PRESS CONFERENCE BY DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

The United Nations and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) should seek an immediate withdrawal of both Rwandan and Ugandan troops from the Congolese territory, the Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations, Andre M. Kapanga, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

He said that the involvement of Rwanda and Uganda in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a violation of the Charters of both the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which recognized the non-violability of borders and the political independence of all States. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had absolutely no intention to start a war against any country; its objective was to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. If its aggressors did not pull their troops out of its territory, however, it would use every means possible to put an end to that aggression.

When the Alliance of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (ADFL) assumed power in 1997, it inherited a very dramatic situation that included bankruptcy and generalized corruption, he said. Moreover, an army "fighting against peace" had orchestrated general insecurity and public terror. A crumbling school system, recurrent epidemics and higher infant mortality rates were further evidence of the deteriorating standard of living. Those facts, coupled with the influx of Rwandan refugees into the eastern part of country, had exacerbated the security problem at the Rwandan and Congolese borders. It was in that context that the Alliance was created, he said. Its mission had been to put an end to the longtime dictatorship of Mobuto Sese Seko, which was considered to be the main cause of the impoverishment. Given its limited resources, the ADFL welcomed military and logistic assistance by friendly countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. It was understood that cooperation with the "ADFL's war" would put an end to the border insecurity facing those two countries. He said that 15 months after the war, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo decided to put an end to the Rwandan military presence in its armed forces, realizing the tremendous strides it had made in restoring order and security. The decision to end the Rwandan military presence triggered the armed conflict by Rwanda against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As soon as the repatriation of the Rwandan soldiers was over, the Congo was the victim of armed aggression by Rwanda and its allies, he said. Many columns of Rwandan army trucks filled with well-armed Rwandan soldiers violated Congolese borders in order to take the towns of Bukavu and Goma on 2

and 3 August. While those events were taking place in the eastern part of the country, a group of Rwandan soldiers, who had avoided repatriation, attacked the Tshiatshi and Kokolo military camps in Kinshasa.

On that same night, he said another group of Rwandan soldiers, waiting to be sent home, opened fire on the Kisangani garrison. Three Boeing aircraft belonging to Congolese private companies were commandeered on 4 August in Goma by a Rwandan subject who had served as Chief of Staff of the Congolese Armed Forces until the end of July. The aircraft transported some 800 Rwandan soldiers to the Kitona military base in the western part of the Congo, with the objective of rallying the support of the Congolese soldiers being trained at the military base, and taking the port of Matadi, vital to the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. The mission also sought to seize the hydroelectric dam in Inga, which served Kinshasa and the mineral factories of Katanga province and other African countries.

On 9 August, two armed columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks full of soldiers were on their way to the Congolese town of Bunia from Uganda, he went on.

Clearly, the aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the work of the coalition between Rwanda and Uganda, he said. What some people were attempting to represent as a "Banyamulenge insurrection" was really "an attempt to mask Kagame and Museveni's destabilizing enterprise", whose expansionist ideas could hardly be hidden. The Banyamulenge population was a Congolese ethnic group of some 50,000 people that had neither the human resources nor the financial means to start a rebellion that could engulf the entire Congolese territory.

He said that his Government would assume its responsibility to fully protect all foreigners, including Rwandans and Ugandans, who had decided to live on its soil. The rounding up of people that had been occurring in some cities was only intended to neutralize a network of complicity created by the aggressors. President Laurent Kabila and his Government had expressed their determination to lead the country to a democratic system. His wish was to see a quick end to the conflict and to avoid any disturbance of the democratic process that was presently under way.

The Congolese Government expected the United Nations and the OAU to try to open an inquiry into the present aggression against the Congo in an objective and independent manner, he said. Its expectation also included the condemnation of Rwanda and Uganda in conformity with the United Nations and OAU Charters, and the request for the withdrawal of the Rwandan and Ugandan troops from its territory.

