23 Oct 95 14:51:06 -5 Date: Mon, 23 Oct 95 14:45:46 EDT From: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu (Rodney Coates) Reply-To: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu (Rodney Coates) To: Racial-Religious-EthnoNationalist Violence Studies This is a repost from a colleague. We are being asked to circulate it widely. It is being put out under the signature of the Zairean Democrats. For obvious reasons, they prefer to remain unidentified to the regime. I trust it will provide a useful perspective to fellow revs rodney c... ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Statement from Zairean Democrats to the General Assembly of the United Nations (October 16, 1995) The international community is currently in the midst of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the UNO. On this occasion, discussions are taking place all over the world on the funtioning of the UN and its role in maintaining peace since the end of WW II. Those who are participating in these meetings would like to look at them as a way of contributing to increasing the capacity of the international community, through UN agencies, to defend human beings in all their dimensions and aspirations, as individuals as wel^2Thetal as members of specific groups. As if to ignore these discussions and Mobutu's overwhelming responsibility in the current disastrous state of Zaire, the Western governments, the UN Secretariasqrt te, under pressure from the Carter Center, President William Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac, have decided to rehabilitate him on the international scene. He will thus address the world on October 23 from the UN podium. Outraged by this manoeuvre, we, Zairean democrats, take this opportunity to denounce the international complicity in the tragedy suffered by the people of Zaire. 1. Mobutu and peace in the Great Lakes Region The diplomatic isolation that Mobutu has endured for the past five years was essentially in reaction to, and condemnation of the political and economic crimes he has perpetrated against his own people. As an unrepentant exterminator of his own people, Mobutu does not hesitate to carry out massacre after massacre, to incite ethnic confrontations, to embezzle and print counterfeit currency. Today in order to justify his rehabilitation, western officials insist exclusively on the international nature of the problems, which they perceive as needing urgent resolution. They thus present him as the only political leader capable of imposing and maintaining peace in the Great Lakes Region (Rwanda and Burundi). And the reasons (internal political and economic ransacking of his own country) which had led to the diplomatic isolation in the first place have suddenly disappeared as though they never existed. The question is: how can Mobutu be a pacifier of Rwanda and Burundi when his responsibility in the Rwanda genocide has been demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt? He was proud of repeating that he was a staunch ally of the previous Rwanda regime (presided by J. Habyarimana). Under his orders, the Zairean army provided instructors not only to the soldiers and the militia, but also participated directly in military engagements in Rwanda. Following the defeat of the government army, a sympathetic welcome was extended to the dignitaries of the regime who were responsible for the genocide; the infamous broadcasters of "radio mille collines" were given a sancturary on Zairean territory from which to continue their broadcasts. These and the subsequent help in acquiring weapons for the armed forces of the defeated regime provide irrefutable proofs of Mobutu's implication in the genocide in Rwanda. In the aftermath, he should not be allowed to wash his hands over the humanitarian catastrophe which cost the lives of 50,000 people among the refugees in Kivu province. Especially in view of the way in which he has categorically opposed the international community's efforts in tracking down and seeking to arrest the Rwandese mass killers. Mobutu did not hesitate to allow them to use Zairean territory as a sanctuary from which to continue their criminal activities. One must ask which logic is being followed in showering praise on such a dangerous criminal under the pretext that he is going to restore peace? One should further ask: which kind of peace? 