Kabila’s Congo: A Gangrenous Regime?

by AfroAmerica Network on December 16, 2000

Kabila’s congo: Beyond a gangrenous regime, a region in a sinking boat.
By AfroAmerica Network.
Maryland, USA. December 16, 2000.

This report was produced by AfroAmerica Network special reporters from Maryland, USA, after a month trip in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several groups were contacted by the reporters: the DRC government and military officers, MONUC officials, Zimbwabwean and Namibian officers, EX-FAR, Mayi-Mayi officers, RCD officials and officers, Rwandan military officers, and Ugandan military officers.
A TRAGEDY WITH GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS
“Congo is facing one of the most tragic crisis in the world. Kabila’s regime is based on fear, mistrust, corruption, and nepotism. Kabila has only two choices: revamp his army and administration or lose all. And time is no longer on his side,” a MONUC observer told AfroAmerica Network.
The consequences of the most bizarre war in Africa are heavy, and yet seem not to attract anyone’s attention. According to reliable estimates from MONUC officers, within 28 months 1,700,000 Congolese civilians were killed by the invasion forces composed of the armies from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. More that 2 millions displaced people live in inhumane conditions.
Several actors share the responsibility for the tragedy:
International Community and World powers which seem not to care too much as disastrous economic conditions compounded with war ravaged a moribund nation, as though these actors intend to benefit from the catastrophe;
The invading regimes led by Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who have already ruined their own nations and subjected their people to misery, repeated massacres, and constant insecurity;
The Congolese civilian and military administration, incompetent, inexperienced, and full of complexes, which, despite the immense potentials of DRC, focuses on seeking outside help against small opponents that Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda are.
KABILA’S REGIME IS BASED ON FEAR, MISTRUST, CORRUPTION, AND NEPOTISM
The distress calls from Congolese in despair remain unanswered. Those who would help seem accomplices of the invasion. Beyond this complicity there is the gangrenous Congolese state and diplomacy, deprived of human and material resources. Incompetence and waste of resources make the diplomatic exercise, so crucial at this moment, inoperative. Vast amounts of money are spent on international lobbying groups. However, recommendations from these lobbies are either ignored or not followed up. The DRC government gives impression of overstrain and of being overworked while in fact, it is as useless as any other Congolese institution. There is only one person working in the DRC: The President of Congo, Mzee Laurent Desire Kabila. He has managed to accumulate the power under his arms. The centralization of power is not an accident. President Kabila is very mistrustful and fears even his own shadow. This mistrust even against Kabila’s allies is maintained alive by Kabila’s inner circle composed by his relatives. One may wonder how, for a so vast country with so many problems, power may be concentrated in the hands of one individual.. In fact, no decision, even on trifling matter can be made without Kabila’s signature. There is no power or signature delegation in Kabila’s Government.
RDC IS A SINKING BOAT
The RDC is like a sinking boat in high waters. There are several rescue plans before seeking external help to drag the boat ashore. RDC has a captain, mechanics, and rescue experts. However, Kabila, the captain, didn’t use the resources available before calling for help. When the help came, it found a crew in total disarray whose actions contribute to deepen the sinking. Is the external help going to let itself sink with boat?
Zimbabwe, one of the external help had a sound economy before its rightful military intervention in Congo. Now, Zimbabwe’s economy is in ruins, its diplomatic relations are in tatters. Zimbabwe tried to help a moribund and caught the disease. The reality is that if Zimbabwe withdraws today, Rwanda-Uganda-Burundi coalition will be in Kinshasa tomorrow. Yet Zimbabwe and Angola alone have the military capacity to be in Kigali, Bujumbura, and Kampala in a few days if they so wish. But how can they wish to undertake this action with Kabila? The reasons they do not undertake this adventure are threefold:
There is a mistrust between the Congolese army, called the Forces Armees Congolaises (FAC), and the Allied Forces. Allies are professional armies, who were dispatched within a specific framework. In Congo, the Allies found incompetents officers, full of complexes and not ready to admit to their lack of skills and experience. The Chiefs of Staff (the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force), and even the Joint Chief of Staff of the FAC have never been professionally trained in war combat. No one is even a professional soldier. They were arbitrary appointed on the basis of familial or personal relations with Kabila. One wonders how the Allies may plan the conduct of war with such a team.
The so called military commanders have no responsibility whatsoever. Every decision is referred to President Kabila. When President Kabila is on a trip, away from Kinshasa, or unavailable for whatever reason, it is a complete paralysis. It is Mzee L.D. Kabila who authorizes the supply of ammunitions, weapons, gas, spare parts, and food to the troops. Nothing gets out of a warehouse, big or small, local or national, without Kabila’s signed authorization. A plane cannot take off without Kabila’s accord; he must authorize the delivery of gas. The pilots cannot fly without being paid by Kabila. Military commanders give impression of being overworked or lie just to dissimulate their lack of authority. The only autonomous military commander is the Army Chief of Staff, Joseph Kabila, the son of Mzee L.D. Kabila. He has managed to terrorize other commanders.
