|
Western
powers tell DRC's aggressors: 'you can count on us' and then
turn a blind eye on crimes against humanity perpetrated by
the same aggressors in Congo.
Lokongo Bafalikike
At the end of the pre-inter-Congolese dialogue held in Botswana's
capital, Gaborone from 20 - 25 August 2001 and on the eve of the
of the tenure of the inter-Congolese dialogue as such, scheduled
to take place from15 October 2001onward in the Ethiopian capital
Addis-Abeba, the head-office of the Organisation of Africa Unity
(OAU), now called African Union; nothing indicates that we are
heading to the end of the war of aggression launched against the
Democratic Republic of Congo, since 2 August 1998 by a Rwandan-Ugandan-Burundian
coalition, backed by well known superpowers and with the complicity
of some Congolese rebel puppets. They attempted to overthrow the
government of President Laurent Désiré Kabila, but
failed and were pushed back to occupation zones they still occupy
to this date. While Western powers insists on the pursuit of a
dialogue among the Congolese people with a view to restoring peace
and a new political order following free and transparent elections,
they have failed the Congolese people so miserably that washing
their conscience over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, utterly dirties
it in Congo. First of all, those powers have chosen to remain
utterly oblivious to the fact that there is no rebellion in Congo,
there is only an aggression. The rebellion was orchestrated two
months after the invasion to give the latter some sort of Congolese
legitimacy.
Colette
Braeckman, an expert on the Great Lakes region and journalist
with the Belgian daily Le Soir, wrote on 3 July 2001 and I quote:
'Henceforth everyone knows that in the beginning both the RDC-Goma
and Bemba's rebel movements were created then supported by Kigali
and Kampala. But in the course of months and years, in so far
as their revenues are increasing, those movements are acquiring
a growing autonomy vis-à-vis their masters, and in time
to come, they could evolve in the same way as Savimbi in Anglola:
slip out of the hands of their protectors and plunge Congo into
a war of 20 years, a de facto partition.'
That
is the project, a diabolic project because it is totally loathed
by the Congolese people as whole. The so-called rebels enjoy no
popular support whatsoever. What is sad is the fact that the Congolese
in the 'rebellion' do not realise that the longer this status
quo is maintained, the more their enrich their masters. In fact,
Mudimbi, a RCD 'rebel movement' (?) delegate in Gaborone said
that 'the RCD rebels were incapable of asking Rwandan troops to
leave because it was they (Rwandans) who launched the invasion
then asked the RCD rebels to join them. As clear as that!'
How
do you explain the fact that the RCD rebel movement which control
the whole of the eastern, central and southern parts of Congo
has simply given a go ahead to the invaders to dismount whole
factories in the area they control and let all the equipment be
transferred to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi? These include: Société
Textile de Kisangani (Sotexki), a cloth-making factory, Pharmakina
de Bukavu, a quinine factory, the Kiliba sugar-refinery in south
Kivu, transferred to Jinja, Uganda, and Sorgeri, a soap factory
in Kisangani. All this shows that the Congolese in the rebellion
are not in control whatsoever. So what's the aim of their so-called
liberation movement? Absolutely not for the libration of the Congolese
people but for their own pockets and their masters'.
Elsewhere,
how do you explain the fact that Ugandans who support Bemba, can
massacre Congolese in Gemena, Bemba's own birth town without provoking
any reaction whatsoever from Bemba himself?
Three
years into the aggression and the international community is still
beating about the bush. Instead of forcing the invaders to withdraw
as stipulated by numerous UN Security Council Resolutions , and
as has been done in Kuwait, the international community has simply
turned its back on Congo, by not only allowing the aggressors
to remain, but some superpowers actually backing them militarily,
logistically and financially. In fact the IMF and the World Bank
have been funding this war indirectly by pouring in more money
'in aid' to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and none to the Democratic
Republic of Congo at the same time.
Western
powers, including the UN, are washing their conscience over the
1994 genocide in Rwanda, the preparation of which they knew but
let it happen. President Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated,
and those responsible for that assassination, including Paul Kagame,
are still at large. Rwandans then killed each other for an estimated
8,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus perished during the genocide.
