HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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NEWS ON CONGO 044: 2/2 A "partial" peace agreement
[Posted: 20.04.02]
[Continued from "NEWS ON CONGO 043"]
D. AN AFP NEWS REPORT FROM KIGALI, RWANDA,
WEDNESDAY 17.04.2002
*Combats in Kasaï Oriental province, central DRC (rebellion)*
KIGALI, 17 April (AFP)
Combats have taken place since Wednesday morning between the
Forces armées congolaises (FAC, faithful to Kinshasa) and
troops of a military commander close to a party of the poli-
tical opposition, in the Kasaï Oriental province (in central
Democratic Republic of Congo), a rebel [meaning, aggressor
puppet - RM] source in Kigali has reported.
These combats are taking place in the locality of Mwenegitu,
near the city Mbuji-Mayi, in the governmental zone some 80
kilometres from the front line, a representative of the re-
bellion of the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie
(RCD, which controls the eastern part of the Congo with the
support of Rwanda) has reported to the AFP.
A group of military which has evolved on behalf of the Union
pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS, party of the
opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi) has attacked the
positions of the FAC at Mwenegitu, according to this source.
This information has been confirmed by a Rwandan military
source.
Some fifty of the members of this party had announced last
week at Sun City (South Africa), where the inter-Congolese
dialogue is taking place, their intention to create "an armed
branch", after the candidacy of Mr Tshisekedi for the presi-
dency had been blocked in the negotiations at Sun City.
The Kinshasa government immediately denounced this initia-
tive.
"We are awaiting more precise information; the situation
still seems to be fluid, but we in no manner are involved in
this violence, which is occurring some 80 km from the buffer
zone", the speaker of the RCD, Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, has
stated.
"This part of the front line has (...) been reinforced con-
siderably during the last few months by Kinshasa, which has
massed numerous troops there", he has pointed out.
[Note: The Kinshasa newspaper le Palmarès reports
in its issue of today, Saturday 20.04, that Tshise-
kedi on his part does not accept armed struggle, by
his party the "UDPS", as a means to help the aggres-
sors. Such divergences within the "UDPS" have been
reported before - see "NOC 042", 15.04. It's possible
that the above AFP news report on "combats by UPDS
forces" close to the important diamond-mining centre
Mbuji-Mayi was a falsification altogether. - RM]
E. A MESSAGE TO THE CONGOTRIBUNE MAILING LIST,
SATURDAY 20.04 (from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
CONGO-DEM.REPUBLIC, 20 APRIL 2002 (8:39)
BUKAVU: SERIOUS VIOLENCE PERPETRADED BY
THE RWANDAN ARMY (BRIEF, GENERAL)
New episode of violence in the zone of Bukavu (main city of
South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo).
Sources of the civil society have made known that in the
night from Wednesday to Thursday, at Kamukunzi, neighbouring
village of Nyantende (10 kilometres from Bukavu), a group of
armed men belonging to the Rwandan troops caputured a man and
tortured him before killing him. The military gauged out the
eyeas of the victim, Buhenda Karhema, aged 43, and shot him
in the back. In the Bukavu zone, insecurity reigns with the
occupation by the Rwandan army (APR), which controls the re-
gion since the war broke out on 02 August 1998.
Other macabre facts have been reported in the last few days
from Nyantende, where men in uniforms have engaged in pil-
laging. Katinga Mulolo, a man 31 years of age, was killed on
the spot for having warned the inhabitants of the arrival of
the armed men. His mother, Maria Goretti, aged 53, was mortal-
ly wounded by bayonet stabs to her stomach. (CC)
F. OTHER INFORMATION IN BRIEF, AND
A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT (RM)
How should this "partial" peace agreement, as reported on
above, be assessed?
Most of the writers to the mailing lists congokin_opinions
and CONGOTRIBUNE (addresses, see endnote) have welcomed it.
