Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 20:51:44 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: M-I: Democratic Congo



A number of excellent posts have appeared on both m-i and m-g concerning
recent events in Zaire.   Most seem to present the conflict as basically a
manifestation of  "inter-imperialist rivalry."   I would like to offer a
minor dissent;  it may be that I differ from these authors less in substance
than in terminology.   But confused terminology leads to confused thinking:
and I want to show here why I find this terminology misleading and to
suggest some reflections of my own on the events in central Africa. 

The rebel movement that was born in the hills of east Zaire (developing
under the rubric of the Alliance of Democratic Forces) is grounded squarely
in the development of class forces within the country itself.   It is
getting little outside support.   Most of its weaponry has been plundered
>from the disintegrating Zairean army or purchased abroad with funds supplied
by the plundering of local banks.   The leader of the alliance,  Laurent
Kabila,  has dubbed a 600 km strip of land bordering Uganda,  Burundi and
Rwanda "Democratic Congo" and has had little apparent trouble convincing
people that the government of Mobutu Sese Seko is unworthy of popular
support,  of which indeed it enjoys little (Michela Wrong, "Zairean rebel in
search of order, " *Financial Times*, January 17,  1997).    

The origin of the ADF lay very much in a marriage of conveneince between
disciplined,  Rwandan-trained Banyamulenge Tutsis,  rebels from Shaba and
Kasai provinces and local Mai-Mai warriors,  traditionally hostile to
Tutsis.   They have a common enemy.   The Mobutu government has
misadministered the eastern part of the country (including, especially,
Kisangani,  the regional capital) to the tune of tens of millions plundered
each year from the public treasury.    The per capita income in what should
be the richest region in central Africa (the Kamituga gold mine alone is
estimated to have more than $1.5bn in reserves) is among the lowest on the
continent.     The breaking up of the large cattle farms,  together with an
ambitious program of land distribution is an important and long-standing
demand.    Among the first steps taken by rebel army commanders in the
libertated zones of Bunia and Goma was the setting up of "peoples
cooperatives" to oversee the redistribution of grazing land to poor farmers.
New regional governers and civilian administrators have been swiftly sworn
in to replace those satraps of the military cast first organized by the CIA
(Mobutu's chief backer in the 1960s),  and positively legend for their
avarice and corruption.    There have been remarkable (though rudimentary)
attempts to set up free schools and health clinics (Edward Mortimer,  "A
region aflame" in *African Perspectives* [Brussels],  February 10, 1997).    

While imperialism has its designs on the region (see below),  the conflict
itself is the product of long festering contradictions that go to the heart
of Zairean society and politics.   

The forerunner of the ADF,  the Front for a Democratic Congo,  originally
espoused a nationalist brand of Marxism-Leninism (Kabila himself is a former
Maoist),  but its successor seems to have junked a 1983 manifesto calling
for the nationalization of key industries and the "communalization" of
agriculture.    And,  in any event,  there are the realities of regional
politics; Chad,  Togo,  and Morocco have all sided with the Mobutu regime
and France, while Uganda and Rwanda have covertyl supplied the Zairean rebel
forces at the behest of the US,  whose real target is the fundamentalist
regime in the Sudan.    The US is giving nearly $20m of military aid to
Eritrea,  Ethiopia and Uganda to help them against Sudan.   Libya is a long
term target (*United States Policy in Central Africa: Problems & Prospects*
[Washington,  DC, 1997: Brookings Institution Press]).   

In short,  if US interests can be served by undermining the French in
central Africa,  thus enabling the Americans to dominate the region
militarily,  it will take every opportunity to do so.    Such ambitions,
however,  do not in themselves form the core reason for the fighting in
either Zaire or the Sudan.

Louis Godena 




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