Date: Sun, 9 Mar 97 19:05:11 UT
Subject: M-G: AFDL Rebels & Reply to Rolf


Hi Rolf,

First, in discussing what's going on in Zaire, I can only tell
you that I am writing in good faith and am sincere and you'll
have to either take my word for that or not, since it's not
something I could prove.
You ask:
"Now who *is* it that's really falling for some crap on
Zaire - you or me? On principle, the question IMO should be
put over and over again."
I agree that the question should be put over and over again,
because I don't think there is greater devastation anywhere
else in the world close to what's going on in Central Africa
today.

We have been disagreeing over whether the U.S. has or
will be co-opting the AFDL, the rebels seeking to overthrow
Mobutu in Zaire, you arguing that the U.S. is not doing so.

In explaining how I might have arrived at my error, you indicate that
"I now think, how very difficult it in fact must be for many, in the 
USA for instance, to see through that double fog of massive 
imperialist misinformation."

Well, certainly that is true.  And I also hope you continue to
take every opportunity to continue to translate into English
other reports and post them to the list.  But also being in the U.S., I 
think I am less likely to underestimate the power of that Country
to recognise and support its "interests".  I think the writing is
so clearly on the wall, that Mobutu has to go, that he has lost
all legitimacy, that the U.S. will play their traditional role of 
helping into power a more legitimate puppet, but a puppet 
nonetheless.  Now, the U.N. Security Council has put forward
their 5 point plan which begins with the demand for a ceasefire,
which Kabila, the leader of the AFDL, says he will not agree to
yet until it is understood that Mobutu will fall.  After that he will
negotiate as to the other points.

You say:
"But you're doing a pretty bad job at evaluating the truthfulness
of these sources and at reaching conclusions from them, Ang,
and furthermore, on that very shaky basis indeed that you
must know is the only one you have at hand to stand on, you're
stating those conclusions with far too great apparent certainty.

You are correct that I state my conclusions with too much
certainty and I assume that it derives from my hopelessness 
that the "First World" will ever let the "Third World" lead a
 successful insurrection.  

To continue this important investigation into the facts, I post 
below from two articles of the reactionary media, the New York 
Times/Slimes ( the first of which appeared on March 6th and 
the second from the front page of Today's edition).  Thirdly, I post 
below a message of support of the rebels that I saw on Usenet.
I hope you will continue to translate and post on this issue
Rolf and others too because there is no greater suffering
anywhere in the world than there.

New York Times
March 6, 1997
Rebels Hailed as Liberators in Zaire
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

Still, some say they are wary of the rebel soldiers. Along with 
Zairian Tutsi and other local people, there appear to be some 
Rwandans and Ugandans among the rebel forces, including 
the commanding officers, local people say. In private, some 
people are expressing reservations about becoming a "colony" 
of Rwanda and Uganda. 

"Africa is a tribal continent and we are very tribe-conscious," 
Wabula said. "They are frightened that we may just go to another 
kind of colonization. We went from the Belgians to Mobutu's tribe 
to these guys from another country." 
But Wabula and other intellectuals have been impressed with the 
steps the rebel administrators have taken since the city fell into 
their hands. Wednesday, in the railroad workers' hall next to the 
yards, 127 community leaders, nominated as delegates, engaged 
in the first attempt at democratic process this city as seen in
decades. 

Candidates for governor and vice governor were nominated and gave 
speeches outlining their qualifications and achievements. People 
>from the old government were excluded from the process. Then the 
delegates cast unmarked paper ballots, which were counted on a 
table in front of the entire assembly. 

"This vote is a secret vote," Mwenze Kongolo, the rebel alliance's 
justice minister, explained. After an afternoon of deliberating, the 
assembly elected the dean of the local university, Kitete Lokombe, 
a man with almost no political experience, as the new
governor. 

"This is all provisional," said Bernard Gustave Tabezi, a university 
professor waiting outside the building. "After this we would like there 
to be elections." 

On the roads leading from the city, dozens of people continued to 
emerge from forest hideouts with their suitcases on their heads and 
march back to their homes, which they abandoned last week when 
retreating Zairian soldiers began looting. Most said they were elated 
to be returning home after spending days hiding in the jungle. 

A woman who was coming back with four children literally began to 
dance when she saw the rebel soldiers and a group of journalists 
standing by the side of the road. "We are very happy to be back 
>from the forest," she said. "We are happy the rebels have arrived. 
We were being punished by our children, these young boys in the 
Zairian Army." 

