Date: Thu, 7 Nov 96 05:29:47 UT
From: "Ang " <uls-AT-msn.com>
Subject: RE: M-G: Rwanda/Zaire


Can anybody decode the following?  What is going 
on?  An insurgency in Zaire (certainly desirable)
that most countries want to persuade its dictator
to suppress through an outside "peacekeeping" 
force so the quashing of the Zairean rebellion 
appears neutral, with the cover of going in to create 
"safe corridors" - for the forcing of people fearing death 
back to Rwanda?  Who is this rebel group, AFDL? that
declares a cease fire when they're reportedly well
armed and meeting little resistance?

		Ang
                              United Nations

        Department of Humanitarian Affairs 
      Integrated Regional Information Network 
   Nairobi Tel: +254 2 441125 | Fax: +254 2 448816 
  For more information, e-mail: irin-AT-dha.unon.org 

Zaire

Emergency Update No. 10 on Eastern Zaire (11/6)

UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs - November 6, 
1996 
Nairobi - European Union Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, 
Aldo Ajello, said today that three regional foreign ministers 
and a representative from the Organisation of African Unity 
will go to Kinshasa "as soon as possible" to present the 
Zairean government with the decisions of yesterday's regional 
summit. 
He said they would leave tomorrow (Thursday) at the latest. 
Diplomatic efforts concentrate on securing Zaire's
agreement to the resolutions, which include calls for neutral 
military intervention, the establishment of humanitarian corridors 
and temporary sanctuaries, and an immediate ceasefire. 
Neither the Zairean government or the rebel Alliance of 
Democratic Forces (ADFL) were present at the heads of state 
meeting. The ADFL declared a unilateral three week ceasefire 
on Monday. 
The regional ministers will be trying to get Zaire to agree on a 
ceasefire and the need for international intervention. On 
Tuesday evening, Zaire's Information Minister and government 
spokesman, Boguo Makeli, denied there was rebellion on Zaire 
territory, saying that Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda were the 
aggressors. The Zairean government has acknowledged that it 
no longer controls Bukavu and Goma, but has not
acknowledged the civil war. It has said it will not attend any 
regional meetings about the eastern Zaire crisis until the 
"aggressors" (referring to the alleged presence of Rwandan 
troops) are off Zairean territory. 
According to a BBC report, a government spokesman in 
Kinshasa today said that Zaire would not take a position on 
military intervention until it was fully aware of the proposals 
made by the Nairobi summit. The spokesman said that Hutu 
refugees should return to their country of origin and territory 
should be restored to Zaire (implying foreign rather than 
domestic involvement). On the humanitarian aspect, the 
spokesman said Zaire was no longer prepared to accept 
assistance for the refugees on its own side of the border, and 
that aid should now be provided within Rwanda and Burundi 
and that refugees could pass through the proposed
corridors out of Zaire. 
Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda said today
(Wednesday) that it was not necessary to wait for the approval 
of Zaire to go ahead with a proposed international force. He said 
it was up to the United Nations to call on Zaire to abide by the 
resolutions of yesterday's regional heads of  states summit, and 
said the United Nations had the right to send in a force "with or 
without the agreement of the country concerned". Rwanda insists 
on regarding the eastern Zairean conflict as an "internal Zairean
crisis". In an interview on the BBC, Claude Dusaidi, advisor to 
the Rwandan govern ment, welcomed the Nairobi proposals, 
particularly the decision to assist separation of intimidators 
>from the bona fide refugees.
On the issue of corridors, he acknowledged the need to use them 
to initially feed the refugees, but said the aim should be to repatriate 
as soon as possible. He said an intervention force must be neutral. 

