| Since early August, the Democratic Republic
of Congo is being subjected to an aggression. Rwandan and Ugandan troops are invading the
country. This is the result of an international plot which has been under preparation for
months. The invaders are attacking both from the
east, across the borders which the DRC has with the countries mentioned, and from the
west, after an airlift via Kigali, the Rwandan capital.
They are teaming up with elements of the former army of
Mobutu, whose hated regime was overthrown in 1996-97, and also have exploited the
discontent of some army and other people of Tutsi origin to fool them into supporting the
invasion.
The attack from the west, by which the invaders seized
control of the port city Matadi, the Inga hydropower dam and other strategically vital
points, has been particularly threatening.
However, from 19 August on, the situation has changed
importantly. In Kinshasa, many people have volounteered to combat the aggression. Arms
have been distributed by the government to the people of Lubumbashi in the south. Not
least have the governments of several African states, recognizing the fact of the
aggression and the serious threat against the DR Congo, decided to offer military aid,
some of which has already arrived.
Counter-attack is being mounted both in the west and the
east. Recent report say that the invading troops, faced with the prospect of being driven
out of Matadi, have perpetrated acts of looting in that city. In the east, another column
of Ugandan troops, i.a. comprising tanks, crossed the border at Hari Wara, in the district
of Ituri, on 19 August in order to reinforce the aggressors' positions there.
Faced with this change in the situation, some big-power
governments have suddently changed the tone of their statements.
During the first two weeks of the aggression, they did not
say one word against it - nor of course did they oppose it by the slightest action. Now,
when things are going rather worse for the invaders, they are calling for negotiations. So
are the invading forces themselves.
They now oppose, they say, the solving of conflicts in
Central Africa by violent means instead of by negotiations. During the first two weeks,
when the invaders appeared victorious, they said nothing about that. They oppose, they now
say, "foreign intervention" in the DR Congo, and "are worried about"
an "internalisation of the conflict" and about "a split among the states in
central/southern Africa".
But it is precisely they who have instigated, or have by
no means opposed, the foreign aggression to begin with; it is precisely some of those big
powers themselves who have engaged in an international plot against the DR Congo, and
worked hard to create a split among African states, from the very start.
Nobody should listen to those people's crocodile weeping.
For the DR Congo and other states to engage in
negotiations at the present moment would not be wrong, we hold. But an absolute
prerequisite for this is, first of all, that the electrical current and the clean water
for Kinshasa and Brazzaville is restored. And also, the aggression must be condemned and
combated.
As the DR Congo has repeatedly called for, the UN Security
Council must demand the immediate withdrawal of the Rwandan and the Ugandan troops, which
are the aggressors.
This already has been demanded by the Organization of
African Unity. The failure so far of the UN to brand the aggressors as such is another big
scandal which, once more, also demonstrates the fact of the involvement in this
international plot of those big powers in the world which to a large extent have been able
to misuse the UN as an instrument of theirs.
The South African foreign minister has recognized that
there is aggression and invasion on the part of Rwanda and Uganda. But despite this, South
Africa is not taking a stand against this aggression but, on the contrary, has been
selling arms to these states. This must be condemned.
If South Africa would like to see negotiations succeed, it
must take up an impartial and not a partial stand.
A number of internationally influential mass media since
long, and not least since the beginning of this aggression, are engaging in massive
misinformation about events in the DR Congo.
This we most sharply condemn. They are saying that what is
taking place in that country is "a rebellion", that is, "an internal
affair", which in its essence it absolutely is not.
The fact that the OAU has condemned the aggression and
that such friendly states as Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia
and Eritrea all have offered concrete support against it is something which all
justice-upholding people must welcome. Some of the abovementioned mass media however have
attacked this, and one of them, trying to put things upside-down completely, yesterday
even wrote about a purported Angolan "invasion". This is pure nonsense, and in
fact a piece of support of that international plot which is causing suffering not only by
the people of the DR Congo but by those of the other Central African states too.
Only a week or so ago, certain media and politicians in
North America and in Europe were openly advocating an idea to dismember the DR Congo,
creating for instance a "buffer zone" in its east which would be put under the
rule of the Rwandan government. Such talk no is longer being heard, but it certainly goes
to show how entirely justified is the military aid extended now to the DR Congo by those
friendly states mentioned.
We, the DR Congo Committee in Sweden, repeat what we
stated on 18 August: The AFDL government led by Laurent Labila is the legitimate
government of the DR Congo. We do not intend to defend or try to cover up any erroneous
policies on its part which we may judge to exist or to have existed. But we absolutely
support its just struggle against the present flagrant invasion, and reiterate the demand:
The aggressors' troops must be withdrawn!
The recent demonstrations against the aggression and in
support of the DR Congo, in Brussels on 14.08 and in Montréal yesterday 22.08, we welcome
warmly indeed. We shall do our best to contribute towards there arising an international
movement to combat the present international plot directed against the peoples of Central
Africa.
Malmoe, 23 August 1998
DR Congo Committee in Sweden
For the Committee:
Bony Ndjov-a-Shamalo (Chairman)
Rolf Martens
Contact address for the DR Congo Committee in Sweden:
Box 17513
SE - 200 10 Malmoe
Sweden
Tel: +46 - 40 - 12 48 32
E-mail: congocomse@hotmail.com
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