Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1998

I should like first of

all to carry out the noble duty of adding my voice to

those who have spoken before me from this rostrum in

congratulating Mr. Didier Opertti on his election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third

regular session. I am convinced that with the effective

cooperation of the elected members of his Bureau, he will

spare no effort to ensure the success of our work.

I should also like to take this opportunity to pay

tribute to Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko for the skill with

which he so honourably discharged his weighty

responsibilities as President of the General Assembly at

its fifty-second session.

The fifty-third session of the General Assembly is

taking place at a time when my country, the Democratic

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Republic of the Congo, is the victim of armed aggression

by its neighbours, Rwanda and Uganda, that has been

taking place since 2 August. The seriousness of the actions

of these two invading countries, which are States parties to

the noble ideals of the charters of the United Nations and

of the Organization of African Unity (OUA), obliges me to

dwell at length on this dispute in the hope of helping the

Assembly understand better the drama that is currently

taking place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, my

dear homeland.

In order to enable the Assembly better to understand

this war and all of its consequences, a brief reminder of the

facts is necessary.

On 27 July 1998, the President of the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, Mzee Laurent-Désiré Kabila, after

consultations with his Rwandan and Ugandan counterparts

took the sovereign decision to terminate Rwanda’s military

and technical cooperation and to put an end to the presence

of foreign troops throughout the national territory.

When Rwanda’s troops left Congolese territory, it was

noticed that certain Tutsis of Rwandan origin, called

Banyamulenge, followed suit.

A week later, Congolese towns bordering on

Rwanda — Goma, Bukavu and Uvira — were seized by

armed elements that came from that neighbouring country.

On 6 August, aircraft started shuttling between Goma

and Kitona, in the west of the country, via Kigali, over a

distance of more than 2000 kilometres. After one of the

civilian pilots was killed for refusing to carry out orders,

these aircraft were diverted from Goma airport to transport

troops and matériel the west, under the direction of Mr.

James Kabarehe, the ex-Chief of Staff of the Congo.

At the same time, columns of armoured vehicles and

other military equipment crossed the border from Uganda

under the pretext of defending Ugandan interests in the

Congo.

Despite the protests of the Congolese Government,

which demanded their immediate withdrawal, Ugandan

troops surrounded the town of Bunia in the eastern part of

the country on 13 August 1998.

On the same day, the Inga hydroelectric dam was

occupied by the Rwandan-Ugandan coalition forces. They

sabotaged the installations in order to deprive the capital,

Kinshasa, of electricity and drinking water.

On 23 August 1998, Ugandan troops attacked

Kisangani, in the north-eastern part of the country, and

later occupied it.

These facts, and these acts of violence — confirmed

by independent sources — provide ample proof of the

aggressive involvement of Kigali and Kampala in the

huge plot to Balkanize the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, all in defiance of international law and the

principle of the inviolability of borders inherited from the

colonial period, pursuant to the Charter of the

Organization of African Unity.

Indeed, one of the two aggressor countries, Uganda,

made no bones about admitting publicly that its troops

occupied certain positions in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo.

As can be seen, what some media sources wrongly

described as a rebellion from the east was simply a

shameful plot to destabilize my country politically and

economically, and the covetous intentions of Rwanda and

Uganda regarding my country’s many natural resources

were barely concealed.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is once again

paying a high price for this war imposed on it from the

outside. Among the countless examples are the massacres

of thousands of innocent Congolese, including members

of religious orders, women, children and elderly people in

the east and in the west. These sordid crimes remind us

of the killing of Hutu refugees by elements of the same

Rwandan Patriotic Army. Further examples include the

massive deportations from Kivu towards Rwanda of

people whose fate remains unknown; the summary

executions of prisoners of war; the dismantling, sabotage

and destruction of the industrial, shipping and economic

infrastructure of the country, damage which, to date, has

been estimated at about $3 billion for Matadi alone; the

more than three-week cut in the provision of electric

power and water to the capital, Kinshasa, a city of more

than 6 million people, which was a real humanitarian

tragedy, as is illustrated by the fact that large stocks of

fresh foodstuffs were declared unfit for consumption;

reports of countless deaths in the hospitals because

doctors were unable to work in the conditions required by

their noble profession; and the postponement, sine die, of

the polio vaccination campaign mandated by the World

Health Organization, with untold consequences on the

lives of our children, which gravely compromises the

future of our country.

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Despite the situation of aggression, the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, which is a peace-loving nation that

respects international conventions reaffirms its commitment

to the principles of the Charter and its unshakeable faith in

the promotion of a culture of peace in the Great Lakes

region.