2. Mobutu's crimes and their consequences For Zaireans dmocrats, it is unacceptable that western officials and the UN should systematically ignore Mobutu's bloody criminal record against which Zaireans have been relentlessly fighting. By undercutting patriotic surges toward national reconstruction, these crimes have plunged the country into a state close to total destruction. Following is a summary of the most outrageous crimes: 2.1 Killings and assassinations Last July, following his orders, the army shot and killed or wounded several demonstrators (58 dead). Women, in particular, seemed to have been targeted as many were raped before being killed, execution style. Since 1992, Mobutu has carried out political ethnic cleansing which has led to the death of tens of thousands of people in Shaba (Katanga) (50,000 to 100,000 dead and missing) and Kivu (more than 8,500 dead). The deportationof people originating from Kasai but living in Shaba/Katanga has turned 2,000,000 people into refugees in their own country. On February 16, 1992, in Kinshasa, a peaceful march to protest Mobutu's stopping of the National Sovereign Conference was brutally repressed (approximately one hundred people were shot down and hundreds suffered gunshot wounds). During the night of May 10-11, 1990, Mobutu personnally planned and ordered the cold blooded killing of students at the University of Lubumbashi (Shaba/Katanga) (107 dead). During the National Sovereign Conference (1991-1992), the report of the Commission on Assassinations and Human Rights Violations was able to establish beyond reasonable doubt Mobutu's reponsibility in political assassinations perpetrated since Independence on June 30, 1960. Between 1960 and 1961, Patrice LUMUMBA, democratically elected and first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and his closest collaborators were physically eliminated: M. MPOLO (Minister), J. OKITO (Elected representative in the National Assembly), E. NZUZI (General Secretary of the Youth wing of the National Congolese Movement (JMNC), B.MUJANAYI, FINANT, MUZUNGU to mention only a few of the many who were liquidated. >From 1965 to 1980, Mobutu carried on with his murderous practices: -The public hanging of Evariste KIMBA (Prime Minister), J. ANANY (Minister), E. BAMBA and A. MAHAMBA (Minister); -The kidnapping and execution of TSHIMANGA, LUBAYA, MULELE, BENGILA, KIBWE and SALUMU; -Summary execution, following a fake trial (May 1978) of superior military officers and well known high level civilian officials: KALUME, KUDIAKUBANZA, PANU BULE, KALONDA, BENGAME, MBIYE MWENZE, MATANDA, BURIABA, MUEPU, etc. -Massacre of students at Lovanium University on June 4, 1969 (200 dead) -The bombing of civilian populations in southern Shaba wars of 1977 and 1978 (2,000 dead and scores of people burried alive); -The massacre of Lwamwela and Katekelayi (near Mbujimayi) in 1979: 300 dead and scores wounded and missing; -The massacre in 1980 of students at the National Teachers' Training College (IPN, Institut Pedagogique National): unknown number of dead, wounded and missing. To these known crimes of Mobutu's regime, one should add the large number of unreported dead and missing. The resulting institutionalized climate of state terror which followed these crimes has forced large numbers of Zairean into exicle (more than a million to date). 2.2 Economic crimes During his rule, Mobutu has always placed his henchmen in key posts of the national economy. With his protection, these high officials operated with impunity, they used their positions to organize smuggling operations, run an underground economy out of reach of any kind of institutional reporting and/or accounting body. They exported raw materials and embezzled public revenues all for the private benefit of Mobutu and his cronies. During the last years, the following has been noted: -counterfeiting of the national currency which has pushed inflation to 10,000%; -cut-price selling of the largest state entreprises such as GECAMINES (which, under normal circumstances used to account, on average, for 70% of the yearly State revenues); -organization of looting and plundering. The combination of these different systems and practices of abuse and maladministration has led to the complete bankruptcy of the state and the civil service: -roads have been destroyed beyond recognition: the 380 km from Kinshasa to Matadi used to take 5 hours, today they require 5 days. -river and rail communications are in a catastrophic state: from Lubumbashi to Ilebo by train used to take 3 days, today it requires 14 days. -health infrastructure is worse than archaic: in public hospitals, the patients must bring everything, including cotton swabs. -public hygiene has all but disappeared. Illnesses which were either under control or on their way to being eradicated are reappearing on a massive scale: sleeping sickness, leprosy, malaria, sysentery, endemic malnutrition, etc. -Primary and secondary education have been deliberately allowed to fall apart. For the large majority of children, access to education has almost become impossible: twenty years ago, in Kinshasa, 90 % of children were attending school. Today: 20%. School fees are exorbitantly high, a direct consequence of neo-liberal economic policies pushed to extreme levels in this area. Periodi strikes by teachers reduce years of study to nothing. -Unemployment is quasi universal: 95% of the active population of an industrial city like Lubumbashi is unemployed. -generalized insecurity: the entire population is systematically harassed by institutionalized plundering. Unpaid or poorly paid soldiers, police or militia daily extract money or goods from the civilian population. This