RDC has no real army. The FAC are mostly composed of former pick-pockets, robbers, jobless people, untrained individuals, corrupt civil servants, and other undisciplined soldiers picked from the streets of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. They lack patriotism and drive to liberate their country. On top of that, there is nepotism. High ranking functions are attributed to Kabila’s ethnic group. The government has fixed the salary of soldiers to $100 per month. Soldiers receive only $15 per month. Those in Kabila’s favors receive compensations which are far above any salary and are distributed without clear criteria. Soldiers are entitled to medical care. However, they are not treated even for injuries sustained in combat.
Despite all these problems and the plethoric army, the regime has accelerated the recruitment of new soldiers.
HUTU AND UGANDAN REBELS CONSTITUTE MOST OF KABILA’ S FIGHTING FORCE
AfroAmerica Network Reporters visited areas controlled by Rwandan and Ugandan armies in Equateur and Haut-Congo and met troops in Gbadolite, Gemena, and Kisangani. In Gbadolite, reporters met Ugandan troops, in rags and visibly malnourished . At the beginning they didn’t want to talk to us and later told us they were afraid of being overheard by Museveni’s spies within MONUC. They told us the following: “We are Baganda. The problems in Uganda are the same as those in the region. We are forced to fight for a minority regime, the Hima. We have no choice because we are in the jungle, too far from home, and must survive. We have in front of us Uganda fighters from West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) and Hutu from Rwanda and Burundi. They are our brothers. They are very good fighters but have not enough weapons. We think Kabila doesn’t trust these Hutu and WNBF fighters. Otherwise how can he waste this very skilled and effective human power buy depriving them of weapons. Anytime they are supplied in weapons, they take town from us. And when they run out of supply, we take the towns back. Rwandan Patriotic Army soldiers are very afraid of them. We are convinced that these Hutu and WNBF rebels can topple Museveni and Kagame. Unfortunately Kabila doesn’t trust them”. Some of Ugandan officers confided that they were trying to independently negotiate with Kabila under certain security guaranties. However, since only Kabila must authorize any contact, the contact perspectives remain elusive.
We met RPA officers. They didn’t hide their disappointment with Kagame. They lack regular supply. However, their most important concern lies in the hatred from the Congolese population. There is a general sentiment that it is time for RPA to get out of Congo. Soldiers have been deserting in large numbers. The recent visit in Congo by the former king of Rwanda, Kigeli Ndahindurwa, has raised the level of enthusiasm among Tutsi officers opposed to the war in Congo and to Kagame’s regime. Is Kabila’s regime able to capitalize on this discontent among RPA officers?
The Congolese rebel group, MLC, receives strong support from the Angolese rebel group UNITA of Jonas Savimbi and the Soudanese rebel group SPLA of John Garang. The RCD-Goma receives help from the Rwandan Patriotic Army, the Burundese Army and the EX-FAR and Interahamwe released from Rwandan prisons, where they were detained on genocide accusations, to fight in DRC. These Ex-FAR and Interahamwe are closely watched by RPA troops and are coldly executed under any suspicion.
THE RDC HAS ALL TO WIN THE WAR BUT LACK WHAT IT TAKES.
All the ingredients for Kabila to win the war are there. However, with his current approach the invasion forces will maintain the upper hand and may one day get Kabila himself. Military observers from MINUC and officers from Zimbabwe, Uganda, RPA, and Mayi-Mayi confirmed that, to win, Kabila just need to do two things:
To maintain regular and adequate supply to Forces d’Autodefense Populaires Mayi-Mayi and other rebellions fighting the regimes of Kagame, Buyoya and Museveni.
Move, with the help of these rebel groups and the Allies, the battlefronts to the towns of Beni, Butembo, Goma, Bukavu and Uvira to force the invading forces to withdraw from advanced offensive lines.
However, these officers and observers added that the war and the status quo seem to benefit Kabila himself; with his administrative style, he will be unable to control such large territories. They think that Kabila want to hold onto power by maintaining the pyschosis of war in people minds in the areas under his control.
MONUC affirm that RPA and RCD control a small portion of the territories in Eastern Congo. Most territories are controlled by Mayi-Mayi and their Hutu allies. Recently, the number of Hutu fighters allied with Mayi-Mayi has increased dramatically by the infusion of Hutu interahamwe who deserted from the RPA. MONUC has also confirmed the presence of CNDD/FDD rebel troops from Burundi around the town of Uvira and nearby and along the shores of Lake Tanganyika all way to the town of Fizi. This multitude of rebel groups in Congo has complicated an already explosive situation.
THE IMMEDIATE SOLUTION IN RDC LIES IN DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION.
Most actors in the Congolese conflict agree that the solution to the crisis is through frank dialogue and negotiation among all the fighting forces within an international conference in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. They point to the fact that Kabila will not win the war with his current approach. On the other side, given the multitude of rebellions in the region, Museveni, Kagame, and Buyoa may get Kabila and even Kinshasa but not win the war. The only possible solution for now is a political dialogue not military confrontation.