Congo chronicle 9
september 29-october 12 1997
Sources: NCN, Le Soir, le Nouvel Afrique-Asie, Trouw
Congo-Brazzaville/fightings
From Brazzaville frequently shellings have been carried out on
Kinshasa. On september 29, two persons were killed by grenades
fired from the opposite side of the river. On september 30, 17
people were killed by grenades and 30 on october 10.
The attacks were aimed on different parts of the city, among others on
the residence of president Kabila and on the American embassy.
Kabila attributes these attacks to acts of revenge by ex-military
of Mobutu, who have joined Sassou Nguesso, the opponent of
president Lissouba in Brazzaville.
On october 4, Kabila sent eight hundred troops to Brazzaville to
create a safety corridor against the attacks. The frontier with
Congo-Brazza is closed to prevent Mobutu infiltrants to cross the
river to Kinshasa.
On october 10, reportedly, Angola has sent troops to Congo-Brazza
to side Sassou Nguesso. The war in Brazzaville is getting more
and more international features; with the support of France Tchad is sending troops
sustaining the rebellious Sassou Nguesso. Thousands of
civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled.
The Security Council is considering steps.
Kivu / problems with UNHCR
On october 3, the Congolese government, reportedly, has asked
UNHCR to leave North Kivu. The frontier with Rwanda is closed and
Rwandese refugees are sent back via Goma.
These measures are
connected with the following: Numerous Rwandese recently have
take refuge to Kivu following fightings between armed Hutu and
the Rwandese army in North West Rwanda. Among these refugees
there are many members of the armed Hutu militia who are
responsible for the genocide on the Tutsi population and is now
again doing guerilla actions in Rwanda. No doubt the Congolese
government wants to prevent what happened in 1994: then the UNHCR
set up camps for the Hutu refugees. These camps formed a base for
the latter to attack the Rwandese territory and to destroy the
infrastructure of Kivu.
The High Commissioner for the Refugees of the UN, mrs Ogata,
accuses the Kabila government of violating the international
accords by the refoulement of the Rwandese refugees.
On october 5, the minister of Interior, mr Kongolo, gave a
clarification on the refugee problem in his country and on the
decision to close the frontiers:
* North of Kinshasa some tens of ex-soldiers of Mobutu were
found, who pretended to be refugees; they are actually submitted to
interrogation.
* The last days Congo has sent back to Rwanda about 4000 Rwandese
nationals. They were not refugees who had formerly come from
Rwanda; the intention was to prevent new streams of Hutu into
Congo.
*In the Equateur province, near the capital Mbandaka, more than
thousand heavily armed Hutu have been observed. They use refugees
as a human shield. They will have to be expelled militarily.
* UNHCR has been asked to leave Goma because Hutu in Rwanda are
incited to flee to Congo. In this way UNHCR is creating new
conflicts in Kivu.
* The governor of Kivu has been asked to evaluate the work of all
24 NGO's in the region and report about this to the central
government. Those who don't make an important contribution to the
development of the country, will be asked to leave.
[Note: The dutch newspaper Trouw of october 10 cites a
representative of MSF in Kivu. The governor has asked him to
stay. The Red Cross and the UN-organisations Unicef and WFP are
permitted to stay. According to this physician Congo wants to get
rid of all armed groups of Rwandese. They form a menace for the
inhabitants of Kivu. No Rwandese is left in Goma. The Congolese
army looks well organised. "Its is bettering every week. They do
not have money, cars or trucks. But there is for exemple a good military
police. Such controll on the army was formerly nonexisting.]
Vice-president Kagame of Rwanda paid a visit to Kinshasa on
october 7 to talk with Kabila about the refugees and problems at
the frontier.
UN-mission
On october 1, the three leaders of the UN team to investigate
the massacres of Hutu refugees have been called back to New York
by the Secretary of the UN, Kofi Annan. Within two weeks the UN
will take a decision about the continuation of the
investigations.
The USA and the EU have menaced to withhold their help to Congo
if the UN team does not get permission to investigate the
massacres. The USA considers sending a delegate to the Great
Lakes region.
Foreign minister Karaha of the RDC, at that time attending the
UN Assembly in New York, said the Congo does not object against
the UN investigation. On behalf of his government he has
presented ten questions to Kofi Annan. According to the Congolese
government these questions should form the background of the
investigation in order to come to a really objective judgment. In
its september volume the monthly Le Nouvel Afrique-Asie presents
in brief these questions:
- Why were the refugees in East Congo? -Who has forced these
refugees to leave their country? -Why did they bear arms? -Why
were they called "refugees"? -Why did the people who have caused the genocide stay in the
camps together with people who survived the genocide of 1994? -
How many Rwandese citizens, kept hostage, were killed during the
two years and a half? -How many refugees were killed as they
wanted to go back to Rwanda? -How many were killed as they were
forced to continue fleeing untill Brazzaville, and why have many
of them died of illness in the camps, although medicine and food
for them had been delivered?
In his speech to the UN Karaha stressed that the victory on
Mobutu is a victory of Pan-africanism, and that his government
has done a lot to promote a good regional collaboration. In this
connection it can be noted that several neighbouring states of
Congo have recently expessed again their support of the Congolese
government.
