Courtesy of the joint project of the Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center and the Institute for Policy Studies, Foreign Policy In Focus. Tom Barry & Martha Honey, Noted Humanitarian Imperialists both. ;-)
Michael Pugliese, silly liberal, Social Imperialist, and , "An agent of American Intelligence, " (so sayeth Mine Doyren on the wsn list. Must be true!" "Where is that check from Langley? Lovestone, where is that Langley loot? Jay? Jay...???")
http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/progresp/vol5/prog5n03.html
CONGO ON THE BRINK OF FURTHER CHAOS
(Editor’s Note: The conflict in the Congo has been called Africa ’s World War I, involving as it does not only the Congolese army and the rebel opposition but also at least five other nations, with Rwanda and Uganda supporting the rebels, and Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia having supported the government of Laurent Kabila. The assassination on January 16 of Kabila by elements within his own palace guard portend further chaos for this vast country. His death, in the best of circumstances, may create the possibility for an effective peacekeeping mission by the UN—something that Kabila opposed. Excerpted below (and posted in its entirety at: http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol5/v5n10congo.html) is a policy brief by a highly respected scholar on the Congo, Thomas Turner. FPIF has also drawn together immediate reactions to the palace violence from several Africa experts.)
WAR IN THE CONGO
By Thomas Turner
The U.S. bears significant responsibility for the conflict in the Congo and therefore has an obligation to participate in its resolution. But other outsiders—both African and non-African—have also contributed to this tragic morass. There is blame enough to go around and thus a collective responsibility to put things right.
Belgium, the former colonial power, failed to prepare its Congolese subjects to assume power. In neighboring Rwanda and Burundi, Belgian rule favored Tutsi domination of the Hutu majorities, setting the stage for successive waves of ethnic killings that have spilled over into the Congo.
The U.S. played a major role in converting the newly independent Congo into a cold war battleground. In 1961, the Eisenhower administration authorized the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who had been voted into office just months earlier in the territory’s first-ever democratic election. Washington, which then installed Mobutu in power and kept him there for more than 30 years, bears heavy responsibility for the disastrous economic conditions, massive corruption, and suppression of human rights in Zaire. The U.S. prolonged Mobutu’s rule by providing more than $300 million in weapons and $100 million in military training.
With the end of the cold war, the U.S., France, and Belgium formed a "troika" designed to pressure Mobutu to move toward democracy. This effort might have produced more positive results had not France defected to support Mobutu and the Hutu military dictator in Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, in defense of French language and culture, supposedly threatened by "Anglophone" Uganda and its Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) protégés.
All of the Western powers contributed to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 by ignoring warning signs and reducing the United Nations presence at a time when it should have been reinforced. France compounded the problem by intervening, ostensibly to protect Hutus from the vengeance of the Tutsi-dominated RPF, but also to permit the authors of the genocide to escape. The creation of refugee camps in the Congo near Rwanda was a virtual invitation to the 1997 attacks on the camps. The Clinton administration stalled international intervention, which might have saved refugee lives but which also would have thwarted the effort by Rwanda and Uganda to replace Mobutu with Kabila.
Despite the end of the cold war, Washington decisionmakers have continued to impose simplistic dichotomies on a complex, ambiguous reality. In Africa, Clinton posited a single solution to the problems of "rogue states"—notably Islamist Sudan and "dinosaurs" such as Mobutu—namely the "new leaders" of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, and Rwanda. Presumably these pragmatists would cooperate with Washington in establishing the new order in Africa.
Two other stereotypes reinforced the idea of new leaders: the Tutsi as "serious" in contrast to the Hutu and Congolese, and the Tutsi as genocide victims. On the basis of these stereotypes, the U.S. began secret military cooperation with Rwanda and Uganda. In all, the U.S. has supplied weapons and training to eight of the governments directly involved in the war that has ravaged the DRC since Kabila’s 1997 coup, according to a recent World Policy Institute study.
(Thomas Turner <tomedwin at excite.com>, professor of Political Science at the National University of Rwanda, Butare, Rwanda, is the coauthor of "Rise and Decline of the Zairian State", and author of "Racines de Lumumba".)
Sources for More Information:
Organizations
Africa Faith and Justice Network
Email: afjn at afjn.org
Website: http://afjn.cua.edu/
Africa Policy Information Center
Email: apic at africapolicy.org
Website: http://www.africapolicy.org/
All North America Conference on Congo
Email: st112 at umail.umd.edu
Website: http://www.mtsu.edu/~nk2a/
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
Email: wgmartin at prairienet.org
Website: http://www.prairienet.org/acas/
Human Rights Watch/Africa
Email: hrwdc at hrw.org
Website: http://www.hrw.org/
International Crisis Group
Email: icgwashington at crisisweb.org
Website: http://www.crisisweb.org/
Intl. Human Rights Law Group/Congo Project
Email: HumanRights at HRLawGroup.org
Website: http://www.hrlawgroup.org/
Websites
Africa News Online
Democratic Republic of Congo
http://www.crocker.com/~acacia/congo.html
Forces of Freedom in Democratic Republic of Congo
Global Connections: Democratic Republic of Congo (United Methodist Church)
http://gbgm-umc.org/africa/drcongo/
Marek, Inc.
http://www.marekinc.com/NCN.html
One World
The "News," "Dispatches," and "Outlook" sections on this website carry current articles on the Congo.
State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/congodr.html
UN OCHA Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa (IRIN-CEA)
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/
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REACTIONS TO EVENTS IN THE CONGO
Salih Booker, Executive Director, The Africa Fund and Africa Policy Information Center and advisory board, Foreign Policy In Focus:
"With Kabila's murder, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces the same basic challenges it has since the fall of its dictator Mobutu: how to construct a national government that represents the interests of the Congolese people and is not dependent on external military intervention, i.e., Rwanda and Uganda, or Zimbabwe and Angola."
Carole Collins, Congo expert and Interim Policy Analyst, Africa Faith and Justice Network, Washington, DC:
"Difficult as Kabila was, his assassination is going to create greater difficulties. There are so many unknowns: was he killed by a disgruntled general over personal pique, or by a political foe? We don't yet know. Kabila had so centralized power that there is now a huge vacuum. The question is who will step in to power in Kinshasa, who has the authority and legitimacy to negotiate on behalf of Kabila's forces?"
Paul Simo, Program Manager for the Congo for International Human Rights Law Group:
"Kabila's death is going to create a major confusion in the region. It is likely to spark off further disintegration. The rebels are frustrated and they will try to move into the vacuum. This will create more turmoil in Kinshasa. And regionally, there will be a huge realignment. If troops from Zimbabwe and Angola now leave, Kabila's forces will crumble. The UN needs to increase its peacekeeping mission in the Congo. At the same time, the U.S. government should warn its allies in the region—Rwanda and Uganda—that further meddling in the Congo will only make things worse."