is going to tell me that the Congolese people cannot
organise themselves, and put in place an army to deal
with a situation and that we have to go around looking
for 1,000, or 3,000 ex FAR. That's truly an insult We
want to get our hands on them to send them back to their
country of origin. So, if there have been any contact,
it could have been in that sense. Of course now the situation
is very clear. Now that we have UN observers on the ground,
its now not only going to be our word against that of
Rwanda, we've got a neutral partner in MONUC (the UN mission
to Congo).
Are you disappointed in the way MONUC
has performed. Is it able to do its job?
JK: It depends on how you look at the
situation. I believe that the events of the past three
or four weeks have been quite important in raising the
awareness of MONUC. It has woken them up to realise that
the situation was as serious as we were always telling
them. When we were saying there were going to be incursions
(from Rwanda), that the situation wasn't stable, everybody
thought these were just Congolese, panicking. But things
have happened and MONUC is aware that the expectations
of the people of Congo were not met and that in the future
they have to meet those expectations. In order for them
to do that, MONUC might need more men on the ground, more
equipment, more material, more intelligence info and clear
priorities on how they have to operate . Because without
clear objectives, they will be doing 100 things at the
same time: they will be purifying water, they will be
building roads instead of having clear priorities.
Some people say the same thing about the
presidency. That your objectives have been lost and, as
a result, you and your government, have lost the confidence
of the people?
JK: I don't believe that we have really
lost the confidence of the people. I believe that we have
made quite a number of mistakes over the last year and
we have to learn from those mistakes. And I believe that
we have the capacity to do much better. But we have not
lost focus on our objectives. As far as I am concerned,
the objectives are four total reunification, the pacification
of the country, reconciliation and, of course, elections.
Now if we go into the details of the reunification
I believe that 90 percent of the country has been reunified.
Today you can go to Goma come back to Kinshasa to Kindu
to Gbadolite and to everywhere else. So the country is
reunified administratively with the governors and vice
governors in place, with the police force that is under
restructuring with the programme for the integration of
the army adopted and is under way. So slowly but surely
we are moving forward. As far as pacification is concerned
we have got three major hotspots. Ituri is one of those.
Another hotspot is the two Kivus (eastern provinces).
The other hotspot is north of KatangaOur plan has always
been to deal with these hotspots one by one.
Some people say another hotspot is in
your own entourage? That the presidency is threatened
from within.
JK: I personally don't believe so. We
have had one incident which should not have happened (an
alleged coup attempt on June 11th) and steps are under
way in order to prevent such an incident happening again.
Are more heads going to roll?
JK: I wouldn't talk of heads rolling.
I would talk of restructuring. We have to restructure.
My intentions are to make tomorrow a better day. If that
means that people should be changed, if that means people
should be made more responsible, then that's exactly what
is going to happen.
You talked about neighbouring countries
meddling in Congo's affairs. Is there a need for neighbouring
countries to support the peace process more actively?
JK: More actively in a positive sense
yes. Some of them are supporting the process more actively
in a very negative sense. After all this is an African
process. After all this is an example for the continent.
If we succeed, then very many other African countries
can succeed. I am not only talking of the Congo I am talking
of Cote d'Ivoire, I am talking of Somalia, I am talking
of Darfur. The success of this particular process will
definitely be a success for the whole region. All our
neighbours have a stake in what is happening today. They
all have to gain just like the Congolese people have to
gain from this particular project.
Do you have their support militarily in
this tense period. There is talk of Tanzanian troops coming
in to assist, that the Angolans are waiting in the sidelines?
JK: For the time being those are just
rumours. There are so many rumours in this country. Sometimes
I just close my ears. For the time being no. But of course
there are quite a lot of initiatives as far as the support
of the integration process of the army is concerned. We
signed an agreement recently with South Africa supporting
that process. We will sign in the coming days an agreement
with Angola in the same sense. We have signed an agreement
with the Belgians. We will be signing with other countries
who are ready to assist in so far as the reintegration
of the army is concerned and the retraining of our army.
For the time being informations about the Tanzanians being
here is one big lie.
Are there not signs that the crisis is
becoming regionalized again? Given that Rwanda has also
moved troops towards its border.
JK: We should not arrive at a situation
like we had in 1998 (when 7 African armies were sucked
into Congo's war). That's not our intentions. Everybody
has a stake in what happens in the Congo and they want
to see peace in the Congo.
Do you think Rwanda wants to see peace
in the Congo?
JK: I think that question would be better
answered by President Kagame who I will be meeting in
a few days time. I would want to believe that Rwanda also
wants peace.
