Congo News updates 9/28/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: congo-news@thor.cmp.ilstu.edu Sun Sep 28 23:53:25 1997 Reuters Africa Highlights 01:07 p.m Sep 28, 1997 Eastern KINSHASA - Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have arrested a leading opposition member and one-time interior minister in the former Zaire, political allies said. Celestin Shabani, a close ally of popular opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, was stopped in his car and arrested by around six soldiers on the busy Lumumba Avenue on Saturday afternoon, they added. NAIROBI - Hundreds of angry residents rioted in Garissa, centre of Kenya's North-Eastern Province, in a protest against a wave of bandit attacks in which 17 police and security officers have died in the past week, Kenya television reported. LAGOS - Politically troubled Nigeria marks 37 years of independence from Britain this week with attention focused on the health of its military strongman, despite official denials of unconfirmed reports that he is critically ill. KAMPALA - Five Ugandan soldiers will face a court martial for failing to confront rebels who attacked Kasese town last week, killing 10 civilians, the government-owned Sunday Vision newspaper reported. NAIROBI - Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu said the bulk of his army had withdrawn from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo where it helped to topple late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Leading Congo opposition member arrested 12:05 p.m. Sep 28, 1997 Eastern By William Wallis KINSHASA, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have arrested a leading opposition member and one-time interior minister in the former Zaire, political allies said on Sunday. Celestin Shabani, a close ally of popular opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, was stopped in his car and arrested by around six soldiers on the busy Lumumba Avenue on Saturday afternoon, they added. Police said Shabani was taken in for questioning. One of Shabani's colleagues suggested that the government of President Laurent Kabila, which is at odds with the United Nations over a blocked massacre probe, might be poised to crack down harder on supporters of the main political opposition. ``We have had no news of him (Shabani) and we do not know where he has been taken,'' Mukendi Wa Mulumba, a close adviser of Tshisekedi and leading member of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress Party (UDPS), told Reuters. ``We fear it's the beginning of a wave of arrests of allies of Tshisekedi,'' he added. Shabani served as interior minister five years ago when Tshisekedi was elected prime minister by a National Sovereign Conference held under late ousted dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. For years Mobutu's staunchest civilian opponent, Tshisekedi has been fiercely critical of Kabila who took power after a seven-month military campaign that toppled Mobutu in May. Kabila's chief inspector of police, Raus Chalwe, said Shabani had been taken in for questioning but did not disclose his whereabouts. ``He is with the police for reasons of inquiry. It is a preventive detention,'' he told Reuters, adding details would become available in the next couple of days. Shabani joins at least 15 other UDPS detainees. A leading local human rights group, AZADHO, called on Saturday for an independent inquiry into the dissappearance 10 days ago of two other UDPS detainees from their cells in a Kinshasa intelligence bureau. The two men were arrested at a banned UDPS meeting on August 15. ``They have not been allowed visits from doctors and we are very concerned for their health,'' Mukendi said. Thirteen others arrested at the same meeting are also being held. Two of an original 19 detainees were released three weeks ago when they reached a state of near coma, he added. Kabila banned all political activity shortly after taking power on May 17 and said recently the ban would remain effective until the end of a two year transition period in 1999. Troops have frequently opened fire to disperse protesters defying the ban. Tshisekedi has criticised what he calls the totalitarian nature of Kabila's administration and has called for the withdrawal from Congolese soil of Rwandan troops who backed Kabila. Tshisekedi was briefly detained in June. In a letter addressed to the European Union last week, he called for international help to pressure the government into creating a state of law. ``Instead of helping the country back on the rails, the dictatorship he (Kabila) has installed has ignited areas of tension in Congo-Kinshasa, Central Africa and the Great Lakes,'' the letter said. ``If democratic change does not emerge quickly, a general implosion is to be feared in the near future.'' Rwanda president says forces return from Congo 06:47 a.m. Sep 28, 1997 Eastern By Buchizya Mseteka NAIROBI, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu said on Sunday the bulk of his army had withdrawn from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo where it helped to topple late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Bizimungu told Reuters in a telephone interview from the Rwandan capital Kigali that only a few defence experts from his tiny central African nation had remained behind to train the army of Congolese President Laurent Kabila. ``We have pulled the bulk of our forces back home. While in the Congo, we technically assisted the Congolese to liberate themselves,'' said Bizimungu. ``Only a few of our military people remain in the Congo as advisors, very few of them.'' Bizimungu declined to give figures of troops involved in Kabila's seven-month military campaign to topple Mobutu. Rwanda was the backbone of an international and regional alliance against Mobutu, who died in Rabat early this month. Regional military sources