After Kabila's visit to Zambia the Zambian president Chiluba
showed his sympathy for the Congolese case. In reaction to the
Western demand to Kabila to hurry introducing democracy, Chiluba
said: "They want you to hurry as you are just creeping forward.
You have to choose your own speed. I am aware of the enormous
task that Congo has to fullfill. Zambia is ready to cooperate
because we know that the political will exists and that Congo
will surely succeed."
In connection with the problem around the UN-investigation the
president of Uganda, Museveni, said on october 9: "If mr Kofi
Annan wants to get a complete picture, he has to start at the
beginning. I think that the Congolese government is right in its
refusal to his approach. I would like to advise my brother Kofi
Annan to cooperate closely with us."
The social situation in Congo-K
As indicated by the representative of MSF in Kivu there is really
progress in Congo with respect to safety for the ordinary
citizens. There are also developments in the field of
jurisdiction and the forming of a democratic infrastructure. From
the side of American officials who visited Congo recently it is
reported that a fundamental debate about the constitution is
going on. The Department of Justice leads a interdepartmental
project group to elaborate a draft text. They want to base on the
constitution of 1964 and on the work of the National Conference
of 1992. The draft constitution will be sent to the regions. Then
a constitutional commission will be formed from 20-25
representatives of each region. In august 1998 a referendum has
to be held.
Administration of law is functioning, but there is a great lack
of capable civil servants. Corruption is still a problem, as is
the absence of sufficient payment for public servants.
By the Americans the members of the Congolese government are
called very devoted, intelligent and honest.
In Kinshasa one encounters much scepticism, In the provinces the
atmosphere is quite different.The people there is eager to get to work
and one is optimistic about the Kabila government.
The opposition of Tshisekedi does not resign to the leadership of
Kabila.The leader of the UDSP has sent a letter to the EU where
he accuses Kabila of dictatorship.
An associate of Tshisekedi,
Celestin Shabani, has been arrested on september 28 1997.
A reason was not given.
September 3 , Tshisekedi also sent a letter to the US
Secretary of State, where he speaks of a great disappointment
among the Congolese people about Kabila, who is named by him
a new dictator.Tshisekedi argues the establishment of a
government of National Unity under his leadership.
Investigations by Colette Braeckman.
Colette Braeckman reports - Le Soir in some articles - of a pro-
Mobutu lobby.The most important person of this lobby was a
certain Maxo (Max Olivier Cahen), son of the Belgian ambassador
in Paris.Thanks to his father, who was a good friend of Mobutu,
he obtained confidential diplomatic documents which he passed on
to Mobutu.He lobbied for Mobutu to Chirac, Tindemans and in
circles of the White House.The French, especially Chirac and the
French network for Africa of Jacques Foccart, were convinced
untill the end that Mobutu should be maintained. Their plans
consisted in a prime ministership of Kengo - what happened in
july 1994 - and the role of the wise president in the background
for Mobutu.Later on there would be elections.
Thus, in the early nineties, when the so-called Troika: U.S.,
Belgium and France talked together about the problems in Zaire,
there existed the unofficial network in which Maxo plays a role travelling
between
Kinshasa, Paris, Bruxelles and Washington. In the U.S. were also
some friends of Mobutu on high level, for exemple the deputy secretary
of State for African Affairs, Herman Cohen, and the American
Ambassador in Kinshasa, Dan Simpson. But in the U.S. Maxo also came
upon some opponents of Mobutu notablyat the Military
Intelligence Agency of the Pentagon, who was biased in favour of
Kagame, the leader of Rwanda.Also the Drugs Enforcements Agency was
opposed to Mobutu; Kengo was suspected of great deals with
drugsmoney.In the U.S. finally the anti-Mobutu lobby wins out,
in France the pro-Mobutu lobby.
In a final article Colette Braeckman describes the activities of
Christian Tavernier, the Belgian leader of the mercenaries and a
friend of Mobutu and Tindemans.He advised Mobutu about the
reinforcement of his armed forces and he was Mobutu's most
important strategist during the war against the ADFL. For the
moment he has taken refuge to Tahiti.
The report of the Human Rights Watch.
October 9 1997, the Human Human Rights Watch together with the
International Ligue for Human Rights edited a report about the
massacres during the war against Mobutu.
(note: Since we do not have read the report yet and we think that it
contains important matters, we will come back later on the
content of this report.From the media we have the impression that
the ADFL and especially the Rwandese commanders are accused of
large-scale killings of Hutu-refugees.In the dutch newspaper Trouw we
have read that the Americans were involved in the affair.In this
connection the republican representative Chris Smith has posed
questions to Bill Clinton.
For us the question is if the report actually brings somethoing new. Our estimation
is that
the facts about the massacres are known already by former
publications of human rights organisations.Since this report
describes again only massacres during the ADFL-war, one has not met
to the demand of the Congolese government to implicate in the investigation
the whole period from 1993 till 17 may 1997. We are
concerned about the consequences of the publication of this
report for the Congolese civilians, who are continuously saddled
up with a problem that has been imported from Rwanda and of
which they are victims)