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London summons Museveni and Kagame to give them new instructions on the conduct of the war of invasion in Congo
6 November 2001
‘Talks’ between Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, held in London on 6 November 2001; and co-chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Minister of State Clare Short, ended without any substantial new developments that could lead to a lasting peace in the Great Lakes region.
The Rwandan and Ugandan leaders had once more succeeded in staging up a headline-grabbing exercise aimed at deflecting the international community’s attention to the real issue: to end their occupation and aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2 August 1998, as well as the massacre of innocent Congolese people and the illegal exploitation of Congo’s natural and mineral resources. All this in accordance with the two UN Security Council Resolutions –1304 (passed in 2000) and 1341 (passed in 2001) which recognised that the war in Congo was an invasion by its neighbours in the east and urged Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi to withdraw their troops totally, immediately and unconditionally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The London talks supposedly aimed at defusing ‘the growing tensions’ between the still tightly knit allies, now accusing one another of allegedly recruiting and training a ‘rebel army’ out of their respective Congo-based dissident groups in order to destabilise each other’s government.
As for the outcome of the meeting, the two men agreed to lessen the tension reportedly exacerbated by Mr Museveni’s letter to Clare Short in which he asked Western donors to allow him to increase Uganda’s defense spending in the face of an alleged aggression plan by Rwanda. The letter is said to have angered Kagame, especially because the Ugandan leader referred to the leadership in Kigali as ‘ideologically bankrupt’. Preventive measures taken at the six-hour-summit include the setting up of a joint-commission led by British, South African, Tanzanian and Mozambican officials who will oversee the implementation of the London agreed mechanisms to improve relations between the two countries.
The important question remains the necessity of this ‘face to face meeting’ at N0 10 Downing Street, given the fact that the Kabale bilateral talks between the two brother-enemies at a ministerial level resolved most the issues involved.
What is surprising is that at this very moment, the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) is poised to embark on its ‘Phase 3’ which consists of overseeing an orderly withdrawal of all foreign troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of armed groups in eastern Congo, The Kampala-Kigali brawl is therefore seen as an intrigue to the peace process. Uganda first alleged that it had learned from French intelligence that the Rwandan army was closing in on its positions in eastern Congo. Observers say this is simply a pretext to jam the cards. Uganda has subsequently re-deployed more than 6,000 troops to Congo, some recruited as far as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In fact, Rwanda and Uganda have clearly resumed their ‘divide and rule’ policy in Congolese occupied territories by antagonising the various Congolese rebel groups they support. Uganda has now severed its links with Jean Pierre Bemba of the Front de Liberation du Congo (FLC) which occupied the whole north-eastern Congo and has shifted its backing to his rival Mbusa Nyamwisi who leads a splinter group, the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC/Bunyia) after the later overthrew Professor Wamba dia Wamba who presided over the MLC/Kisangani. Mbusa Nyamwisi has pushed Bemba’s troops back to their original northern Equatorial province. Bemba feels dumped and has developed close ties with the Rwandan-backed RCD Congolese rebel movement. Together they have decided to unite their armies of 4,000 men to do exactly what MONUC wants to in its ‘Phase 3’. A clash is expected as they want to disarm and demobilise armed groups by force and not on a voluntary basis as suggested by the MONUC. It is very difficult to envisage the cohabitation of these two forces in Kindu and this will certainly delay the withdrawal of Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian troops who will find another pretext to dig their heels and prolong the suffering of the Congolese people. Already the two rival rebel movements are fighting for the control of the strategic Congolese border town of Kanyabayonga in the province of North Kivu, near the Ugandan border with Congo, controlled by Mbusa Nyamwisi and endowed with a big aerodrome.
Many civilians are reported displaced and killed. Both Rwandan and Ugandan and their respective Congolese rebel allies are strategically closing in on this area rich in coltan, diamond and gold, in order to neutralise the fierce resistance they have met with on the part of the Maï-Maï Congolese local militants who are fighting to repulse foreign invasion. Moreover Rwanda has reinforced its military presence not only in the area but also throughout the whole eastern Congo. Looting and killings goes on. Let us not forget that twice, the armies of Rwanda and Uganda have fought each other over the control of diamonds in Kisangani, the chief city of Congo’s Oriental province, leaving 3,000 Congolese dead. The city was all but destroyed, and this at 1,500km from their borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo which they claim to be securing from rebel incursions. The UN Security Council ordered that the city be completely demilitarised but up to now, Rwandan troops are still patrolling Kisangani. Nothing has changed. At that very time, Rwanda and Uganda were busy building a new high way that will soon link Kigali and Kampala. What a deadly show to which the international community simply turned a blind eye?
