http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/cong-j25.shtml
The Congo: Unanswered questions surround Kabila's assassination
By Chris Talbot
25 January 2001
Thirty days of official mourning began in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) following the burial on Wednesday of the country's assassinated
president, Laurent Kabila. The presidency was assumed almost immediately by
his son Joseph, previously head of the armed forces, in what the ruling
clique in Kinshasa has termed an “interim government”.
The real circumstances of President Kabila's death and who was responsible
are still murky questions, with several conflicting explanations being
circulated.
In his latest account of the assassination on January 16, Emile Mota,
Kabila's Economics Minister, claims he was the only person present besides
Kabila and his assailant, who was one of the President's bodyguards.
Mota rejects versions of the assassination events circulated by Western
diplomats, which suggested it took place in front of top generals after a row
about the recent setbacks in the war against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebel
forces. Some accounts had even suggested that one of the top generals had
shot Kabila. Mota also denied there had been any other shooting, despite
reports from foreign diplomats that gunfire could be heard for about 30
minutes.
Several accounts support Mota's claim that the killing “was a premeditated
attack that had been planned for some time”. However, the rest of his
statement raises serious doubts. Why should various foreign diplomats have
all given misleading accounts?
Since the assassin was immediately chased and shot dead, and so cannot be
questioned, Mota's denial that anyone else was involved would seem designed
to divert attention away from the inner circle around Kabila. But even if
they were not present at the killing-and his son Joseph was conveniently
absent in Katanga—the involvement of elements within the ruling clique would
seem highly likely, given the dissatisfaction with Kabila's handling of the
war. Angola, which is giving military support to the DRC along with Namibia
and Zimbabwe, had recently been looking for a resolution of the conflict, and
is know to be close to some of the top military.
Such a well-planned surgical operation to remove Kabila makes it unlikely
that Rwandan or Ugandan forces were directly involved in the assassination.
Since these opponents of his regime would be more likely to taker much wider
action, such as a coup, which would have involved seizure of the television
station and other strategic sites, and Kinshasa was reported calm throughout
and after the event.
Belgian sources state that the assassin was Kasereka Rachidi (given variously
in some reports as Rashidi or Rafiri), who is said to be from North Kivu
province in the east of the Congo and which is now under rebel control. He is
said to have belonged to Kabila's army since 1997, when it was formed.
DRC military leaders originating from this province are said to have been
purged and possibly executed in recent months, following defeats at the hands
of the rebels. Kabila cronies from Katanga replaced them. The Kabila regime
lacked any countrywide base of support, being comprised almost exclusively of
people who shared his own Katangan background, mainly relatives. According to
a Belgian report, an aggrieved group from North Kivu was behind the
assassination. It was apparently a statement claiming responsibility for the
killing by this group, called “the young militants of the National Council
for Resistance and Democracy (NCRD),” that was sent to the French AFP news
agency in Paris.
However, there are problems with this explanation. Since the whole leadership
of the army, including Joseph Kabila, were responsible for the purges, why
just target the President?
The involvement of Western powers in the assassination is another
possibility. Many African leaders indulge in a rhetorical denunciation of
“imperialism” to divert attention away from their own involvement in the
export of their country's wealth to the West, and Kabila was no exception.
But the DRC leader had upset his US backers, who had brought him to power
with military backing from Uganda and Rwanda, by reneging on deals to sell
off mining concessions as well as by refusing to accept IMF proposals to pay
off the country's huge debts incurred under Mobutu. After breaking with
Uganda and Rwanda in 1998 Kabila gained the backing of Angola and Zimbabwe
who wanted to extend their regional power. Another major factor in their
support was the lucrative business deals concluded with Kabila, including an
attempt to sell off Congo's diamond producing complex to an Israeli firm, and
trying to float a copper and cobalt mining operation on the London Stock
exchange.
The Lusaka peace deal negotiated in the summer of 1999 was carried through
after the US put considerable pressure on all the major combatants in the
Congo war. At the beginning of this year, a special meeting of the United
Nations Security Council accepted a US resolution for the Lusaka deal to be
revitalised. Under this, UN observers were eventually to be joined by a
“peacekeeping” force and moves towards “Inter-Congolese dialogue” begun
between the warring parties. The then US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright insisted on the territorial integrity of the Congo, demanding that
all the outside countries involved withdrew so that a settlement could be
agreed to restore stability to the region.
Uganda and Rwanda, who receive military aid from the US as well as IMF loans,
were told that they had to pull out. Whilst they officially agreed to do so,
their armies continued operating inside the Congo, especially in the gold and
diamond mining areas. This led to clashes this year in Kisangani, in which
hundreds of civilians were killed.
Zimbabwe, with its president Robert Mugabe increasingly under attack from
Britain and the United States, was refused IMF support because of allegedly
high government spending; much of it going on the war in the Congo.
Zimbabwe's military top brass has done well from looting operations although
Harare has failed to gain much from the Congo mines. The Zimbabwean economy
is now near collapse, but so far Mugabe has maintained support for the DRC
regime, whilst formerly accepting the Lusaka accord. Angola, whose soldiers
are responsible for the defence of Kinshasa, also indicated support for
Lusaka, but continued its commitment to the war, because the DRC had become a
base for UNITA rebels, with whom they have been engaged in a civil war since
the 1970s.
In spite of the fact that all these regional powers continued the fighting
over the last 18 months, the approach of the US and Britain has been
increasingly to blame the continuation of the war on the personal foibles of
Kabila. An analyst from the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit is
quoted saying “The only obstruction had been Kabila because the [Lusaka]
accord called for the government's democratic transition and that was a
threat to his power.” The Washington Post favourably contrasted Joseph
Kabila—Western educated and English-speaking—with his father. Here was
someone who made diplomats “hope that things have changed”, whereas “Laurent
Kabila stood as the major impediment to a peaceful settlement of the war
launched in August 1998 to unseat him.” The Lusaka peace deal “remained
unfulfilled largely because he kept staging new offensives while blocking
deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in government-held territory.”
Such claims that Kabila has been the main obstacle to implementing the Lusaka
accord would add weight to the view that Western intelligence played a role
in his demise. Precisely what that role could be is unlikely to emerge from
official sources for some time. It has taken 40 years for the truth to be
established about the killing of Patrice Lumumba, the first post-independence
leader of the Congo: evidence now points to Belgian agents having killed him,
but the governments of the US and Britain were also planning to murder him.
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Angola and Zimbabwe have
strengthened their presence in the Congo. Angolan troops were highly visible
at Kabila's funeral cortege in Kinshasa. Uganda and Rwanda indicated that
they would not attempt to take any military advantage out of the proceedings.
A new round of diplomacy has already begun, with the Angolan, Namibian and
Zimbabwean presidents meeting up to pledge their continued support for the
DRC regime, but expressing willingness to renew peace negotiations. Belgian
Foreign Minister Louis Michel attended Kabila's funeral and is now visiting
the capitals of all the countries involved in the Congo war with a view to
initiating the Lusaka accord. In New York, the United Nations announced it
would be calling a special meeting in February to facilitate a peace deal.
Even if the major combatants in the war decide on an official rapprochement
it will not stop the actual conflict on the ground and will produce no
benefit for the people of the Congo. The economy in the DRC is in a state of
collapse, with runaway inflation, unpaid wages, and widespread poverty. In
the rebel controlled regions the population has been subject to looting by
the rebel armies. Hunger and disease are rife, and as well as the civil war
fighting between ethnic groups has killed thousands. Numerous militias
operate within the region, including the Interhamwe, the remnants of the Hutu
regime that carried out the Rwandan genocide.
