| News on Congo 003:
Ugandan ex-president condemns aggression |
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Rolf
Martens |
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The following posting today appeared on
'soc.culture.african'.
Since it's important, it's reproduced here and now sent to other newsgroups too as well as
being mailed to a number of addresses.
ON THE MILITARY CONFLICT IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION OF AFRICA
By GODFREY LUKONGWA BINAISA New York, August 28, 1998 ---
Uganda's military aggression against the Democratic Republic of Congo is a blatant
violation of international law and an affront to the Charter of the United Nations and the
Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). As a Ugandan patriot and a
staunch pan-Africanist, I have learned with great disquiet of Uganda's military
adventure in the Congo.
President Yoweri Museveni has argued that the need to protect Uganda's national interest
and to secure its western borders against infiltration by Uganda guerilla forces opposed
to his regime compelled Uganda's military involvement in the Congo.
This argument dissembles the truth and does not stand up to scrutiny.
The truth of the matter is that Uganda is the aggressor because it launched the attack
against Congo by clandestinely fomenting and supporting a rebellion against a sovereign
state and then coming out openly in armed aggression against a state that has no designs
on Uganda. This act of aggression by Uganda forms a pattern of aggression by President
Museveni against neighboring African states.
Between 1986 and 1990, Uganda recruited and trained a guerilla army led by Brigadier
Odongo against the government of Kenya. In 1990, and then in 1994, Uganda invaded Rwanda
and sponsored a guerilla war that sparked off the genocide in Rwanda and displaced
millions of people throughout the Great Lakes Region.
In 1997 President Museveni sponsored a rebellion in the then Zaire while assuring the OAU
and the rest of the world that he was in fact mediating the conflict in Zaire. From 1986
to 1998, President Museveni has sponsored the SPLA against the government
of the Sudan.
The government of President Museveni has emerged as a powerful neo-colonial regime whose
militarism has destabilized the whole region of East and Central Africa. The only parallel
in history to Museveni's militarism is Hitler's Germany. Uganda is a poor country that
relies heavily on foreign aid for its operating budget. Where does Uganda get the money
and the arms with which to finance and sustain such a campaign of terror and aggression in
Africa? Who are President Museveni's sponsors? Who stands to benefit from wars and
genocide in the very heart of Africa? And what has the government of President Museveni
done to combat mass poverty and illiteracy and disease?
In short, whose agenda is President Museveni sponsoring in Africa? I call upon all
Africans who value peace and development to come forward to condemn and resist this
aggression unreservedly. The lesson from Munich is that evil and aggression, however banal
they might at first appear, should never be appeased or tolerated.
The question to be asked is where are the leaders of the Christian and Moslem churches in
Africa in the face of such blatant aggression?. When will the churches condemn what is
happening in Uganda and in the Great Lakes Region? Where are the human rights and
humanitarian groups? And where are the United Nations and the Organization of African
Unity? I call upon the political leaders, and particularly those who took part in the
struggle for independence and subsequent resistance to various dictatorships, to state
their stance categorically.
History will remember what we say and do today. This is why I congratulate the following
leaders: President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe; President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola;
President Sam Nujoma of Namibia; and other leaders who will no doubt soon join this golden
roll of honour of African freedom fighters.
As a sovereign state, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the right to self-defense and
has the prerogative under international law to ask for and to receive both unilateral and
multilateral assistance from any country. This is the sacred right of every sovereign
state. Consequently, assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo must be distinguished
from support for the rebel forces, which support is illegal under international law.
Nothing less than the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity are
under attack by those
countries which have instigated and sponsored the invasion of and the war in the Congo.
Uganda and Rwanda must be condemned in no uncertain terms for their invasion of the
Democratic Republic of Congo. It is morally imperative that the international community
must not treat the aggressors the same way it treats the victim of the aggression. Africa
rejects being used as a guinea pig upon which to experiment the so-called new ideas of
government which are nothing more than open tyranny by one man and the imposition of a
minority rule over the great majority of our people merely because they are armed to the
teeth with foreign support.
We have learned one indelible lesson from slavery and colonization--that foreign
oppression and domination require indigenous collaborators. After slavery and
colonization, we must never allow Africa to be subjugated again. May God bless and defend
Africa.
G. Lukongwa Binaisa
Former President of Uganda
Editor's note---For Questions about this report, contact
The Black Star News at (212) 678-2088 or
milton@blackstarnews.com or
ben@blackstarnews.com or
Bsnews@aol.com
________________________________________________________________
Les "ACTUALITES SUR CONGO" reproduisent les déclarations de l'Association
Nationale Congo en Suède et du Comité pour la RD Congo en Suède et en outre des
informations et analyses originaires d'autres sources.
Pour les francophones nous recommendons les sites Agence Congolaise de Presse, ACP: http://rdcongo.org/frames/acp/BQ.htm
(temporairement fermé à partir du 16.08.98) et Congonline (basé en Belgique, reproduit
informations des sources diverses): www.congonline.com
Adresses de contact:
Association Nationale Congo
Box 5343
SE - 102 45 Stockholm
Suède
Tel: +46 - 8 - 471 96 26 (président)
+46 - 8 - 84 57 18 (local)
Fax: +46 - 8 - 751 26 06
Comité pour RD Congo
Box 17513
SE - 200 10 Malmoe
Suède
Tel: +46 - 40 - 12 48 32
E-mail: congocomse@hotmail.com
Rolf Martens
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