NEWS ON CONGO 015: On Europe, media & Congo war [Posted: 02.10.98] Here are reproduced four relatively recent articles in the news- paper The Namibian , with quoted comments on the standpoint of the European countries and the European and some other media on the ongoing aggression against the DR Congo, and on the joint efforts of several other African states to help that country against this aggression. What the Namibian president Nujoma and the Zimbabwean deputy foreign minister Goche have to say on this, as quoted in the below, is quite correct and merits attention in other countries. I'm adding some brief comments within brackets [ ]. - RM Titles and dates of the articles: 1. "EU mulls Nujoma attack" 22.09.1998 2. "Nujoma slams Press" 14.09.1998 3. "Zim[babwe] claims media bias 30.09.1998 in DRC war reporting" 4. "SADC worried about EU aid issue" 28.09.1998 1. *EU mulls Nujoma attack* (The Namibian, 22.09.1998) TABBY MOYO THE European Union plans to respond to the scathing attack on the body by President Sam Nujoma, but only after carefully con- sidering the President's remarks in relation to the EU's planned review of aid to African countries involved in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) conflict. At a public meeting in Katutura on Sunday [20 September], Pre- sident Nujoma attacked European countries accusing them of fuel- ling division on the African continent. "These foolish Europeans. They formed a political union (the EU) and again they want to get our raw materials without paying us," the President told the gathering. Nujoma was speaking barely 48 hours after the EU announced that it plans to review its aid to African countries which have in- tervened militarily in the DRC to ensure that aid money is not indirectly used to fund fighting. [COMMENT: Thus, a "review" by the EU making no difference bet- ween the aggressors (proxies of imperialism) and those justly opposing them, in fact pretending that there is "no" aggression at all and thus in reality condoning it, making no efforts what- soever at counteracting that aggression, in flagrant disregard of what they are obliged to do in such a case according to the UN Charter and international law. - Above, Nujoma put the finger on *why*. - RM] Yesterday the Office of the Head of the European Commission in Namibia, Ambassador Francisco Ortiz de Zuniga, declined to com- ment saying more time was needed to verify what President Nujoma said. Ambassador De Zuniga, who only returned to the office yesterday after his annual leave, said he also needed time to study what EC Commissioner Joao de Deus Pinheiro said in connection with a review of EU aid to Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. [COMMENT: As is well-known, Uganda and Rwanda are *invading* the DR Congo, as a result of an international plot, while Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe and now also Chad have sent troops, on the re- quest od the DRC government, to *help repel* that invasion. These people are pretending "not to know" the difference. - RM] The countries involved in the DRC conflict are understood to draw up to N$1,1 billion from the EU in terms of five-year de- velopment programmes started in 1995. The EU has also just made around N$92 million available to the Namibian Government for human resource development. At Sunday's rally in Katutura, President Nujoma warned that fo- reigners should not be allowed to decide the destiny of Afri- cans. The President said the disturbance in the Great Lakes and the Congo was being instigated by white imperialists who wanted to control the region at the expense of citizens of the region. "This can no longer be allowed to continue," he said. "Nobody should take us as idiots who do not know what they are doing," Nujoma added. He said the DRC was a fellow SADC member state and charged that it had fallen victim to a European-inspired conspiracy and dup- licity by some African countries (Rwanda and Uganda). September 22, 1998 2. *Nujoma slams Press* (The Namibian, 14.09.1998) PRESIDENT Sam Nujoma took a swipe at the media accusing it of spreading distorted facts about the DRC conflict and Namibia's involvement in his address to the nation on Friday [11 Sept]. [COMMENT: By this somewhat "ironic" description, "took a swipe at", this newspaper gives an example of one fact which is like- wise notewhorthy in this context: Precisely not so few of the media forces in some third-world countries tend to have a cer- tain amount of "solidarity" with the media of the exploiting countries and with the governments of those countries. Here and in some places below, this tendency shows up in The Namibian, which probably "felt hit" too by President Nujoma's criticism. - RM] "We must be vigilant and refuse to be fooled by the unprincipled media operators and those foreigners who are out to misinform the public. They make the victim look like a devil and the vil- lain like a saint ... Africans must rise up in unity and collec- tive self-defence to put an end to these intrigues," President Nujoma said. He later maintained that the rebels have their "friends in the media and certain Western countries" who are covering up their human rights abuses. He referred to allegations that the rebels have massacred 600 priests, nuns and others near Kisangani. He said that the purpose of his televised address was to "pro- vide more information and clarify some distortion of facts and misunderstandings that the media is unfortunately spreading around". However, he did not elaborate on the number of Namibian troops in the DRC or the nature of their role in the conflict. Nujoma's address to the nation came more than two weeks after he first confirmed that Namibian troops were in the DRC and more than three weeks after troops and weapons are believed to have been first sent