One writer however, Mara Basaula-Divididi <mara.basaula
@planet.nl>, sharply disagrees, arguing on 19.04 under
"Re: UN ESPOIR SANS OUBLI...." i.a. (in my translation):
"...We are lauding reconciliation, but this does not
mean that a sanguinary criminal, or traitor, or
Harki such as Mbemba - who has not yet dismantled his
guillotine and closed down his concentration camps,
nor has been taken to justice (to explain himself
concerning the massacres of his own brothers and sis-
ters), condemned and then pardoned, gotten an amnesty
if the people had wanted this - embark to Kinshasa as
Head of Government!
We are not sheep. We Congolese patriots will continue
to denounce this alliance with the devil, the execu-
tioners of our people. It is a humiliation and a ca-
pitulation. The government of Kinshasa, which we are
supporting, is letting the people down. If it con-
tinues on this road, the people will chase it away.
Why, then, wait for four years of war and more than
3,000,000 victims in order finally to make a pact
with the 'Salot Sar' (Pol Pot) [Note: On what the
media of the imperialists have said and are saying
about this former leader of Cambodia, I've reproduced
a comment in a posting on 08.08.1997, "UNITE! Info
#47en: H.I.: Process against Pol Pot". - RM] of the
Equateur province and to appoint him as Prime Minis-
ter. It's inadmissible!
...
Honestly, if that mephisophelic plan which puts our
people with their backs to the wall is realised,
I shall not cease for one moment to denounce my go-
vernment, which I have always supported and at least
am still supporting, and the people shall bear wit-
ness to this.
Patriotic conscience calls on us not to be dupes. His-
tory will pass judgement on us for having bailed out
the killing of more than 3,000,000 of our citizens in
the course of the 'Lusaka Agreement" and the 'Mbeki
Plan'."
It's true that the present agreement with the "MLC" of Jean-
Pierre Bemba (Mbemba) in a certain way does reward the agres-
sion.
I hold, however, firstly, that agreements of this type, on
principle, *are* admissible, for forces striving to represent
the people, *provided that they retain their own freedom of
action*, something which in this case *seems to* be the case -
though this is difficult too to judge on at the present moment
and from a distance.
And secondly, it seems to me that this agreement *was* the
right thing to do, under the circumstances at hand. It probab-
ly was the relatively best that could be achieved at the mo-
ment, twarthing at least the very worst plans of the US impe-
rialists and their underling the Rwandan leadership and
driving a certain wedge between these forces and some of their
former close allies.
Future developments will show whether this is true or not.
It's reported that at present, the government of the DR Congo
controls some 40% of the country's territory, that the "MLC",
supported by Uganda, at least some of whose own troops have
reportedly left the DR Congo, controls some 30% and that the
"RCD/Goma", the puppet of Rwanda, together with the troops of
that country, are holding the remaining 30%. (A quite recent
report, incidentially, hints that the "RCD/Goma" may be pas-
sing over from its recent rejection of the agreement to ac-
ceptance of it, but on this there is no clear information.)
It's possible that the Rwandan invaders will now be confronted
with something resembling a Congolese-Ugandan partial allian-
ce, though this is still unclear too. Reports on what poisi-
tion the leadership of this other invader of the DR Congo,
Uganda, is taking on the agreement have been conflicting. It
may be that it's divided concerning this.
As to the imperialists, their media don't seem to like the
agreement at all. It has been reported that the government of
Belgium welcomes it, and, more recently, that those of France
and the USA do so too - they are showing a certain lack of
enthusiasm however, in my judgement.
One thing remains a very negative fact for the Congolese
people: What is being envisaged and apparently set up now is
a government apparatus along lines which must be characterized
as bourgeois-type ones. The really democratic, and very mo-
dern, thing about that Congolese revolution which won out in
the country on 17.05.1997 was its envisaging, and starting to
put into practice, rule of the country by Committees of the
People's Power (in French, Comités du Povouir du Peuple, CPP).
It was this that the imperialists feared quite in particular,
since such a system is what really allows the people to rule.
Since a considerable time back now, nothing has been heard
or seen outside the DR Congo (as far as I've been able to
ascertain, at least) about a further development of the Com-
mittees of the People's Power, or even about their playing
any role at all.