What are you going to tell President Kagame?
JK: What is he going to tell me? That
is the question. Because the situation is just as clear
as I have put it on the table. I want everybody to know
that the Congo since independence has been undergoing
very hard times. We thought in 1997 that we had seen the
worst, but 1998 proved that wrong. 2001 we started this
very long process with very humble objectives and we want
to reach the final stage: elections.
I believe these are noble objectives that
the whole world should support. Our intentions will always
be to live in peace with our 9 neighbours. Our intention
will always to be the source of development in the Great
Lakes region and the Congo has the capacity to be that,
it has the resources to do that. What has always been
lacking has been the peace, and the direction. Currently
we have got the direction. We are now looking for the
peace and the contribution of each and everyone is very
much welcome.
PRESIDENT SAM NUJOMA OF NAMIBIA SEES A
"HIDDEN HAND" BEHIND THE CONGO TRAGEDY
According to Independent Online, Namibian
President Sam Nujoma lashed out against "imperialists"
who he said either steal Africa's wealth or engineer wars
to prevent the continent from benefiting from its own
riches.
"Nobody will bring peace to Africa
if we don't do it ourselves. Africa must stop living on
handouts of imperialist countries," Nujoma told the
opening of a parliamentary forum in the Namibian capital,
at the end of May.
"Africa has more riches than Europe
and America together," he said at the forum of the
13-nation South African Development Community.
"The imperialists take our resources
or make us fight against each other," Nujoma added.
He singled out as an example the Democratic
Republic of Congo where fighting re-ignited over the weekend,
and criticised members of the forum for not speaking out
against the violence there.
"The SADC Parliamentary Forum is
a representative institution of the people of our region
politically, but to my dismay, wrong acts, including the
military invasion of a member state of SADC, the DRC,
by some war-mongering countries a few years ago resulted
in the genocide of more than three million persons, mostly
women and children and the elderly," Nujoma said.
"However, in the face of these barbaric
acts, SADC parliamentarians remained silent," he
said.
"I never heard one word from the
parliamentarians of the SADC Parliamentary Forum - what
are you doing?" he asked.
"The reality is that this massacre
is caused by instigations from
imperialist countries because of the abundant
riches, especially the mineral
resources which the DRC possesses,"
he alleged.
Established in 1996, the SADC parliamentary
forum brings together 1 800 lawmakers from member countries
to enact measures that are to have a regional impact.
PRESIDEN THABO MBEKI: "MAKE SPACE
FOR THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE"
Elsewhere, presenting his Letter of Credence,
Zambian Ambassador Leslie Mbula said the situation in
the DRC concerned Zambia as its immediate neighbour. He
said the international community should exert pressure
on the neighbouring countries not to disrupt the DRC's
transitional government "and give its people the
chance they deserve to lift themselves out of misery and
war".
President Mbeki said: "We are in
contact with all the neighbours and I am quite certain
that the cooperation among themselves will indeed be such
that everybody makes a space for the Congolese to proceed
with the challenge of peace, stability and democracy."
He assured that the recent hiccups would
not halt the peace process, including the unification,
disbanding and disarmament of rebel forces and the elections
scheduled for next year.
"Whatever might have happened recently,
the process of change continues and we need the build
up, that spirit of trust among the countries in the Great
Lakes region, so that we reduce the tensions and ensure
that they are able to work together because they have
to cooperate in any case because they are neighbours,"
he said.
APPENDIX:
FOR A LONG LASTING PEACE IN THE GREAT
LAKES REGION, THE BALL IS NOW IN THE CAMP OF MUSEVENI
AND KAGAME
After committing atrocities in eastern
Congo Jules Mutebusi has now found shelter in Rwanda and
Laurent Nkunda in Uganda (according to the BBC, which
Museveni denied and threatened to arrest Nkunda if he
ever crossed into Uganda), where they are not political
refugees and therefore area threat to Congo's territorial
integrity and national security. They are most likely
to mount incursions from the Rwanda and Ugandan territories
respectively into eastern Congo. If they do so, Congo
will have every right to pursue them up to Rwanda and
Uganda, applying their own medicine to Museveni and Kagame.
They have always accused the Democratic Republic of Congo
od sheltering the Ugandan rebels and the Interahamwe who
committed genocide in 1994 in Rwanda.
And Britain and America who sponsored
their war aggression against the people of Congo are scared
that Congo might hit back. Emissaries from London and
Washington are going up and down Kinshasa, Kigali and
Kampala. They want to calm down Congo, the victim. Masks
have fallen.
But Congo is not going to invade Rwanda.