Refugees including some of the killers, such as the Interahamwe
fled to neighbouring countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Congo
Brazzaville, Central African Republic and The Democratic Republic
of Congo.
Now
under the pretext of pursuing those killers in Congo-Kinshasa,
Troops from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have been given a 'carte
blanche' to invade Congo. The invasion involves not only a systematic
plundering of Congo's natural resources, a genocide of more than
3.500.000 Congolese in total silence and indifference of the international
community (that is roughly half the number of Jews who died in
the holocaust and three times the number of Rwandans who died
in the genocide of 1994), the deportation and displacement of
populations, an alarming spread of epidemics like HIV/AIDS -women
are often raped by HIV-infected invading troops in front of their
families - and a growing numbers of refugees, but also the destruction
of what infrastructure was left after the Western-supported Mobutu
3-decade bloody dictatorship and kleptocracy, including hospitals
and schools, the transfer of factories, fona and flora to Rwanda,
Uganda, and Burundi.
Kagame
himself, last month, told the French Daily Le Monde, that 'he
was not the first one to loot Congo's resources, which he estimated
have been looted for centuries, while Congolese themselves were
living in grinding poverty as if they were blindfolded.'
Kagame
has marketed the genocide so well that now he is in a position
to manipulate all the power-centres of this world, including the
UN. Two international human rights organisations - Amnesty International
and the International Rescue Committee - have confirmed a genocide
in Congo; a report by the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation
of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, has fallen on death ears; numerous UN Security
Council Resolutions (1234, 1304, 1355), which recommended that
the invaders withdraw their troops from Congo after violating
the territorial integrity of another sovereign state in accordance
with the international law, and after two foreign armies (Rwandans
and Ugandans) fought over diamonds in Kisangani, Congo's third
largest city, leaving more than 3,000 Congolese dead and the city
almost destroyed, and that at 1,500 km away from their borders
which they claim to be securing from rebel incursions…
Yet
Koffi Annan , the UN Secretary General in his recent tour of the
Great Lakes region, only commended the Congolese for the 'good
work' they started in Gaborone; welcomed the progress made by
the Congolese government towards peace, especially by announcing
the withdrawal of Namibian troops who were fighting on the side
of the government, and the hand over by the Congolese government
to the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) of 3.000 disarmed Hutus rebels
tracked down by the Congolese army in government controlled area
and ready to be repatriated to Rwanda from the Kamina military
base in Katanga province. Now the Congolese government has not
reinforced Kigali's alibi to stay in Congo in order to track down
the Interahamwe, responsible for the 1994 genocide. These men
are not Interahamwe. They are members of the armed Rwandan Liberation
Movement. Their spokesman Alexis Chimimana met Koffi Annan in
Kinshasa and outlined the aims of his movement: lasting peace
in Rwanda through the democratisation of the Kigali regime following
an inter-Rwandan dialogue. 'We have now accepted to lay down the
arms. But if there is no positive response from Kagame to our
peace initiative, we will resume our armed struggle in Rwanda
itself,' Chimimana told Annan. So now the masks have fallen. The
whole world knows that there is a genuine opposition to the Kigali
regime, that not all Hutu refugees are Interahamwe and the Kigali
regime can no longer justify its mono-ethnic dictatorship by hiding
behind the smoke screen of the 1994 genocide. Kampala, Kigali
and Bujumbura must truly democratise if we are to see a lasting
peace in the Great Lakes region. They will not exclude the majority
for far too long. This in itself is an incentive for instability
in the region. Arriving in Kisangani amid calls by the traumatised
and war-weary population for Rwandan troops occupying the city
to disarm and go home after the rebels and some so-called non-armed
opposition leaders opposed the choice of Kisangani, the symbol
of national unity, as the city where the inter-Congolese dialogue
should be held, the UN Secretary General was evasive and failed
to make a clear statement over the demilitarisation of Kisangani
by Rwandan troops and RCD rebels. Instead he is said to have 'understood'
Adolphe Onosumba, RCD leader and Kagame's mouthpiece that 'Kisangani
was conquered with blood, we cannot leave it to vultures that
are roaming the region, meaning the Interahamwe and the Mai-Mai.'
