UGANDA PEOPLES CONGRESS
NATIONAL SECRETARIAT
Plot 8-10 Kampala Road, Uganda House, P.O. Box 37047, Kampala
Phone/Fax:+256-41-236748
PRESS STATEMENT
(Embargoed for release at 11.00am, 3rd December, 2008)
WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)
1.. The recent flare-up of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
has raised serious concerns about security in the Great Lakes Region. It will
be recalled that the DRC or what was at one time called Congo and later Zaire,
has been a bloody killing field right from the colonial days when millions were
massacred under the exploits of King Leopold of Belgium.
2.. As soon as Congo attained independence, international powers in search
of control of Congo's vast mineral resources and strategic location in the cold
war geopolitics, intervened in Congo. The resulting conflict, in which
mercenary forces were active, bled Congo. Among the hundreds of thousands of
victims of this proxy war was the Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba and the
United Nations Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold. The neighbours of Congo
including Uganda and other East African countries participated in this war
mostly by supporting the nationalist forces. The nationalist forces lost out to
the merchants of war.
3.. The victors in this cold war kept General Mobutu Seseseko Kuku Ngbendu
Wazabanga in power presiding over a dysfunctional state till 1997 when they
sponsored Rwanda and Uganda to invade Congo and remove Mobutu, who was no
longer capable of serving their imperial designs by force of arms.
4.. We all now know how the second proxy war in Congo sucked in not only
Rwanda, Burundi but also Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa and several other
nations. Millions were massacred by the invading armies and their rebel fronts
and the economy of the country despoiled. The aggressors from Uganda and
Rwanda even fought a bloody war over the loot and control of Congo. The
Kisangani wars claimed hundreds of UPDF soldiers whose bodies were never
brought home for burial. Later, the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
condemned Uganda to pay billions of dollars to the DRC as damages for looting
and plundering Congo's wealth. Generations of Ugandans, including those yet to
be born will shoulder this burden when the real beneficiaries of the loot and
plunder with their great grandchildren live in splendour.
5.. The origin of the most recent fighting, its sponsors and real
beneficiaries need to be thoroughly investigated, exposed and brought to book
by the international community before the entire region bursts in flames on
account of the egocentric greed and blood thirst of a few people.
6.. The Uganda Peoples Congress believes on credible grounds that General
Laurent Nkunda is a proxy for two leaders in the region who are determined to
establish a satellite state in Eastern DRC which would serve their ethnic and
private commercial interest alongside those of their international sponsors.
7.. The UPC calls upon the international community to thoroughly
investigate this serious crisis which constitutes a threat to world
peace generally and the Great Lakes Region in particular. The investigations
should urgently cover the following reports, namely that:-
a) The bulk of Laurent Nkunda's troops were recently trained in a
neighbouring country.
b) The Laurent Nkunda forces are using sophisticated and expensive
military hardware including tanks, anti aircraft missiles, heavy artillery all
supplied by a neighbouring country.
c) The foreign troops fighting alongside Nkunda's forces have exported the
type of torture methods and other human rights violation and abuses that they
have perfected in the great lakes region since the early 1980's.
8.. The UPC calls upon the International Criminal Court to swiftly
investigate the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity being
committed in the DRC especially by foreign sponsored forces, and arrest and
try the perpetrators in the International Criminal Court before it is too late,
to stop a regionwide blood bath.
9.. The UPC finally calls upon the people of Uganda to monitor the
development unfolding in the DRC and take all necessary actions to hold to
account all Ugandan leaders that may have a hand in this insidious evil.
FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY
MAMA MIRIA OBOTE
PARTY PRESIDENT
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
[email protected]
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
