SUSAN NJANJI and GRIFFIN SHEA, Harare | Wednesday
DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has reached out to Zimbabweans – many of whom are bitterly opposed to their country’s military intervention in the DRC – by describing it as an “act of solidarity among Africans.”
In a rare opportunity accorded to special foreign leaders, Kabila addressed Zimbabwe’s parliament and encouraged the lawmakers “to convey to your respective constituencies the real reasons of Zimbabwe’s intervention in the DRC.”
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputies boycotted the session, arguing that Kabila was not worthy of the honour of addressing Zimbabwe’s parliament.
“The people of Zimbabwe should know this is basically an act of solidarity among Africans and an act of respect for our mutual responsibility with SADC [the Southern African Development Community],” Kabila said, trying to explain the reasons for Zimbabwe’s involvement in his country.
Kabila expressed his appreciation of Zimbabwe’s aid in the unpopular military intervention while it was in the grip of economic hardships, but he was quick to blame the economic woes on “hidden forces.”
The MDC opposes President Robert Mugabe’s 1998 decision to commit some 12_000 soldiers – or about one-third of Zimbabwe’s army – to shore up DRC government troops against Ugandan and Rwandan backed rebels.
“The involvement of Zimbabwe in the DRC has brought untold suffering not only to the hundreds of innocent Zimbabwean soldiers who have perished for an unworthy cause in the DRC … but also to the ordinary men and women of Zimbabwe who now live in abject poverty and suffer … fuel and food shortages directly attributable to the millions of Zimbabwean money pumped into the DRC war,” the MDC said in a statement.
But both Kabila and Mugabe said Zimbabwe’s troops would remain in the DRC for the time being. “Our support will continue until we are certain that the territorial integrity of the Congo has been restored,” Mugabe told a news conference before seeing off Kabila at Harare airport.
The conflict, which broke out in August 1998, sucked in several regional countries, pitting DRC government forces backed by Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia – all SADC members – against rebel factions supported by Rwanda and Uganda.
“We all know the economic problems have been created by hidden forces that do not appreciate the African solidarity that allied countries demonstrated,” Kabila said. – AFP
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