say that Uganda, Angola, Eritrea and Zambia also actively took part in the war against Mobutu. Other countries such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United States provided Kabila diplomatic and political muscle. Kabila's rebellion, which began in October last year and ended on May 17 when his forces took Kinshasa, radically altered the military balance to the east of the former Zaire. Rwandan Vice-President and Defence Minister Major-General Paul Kagame acknowledged in July that Rwanda threw its weight behind Kabila's uprising against Mobutu, confirming numerous reports that Rwandan troops were a cornerstone of the revolt. But Rwandan and Congolese officials remain reticent about the military ties between the two states. Kagame had said Rwanda provided training and arms for the rebel forces in the then Zaire even before the push to overthrow Mobutu began in October. Bizimungu said his army was now engaged in operations to stamp out pockets of insecurity in some parts of his country, caused by Hutu refugees returning from the Congo. More than a million Rwanda Hutus streamed into the former Zaire in 1994, fearing reprisals for the genocide of minority Tutsis by militant Hutus. Some 600,000 Hutus returned to Rwanda late last year after their camps were shelled by Kabila's forces. The United Nations says others are unaccounted for, presumed dead or still wondering across Congo's vast jungle. Bizimungu said some of the refugees were involved in organised acts of violence against the army and Tutsi civilians. ``What is happening in some parts of the country is deliberate and organised acts of violence against the state, civilians and the military by some of the returning refugees,'' said Bizimungu. But Bizimungu, himself a Hutu, said the insurgency had been contained by his army. ``We have denied them the capacity and capability of destabilising Rwanda. We are in control,'' he added. Bizimungu said the insecurity revolved around the towns of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi in northwest Rwanda. ``The insecurity is localised in the northwest. The rest of the country is secure and completely safe,'' Bizimungu said. Hutus, Mai Mai surrender in Kabila's east Congo 09:47 a.m. Sep 27, 1997 Eastern By William Wallis KINSHASA, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Up to 5,000 ``Mai Mai'' warriors and 800 Hutu fighters have given themselves up to the authorities in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Interior Minister said on Saturday. Mwenze Kongolo said the Mai Mai -- responsible along with Hutu militia from neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi for the latest insurgency in the eastern Kivu provinces -- began surrendering three weeks ago and want to be integrated into Congo's army. ``They handed themselves over voluntarily. They are tired of life in the bush and they want to join the army,'' Mwenze, who has just returned from a four-day trip to the east, told a news conference in Kinshasa. ``The problem is some of them are very young, nine or 10 years old. We will train those who are old enough and put them in the army,'' he said. A further 800 Interahamwe Hutu militia and Hutu soldiers from the former Rwandan army have also surrendered, he said. ``There is a possibility we can take them somewhere far from the frontier (with Rwanda) where they can work in the fields and on the roads,'' he said, adding Congo was negotiating with the Rwandan government on the issue. Journalists from the international and national press were invited by the minister on an official visit to camps outside Goma next week to see the rebels who had surrendered. The government denies it has a security problem in eastern Congo and has accused the media of sensationalising recent insurgencies in the area. Aid workers and local human rights groups reported hundreds of villages destroyed and over 1,000 civilians killed in fighting in the Masisi and Rutshuru areas of North Kivu from July to early September. The fighting pits President Laurent Kabila's army and Tutsi allies from the Rwandan army against disaffected local ethnic groups plus elements from the former Hutu-dominated Rwandan army who are opposed to Tutsi dominance in the region. However, the conflict has subsided in the past two weeks, and Western security sources in the region say this coincides with the arrival of large numbers of troops from a newly-created police force who have succeeded in curbing incidents of looting and shooting in the provincial capital, Goma. The sources also report that large numbers of Rwandan Tutsi soldiers deployed across the former Zaire have been returning home to Rwanda via Goma. Rwanda backed Kabila during his seven-month campaign to topple the late Mobutu Sese Seko, but the presence of Rwandan troops in his army has provoked protests about what local people and opposition groups term an ``army of occupation.'' Interior Minister Mwenze also said on Saturday that the government was looking into the activities of the dozens of international non-governmental organisations in the Kivu area. He said those that no longer had a clear function following the massive return home last year of over 500,000 Rwandan Hutus from refugee camps outside Goma and Bukavu would be asked to leave after the 10-day inquiry. World Bank to send team to Kabila's Congo 07:09 p.m Sep 26, 1997 Eastern WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuter) - The World Bank will send a delegation to the Democratic Republic of Congo next week to discuss ways of reviving its ruined economy, officials said on Friday. ``We want to get the country back on its feet again,'' said Eric Chinje, the World Bank's Africa spokesman. ``There are lots of obstacles. The point is to identify these and see where we go from here.'' Chinje said the mission to Kinshasa would have a broad agenda, but would focus mainly