state of affairs dominated by the extreme pauperization of the Zairean people contrasts with the enormous mineral and agricultural potential of the country: 80% of the known world reserves of cobalt, the world's largest producer of industrial diamond, the sixth largest producer of copper, etc. The great variety of the natural landscape (low flat lands, mountains and high plateaux) and climate (equatorial, tropical, temperate and humid zones) provides very favorable conditions for a diversified production of seasonal or perennial agriculture for export, cash or food crops. It has been known for sometime that the real genesis of the general crisis in Zaire came from the running of the state in gang style with Mobutu at its head. The economic crimes perpetrated by these gangsters would not have been possible if Mobutu had been faced with democratic control by the population, which he has ruthlessly opposed through state terrorism, torture and assassinations. As of today Zaire's external debt, estimated at about US$ 11 billion, amounts approximately to the collective deposits of current Zairean rulers and their families in Western banks (of which, US$ 8 billions are in Mobutu's and his associates accounts). 3. UN and the Zairean crisis The generous hospitality extended by the UN to Mobutu reminds one of the direct and indirect role played by this institution in the miseries of the Zairean people. >From the very first hours of independence, our people did not hesitate to call upon the UN at the time of Belgian aggression, showing thereby the confidence it had in the organization. But this trust was betrayed. The UN acted against the legitimate institutions of the our country and even took part in the physical elimination of the few trained people who were politically committed to the building of an independent Congo. It was this participation which put an end to the democratic beginnings of our country. The accessory silence of the UN in the face of Western Powers' interference in the case of Zaire is characteristically symptomatic of their practices over the years. The US, France and Belgium, singly or jointly launched numerous military interventions to rescue the dictatorial regime whenever its entanglement with the democratic forces threatened to bring it down. Over the years, these same powers have felt no compunction in giving orders to our country in the areas of economic, political and cultural matters. No single crucial political decision can be taken or carried out without their approval. These interventions which have turned Zaire into a true and obedient neo-colony under multinational control were never formally protested or condemned by the UN. Quite the contrary, its civil servants were sent on missions to provide the seal of approval. Another cause of the social catastrophe experienced by the people of Zaire today comes, without a doubt, from the implementation of structural adjustment programmes imposed by the Bretton W^2Thetaoods institutions (International Monetary Fund --IMF-- and the World Bank --WB). On this front, we, the Zairean democrats, take note of the fact that here too, there has never been the least denunciation of these policies' institutions from the UN. And at the same time, its specialized agencies like the UNDP shamelessly carry on their cooperation and collaboration with these institutions toward greater plundering of whatever has been left of our resources. Once the catastrophe was acknowledged, we, the Zairean democrats, did ot see the UN sending its specialized agencies either to help the Zairean people or to alert the international community about the calamities they have been suffering. In Shaba/Katanga, for example, aside from a few international NGOs working in railway stations clogged by the deportees/refugees on their way to Kasai, the Zaireans did not see the WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF and least of all the FAO coming to their rescue. Conclusions The UN, over the years has become a prisonner of its bureaucratic and anti-democratic structures. The holders of veto power are both judges and parties. Given such a logic, is it surprising that criminals like Mobutu become its proteges. A radical change in the functioning of this institution toward peace and justice in the world could not but receive the full support of the Zairean people. The Zairean people therefore urgently demand that the international community provides its assistance in : -arresting criminals who are systematically violating Human Ri^2Thetaghts; -putting an end to the activities of the criminals responsible for the plundering of the few means we still dispose; -preventing certified criminals like Mobutu to parade on the UN podium while their conscience are burdened by highly condemnable atrocities which violate the very statuses under which the UNO was founded; -helping the Zairean people in their struggle to achieve democracy, peace and justice. Signatories contact address: Rue van Meyel, 96 1210-B Brussels Belgium FAX 32-2-420-0722