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Thursday 17 October 2002: Address to Oxford University Students
Hello everybody, my name is Lokongo from Congo
I am a London-based Congolese journalist and i would
like to tell you briefly about the reasons
Why the west is ignoring the genocide now taking place
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, my country.
Let me start by drawing your attention to something very,
very important that we are all probably oblivious to:
the commemoration this year of the CENTENARY of Joseph
Konrad's novel about the Congo, which is called what?
The Heart of Darkness, that masterpiece of the 20th century
which explores the grim realities of imperialism. By the
way, the story started on the banks of the river Thames
in London.
You will be surprised to hear that much of what Konrad
described in his haunting tale is still true today, because
the people of Congo are still under the yoke of those
grim realities albeit a 100 years gone past, and still
leave like in stone age.
I have several times in my contacts with prominent journalists
in this country, including with Jeremy Paxman, who I hold
with the highest esteem, tried to re-dress the fundamental
misunderstanding and injustice done to Joseph Konrad novel:
Many people think that by coining the title The Heart
of Darkness, he referred to Congo as a wild, wild, backward
and uncivilised place to go to.
And I hope that is not the case with you people here
at the good old Oxford University.
NO. Konrad was talking about the darkness that surrounded
the West's so-called civilising enterprise in Africa,
as well as in the Americas, in Australia and in New Zealand
for that matter of fact. Konrad was the first western
man of his age to engage in a radical questioning of the
nature and values of the Western society.
As you know we deplore death of more than 5,000 people
and condemn the terrorist act of September 11 attack on
America, although the media here in the West were totally
forbidden to show us the photos of the victims of September
11 attack.
Journalist who tried to do so were sacked because they
should have learned the hard truth that they were Americans
before they were journalists.
But as a Congolese, I find it extremely difficult and
inconceivable to reconcile the fact that
the Western media widely reported the events of the 1994
genocide in Rwanda or later in Bosnia, or even famine
stricken people in Sudan with ribs clearly sticking out
And I bet you are all familiar with BBC's familiar warning:
"You will some of these pictures very disturbing!"
But the same media have totally ignored the awful tragedy
taking place in Congo, my country, where, since 1998,
a genocide of more than 5 million has gone totally unreported
for reasons that I will explain later.
The 9/11 attack on America has been described as an attack
against the civilised and civilising world, in other,
against the Western world. Let me tell you that is historically
speaking quite untrue: If Konrad was alive today, he would
certainly ask certain questions that would in themselves
unmask the evils upon which Western power and opulence
were based.
Such questions would be: -What is civilised and civilising
in the slave trade carried out by the West, that greatest
crime against humanity? -What is civilised and civilising
in going to other people's territory, dispossessing them
of their land, exterminating them, settling, appropriating
to yourself what belong to them be it natural or mineral
resources?
To stick to Congo, The 42 years that our country had
lived as an independent state, have been by and large,
years of political, economic, and social insecurity, owing
the vast mineral resources that it has. We are always
victims of terrorism because of the wealth that is in
our country. The wealth of Congo keeps the capitalist
system going, from the first tyre, first atomic bomb made
out of uranium from Congo to the first computer or mobile,
Congo's mineral resources always come into the picture.
Let me take this opportunity to dismiss Mr Blair's assertion
that Saddam got Uranium from Africa, without naming any
African country in his dossier of evidence against Irak.
Our independence followed over 75 years of oppressive
colonial rule imposed on us from 1885 onward, when the
Belgians occupied our country. King Leopold II of Belgium,
as you know, acquired our country as his special private
"Royal Domain" at the Berlin Conference and
handed it over to the Belgian government as a colony afterwards.
King Leopold II's "personal" Free Congo State"
as it was called officially existed for twenty-three years,
beginning in 1885, but many Congolese were already dying
unnatural deaths by the start of that period. The ivory
and later the rubber boom, was cause of the worst bloodletting
in the 19th century. King Leopold sent his agents to cut
off the hands of the natives in Congo if they did not
harvest enough rubber or collected enough ivory to meet
the quota required them. Leopold's genocide came to an
end thanks to denunciation campaign by non-Dutch missionaries,
British travellers and journalists. 15 million Congolese
were massacred then, the first genocide in the African
soil.
Our independence followed years of bitter and protracted
struggle incarnated by one man -one great man- Emery Patrice
Lumumba, who was killed as a consequence by the CIA and
Belgian secret services. His body and those of his two
companions were chopped and completely dissolved in a
barrel of acid.