on economic issues, including the country's infrastructure needs, rather than human rights. On Thursday, the government laid out plans for a nationwide conference on rebuilding the former Zaire after years of mismanagement under ousted dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu, overthrown in May in a military campaign by current President Laurent Kabila, died this month in exile. He left the country with foreign debts estimated at $14 billion. The World Bank said its mission would help prepare for formal meetings between international donors and the Kinshasa government. These could be held as early as late October, officials said. International donors seeking to help revive the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo held their first meeting in Paris this month. At that meeting, participants stressed that human rights and democracy would be conditions for aid. Tensions flared this week when the European Union said Kinshasa risked losing aid if it did not cooperate with a U.N. probe of alleged massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees. A U.N. team that requested permission to travel to the town of Mbandaka in the west of the country was refused. The World Bank closed its Kinshasa office in 1993, followed by the International Monetary Fund, when Zaire's debt payment arrears hit $150 million. Kabila's government estimates it needs $2.5 billion for a three-year road program, for which it expects European Union aid. Soldiers given hard labour for Kinshasa shootings 07:12 p.m Sep 26, 1997 Eastern KINSHASA, Sept 26 (Reuter) - Twenty-four soldiers were sentenced at a military tribunal in Kinshasa on Friday to prison terms of between 10 and 15 years with hard labour for their involvement in a shooting spree. The soldiers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sentenced for shootings at a Kinshasa army camp last weekend, lay down in the court room after the verdict was announced and a small group of armed soldiers was unable to move them. After an hour-long standoff, troop reinforcements were sent in and an officer persuaded them to leave. ``I promised them I would take their complaints to the highest authority, the president, for exceptional clemency,'' a commander of the military judicial detachment told Reuters. A further 21 soldiers were acquitted by the tribunal. President Laurent Kabila set up the army tribunal last month to deal with escalating incidents of shooting and indiscipline in his fledgling national army, which have begun to undermine the credibility of his government. Kabila seized power last May after toppling late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko following a seven-month military campaign. Many of his troops are inexperienced teenagers recruited during his rebel army's march across the former Zaire. Congo denies impeding U.N. probe into massacre 04:43 a.m. Sep 25, 1997 Eastern By Alexander Smith HONG KONG, Sept 25 (Reuter) - A United Nations team investigating alleged massacres in the former Zaire has not been prevented from doing its work, Democratic Republic of Congo's Finance Minister Mwana Nanga Mawampanga said on Thursday. Mawampanga told Reuters he was confident a stand-off with the U.N. would soon be resolved. He said it was time to get the country back on its feet, denying it had reached crisis point. Earlier this week the European Union said the Kinshasa authorities risked losing vital aid if they did not cooperate with the probe. The U.N. team had requested permission to travel to Mbandaka in the west of the country, but was refused. ``We have never blocked the investigation. They have not been kept in Kinshasa. It will be resolved very soon, I am confident,'' said Mawampanga, who was in Hong Kong to meet World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials. ``The problem is with the U.N. itself. We had some agreements with them and they have violated most of those agreements.'' He denied there had been any massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees. He blamed French opposition to Laurent Kabila's government, which overthrew Zaire's veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May, for the fact that EU aid had not been forthcoming. ``France is a big player in the EU and they are not too happy that their friends were kicked out. I don't think they will come and embrace us warmly or beat the drum for us. They will try to give us a hard time in the hope we will fade away.'' This would never happen because the movement which overthrew Mobutu, who died earlier this month in exile in Morocco, had genuine grass-root support and meant business. ``Our goal was to liberate our country and now we want to rebuild it.'' Mawampanga said there was room for all in rebuilding a country which had been devastated by years of neglect, particularly to its infrastructure. This would include the private sector as well as bilateral and multilateral donors. He said the government had spoken to U.S. construction giant Bechtel Corp but had not appointed it to draw up plans to rebuild the country. The country had huge potential, with enormous natural resources and scope for good returns. Mawampanga said private-sector investment would come whether the government reached an agreement with the IMF and World Bank or not, and some companies had already started looking. He said the meetings with the IMF and World Bank had yielded a better understanding of how to jump-start the Congo economy. Both the multilateral organisations would be sending teams to Kinshasa, with the World Bank due next week. A donors' meeting would follow late in October, either in Kinshasa or Brussels. There had been some doubts and suspicions on both sides after the eight-month rebel war against Mobutu's troops, but the meeting had given them a chance to explain their positions. ``The private sector should not be listening to what the