PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

The Democratic Republic of the Congo rejected any allegation that the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (ADFL) had pursued an official policy of genocide against the Rwandan Hutus, the permanent representative of that country said this afternoon at a Headquarters press confernce.

André M. Kapanga said that the recently released report of the Secretary-General's team investigating allegations of violations of humanitarian law and human rights in his country had not confirmed those allegations against the ADFL. According to its report, the team could neither prove nor disprove most of the allegations it was investigating. [The report of the Investigative Team Charged with Investigating Alleged Serious Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (document S/1998/581) was transmitted by the Secretary-General to the Security Council on Monday.]

While the causes of the human tragedy in the Great Lakes region were many and complex, Mr. Kapanga said, the chief cause had been the criminal acts of the former regimes in the region. The 1994 Rwandan genocide had been a crucial turning point. It was now agreed that the international community had failed to take steps to prevent the genocide. In fact, the international community had, wittingly or unwittingly, taken steps which had prolonged the crisis, expanded it to the Congolese territory, and precipitated the series of events that became the object of the present investigation.

Again refuting the allegation against the ADFL, he said that after liberating the camps in North Kivu, the ADFL had not sought to kill the Hutu refugees in the camps. Rather, its forces had allowed more than 700,000 Hutu refugees to return to Rwanda. Another 230,000 refugees who had fled west after camps in North Kivu fell had been repatriated to Rwanda after the fall of Kisangali. During the months which followed, many more refugees had returned to Rwanda and Burundi through Bukavu.

The ADFL had provided food and medicine to various groups of refugees freed from the "ex-FAR" and Interahamwe paramilitary groups who had used refugees in the camps as magnets to gain food from international humanitarian organizations. There were still thousands of refugees hiding in the forces or small villages throughout the north and south Kivu regions. But there had been no attempt by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to track them down, intimidate them or harm them.

He noted that his Government had requested that the period being reviewed by the team should date back as far as 1993, to examine at least some of the events which determined the environment in which the struggle for liberation from the former regime was forced to unfold. However, he said, the

Democratic Congo Press Conference - 2 - 1 July 1998

investigative team had been responsive only to a very small extent to that request. At least the report did mention the level of intercommunal hatred, the accumulation of grievances and general demoralization fostered by the former dictator. By undermining the solidarity of Zaire's communities, all hope for a peaceful transition to democracy had been destroyed.

Given the persistence of the allegations against it, he said, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was willing to undertake its own investigation of the incidents identified by the Secretary-General's team. Such an investigation would attempt to establish the responsibility of the various protagonists, including the international community, the previous dictatorial regimes, and different paramilitary groups and armed forces. The investigation would span the period from March 1993 to December 1997.

A correspondent asked what body or organization should carry out the investigations. Mr. Kapanga said that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was in the position to carry out the investigation. The Government would need international assistance to reform its judicial system. People now in Rwanda who were responsible for acts of genocide should be tried under the Rwandan legal system. Those now in other countries who had been involved with the genocide should be returned to his country and tried under its legal system.

A correspondent said that some might question whether the Government's investigation could be fair and just. Mr. Kapanga said that the French and Belgian Governments were now conducting investigations into allegations made against them. If those Governments were in a position to investigate their own conduct, so was the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Asked about the current situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said that within a few days the nation's President, Laurent Kabila, would appoint a constituent assembly to review the current condition. By December of this year, that assembly would present a new constitution to the Government, and this in turn would lead to the planned referendum. Six months prior to the elections, the political process would begin, including the forming of political parties. This would then lead to the full democratization of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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