Moreover Annan was given the list of the Congolese people recently
deported to Rwanda!
Now
everyone knows that the Mai-Mai warriors, loyal to the government
in the east have taken the resistance into the very heart of rebel-controlled
territories where the Congolese flag is still flying in many localities.
The aggressors control only the main cities, towns and road junctions,
but they dare not go to the interior because they know what fate
awaits them. But the Mai-Mai are the target of a negative campaign,
including by the MONUC, the UN mission in the DRC. They are being
labeled as 'negative forces' and put in the same box with the
Interahamwe. No! The Mai-Mai are native Congolese fighting against
occupation. They held one Kenyan, one Swedish and 27 Thais hostage
for over two months after they caught them red handed while harvesting
timbers for a Ugandan-Thai forest company called DARA-Forest.
Another proof that multinationals are very much involved in the
looting of Congo's resources.
How
come the UN is failing to implement its own Security Council resolutions
and not forcing the aggressors to withdraw with immediate effect?
Because the UN is controlled by superpowers, including the United
States, Britain, France and Belgium, to name but few. Now these
powers fully support the Kigali, Kampala and Bujumbura regimes.
So there is nothing Koffi Annan, surprisingly African as he is,
can say or do for fear not to upset them. Mind you, it is now
three years since Congo was invaded and Koffi Annan never visited
Congo. He waited until Clare Short, the British Minister of State
for International Development, Hubert Vedrine, the French Minister
for Foreign Affairs, the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt
and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Michel (an American
envoy and two Japanese members of parliament also visited Congo)
toured the Great Lakes region in order for him to follow in their
footsteps.
In
Kinshasa, Koffi Annan said it was up to the Congolese to work
together to speed up the peace process, and that he could not
give any fixed date for the withdrawal of foreign troops; but
in Kigali, Annan said the international community understood Kigali's
security concerns and President Kagame can count on the UN and
on him personally. You don't have to be a genius to spell out
what is going on. Annan simply repeated what the French, the Americans
and the Belgians have been saying all along: Kagame can count
on them no matter what crimes against humanity he is responsible
for in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
While
in Kigali, Clare Short repeated what Madeleine Albright, the former
US Secretary of State said at the beginning of the invasion: 'Rwanda
is for the US what the pupil is for the eye.' This is how Clare
Short re-phrased it: 'Rwanda is the United Kingdom's special protegé.'
She went on saying that a genocide of more than 3.500.000 Congolese
never happened, it is simply an exaggeration! It is no longer
a secret. America and Britain militarily and logistically back
Congo's aggressors from military bases they have set up in Rwanda
and Uganda as revealed by Wayne Madsen, an American investigative
journalist and author of the book, 'Genocide and Covert Operations
in Africa 1993-1999'. Madsen's prepared testimony and statement
for the record' before the Congressional Subcommittee on International
Operations and Human Rights Committee on International Relations,
tells how America right from 1996, ran and still runs, the Congo
war -'destabilisation for profit' is how he put it.
Hubert
Vedrine, the French minister of Foreign Affairs also reaffirmed
Congo's territorial integrity and national sovereignty, which
he said were non-negotiable, but while in Kigali he said France
wanted to mend its relations with Rwanda. 'We accept that we failed
Rwanda 1994 and now we understand President Kagame's concerns
that negative forces have to disarmed before Rwanda can pull out
of Congo.' Vedrine condemned one genocide and condoned another,
the one being perpetrated by Rwandans in Congo which he failed
to denounce. Likewise, the Belgian Louis Michel said that pressure
must be put on the three parties to the conflict in Congo, meaning,
the two rebel movements and the government in Kinshasa to speed
up the peace process. No mentioning of the aggressors whom Western
powers are trying to shield from accountability.