politicians are saying, they should come and talk to us and make some investments. We are confident the Congo will soon take off and people will be surprised.'' The main priorities included the road network, which had suffered from 30 years of neglect and had not been expanded under Mobutu, the rail system, Congo's manganese resources, diamond mining, agriculture and the power network. ``As far as security is concerned, there is nothing for them (the private sector) to worry about. Our young army is really firmly in control and we are a government that is committed to implementing a free market economy,'' he said. The government would be doing everything in its power to hold elections but resources were needed to give everyone the opportunity to vote and this required outside help. Mawampanga said there had been talks with lawyers about getting back some of the billions of dollars Mobutu is alleged to have hoarded in personal bank accounts outside Zaire. ``As the finance minister of a poor country, I cannot wait for Mobutu's cheques come. I've got teachers, medical doctors and civil servants to pay. I have to keep working as if that money doesn't exist. If it comes, fine. If it doesn't we will have to wait,'' he said. Kinshasa asks Portugal to freeze Mobutu assets 05:06 p.m Sep 25, 1997 Eastern LISBON, Sept 25 (Reuter) - Authorities in former Zaire have asked Lisbon to freeze any ill-gotten assets of late Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Portugal, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday. ``The Justice Ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) sent a letter to our attorney general's office last week asking it to look into freezing any assets in Portugal of Mobutu and his entourage,'' Ana Zacarias told Reuters. ``The request will be evaluated and a decision will be taken in due course,'' she said. The government of Laurent Kabila in Kinshasa, which ousted Mobutu in May, has been on the trail of the fortune Mobutu reputedly squirrelled away abroad in bank accounts and real estate. Mobutu died of prostate cancer in Morocco earlier this month. Mobutu was known to own property in Portugal, including a villa in the southern Algarve region where he spent some holidays. Switzerland has frozen Mobutu assets, including a 30-room, $5.5 million house near Lausanne. But a search of Swiss banks turned up only a few million dollars. Congo soldier condemned to death at summary trial 02:30 p.m Sep 25, 1997 Eastern By William Wallis KINSHASA, Sept 25 (Reuter) - A soldier shot and killed a 17-year-old student outside a school in Kinshasa on Thursday and was later sentenced to death on the spot by a military tribunal. Witnesses who testified in front of the impromptu tribunal set up in a steamy carpentry workshop at the school shortly after the shooting, said the soldier had fired several times to disperse a noisy group of students. The students, who had been waiting for classes to begin were milling around outside the nearby house of Health Minister Jean-Baptiste Sondji. The accused soldier, a guard at the minister's house, said he had intervened to disperse them and to stop them taunting him. Shako Omanga was killed with a bullet to the back of the head. Two fellow students from the technical college were wounded, eyewitnesses said. ``The court finds by a majority vote the accused Konyongo Kisasa guilty of murder and by consequence condemns him to the death penalty,'' the president of the military tribunal, Mukuntu Kiyani said in a summary. Hundreds of fellow students, residents of the densely populated Ngaliema district as well as dozens of crack troops attended the trial, the first of its kind since President Laurent Kabila set up a military tribunal last month. The speedy verdict defused rapidly growing tension in the neighbourhood following the shooting. The five-man military court, including senior commanders from the police and military, also ordered the family of the accused to pay $60,000 in equivalent local ``Zaire'' currency to the family of the dead student. Soldiers present said only a last-minute order from Kabila prevented Konyongo from being executed publicly and at once at the site of the earlier killing. He was instead taken off to Ndolo military prison where the court president said he would be executed later on Thursday. The van taking him was followed by a truck carrying a crudely made wooden coffin which had been brought to the scene earlier. Defence lawyers who were rushed in for the trial pleaded that Konyongo, 21, was a valiant combatant who had fought his way in Kabila's army across half of the former Zaire to liberate the country from veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Konyongo told the court he had often been taunted by passing students and had not intended to kill when he opened fire. Shooting incidents involving Kabila's army -- made up in part of inexperienced teenage soldiers recruited during his seven-month campaign that toppled Mobutu in May -- are reported frequently and have begun to seriously undermine the credibility of Congo's new government. Following two mass shooting sprees at military camps in the capital last weekend, 50 soldiers have been on trial since Monday. Their cases were also due to be deliberated on Thursday, according to the president of the tribunal. ``We are determined to end all these cases of harassment and indiscipline by the army,'' a senior police officer told Reuters. In August Kabila ordered troops without special passes to return to barracks. However, heavily armed teenage soldiers continue to wander through Kinshasa, fuelling feeling among residents that the former rebel army is still on a war-footing. No disciplinary action was taken when a student was shot dead by troops straying on a Kinshasa University campus last month. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-09.30.97-00:48:30-3551