The first manifestation of this ideal was demonstrated

by the Government when it appealed to the Security

Council and the Secretary-General to obtain the immediate

and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the international

community did not match the gravity of the situation in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even one of the most

important bodies in the United Nations system — the

Security Council — after much procrastination, merely

issued a few ambiguous statements calling for a ceasefire

and the withdrawal of foreign troops without, unfortunately,

specifying them by name. On the other hand, in similar

cases — in Kosovo, in Bosnia and in Kuwait — the

Security Council dealt with the situation promptly and

practically to restore peace. Why was there this silence

from the international community, particularly from

Security Council? The Council’s policy of double standards

on this issue could set an unfortunate precedent that could

seriously undermine the credibility of the United Nations

and wipe out the reform efforts under way.

Given this situation that does no credit to our

community, the Government of the Democratic Republic of

the Congo, mindful of its heavy responsibilities to

guarantee the territorial integrity of the country, was

obliged to resort to an armed response to put an end to the

invasion. Pursuant to Article 51 of the Charter, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo appealed to its allies to

deal with Ugandan-Rwandan aggression.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank member

countries of the Southern African Development Community

(SADC), in particular, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe,

which responded to our appeal. I would also like to pay

tribute to the valiant Congolese people, who undertook to

defend their homeland when it was under attack. I am also

grateful to Belgium, which had the courage to publicly

condemn a country in the Great Lakes region that was

involved in this act of aggression, and to Ms. Colette

Braeckman, who had the courage to denounce the plot

against my country, as well as Chad, Gabon and many

other African countries that publicly demonstrated their

support and denounced this aggression.

The Assembly will agree with me that no honourable

nation can allow its sovereignty and territorial integrity to

be called into question. The Congolese people will never

accept subjugation, oppression or the imposition of

perverse values such as a cultural genocide, which is so

blithely tolerated by certain States.

The International Criminal Court whose Statute was

signed recently in Rome should get down to work and

immediately prosecute those who seek the destruction of

human beings but who cover up their actions by making

innocent people take the blame.

The failure of the various appeals for a ceasefire

cannot be blamed on the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. It is rather the result of the obstinacy, bad faith

and cynicism of Rwanda and Uganda during the

negotiations held in Victoria Falls and in Addis Ababa.

Since the first summit, held at Victoria Falls last

August, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has

indicated that implementation of the ceasefire was

contingent on the immediate, unconditional withdrawal

from our national territory of foreign troops not invited by

the Government of the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. I believe that the General Assembly and the

Security Council are obligated properly to implement the

relevant provisions of the Charter, in particular those of

Chapter VII, which envision action by the world

Organization with respect to threats to the peace, breaches

of the peace, and acts of aggression.

Despite the situation in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo, our Government continues to abide by the

timetable leading to the democratization of our political

life. In that connection, I wish to inform the Assembly

that on 22 September 1998 our head of State signed Law

122, relating to the organization and exercise of power in

my country. The new law grants the Constitutional

Commission prerogatives allocated to the Constituent

Assembly, finalizing the draft constitution to be the

subject of a referendum that will be organized early in

1999.

I reassure the international community that my

country has noble aspirations and to date has granted no

material or military support whatsoever to the former

Rwandese Armed Forces, to the Interahamwe extremists,

or much less to the Front pour la défense de la

démocratie, contrary to the campaign of slander and

incitement waged by aggressors wishing to absolve

26

themselves of the massacre of more than a thousand people

in and around Kasika.

I cannot conclude without speaking of the rebuilding

of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular and

of the need for socio-economic development in Africa in

general; the continent continues to face crises of all kinds

and is trying in vain to meet the challenge of recovery. In

this context, the role of the United Nations should not be

limited to accompanying Africa in implementing measures

that have been or will be adopted. Through capacity-

building, the United Nations system must translate into

fact the organic partnership between itself and the

Organization of African Unity.

In the case of my country, the war imposed upon it

by its neighbours has destroyed what remained of its

economic fabric, which had long suffered from the

economic mismanagement of the former dictatorship. That

is why I appeal urgently to the United Nations and more

specifically to the “Friends of the Congo” — which at the

Brussels conference decided to provide the assistance

needed to rebuild the Democratic Republic of the Congo

— to contribute to the trust fund established for that

purpose, with a view to helping in the economic recovery

and the rebuilding of my country.

I wish in conclusion to say that my country would

appreciate enormously any action that the United Nations

might consider to prevail upon the Rwandese Republic to

sign the non-aggression pact among the members of the

Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in

Central Africa, and to establish democracy in Rwanda and

Uganda. For all my country’s problems are repercussions

of the policy of non-democratization in Rwanda and in

Uganda. The international community would thus be

performing a useful task.