Instead
there is an intense pressure and arm-twisting on the government
in Kinshasa to comply with the Lusaka Accord, and the government
has given in too much! The way things are going shows that masterminded
Congolese rebels and politicians on non-armed opposition want
to use the inter-Congolese dialogue as a platform through which
they will secure their own interests, keep or gain a portion of
power, independently of the will of the people. That is the greatest
danger facing the country: to restore the old order by restoring
Mobutuists to power without them accounting for their responsibility
in the destruction of the country and the pauperisation of the
people, as well as without bringing to book those responsible
for crimes against humanity in Congo and the looting of Congo's
natural and mineral resources. They are well known. Rwandans,
Ugandans and Burundians and their Congolese rebel allies.
The
inter-Congolese dialogue is not for sharing power between the
belligerents. It is to re-affirm that Congo's territorial integrity
and national sovereignty are sacrosanct and non-negotiable. The
aggressors must therefore be given a fixed date in which they
have to withdraw to put an end to their violation and the UN troops
deployed along the border of Congo with its neighbours in the
east so that each country may feel secure; that only the people
of Congo have the last word as to who they want to lead them (through
the ballot box), which political, economic and social system they
want in their country and not some systems dictated from outside
by foreign powers, the IMF and the World (the rebels have already
proclaimed federalism in the parts of the country they control
as well as an inter-Kivu dialogue before the actual Congolese
dialogue or national refrendum. What are they afraid of?)
Congolese
people must have the right to choose whether globalisation is
good for them or not and apparently it is not. It is only a system
through which Congo's wealth will be sucked once more for the
benefit of the rich countries and at the expense of the Congolese
people. Already coltan (colombo-tantalite), 80% of the reserves
of which you find in Congo and necessary for the manufacturing
of mobile phones, the defense missile shield now being built by
the US, computer chips, play stations…is mined illegally
in Congo and has contributed to the proliferation of these goods
in the West, but the Congolese are not benefiting from it whatsoever.
The Congolese government must not sell the country to any predator
who come dressed as an angel of light, meaning as a good investor.
Congo is very rich and if Congolese change their mentality and
disown corruption and being used to enrich other people, we can
create our own capital. But nothing indicates that Congolese cannot
be easily manipulated for a pittance. Corruption is still rife
in the country and people can still embezzle with all impunity.
One concrete example is the Congolese embassy in London. It has
been sold and nobody knows where the money is gone! Lumumba and
Kabila died because they did not want to sell their country for
a song. Mobutu followed all the injunctions of the IMF, the World
Bank and served Western powers'interests for 32 years, only to
leave his country totally destitute. It is a lesson we must never
forget! Lumumba and Kabila have provided the country with its
own economic political and social world view. We must never turn
our back to their legacy. The government must re-launch President
Laurent Désiré Kabila's three-year national reconstruction
programme which was interrupted by the invasion, before general
elections are held instead of promising help to the people here
and there.
The
inter-Congolese dialogue must call for an international tribunal
to be set up, in other words, a Nuremberg, where those responsible
for crimes against humanity perpetrated in Congo will be tried
and punished. Iraq, Japan, Germany were all punished for invading
other countries, why not Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi who have
exactly done the same in Congo? Has the blood of those Congolese
massacred been spilled in vain? What about those Congolese who
sacrificed their lives for a free and prosperous Congo, such as
Lumumba and Kabila? We must not make of their lives a laughing
stock. A monument must be built in remembrance of all the victims
of the aggression. Congo must be compensated for all that it lost,
and all the living victims of the aggression cared for.
All
refugees from other countries who have lived in Congo for many
years must not be given Congolese nationality indiscriminately.
Each case must be examined individually according to the Congolese
law as it is the case in every Western countries. This question
must only be addressed after a new constitution has been approved
by the people in referendum. Likewise if the national army is
going to be fused to comprise former rebels, care must be taken
that Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundians do not infiltrate and disguise
themselves into Congolese to remain in Congo. This is an incentive
for troubles in the future.
A
Truth and Reconciliation Commission must be constituted to document
all the atrocities. Rebels must announce publicly that they have
severed all the ties with the aggressors and seek forgiveness
from the people. Congolese must sign a pact that will make it
criminal to violate any of the following republican values: territorial
integrity and national sovereignty, national and people's interest
before personal and outsiders'interest. LET CONGOLESE PROVE THAT
THEY ARE GROWN UP. AND IF THEY ARE NOT, LET THEM GROW UP.
Back to top |
