Rebels are advancing on Zaire’s third- largest city but sceptics in the West are resisting France’s calls for an intervention force, writes Chris McGreal
FRANCE is pursuing a lonely campaign to revive plans for an international force in Zaire to halt the rebel advance and prevent what it says is a genocide in the making. But sceptics in Washington and Europe doubt the accusations of widespread massacres of refugees, and question French motives.
With rebels rapidly advancing on Kisangani, Zaire’s third-largest city, Paris is stepping up its efforts to win United Nations backing for a foreign force to halt the fighting. It says it is concerned for hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees who it claims are being systematically murdered by the rebels.
France’s humanitarian aid minister, Xavier Emmanuelli, renewed the accusation on Monday after a visit to refugees fleeing eastern Zaire. “Without organised and secure aid, men, women and children are condemned to die of hunger, exhaustion, illness or to be killed by those who have been chasing them for more than three months,” he said.
But UN and other foreign officials say that no massacre sites have been uncovered, nor have witnesses or survivors come forward with convincing accounts.
Paris argues that Rwanda’s Tutsi army invaded Zaire in an attempt to exterminate Hutu refugees before Rwanda resettles Tutsis in a divided Zaire. France accuses Uganda of joining the invasion, and other countries in the region of supporting it.
Although there is little doubt that Rwanda invaded Zaire last October, France’s critics say the war is now a civil conflict because the rebels are mainly Zaireans and have won support among their compatriots in their war against President Mobutu Sese Seko’s 31-year dictatorship.
After a visit to Zaire last week by the Dutch co-operation minister, Jan Pronk, a Dutch official accused Paris of denying reality. “The French refuse to allow any talk of the Zairean conflict as internal,” he said. “Paris only wants it discussed in terms of a foreign invasion. That way it can justify foreign intervention to prop up what it sees as a pro-French government.”
Meanwhile Kisangani seemed poised to fall this week. Even the Zairean army barely bothers to hide its resignation to defeat. The airport is awash with the wives and children of soldiers trying to scramble on to the last flights before the rebels arrive. The poor clutter the pounding Congo river in hundreds of dug-out canoes.
The region’s governor, Lombeya Bosongo, would like to join the exodus. But the army has twice prevented him from leaving Kisangani, fearing it would signal the final abandonment by central government.
So Lombeya puts on a brave face and claims that despite the rebels sweeping successes over the past five months they will meet their match in his dilapidated city. “They wanted to take Kisangani for a long time. They’ve claimed several times to have taken it. But we are still here and we will defend the city,” he said.
The rebels claim to have surrounded the capital of northern Zaire. The army says the insurgents are still 50km away. Either way, the government’s desperation is showing. Last week, it reversed itself and agreed to a UN peace plan in the hope of winning an immediate ceasefire. At the weekend, rebel leader Laurent Kabila also agreed in principal to the UN proposals for negotiations and elections. But he again ruled out a ceasefire until Mobutu and the government agree to quit. In the meantime, Kabila’s forces press on toward the once grand city.
While the rebel Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire might face resistance as it moves on its biggest prize yet, there are few in Kisangani who think the army will fight for long. The army operations commander in the city, General Kalume Numbi, appears to be putting his faith more in luck than reason.
“Something could change, just like that, and the Zairean army will be victorious,” he said. But all the signs are that he is preparing for defeat.
In January, military equipment crowded into the airport and city ahead of an army counteroffensive the government promised would be devastating and final. Within days the rebels had subdued the attack as they continued their inexorable advance.
The fighter bombers, flown by Ukranian pilots, have been moved to other airfields. Only three Russian combat helicopters remain. Many of the vaunted mercenaries – mostly Serbs in whom the government put such hope of reversing the rebels fortunes – have slunk away.
Often the greatest resistance to the rebels has been put up by soldiers of Rwanda’s defeated Hutu army, which retreated into Zaire three years ago after committing genocide against Tutsis. But while the Hutus have most to fight for – because further defeat might mean extermination or return to imprisonment in Rwanda – even they appear to be losing heart after their top two commanders fled Kisangani.
Those Serb mercenaries who have not left help keep order, sometimes brutally, among Zairean soldiers who pillaged and raped as they retreated into Kisangani. Only determined resistance by some residents, and the despatch of disciplined troops from Kinshasa, halted a similar rampage through the city. Hundreds of soldiers deserted..
Now Kisangani residents such as Lili, a woman trader who won a precious seat on a flight at the weekend, fear the army will embark on a final bout of mayhem before it pulls out. “There is an air of panic. Everybody with the means is trying to get out. People are not scared of Kabila. They are scared of the trouble which war brings,” she said.
In its desperate bid to win international support, the Zairean government is making a bizarre attempt to portray its struggle as a noble cause. Tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees are scattering ahead of the Alliance advance. Lombeya accuses the outside world of standing by while the rebels, who include a significant number of Tutsis, slaughter Hutus.
“We must defend Kisangani not only to defend the town but to protect these refugees who the world has watched being massacred in silence,” Lombeya said. “The rebels have come to kill the refugees systematically. When they kill, they hide the corpses. That’s why we’re now discovering the mass graves.”
Kalume claims as many as 50 000 refugees have been killed by the insurgents, although he offers no evidence. Even if mass graves exist, it is unlikely the army discovered them as it only ever surrenders territory.
Kisangani’s residents marvel at Lombeya’s newfound concern for human welfare. Mobutu’s cronies have rarely shown such interest in the wellbeing of Zaire’s citizens as they filled their pockets while the country sank deeper into misery.
While Zaire’s elite grew wealthier, Kisangani declined even more than most of the country. As Zaire’s third largest city, it once prospered as a major port trading in coffee and other crops. But long before the civil war, cars gave way to bicycles. The river barges carrying fuel came less and less frequently. There are so few vehicles that plants flourish in the giant potholes littered along Kisangani’s streets.
Two bouts of military-led looting earlier this decade compounded Kisangani’s despair. Half its population left. The rich and educated mostly went to Kinshasa. The poor headed for the forest in the hopes of at least carving out a plot and a living, or getting a lucky break and finding diamonds.
Unable to provide even the most basic services, the old authorities largely fell into irrelevance. Communities within the city took charge of their own lives, running courts on traditional lines and schools by paying teachers with food.
For a brief moment the war breathed new life into the bedraggled city. The arrival of Zaire’s creaking war machine restored the old authority in Kisangani. But it was fleeting.
The diamond business has finally dried up. The river barges no longer come. The army ensures that the cellular phone network still functions so the high command can stay in touch. But the brewery has closed and food stocks are running low.
At Kalume’s side, one of his officers offers an opinion. “All we are asking for is to be left in peace,” he said. It is a desire which echoes with Kisangani’s residents.