Will Congo’s invaders still take the whole international community for a ride for too long? In the light of their fight against global terrorism, London and Washington have no choice but to exert their influence over Museveni and Kagame to bring them to end their deadly adventure in Congo which has caused the death of more than 3,500,000 innocent Congolese people and urge them to pull out altogether. It is evident that with Bill Clinton gone, Kagame has lost his margin of manoeuvre that the Clinton administration afforded him. He took advantage of it to market the 1994 genocide so well and turned it into a smoke screen behind which he could hide while committing atrocities in Congo and dodging the democratisation of his Tutsi mono-ethnic led regime.
The new American leader George W. Bush has made it quite clear to Kagame through his Secretary of State, Colin Powell that Congo’s territorial integrity which Kagame has violated must be recovered and preserved. It is now a guarantee. Washington recently reminded Kagame to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions, and it is not a surprise if Tony Blair came back on it. This is a blow to Kagame who hoped to annex the Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu to Rwanda, and to show his disappointment, he flew straight to China after the London meeting under the pretext of the celebration of the 30 year anniversary of Rwando-Chinese relations. China is the only superpower which can today stand to the Americans and is slowly but surely making his way to the African continent by courting governments there. The United States recently blocked an arms deal destined for Rwanda-controlled Congolese territories. So Kagame might want to buy arms from China to anger the Americans.
Whatever happens, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi to some extent, mean to occupy Congo as long as it takes and as long as they enjoy the support of the world’s superpowers who will the partition of the rich Congo so they can exploit it better. This will leave a very dangerous precedent. We must not forget that Congo will rise again.
His Excellency Prime Minister Tony Blair, MP
10 Downing Street,
London SW1A 2AA
1 November 2001
Your Excellency,
I am writing in reference to a scheduled meeting between President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, to be chaired by your Excellency here in London, and aimed at defusing tensions between their respective armies in the Congolese Kivu province and resolving their differences ‘on the way the war is being conducted’ in the Democratic republic of Congo.
I would like to make it clear to your Excellency on behalf of the Congolese Community here in the UK, that Rwanda and Uganda are no enemies whatsoever but have formed a military coalition to invade the Democratic Republic of Congo, loot its mineral and natural resources, occupy the eastern part of it and kill and massacre native Congolese if and when they resist occupation. This is their plan and in implementing it, they enjoy the support of some of the world’s most superpower states with the complicity of the so-called Congolese rebels. The rebellion was ‘created’ only months after the invasion to give it some sort of Congolese legitimacy in the eye of the international community and has since split into three ineffectual factions. When the Belgian Prime Minister recently visited the war-torn city of Kisangani, the locals told him that there was no popular uprising against President Laurent Désiré Kabila’s central government in Kinshasa. So there is no rebellion in Congo, there is only an invasion.
If as you know, Rwandans and Ugandans helped the Congolese people during the 1997 revolution led by former President Laurent Désiré Kabila to get rid of the worst dictator and kleptocratic leader in African history – I mean Mobutu Sese Seko – this did not give them the right to stay in Congo and run it because if my house is burning and my neighbour comes to help me extinguish the fire, my house does not become his house simply because he came to help me extinguish the fire.
Last weekend I attended a conference organised by the churches in Edenbridge, Kent, on “Peace and Reconciliation in the Great Lakes Region’. I met a certain Deus Kagiraneza, a former Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) officer who has defected and now lives in Belgium. He is also a former member of the Rwandan Parliament set up after the Arusha accord, a former prefect of Ruwengeri district, Rwanda and until recently Rwandan chief of staff in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kagiraneza revealed that Rwandans and Ugandans troops were paid for their military support to the revolution by the Kabila government but they wanted more out of Congo and so came with the pretext that Congo was harbouring those who committed genocide in 1994, namely the Interahamwe militias. Kagiraneza,, in his testimony, said that some Western powers were protecting the Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian elite against innocent people in the Congo.
