* Zaire the badly disguised imperialist intervention in Zaire
CRAP intervention force
The westward advance of the rebel forces has encouraged many opponents of Zaire's
Mobutu regime. But France, the USA and Belgium, the main imperialist powers controlling this region, so rich in strategic raw materials, are increasingly worried. They are trying, in vain, to impose some kind of Mobutuism without Mobutu.
Eric Toussaint
The capitalist powers can't agree on how to keep Zaire within the fold.
France wants an aggressive, active policy, reinforcing its role as prime power in the region. Belgium is desperate not to lose its remaining influence in its former colonies. The United States wants to consolidate its influence in
Uganda and Rwanda, and make new friends in Zaire.
But the size of the disaster seem to be forcing the three neo-colonial powers into a temporary alliance to protect their interests.
The pretext, of course, is humanitarianism:
coming quickly to the aid of those Rwandan refugees who have not yet begun the trek home. The second pretext is avoiding a destabilisation of all of central Africa.
What form will the intervention take?
For the moment, under-the-table support for the Mobutu regime, enabling it to gain military control over the eastern regions of
Zaire. The Belgian and US governments are hesitant, but they are allowing France to
NIGER
CHAD
NIGERIA
CENTRAL AFRICAN
REPUBLIC
CAMEROON
Taine
Kisangani"
CONGO
GABON
L A
RWAN
EASTERN
2, KASAI микрі,
Kinshasa
A/B A forge ahead.
An international military expedition under the auspices of the UN Security Council is unlikely, but not impossible. The goal of any such intervention would be to prevent the rebellion from spreading to the rest of Zaire.
Another option would be to pressure rebel leader Laurent Kabila to negotiate with the Zairian regime, with some kind of guarantees for the parliamentary elections which should take place later this year. This would be hard to put into practice. What kind of compromise could be stitched together
PIBOUTI SOMALIA KEEN TA Francophone countries US allies TANIAN SEYCHELLES
ANGO
ZAMBIA
• COMOROS
MOZAMBIQUR
18
International Viewpoint between the rotten regime in Kinshasa, the zig-zag opposition of Tschisékédi, and the armed rebellion of Laurent Kabila? In any case, progressives should oppose any pact of this type, which would only prolong the life of the dictatorship, and the suffering of the Zairian people. Blood on Parisian hands
France fully supports the Mobutu regime. The dictator's second home is on the Côte d'Azur, and France enables him to shuttle between Zaire, Morocco and Europe to mobilise support for his regime. Despite an official embargo, France continues to arm the regime in Kinshasa, training the officers and torturers of the Zairian armed forces.
There are even French troops among the mercenary force led, on paper, by the Belgian adventurer Christian Tavernier. According to Colonel Yamba, who defected from the Zairian army after active service in the Eastern provinces during the 1980s, "what you call mercenaries are actually 500 French soldiers from Bangui [France's main permanent bases in the region]. According to journalist Colette Braeckman, "the elite CRAP (Deep Search and Action) unit,' was trained at Kota Koli, a Zaire army training camp set up by Belgian officers, and now operates from a base in Kisangani".
The mercenary Tavernier is just a cover. According to Billets d'afrique newsletter *the General Staff of the mercenary force is 80% staffed by French instructors." And "In June 1996, Christian Tavernier visited the Elysée palace [home to French President
Jacques Chirac] According to one French diplomat, 'given the links between Foccart [an Elysée advisor] and Bob Denard [France's most famous mercenary boss] it is inconceivable that Foccart would not have been at the least aware of Tavernier's contract... Since Denard is no longer operational since his disastrous [failed coup attempt] in Comoros, a Belgian took the lead, a position which Denard would otherwise have occupied."
On January 8th the British daily The Times reported that the mercenaries included British subjects, and that the mercenaries were being led on the ground by Alain Le Carro, former head of the personal guard of French president Mitterrand. The Times estimated that 1,000 French troops and military advisors were involved. According to the January 27 issue of the Brussels daily Le Soir, many mercenaries have been recruited from former Yugoslavia.
The French president's office has had a hand in all the dirty work done in central African these last few years; complicity in the genocide carried out by Rwanda's Habyarimana dictatorship, intervention to protect the butchers, military intervention to support the Central African Republic dictator Ange Patassé, just as French President Giscard D'Estang supported that country's infamous Emperor Bokassa, support for the Eyadema regime in Togo... a long list.
Belgium, which put Mobutu in power thirty years ago after helping assassinate Patrice Lumumba, leader of the independence movement, has continued to pillage the mineral resources of Zaire. But political relations with the dictator in Kinshasa cooled in 1990, when the presidential guard massacred 200 students on the Lubumbaschi campus. In November 1996, Belgium tried to re-build its privileged links with the dictatorship, realising that France and the USA were overtaking the former colonial power! Belgium's Secretary of State, Réginald Moreels shook hands with Zaire's Prime Minister Kengo Wa Dondo in Kinshasa, on the same day as the local population demonstrated in support of opposition leader Tschisékédi, and while the revolt in Kivu was quickly spreading across the eastern part of Zaire.
"People's" China, a long-time supporter of the Mobutu regime, sent a military delegation to Kinshasa on January 8th.* Chinese military advisors are participating in the regime's offensive to re-conquer the eastern part of Zaire. As for Israel, Mobutu's other old friend, "Fourty just-retired Israeli soldiers have begun training the dictator's presidential guard" 5 * 1. Comando de Recherche et Action en Profondeur. See Colette Braeckman, Le Dinosaure, Fayard 1991 2. Billets d'Afrique, February 1997. 3. La Gauche, 22/96, 6 December 96, 4. Billets d'Afrique, February 1997. 5. Le Soir, 5 December 1996
Algeria *