Asked why he thought that the Governments of Uganda and Rwanda would want to overthrow the Congolese Government, he said perhaps it had to do with the position of his Government to allow the other resistance movements to

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attack the Rwandan and Ugandan Governments. His Government had invited those Governments to attend a conference on peace and solidarity in May, but they had not attended. Meanwhile, the conference produced a document which stressed the peaceful resolution to regional conflicts, and had invited those two Governments, once again, to discuss options in that regard. Those developments were "the trigger point" upon which the relationships between those countries had gone sour. Rwanda's discontent about the Congo's request for the departure of its soldiers had also sparked the attack. Nevertheless, the Congolese Government would defend its territorial integrity and "take care of the aggression".

Another correspondent noted the statements from Kinshasa that the conflict was "a people's war" that would not limit Congolese troops from entering Rwanda. He asked at what point that "bridge may be crossed". Mr. Kapanga said his Government's objective was to defend its territorial integrity. It had no expansionist objectives, but it would "take back what has been taken away" by the Rwandan army". "And, we will do that, absolutely", he added.

To a follow-up question concerning the "inescapable irony" that the rebellious movement was in many ways a carbon copy of the movement that put President Kabila in power, he paraphrased an African saying, as follows: a piece of land would burn easily the first time, but it was not possible to come back tomorrow and light it again. The events of 1996 and 1997 would not be repeated. In 1996, the ADFL had the support of the Congolese people from Goma all the way to Kinshasa, and it was evident that they were fully behind the Government now, he went on. That support explained why the Rwandan army rebels in the western part of the Congo were in disarray. Indeed, they had spread into small pockets, and were being hunted. Many of them had tried to cross into the Congo, but they were unsuccessful. There would not be a repeat of 1996 and 1997. This time, the Congolese people were behind the Government, and fighting for the survival of their country as well as for their pride.

Replying to a series of questions regarding the Congo's request for help from the United Nations and the international community in the light of the "deaf ear" it turned when it was asked to develop its own political system, to cooperate with human rights workers, and so forth, he said that it was his Government's prerogative, as a Member State, to ask the United Nations to seek the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan troops from its territory and to put an end to the aggression.

When the present Government took power, his country was in total disarray, with no institutions and a crumbled infrastructure, he said. It was impossible to organize elections without the existence of roads, a census, or any of the necessary institutions. The Congolese leaders, in the very beginning, had asked to be allowed to build a basic infrastructure before proceeding to organize elections. They had sought only two years to put in

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place a framework for elections that required the establishment of a constitutional commission to draft a constitution and of a legislative committee to review it. At the same time, the Government had started to create programmes to move the country forward economically.

For example, the prior inflation rate of 4,000 per cent per year had been reduced to less than 10 per cent, he said. Local currency, previously fluctuating daily, had been replaced by a new currency that was now stable. Moreover, the Government was working "from scratch" to reform the school system and governmental institutions. With the help of donor countries, those processes would have progressed further, but the donors were focusing only on the presumed massacres of refugees.

On the subject of the massacres, his Government had stated its readiness to cooperate with the United Nations, he said. However, events had not led to a good conclusion of that mission. His Government was also "ready and willing" to carry out its own investigation, as the Security Council had requested. In that connection, it had asked the international community to help it reform the judicial system. Everything was going according to plan, and if the war was over shortly, the Government would be in a position to continue along that path.

To a follow up comment that the Ambassador's remarks resembled those of Mr. Mobutu who had asked for more time, Mr. Kapanga said that his Government's two-year request for holding elections had not passed, yet everyone was sceptical. Indeed, pledges were being carried out. When Mr. Mobutu had sought the support of the United Nations, it was without the backing of the people, which would explain his demise. They were fully behind their Government in the current crisis, however, and it was with that confidence and trust that he sought help from the United Nations.

The investigation into the massacres would be done, and in a "very fair manner" by the Congolese authorities, he said when asked how his Government would respond to the request by the Security Council. The results of the investigation would be handed over to the Secretary-General and to the Security Council. If any Congolese were found to have taken part in any massacres, they would be judged according to the Congolese system of justice. He reiterated his Government's request for help in rebuilding that system to enable it to carry out that plan.

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