Both Rwanda and Zaire seem to have accepted - to some extent - 
the idea of humanitarian corridors. 
South African deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said today 
that the South African government has temporarily suspended 
the sale of arms to Rwanda. President Mandela was quoted 
yesterday - after a personal appeal from Kenyan President 
Moi to suspend an 18 million arms deal - that he would suspend
arms sales to Rwanda if requested by regional leaders. 
International responses to the regional summit have focused 
on the call for military intervention. US Special Envoy Howard 
Wolpe called the notion of an international presence "helpful", 
but said the type of force envisaged needed to be discussed. 
British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind welco med the idea 
of a multinational force and said it would be discussed at a 
summit on Friday with France. European Union officials also 
met on Tuesday in Brussels for talks on possible intervention 
in Eastern Zaire, and, according to Special Envoy for the Great 
Lakes Aldo Ajello, will meet on Thursd ay (tomorrow) to 
"harmonise the position".  He said European reaction had been 
very fast. .Germany has raised the possibility of deploying UN 
military observers, particularly in the Zaire-Rwanda border. 
President Nelson Mandela has pledged South African support 
for a peacekeeping force, saying he w ould respond very 
positively to any request from the United Nations. The 
Johannesburg Star reports that South Africa has two fully-trained 
batallions ready to join any multinational peacekeeping force 
organised by the UN or the OAU. This is the first time South Africa 
has expressed a willingness t o send troops on peace keeping 
missions. Togo has proposed a four-point ceasefire plan, saying 
it would prevent a "second genocide"; it is essentially the same 
as the decisions taken by the regional summit, incorporating a 
ceasefire, an neutral intervention force, territorial integrity and 
further talks. 
French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said that a 
multinational force could be deployed "in a very short time" - 
France has led calls for military intervention since the weekend, 
along with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. 
Spain and France have said they are prepared to parti cipate in 
a force for Zaire. President Jacques Chirac - whose government 
is now host to the ailing Zairean president - underlined French 
support for Mobutu by saying the president was "the man best 
placed to represent Zaire and find a solution to this problem". 
He says the force proposed by France and Spain needs the 
approval of the UN Security Council, would include US, European 
and African troops and could later be replaced by an African force 
with US and European backing. French support for Mobutu will 
be an issue for other actors in the conflict -particularly the rebels. 
Other reactions include plans for a special session of the conflict 
prevention team in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) next 
week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (the Central Organ of the OAU 
Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution 
is composed of Cameroon, Algeria, Comoros, Congo, Ethiopia, 
Gabon, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, the 
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Tanzania, Togo, Sudan, 
Zambia and Zimbabwe). The OAU says the meeting will be 
attended by the countries of the Great Lakes region, and other
neighbours. Former French cooperation minister Bernard
Debre proposed in an interview in a French newspaper the 
creation of a Hutu state, comprising "a small part of Rwanda, 
Burundi, and also part of Kivu". Previously, proponents of 
creating separate ethnic states included President Moi of Kenya. 
An exclusively ethnic analysis of the regiona l conflict, including 
the 1994 genocide, is generally rejected by political players 
in the arena, who point to the fact that political groups and 
geographical areas are not ethnically "pure" (for example, 
rebel spokesman for the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL ), Laurent-Desire Kabila is 
perceived as one of those leading the "Tutsi revolt", but is 
>from the mineral-rich Shaba region in southern Zaire). 
Action by Churches Together (ACT) has issued an appeal 
for the Eastern Zaire emergency for $4,757,947 to stockpile 
and deliver emergency relief supplies in Rwanda, Uganda 
and Kenya, from 1 November 1996 to 31 December 1997. 
Eight hundred Zairean soldiers who fled to Uganda early this 
week returned home, according to Ugandan security sources. 
They reportedly commandeered canoes on Lake Edward to 
get back into Zaire. There is a slow trickle of refugees into 
Uganda, mostly women and children; UNHCR put the 
number at around 9,500 and say the rate of arrival has 
decreased this week. 
An unpublished UN report on regional arms supply accusing 
Zaire of playing "a central role" in helping Rwandan and 
Burundi Hutu rebels to rearm on its territory, has been 
leaked to the press. According to press reports, Zaire was 
accused of playing a major role in "huge webs" of arms 
trafficking - "Zaire, or elements within Zaire, appear to continue 
to play a central role as a conduit for arms supplies to and 
military training of Rwandan and Burundese insurgents on its 
soil", the report says. The report, likely to be that of the UN
Commission of Inquiry formed in 1995, is also quoted as 
saying that Hutu militia in refugee camps of Zaire, Tanzania 
and (previously) Burundi were funding arms purchases from 
"the sale of relief goods donated by international humanitarian 
organisations". The Zairean government denied these 
allegations on Tuesday night. After the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 
international human rights organisations drew attention to arms 
supplies to fugitive Hutu extremist groups in neighbouring countries. 
Paradoxically, at the time of declaring a ceasefire, the rebel groups 
- reportedly well armed - had managed to seize up to 300 kilometres 
of border territory in two weeks and resistance from
ex-FAR and Interahamwe militia appears to have been minimal. 
[ENDS] 
[Via the UN DHA Integrated Regional Information Network. 
The material contained in this communication may not necessarily 
reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN DHA 
IRIN Tel: +254 2 622123 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: 
irin-AT-dha.unon.org for more information. If you re-print, copy, 
archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.] 
Distributed via Africa News Online.


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