TUESDAY, 3.00PM
THE Unted States and other countries will withhold economic aid to Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila if he “plays games” with a United Nations investigation into allegations that Kabila’s troops massacred thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees, according to US ambassador Bill Richardson.
“Well, the jury is still out on Kabila,” Richardson said in a television interview on Monday. “The United States and the international community are prepared to help him, but only if he pursues significant political, economic and social reforms.”
Richardson said a major test for Kabila, who seized power last May after ousting dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, will be whether he co-operates with a UN team which plans to investigate allegations that Kabila’s forces massacred thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees during their seven-month rebellion that deposed Mobutu.
“If he is reluctant to give them full access and plays gameswith the team, as he has in the past, … he’s going to be isolated and he’s not going to get help.”
In June, Richardson announced he had won a pledge from Kabila to allow a UN team to investigate the allegations starting July 7. But Kabila refused to allow a team headed by UN investigator Roberto Garreton, claiming he was biased. UN secretary general Koffi Annan then decided to appoint a new team and said its members would be announced shortly. As of Monday, however, the UN had still not managed to put together a team which would meet Kabila’s approval.
Meanwhile, a group of nearly 1 500 Rwandan Hutu refugees entered Angola on Monday, after a trekking for nine months through the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo to escape Kabila’s troops.
A UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative said the group is at present in Luau, 900km south-east of the capital Luanda. He added that the refugees say more people are follwing them, and the UN expects a total of up to 3 000 to reach Luau. Other refugees who fled from eastern DRC last October have reached the Republic of Congo, Gabon and the Central African Republic.
28