March 9, 1997 New York Times
Zaire's Power Vacuum Sucks in Neighbors
By HOWARD W. FRENCH

KINSHASA, Zaire -- With a rebel force that invaded Zaire advancing 
through the countryside, new protagonists who want to secure vital 
interests here or settle old scores are being drawn into the conflict. 

>From the outset last October, the rebellion sweeping eastern Zaire 
has been an affair of outsiders. The rebels, supplied by the Tutsi-led 
government of neighboring Rwanda, have been chasing remnants of 
Zaire's army and its Hutu allies through thick Central African forests. 

Now the fall of the longtime dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, is appearing 
ever more likely.
So governments of neighboring countries and insurgent groups from 
throughout Central Africa are scrambling to get involved on one side 
or the other of the conflict, diplomats, Zairian officials and regional 
military experts say. 

A growing coalition of forces is contributing to the fight against Mobutu, 
in what can be seen as a form of revenge for the decades during which 
Zaire, a major Cold War ally of the West, was used as a staging point 
for covert actions against neighbors. 

The most dramatic case of new activity from outside involves Zaire's 
southern neighbor, Angola. Throughout two decades of civil war in that 
country and now under an uneasy peace there, Zaire has played a critical 
role in support of the Unita rebel movement of Jonas Savimbi, once with 
the heavy covert assistance of the United States. 

In recent weeks, these experts and officials say, Angola has been flying 
Zairian rebels, long exiled after an unsuccessful revolt, along with military 
supplies, into eastern Zaire to join the burgeoning insurgency of the Alliance 

of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo. Angola's formerly 
Marxist government apparently is anxious to cut Savimbi off from gun-running 
and diamond-trading networks in Zaire. 

Most of the exiles are sons of the so-called Katanga Gendarmes, who repeatedly 

fought secessionist wars for control of Zaire's copper-rich Shaba province 
beginning 
shortly after independence from Belgium in 1960. 

Zairian officials and diplomats say that there is increasingly strong 
evidence of flights  from Angola into the rebel-held cities of Kalemie,
Uvira and Bukavu in Zaire. They say  that in recent battles, Zairian 
government forces were routed in the cities of Bunia and Bafwasende 
by Portuguese-speaking African troops, apparently from Angola. 

Angola has denied any involvement in the Zairian war. But in a diplomatic
 note sent to  Mobutu's government last month, Angola, which now enjoys 
good ties with the United States, reportedly warned that it would attack 
Zaire if it did not end its support for Savimbi. 

Last week, the United States publicly called upon Angola to stay out of 
the Zairian war.

In an assertion that Western diplomats said they could not confirm, 
advisers to Mobutu said Friday that Angola has begun massing 
Swahili-speaking rebels, apparently from eastern Zaire, in Angola's 
oil-rich coastal enclave of Cabinda in preparation for an
attack on Kinshasa, a mere 200 miles away. 

The Zairian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that 
this intelligence had come from another Angolan rebel group, the 
Cabinda-based insurgency known by its acronym as FLEC. 

 "FLEC attacked the Angolans recently and were pursued by them 
all the way into Zairian territory," said an associate of Mobutu.
 "When they reached here, they informed us that they had 
encountered Swahili speakers in their retreat." Swahili, a
lingua franca of East Africa, is not spoken in southwestern Zaire or Angola. 

For its part, the Zairian government, unable to rely upon its own woeful 
army or a few hundred Serbian mercenaries to stop the rebels' advance 
on the important eastern city of Kisangani, has reportedly obtained
battle-hardened troops on loan from Savimbi's Unita movement. 

Asked to confirm these reports, the associate of Mobutu's said: "We have 
looked to friends in Africa to help us. Even if we end up losing Kisangani, 
we must make the rebels pay a high enough price so that they will sit 
down and talk seriously." 

Diplomats here say they have been unable to explain how the Zairian rebel 
leader,
Laurent Kabila, has been able to clothe, arm and supply his fast-growing 
movement,
keeping its units supplied with radios, for example, down to the squad level. 

Much, but not all, of Kabila's support has come from Rwanda and Uganda. But
although the evidence is less certain, military analysts say they suspect that 
other
governments in the region, along with sympathetic rebel movements such as the
southern Sudan guerrillas led by John Garang, may be aiding Kabila, or simply 
cutting
deals with him. 