Their perhaps having being disbanded, even, or their role
at least having shrunk into insinificance at the present mo-
ment is not a result, at least not a direct such, of those
recent inter-Congolese negotiations which ended at Sun City
yesterday after the abovementioned agreement had been announ-
ced, but is a tendency existing since much longer back.
Friends of the Congolese people, in my opinion, should en-
courage and support the development of, and by no means the
disbanding of, the Committees of the People's Power. This,
unfortunately, does not seem to be on the present "order of
the day" at all. But this means that Congolese democratic
institutions in practice, inevitably, *will remain rather
weak*, precisely as far as democracy is concerned, and this
again will mean *much larger difficulties* too in liberating
the whole country, compared to what would or will be the case
with a system of government which - as much experience in
other parts of the world has shown again and again - really
lets the forces of the people unfold.
As that parliamentary Republic whis is now being "outlined"
too, the DR Congo very much merits the support of the people
in other countries. It's to be hoped that the people's forces
in that country will develop further.
_______________________________________________________________
"NEWS ON CONGO" postings bring statements by the Congo National
Association in Sweden and the DR Congo Committee in Sweden and
also reproduce information and analysis from other sources.
Postings are sent to:
- some 30 Usenet newsgroups, on politics and/or on Africa
- some 5 international discussion mailing lists
- some 400 private, media or governmental e-mail addresses
[This endnote is being updated continually, in order to show
readers where at the time they can best get information. Last
update of this note: 20.04.2002.]
Some websites with information in English and/or in French on
the DR Congo:
Official site of the DR Congo:
http://www.rd-congo.com/
Site of the DR Congo's Permanent Mission at the UN:
http://www.un.int/drcongo/
(With much information, i.a. continually updated news in
French and English; NB new address this year)
Kinshasa newspaper l'Avenir:
http://www.groupelavenir.com
The Mai-Mai movement, fighting the aggressors in the east:
http://www.congo-mai-mai.net
Mjumbe wa Kivu, a site on the occupied Kivu province, with
i.a. a forum to which the Mai-Mai movement and also the
resistance movement les Forces Républicaines Féderalistes
have contributed: www.kivu.net
Great Lakes Press: http://pages.infinit.net/glp/index.htm
Congo 2000: www.congo2000.com
Digitalcongo.net: http://www.digitalcongo.net
Two Belgium-based sites support the struggle of the DR Congo:
www.lai-aib.org/index_fr.htm and www.ptb.be/Solidaire.htm
Two other Belgium-based sites: ATMA: www.atma.net and Congon-
line: www.congonline.com (the last only for subscribers).
An English-language website managed by Richard Alcorn, USA,
with i.a. much material from August 1998 on from us supporters
of the DR Congo in Sweden: www.crocker.com/~acacia/congo.html
(This site has no more recent material; last updated Nov 1998)
AllAfrica.com: http://allafrica.com/congo_kinshasa/
(Replaces an earlier site, Africanews)
Marekinc: http://www.marekinc.com
(Managed by Ed Marek, formerly of the US Air Force. Often ap-
parently well-informed and, of late, containing considerable
criticism of the official US position on the aggression. Its
informations should be treated with great caution anyway, ex-
perience shows.)
"Rebel" aggressor puppets, a site based in South Africa:
www.congo.co.za
Three discussion sites of interest:
www.egroups.com/list/congokin_opinions
(Belgium-based. E-group discussions are in French and English.
For participation, contact <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <congokin_
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.)
www.egroups.com/list/cdf
(Congo Defence Fund)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CONGOTRIBUNE/
(Founded 09.11.2001)
Some contact addresses:
Congo National Association
Box 5343 SE - 102 45
Stockholm
Sweden
Tel: +46 - 8 - 471 96 26 (chairman)
+46 - 8 - 84 57 18 (facility)
Fax: +46 - 8 - 751 26 06
DR Congo Committee (Chairman: Bony Ndjov-a-Shamalo)
c/o Rolf Martens
Nobelvaegen 38U4
SE - 214 33 Malmoe
Sweden
Tel: +46 - 40 - 12 48 32
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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