‘If we occupy 60% of Congolese territory,’ he asked, ‘in three years we should have rooted out the Interahamwe. But this is just a pretext. In Uganda, like in Rwanda and Burundi, there is only a small clique of people at the top who are benefiting out of the criminal and illegal activities in Congo, where they loot and kill and sell the booties to the West.’
First of all, you can see that masks are falling, in other words, the West is supporting terrorism in Congo according to Kagiraneza’s testimony.
Secondly, Rwandan and Uganda are no enemies whatsoever. They are just putting on a show to deceive public opinion and the international community that tensions are high between the two of them. So, why don’t they fight in their own respective countries then? Why just in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
The people of Congo are peace loving people but they looked on powerlessly as the two foreign armies fought in their own territory. All this because Mobutu left no army and Laurent Désiré Kabila was given no time to reorganise one! Twice, the armies of Rwanda and Uganda have fought each other over the control of diamonds in Kisangani, the chief city of Congo’s Oriental province, leaving 3,000 Congolese dead. The city was all but destroyed, and this at 1,500km from their borders with the Democartic Republic of Congo which they claim to be securing from rebel incursions. The UN Security Council ordered that the city be completely demilitarised but up to now, foreign troops are still patrolling Kisangani. Nothing has changed. At that very time, Rwanda and Uganda were busy building a new high way that will soon link Kigali and Kampala. What a deadly show to which the international community simply turned a blind eye?
If we want to rid the world of the evil of terrorism, then we must cease to be selective but act everywhere where that evil is at work. On behalf of the Congolese Community in the UK, I am therefore asking your Excellency to do everything in your power:
- to have Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian troops withdrawn from the Democratic Republic of Congo with immediate effect, and this in accordance with the two UN Security Council Resolutions – 1304 (passed in 2000) and 1341 (passed in 2001) which recognised that Congo was invaded by its neighbours in the east and asked Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi to withdraw their troops totally, immediately and unconditionally; and have the UN troops dispatched along Congo’s border with its neighbours in the east. In that way everybody will feel secure and Congo will not only recover its national sovereignty and territorial integrity but this will also offset the risk of seeing our country occupied for too long leading to a de facto partition. Let me warn the international community that that will leave a dangerous precedent.
- That Britain contribute to the setting up of an international war crimes tribunal in the Great Lakes Region to try Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundians for crimes against humanity committed in the Congo since 2 August 1998; where they have and still are perpetrating massacres, rapes, the spreading of HIV, killings, which now amount to a genocide of more than 3.500.000 Congolese people as referred to in your 2 October 2001 speech and as confirmed by Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee.
- That Britain contribute to the setting up of an international commission whose aims will be to draw compensation measures to the Congolese people for all that has been looted in Congo by Rwandans, Ugandans and Burundians and for the destruction if not transfer of Congo’s infrastructure to their respective countries. Japan and Germany know it too well after having invaded other countries. There is no need for selective morality here. History is the great judge.
- That Britain contribute to the organisation of an international conference on peace in the Great Lakes Region to examine the root causes of the current turmoil there, the solution of which, in my view, is an inter-Rwandan dialogue. The 1994 genocide has been marketed so well by the present regime in Kigali so much so that the international community has almost closed its eyes on crimes against humanity perpetrated by the same regime. No single ethnic group can no longer pretend to rule Rwanda alone and exclude the other, the vast majority and remain in power on the basis of tribal divide. That is an incentive to more trouble and violence which will always spill over into Congo and the innocent and hospitable Congolese people will always pay the price as they now are. All sections of the Rwanda society must be integrated. Let nobody be fooled any longer by the fact that for Kagame, anybody who opposes him and his regime is immediately branded a ‘genocidaire’, an ‘Interahamwe’. The international community must cease to be taken for a ride and must cease to be oblivious to this fact and must this time act on time to avoid another cycle of violence or more bloodshed. Rwandan, Ugandan, and Burundian regimes must democratise and must cease to be mono-ethnic led ones. As long as they will continue to exclude the vast majority, there will be no peace in the Great Lakes Region and multinationals and arms traders will always take advantage of this simmering tension to foment more wars.
It is time for Britain as one of the world’s superpowers to act now to bring about global peace and justice.
Yours sincerely,
Antoine Roger Lokongo
A Congolese journalist.
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