to aid Kabila. September 14, 1998 3. *Zim claims media bias in DRC war reporting* (The Namibian, 30.09.1998) HARARE - Zimbabwe, which has troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), accused the international media yesterday of distorting the conflict in that country. Deputy Foreign Minister Nicholas Goche said foreign media ig- nored evidence of atrocities by rebels while hardly mentioning the fact that southern African forces were observing the Geneva conventions on warfare. "Dominant elements of the international media sometimes take partisan positions in line with national interests rather than truly reflecting the reality on the ground," Goche said. "There is ample evidence that allied forces are loved by local people", and rebels who surrendered were treated well. "In spite of all this, elements of the international media have remained hostile to the allied forces," Goche was quoted as saying by the state news agency Ziana. He did not accuse any countries or media by name, but the Harare government is known to be unhappy with at least one western- based international television news channel which, in its view, has not given it credit for an intervention of which it is proud. The "allied forces" referred to by Goche are those of Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, which went to the assistance of DRC Presi- dent Laurent Kabila when rebels advanced on his capital Kinshasa in early August. All four countries are members of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which broadly sanctioned the in- tervention after some initial dispute. The "allies" accuse Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the mainly Tutsi rebels, who launched their offensive from eastern DRC near the borders with those two countries. Goche was speaking at the opening of a seminar organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross on integrating humani- tarian law in military training programmes in SADC. The seminar is being attended by participants from 11 SADC mem- ber countries. - Nampa-Sapa-AFP September 30, 1998 4. *SADC worried about EU aid issue* (The Namibian, 28.09.1998) TABBY MOYO THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) is worried about the implications of a European Commissioner's recent an- nouncement of a possible review of aid to regional countries in- volved in military combat in the Democratic Republic of the Con- go (DRC). Both Co-Chairmen of the EU-SADC Joint Steering Committee Meeting held in Windhoek last week, EU Ambassador Herbert Kroll and Trade and Industry Permanent Secretary Hanno Rumpf confirmed on Friday that the issue had come up during the meeting. EU Commissioner responsible for African affairs, Joao de Deus Pinheiro, announced last week that the EU was to review its co- operation with African countries involved in the DRC war. [COMMENT: Again, this hypocritical bunching together of aggres- sors and those opposing them: "countries involved" - in reality a *support* of the aggression. - RM] Pinheiro said the EU had to review the use of financial means which it mobilised for development assistance in order to pre- vent such funds being used to finance military operations. Ambassador Kroll said Pinheiro's remarks "speak for themselves and reflect concern over the consequences of conflict and its impact on development objectives." "They are not a formal decision by the Commission nor the EU. They are to be seen as part of an ongoing debate which is normal in democratic environment and which was to be expected under the political circumstances. Pinheiro is in charge of EU-Africa re- lations and has a responsibility towards the European taxpayer." [COMMENT: That's how the propaganda goes here in Europe, of course. It would be more honest, in this context, if these people openly said they "had responsibility towards" *interna- tional superexploitation, robbery and murderous assaults*. - RM] "Funds earmarked for development must not be used for other pur- poses," Kroll said. Kroll, however, declined to comment on remarks made by President Sam Nujoma at a Swapo rally last week, saying the issue was out- side his mandate. Yesterday it was reported that Danish Minister for International Development, Paul Nielson, has warned African states with forces in the DRC that Copenhagen will cut off aid to them if the con- flict continues (see separate report). Rumpf said reasons behind the military intervention in the DRC by Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe had been explained to the EU de- legation. He said within the SADC framework, member countries were manda- ted to intervene in political crises in other member countries in order to ensure that peace prevailed. "With regard to the statements by Commissioner Pinheiro we are not able to make any statements because we are not Foreign Af- fairs and we have not seen the purported speech," Rumpf said. Kroll said the EU was prepared to listen to what SADC had to say about conflicts in the region. September 28, 1998 ________________________________________________________________ "NEWS ON CONGO" postings bring statements by the Congo National Association in Sweden and the DR Congo Committee in Sweden and also reproduce information and analysis from other sources. For French-readers we recommend the sites Agence Congolaise de Presse, ACP: (temporarily closed from 16.08.98 on - but now, 12.09 etc, open again), Congonline (Belgium-based, brings info from various sources): , and also the sites and . Contact addresses: Congo National Association Box 5343 SE - 102 45 Stockholm Sweden Tel: +46 - 8 - 471 96 26 (chairman) +46 - 8 - 84 57 18 (facility) Fax: +46 - 8 - 751 26 06 DR Congo Committee (Chairman: Bony Ndjov-a-Shamalo) Box 17513 SE - 200 10 Malmoe Sweden Tel: +46 - 40 - 12 48 32 E-mail: congocomse@hotmail.com