Congo news updates 10/26/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: congo-news@thor.cmp.ilstu.edu Sun Oct 26 21:26:21 1997 After Congo success, Richardson heads for Angola 03:58 a.m. Oct 26, 1997 Eastern By Buchizya Mseteka KINSHASA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. special envoy Bill Richardson headed for Angola on Sunday, a day after clinching a deal allowing U.N. special investigators a free hand in investigating alleged massacres of refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His mission to Angola is twofold: he wants to push that country's stalled peace process forward and deliver a strong message to the Luanda government over its involvement in the conflict in its Congo Republic neighbour. U.S. diplomats said the visit had already run into difficulties, with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos saying he would be unable to meet Richardson, who is also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. ``Dos Santos has sent a message saying he will be unable to meet Ambassador Richardson. He will instead be met by some government ministers and officials,'' a U.S. official told Reuters. ``Our interpretation is that whereas the president of Angola is anxious to discuss Angola's domestic political problems, he appears totally unwilling to be confronted on the issue of the Congo Republic,'' he added. Angola sent 3,500 troops backed by tanks and planes into the Congo Republic earlier this month to help former Marxist ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso oust democratically elected president Pascal Lissouba. Sassou's Cobra militia and its Angolan allies won control of Brazzaville and the oil capital Pointe Noire. The Luanda government backed Sassou after Lissouba and Angola's former UNITA rebels made common cause. Analysts said the move also allowed the Angolans to smash operations of UNITA and separatists in Angola's Cabinda enclave. ``The message from Washington is that Angola has no business in Congo and should get out,'' a senior U.S. diplomat said. Richardson will also be talking to the Angolans on troubled peace accords which ended two decades of civil ware with UNITA and will travel to the bush headquarters of the movement's leader Jonas Savimbi. In Kinshasa, U.N. officials began analysing Richardson's accord with President Laurent Kabila that allows a U.N. team to go ahead with an investigation into alleged massacres of Rwandan Hutu refugees. Most officials said they ``cautiously welcomed'' the deal but were waiting for concrete action from Kabila's government. Richardson and Kabila agreed that the U.N. team would be free to deploy its team in any areas within the Congo and start simultaneous investigations in the east and west of Africa's third largest country. Kabila, supported by regional allies, had earlier said the investigation must start in Rwanda, where Hutu radicals killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, before they moved to then Zaire to escape justice. Congolese officials have argued that civilian refugees from Rwanda were held hostage by the Hutu soldiers and militia responsible for Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. FOCUS-Congo civilians stream back to Brazzaville 01:25 p.m Oct 26, 1997 Eastern By William Wallis BRAZZAVILLE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A growing stream of former residents of the Republic of Congo capital Brazzaville returned to the devastated city on Sunday, a day after the inauguration of civil war victor Denis Sassou Nguesso as president. In Angola's capital Luanda, U.S. special envoy Bill Richardson called for Angolan troops who helped Sassou topple elected president Pascal Lissouba last week to leave and said Angola had promised to do this ``as soon as possible.'' ``We are very concerned about the Angolan troops in Congo Brazzaville and we want to see them withdrawn. We don't see them as lending stability to the region,'' Richardson told reporters. Angolan Foreign Minister Venancio de Moura, he said, had promised a withdrawal ``as soon as possible.'' Sassou, he added, was to attend a Luanda mini-summit with the presidents of Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon on Monday. Hundreds of Brazzaville returnees crossed the Congo River by dugout canoe from neighbouring Kinshasa, capital of the former Zaire, where they took refuge during more than four months of fighting that killed thousands of people. They joined thousands who flocked back from outside the city at the end of last week, bringing life to streets that remained deserted throughout the fighting. But relief workers say the city is far from ready to cope with a mass return, and the future for many is uncertain. ``I have no one to help me to rebuild my home,'' Anne Nangonzo, a widow and an early arrival, told Reuters as she stared at the wreckage of her humble shack, its walls blown away to reveal a bed and a scattering of family photographs. ``I only have my son left and I do not know where he is.'' Sassou, 54, the former French colony's former military ruler, appealed for national reconciliation at his inauguration. ``We reassure the Congolese people from all regions, all tribes, from all political and social groups, that they can go about their business as normal,'' he said. Sassou ruled from 1979 until 1990s democratic change swept parts of Africa after Soviet communism collapsed in Europe. A northerner from a minority tribe, he needs broad support if he is to consolidate his hold over the oil-rich nation with a history of bitter political and ethnic rivalry. Sassou said on Saturday that national forums would be called shortly to decide the length of a transition to fresh elections and he promised a national unity government within days. Aides say one ally of Lissouba, who is in Burkina Faso, and one of fugitive prime minister Bernard Kolelas, who is in Ivory Coast, are ready to join a Sassou government. That and the presence of Pointe Noire mayor Jean-Pierre Thystere Tchicaya at Sassou's inauguration suggest he has some backing from the more populous south and centre. Sassou has effectively scrapped the post of prime minister. ``In the fundamental act (a form of transitional constitution) President Sassou is chief of the executive. That way he will avoid a conflict of control at the top,'' Martin Mberi, a former government minister, told Reuters. Angolan soldiers, who backed Sassou after Lissouba and Angola's former UNITA rebels made common cause, patrol outskirts of Brazzaville where pockets of resistance have been reported. They deployed prominently around town on Saturday during the inauguration but their presence was more discreet on Sunday. Relief workers say this year's conflict displaced an estimated quarter of Congo's population of 2.8 million. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. ================================================================= 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-10.28.97-12:00:14-26442