International relief officials say that there is clear evidence that Zaire 
tolerated the
arming of Hutu militia members who once attacked Rwanda and Burundi from 
refugee
camps near the borders with those countries. Similarly, diplomats say that in 
addition
to supporting Savimbi, who reportedly maintains a residence here, Zaire has 
allowed
its territory to be used to supply anti-government guerrillas in Uganda, and 
Sudanese
government troops fighting Garang's forces in the southern Sudan. 

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has longstanding ties to the Rwandan leader,
Paul Kagame, as well as to Kabila, and to leaders in Tanzania and Angola. And 
for all
of these countries, establishing a sympathetic government in Zaire could end 
years of
destabilization and disorder coming from a decaying and corrupt neighbor. 

Because of the warm U.S. relations with Rwanda and Uganda, and the U.S.
condemnation of the government in Sudan, both Zairian officials and news 
reports
here routinely accuse the United States -- long Mobutu's closest ally -- of
masterminding the the onslaught against the government here. 

Western diplomats deny any U.S. involvement, and say that what is happening is 
the
consequence of years of mischief and drift in Zaire. 

"All of these years, Zaire has been playing with fire, and now it looks like 
it is finally
getting burned," said one Western military expert. "The Angolan government, 
for one,
has every reason to be fed up with Kinshasa, and may have figured that this 
was the
right occasion to make them pay." 

With the situation in Zaire becoming increasingly confused and the number of 
players

growing, however, many feel there is a risk that the help that Zaire's 
neighbors have
been providing to the rebels could in the end increase instability, with 
overcrowded
neighbors like Rwanda coveting croplands and others seeking to control Zaire's 
vast
mineral wealth. 

Officials in Rwanda and Uganda have, for example, spoken with increasing
enthusiasm in recent days about the economic benefits of a rebel victory for 
their
country. 

 "If Zaire is ripped apart by all of the hands that are getting involved in 
the game here, it
 will be a long time before anyone is able to speak of synergies," said one 
African
diplomat here. "The dismemberment of Central Africa's largest country, if it 
were to
happen, would be the ugliest disaster we have seen yet."

----------
Alert To The U.S. Black Community - Patrice Lumumba's Son Is In
U.S. To Gain Support For The Struggle In Zaire

March 2, 1997

     Francois Lumumba, the son of assassinated Congolese Prime
Minister and freedom fighter Patrice Lumumba, is in the United
States to rally support for the forces moving to overthrow the
corrupt regime of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko. During his
two week stay, Mr. Lumumba plans to speak to all sectors of the
Black community to update us on the situation in Zaire and what
steps we can take to help resolve the situation.
     A crisis situation exists in Zaire. The government of Mobutu
Sese Seko, a puppet of Western interests and a chief conspirator
in the murder of Patrice Lumumba, is on the verge of collapse.
The Western powers whom Mobutu served so faithfully for over 30
years as a buffer against Communism in sub-Saharan Africa no
longer have any use for him. The United States and France want to
replace him with a candidate of their choice. It is crystal clear
that they are opposed to any candidate emerging from the popular
forces which are leading the successful military campaign
sweeping Zaire. The new Secretary General of the United Nations,
Kofi Annan, has reversed his earlier position and is now pushing
for a U.N. military presence in Zaire supposedly to provide aid
for refugees. Such a presence would have the objective effect of
halting the military advance of the popular forces and giving
Mobutu s army a chance to regroup and reorganize the rogue
soldiers of the former Rwandan army who are hiding themselves
among the Hutu refugees.
     The threat of U.N. intervention recalls the spectre of 1960,
where United Nations intervention in the Congolese crisis led to
the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first and only
legitimately elected Prime Minister and the eventual takeover by
Mobutu.
     Francois Lumumba is the head of the Congolese National
Movement, the movement headed by his father which led the Congo
to independence from Belgium. In his presentations, Mr. Lumumba
will address the types of material and political support needed
to resolve this situation in the interests of the masses of
Zairean people.
     Mr. Lumumba is in the process of arranging appearances on
New York radio stations WLIB, WKCR, WWRL, WBAI and Gil Noble's
television program, "Like It Is". He also plans to meet with the
U.S. Congressional Black Caucus.
     This Friday, March 7th, Mr. Lumumba will speak at a mass
rally in support of the Zairean popular forces at the Harriet
Tubman Learning Center at 127th Street between Adam Clayton
Powell and Frederick Douglass Boulevards in Harlem. The rally,
sponsored by the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, begins at 6:30 P.M.
     For more information, call (212) 663 3805 or e-mail Roger
Wareham at: rswareham-AT-juno.com
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			Angie


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