Congo's 42 years of independence have been marred by
economic chaos, violence ethnic strife, rebellions (1
million people were killed by Belgian commandos and mercenaries
to prop up Mobutu against Lumumba's loyalists), worst
of all a 32-years bloody dictatorship under the Mobutu
regime (supported by the West because he was the custodian
of the West's vested interests in central Africa, and
an ally in the war against communism in the neibouring
Angola. It was Cold War then), and now an aggression on
the part of a Rwandan-Ugandan-Burundian coalition, backed
by well-known superpowers.
The only short respite the people of Congo enjoyed was
during Laurent Kabila's first year in power, that is 1997.
They could eat three times a day again as prices of essential
commodities drastically dropped, roads and bridges were
repaired, public transport restored, electricity extended
to the suburbs of Kinshasa and people liberated from Mobutu's
ill paid soldiers'ransoming. The new currency, the Congolese
franc was launched and the inflation rate dropped from
88.28% in 1993 to 6% in 1997. Corruption was severely
combated. Ministers who embezzled thrown into jail. All
this was achieved in the absence of any help from the
IMF and World Bank who conditioned their financial support
to Congo normalising its relations with the institutions
of Bretton Woods and pledging to pay all the debt the
old regime contracted. Such was also the position of the
'Friends of Congo' meeting in Brussels in December 1997.
The new government embarked on an ambitious three year
programme of national reconstruction and during the third
summit of Comesa (common market community of central and
southern African countries) held in Kinshasa on 29 June
1998, Kabila clearly tabled out what role Congo would
play within the common market and in Africa as a whole.
He explained that 'more than 40 years of African independence
have offered to the world a sad spectacle of a continent
looted and humiliated with the complicity of its own sons
and daughters'. He expressed the wish 'to see Africa entering
the 21st century totally independent of foreign interference'
and declared that the battle for Congo's independence
and sovereignty is fought in the interest of Africa as
a whole.
'Our country,' he said, 'has a vocation of exporting
peace, development and security to the rest of Africa.
A weak Congo means a vulnerable Africa from its centre,
an Africa without a heart.' The stakes were then raised!
America, long suspected of having used Uganda and Rwanda
as a front to get rid of an 'intransigent' Mobutu, branded
Kabila a 'loose canon that had to be restrained. But as
Colette Braeckman, an expert in Congolese affairs, who
reports for the Belgian daily, Le Soir, wrote in her book,
l'Enjeu Congolais -l'Afrique Centrale après Mobutu,
this 'sudden animosity against Kabila could only be explained
by the fact that his nationalist stance collided with
or frustrated their economic interests in Congo…Kabila
opposed all forms of investments that did not represent
the interests of the people of Congo.'
On the political front, the new government promised free
and fair elections but did not liberalise political activities
until an national assembly was set up, charged with the
task of setting the rules of the game stipulated in a
new constitution. On the day he was sworn-in as president,
Kabila gave a precise calendar of the democratic process
which would have culminated with general elections on
April 1999. And the people gave him the benefit of the
doubt. A front page headline on Focus on Africa magazine,
produced from Bush House read: 'Kinshasans celebrate,
but for how long?' As if they knew what was going to follow.
Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, invoking security reasons for
their own stability, have invaded chunks of territory
of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the support
of Britain and America and the complicity of a quickly
fixed and masterminded Congolese rebellion, very much
against all the UN and the organisation of African Unity
charters which forbid any member state from violating
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another state.
Will they subsequently wage war against Kenya, Tanzania
and Congo Brazzaville since the Interahamwe also fled
there? I doubt it. The problems of Rwandan can only be
solved inside Rwanda. Hutu refugees must be allowed to
be re-integrated in society there.
Two UN Security Council resolutions - resolutions 1304
(2000) and 1341 (2001) - have condemned the aggression
and have recommended that Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda unconditionally
withdraw their troops from the Democratic Republic of
Congo, half of which they occupy, very much against international
law. The resolutions recognised Zimbabwe, Namibia and
Angola as Congo's allies in the war, legally invited by
the government in Kinshasa, just as Britain had allies
during World War II.
A UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of
Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic
Republic of Congo on 12 April 2001 confirmed that the
reasons evoked by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi for maintaining
their troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo are an
alibi because they are instead systematically looting
Congo's fauna and flora, natural and mineral resources,
including the highly sought coltan (colombo tantalite)
which they illegally mine and smuggle from occupied territories.
This has contributed to the proliferation of mobile phones
in the West. Even the Pentagon has defined coltan as 'highly
strategic'.