After meeting in Abuja, President Joseph Kabila to Paul
Kagame not to be scared by the deployment of 20,000 Congolese
troops in Eastern Congo near the Rwandan border, which
Kagame has occupied for six years without rooting out
the Interahamwe.
"We deployed these men in order to
do the job you supposedly failed to do, that is to flash
out the so-called Hutu militia who committed genocide
in 1994," Kabila said.
The international Court of justice will
have to do its work after Rwandans and Ugandans have massacred
5 millions Congolese and looted Congo's natural and mineral
resources. If not then, the whole world will be sending
a strong message that human rights do not apply in Congo.
Congo will then rightly take the law into its own hands.
A HRW REPORT THAT LED TO AN INTERNATIONAL
ARREST WARRANT BEING ISSUED AGAINST LAURENT NKUNDA AND
THE LIKE
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WAR CRIMES
IN KISANGANI.
Implicated Commanders Named
New York, August 20, 2002) In a new report
(please consult http://hrw.org/reports/2002/drc2/ ), Human
Rights Watch identifies top commanders of the Rwandan-backed
Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel movement implicated
in the May massacres in Kisangani, and calls for their
prosecution for war crimes. The report finds the rebels
responsible for widespread killings, summary executions,
rapes, and pillage during the put-down of a mutiny beginning
on May 14, 2002.
"The commanders responsible for these
war crimes should be promptly arrested and prosecuted,"
said Suliman Baldo, senior researcher in the Africa Division
of Human Rights Watch.
Baldo welcomed the recent signing of a
peace accord by Congolese President Kabila and Rwandan
President Kagame. The agreement called for the disarming
of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe
militia in Congo implicated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide,
and a withdrawal of Rwandan forces from Congo.
However, Human Rights Watch said that
war crimes and crimes against humanity continue to be
committed daily by all parties to the war in the Congo,
including the Rwandan army and its proxy force, the RCD-Goma.
"Impunity plagues the Great Lakes
region, and until the belligerents and the international
community show resolve in uprooting it, innocent civilians
will continue to be massacred by lawless forces,"
said Baldo.
The 30-page report, titled "War Crimes
in Kisangani: The Response of Rwandan-backed Rebels to
the May 2002 Mutiny," is based on a three-week research
trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Human
Rights Watch research team established that Congolese
military and police elements attempted a mutiny against
Rwandan elements within RCD-Goma in Kisangani on May 14,
briefly occupying the local radio station and killing
several persons believed to be Rwandans.
The attempted mutiny soon ended, but RCD-Goma
flew in from Goma the top commanders of its army to coordinate
a brutal repression campaign afterwards. Human Rights
Watch research documented the killing of dozens of civilians
in the Mangobo area of Kisangani in the course of the
repression, as well as numerous rapes, beatings, and widespread
looting.
In addition, the loyalist RCD-Goma elements
executed a large number of detained police and military
personnel, many of them at the Tshopo Bridge, and threw
their mutilated bodies in the river. Many of the bodies
later resurfaced. Human Rights Watch also documented killings
at other locations, including an abandoned brewery, the
military barracks at Camp Ketele and at the Mangobo airport.
A final death toll remains to be determined, but Human
Rights Watch established that at least 80 persons, and
probably many more, died during the mutiny and the repression
that followed.
Directly implicated in the killings were:
Gabriel Amisi, also known as Tango Fort, the assistant
chief of staff for logistics of the RCD-Goma army; Bernard
Biamungu, commander of the Fifth Brigade headquartered
in Goma; Laurent Nkunda, the commander of the Seventh
Brigade based in Kisangani, and other senior officers
of the Fifth and Seventh Brigades. Biamungu was seen giving
commands to soldiers to go to Mangobo soon before civilians
began to be killed there, and was personally at the scene
of some of the killings. Biamungu, Amisi, and Nkunda were
all seen at the Tshopo Bridge shortly before summary executions
took place there on the night of the 14th.
Human Rights Watch questioned whether
the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC)
failed to carry out its mandate to protect civilians "under
imminent threat of physical violence." The U.N. Mission
had more than a thousand soldiers in Kisangani and were
clearly aware of the killings.
However, Human Rights Watch commended
the detailed investigation into the Kisangani events by
MONUC and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights that contributed to the establishment of an accurate
record of the abuses. The Security Council in July issued
a strong call for accountability for the killings.
"We
welcome the U.N. Security Council's call for accountability
in Kisangani," said Baldo. "But the Security
Council needs to provide MONUC with the means to protect
civilians within areas of their deployment, and to increase
the number of human rights officers attached to the mission."
Back to top |