Amnesty International, the International Rescue Committee
(USA) and Oxfam International have confirmed a genocide
of more than 5 million Congolese by the invading troops.
Often people are buried alive, shot dead or chopped with
machetes, their bodies thrown into rivers or forced down
the latrines. The toll is higher and worse than that of
Kosovo and Rwanda itself. Isn't it? If it goes unreported,
it is because stakeholders have managed to suppress the
story and to protect the perpetrators from accountability.
Adding to that the destruction on a massive scale of
Congo's socio-economic infrastructure. Whole factories
are dismounted and taken to Rwanda or Uganda, such as
the sugar cane factory in Kiliba, south Kivu, which has
been transferred to Jinja, Uganda with the approval of
the RCD rebels led by Adolphe Onosumba. Another rebel
leader, Jean Pierre Bemba's forces are well known for
looting the same under their control, and cutting people's
hands if they did not harvest enough timber. Congonline.com
reported that Ugandans have massacred many Congolese in
Gemena, Bemba's own birth town! Twice the armies of Rwanda
and Uganda had fought over diamond in Kisangani, leaving
3,000 Congolese dead, the city destroyed, and this at
1,500 km away from their borders with the Democratic Republic
of Congo which they claim to be securing from rebel incursions!
But the Democratic Republic of Congo is not Kosovo. The
international community has proved indifferent to the
tragedy of the people of Congo by being slow to respond
and to act quickly (what can 3,500 unarmed UN observers
do in the a country the size of the whole western Europe?)
with regard to the deployment of a peace keeping force
along the border of Congo with its neighbouring Uganda,
Rwanda, and Burundi, capable of implementing a real cease
fire, the unconditional withdrawal of all non-invited
forces, the organisation of a conference on a lasting
peace in the Great Lakes Region. Congo's territorial integrity
is non-negotiable.
Despite the burden of war, the people of Congo have kept
their morale high, and are not ready to let themselves
be humiliated. There is only one Democratic Republic of
Congo and they don't want it divided. Congo's national
sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable!
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.
There are serious crimes against humanity being committed
in Congo by a Rwandan-Ugandan-Burundian coalition. They
must not go unpunished. If the USA and Britain punished
Irak, Japan and Germany for invading other countries,
why not Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi who are doing exactly
the same in the Democratic Republic of Congo? These powers
and the international community as a whole, which they
influence so much, must do away with selective morality.
Justice for the people of Congo now! Nuremberg in Congo
now!
Despite several closes in it being unfavorable to Congo's
national sovereignty, the government in Kinshasa signed
the Lusaka Peace Accord. The inter-Congolese dialogue
is indispensable. But it should not take place according
to the dictate of external forces and should be held in
Kinshasa, Congo's capital. Otherwise, the inter-Congolese
could be seen as a "Sword of Damocles" over
a sovereign people.
Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi must unconditionally withdraw
their troops from Congo in accordance with the UN Security
Council resolutions. Only then can Congolese talk freely
among themselves, looking at the past and deciding on
the future of their country in the framework of the inter-Congolese
dialogue stipulated by the Lusaka peace accord.
A national South Africa like truth and reconciliation
commission will be very necessary here, because there
will be no peace and reconciliation in Congo in particular
and in the Great Lakes Region in general without justice.
The international community must set up an international
tribunal to try and punish those responsible for crimes
against humanity since 2 August 1998, as well as convene
an international conference on the lasting peace in the
Great Lakes region of central Africa. Rwanda, Uganda and
Burundi (and those who support them) must pay for the
damages they have caused in Congo.
As long as there is no democracy in Rwanda, Uganda and
Burundi - now led by a small clique in power - there will
be no peace in that region and these countries will continue
to export their problems into Congo. The people of Congo
are not responsible for the 1994 genocide which took place
in Rwanda where Rwandans killed each other. Why must they
pay a heavy price for it and for their hospitality? The
Hutu refugees must be reintegrated in society there. It
is now four years since Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi invaded
Congo. How come they have not managed to root out the
rebels? Finally, instead of deploying its troops and observers
inside Congo, the UN must rather deploy them along the
borders of Congo with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda so that
all the parties in the conflict may feel secure.
The people of Congo's priority of priorities is the national
reconstruction. But they are aware that they cannot achieve
that without cooperating with other countries who really
love and want to help them. That is why the people of
Congo believe in a mature and fair partnership with 'any'
country in the world. That is what we mean by a new political,
economic and social vision.
But it looks like the war on terror is very much going
to impinge on Congo's national sovereignty.
Thank you very much.
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