Background to the aggression against DR Congo (3) [Posted: 16.08.98] 5. CONGO: DOWN WITH US ETC NEO- 17.04.1997 COLONIALIST MILITARY THREAT! In the latest issue of "Solidaire", weekly of the PTB, Belgium - it's dated 09.04 and I got my copy yesterday - a statement by AFDL liberation army leader Kabila which I haven't seen else- where is reported. The paper notes the well-known fact that since the liberation in mid-March of Kisangani (ex-Stanleyville), there has been a con- siderable deployment of US and other foreign troops near the borders of Congo(-Kinshasa). To neigbouring Congo-Brazzaville, 600 US troops have been sent, and 300 from France, which also has 600 more in another neighbouring country, Gabon. From Bel- gium, 550 paratroopers have been sent. Smaller British and Por- tugese units are giving logistic support. Further, the article by Tony Busselen and Dirk Van Duppen says, the USS Nassau has anchored off the harbour Pointe-Noire. (They're calling that vessel an "aircraft carrier", but though it does look like one it of course is a considerably smaller ship than the 80-100,000 ton US carriers. A presence of any of those there so far has not been any talk of. The Nassau is a 33,000 ton amphibious assault ship with 1400 Marines in addition to Harrier "jump jets" /vertical take-off and landing/ and Super Cobra attack helicopters.) The objective of the sending of these armed forces, the article - no doubt correctly - says, is to defend "Western" (imperia- list) interests and if possible to prevent Congo from liberating itself completely from the Mobutu regime. [Meanwhile, of course, even the US imperialists have openly cal- led for Mobutu to step down. It seems to me that they now, in order to have a counter-force to those of Kabila, which they of course are doing what they can to subvert, are putting some of their money on ex-premier Tshesekedi and some others in Kin- shasa, who arranged the general strike there starting last Mon- day.] Anyway, the IMO most important part of the "Solidaire" article is a quoted statement by Kabila, reproduced from "Le Peuple" (a paper unknown to me) of 26.03. It reads (in my translation from the French): "The sending of foreign troops to the borders of our territory is a threat to peace, to the territorial integrity. Some people have ambitions which we don't know but which we can imagine: the occupation of Kinshasa in order to exert blackmail in the old fashion. These are intimidations of the neo-colonial type which we must smash. We must continue to advance in order to liberate our people, whatever might be the nature of the pressure on the part of those who think they have the mission of regimenting the world." [So far the quote in "Solidaire"] Quite right! And its clear who he's talking about. We in other countries must demand too, that this neo-colonialist military pressure is put an end to. US and other imperialist military forces go home, away from the borders of Congo/Zaire! Rolf M. 6. UNITE! INFO #32EN/FR: CALL BY 25.04.1997 COMMITTEE OF AFRICAN WOMEN (Note: Here only that call in English and an intro comment) ENGLISH: INTRO NOTE: Below is reproduced, in my translation, a Call which appeared in issue No. 16-17/1997, 16 April 1997, of the French-language "Solidaire", weekly of the Parti du Travail de Belgique (PTB; ; homepage in English ). This statement poses some demands that merit the broadest interna- tional support, and contains an IMO excellent basic analysis of the present situation. - RM CALL BY THE COMMITTEE OF AFRICAN WOMEN We demand that the armed forces that are constantly being aug- mented around the border of Zaire be withdrawn instantly from Africa. We demand of the Western media that their coverage of the tra- gedies taking place in Africa be conducted with the greatest respect for the dignity of the African populations. We note that when a catastrophe takes place in Europe, we are shown bodies that are covered up. We note that those news sto- ries about Africa are being broadcast with a purpose: every time that we are shown those pictures of Africans, there follows a military intervention called 'humanitarian'. An intervention that serves to maintain some decadent regime or other in its place. To the widows and the mothers of the Belgian and Western para- troopers who see their husbands and their sons leave for Africa in order to defend the interests of certain people: Let us react in order not to relive the same tragedies. We call on the Belgian and Western populations to support our struggle, since we are all victims of the same mechanisms of domination and exclusion. We are living in the beginning of a new era. The Africans have decided to take their destiny into their own hands and we, women, don't let us leave in peace those who are trying to prevent this! Committee of African Women, Brussels, 10 April 1997 7. CONGO: A SPLENDID VICTORY! 18.05.1997 So now it's confirmed: Practically the whole of Kinshasa, and thus the whole country, has been liberated, and the last part has been with very little bloodshed. Only at a certain military camp are some units of the old "presidential guard" putting up a last-ditch resistance; no doubt it will be broken soon. The founding of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been an- nounced. Congratulations! It was fun to watch the huffing and puffing and grumping on the news broadcasts just now, at 00.00 hours GMT, by the news ser- vices of some of the imperialists. One speaker even still was calling the AFDL "the rebels" - the news hadn't yet sunk in pro- perly there. A very positive thing, this development in the Con- go, for the entire international situation. Rolf M. 8. "DEMO(BUTU)CRACY WE WANT!", SAY 31.05.1997 US, FRANCE Last week, there were consultations by two imperialist powers, one very big and one smaller, the USA and France, on a third country, Congo (ex-Zaire). Their leaders were quite in agree- ment, a communique said: They were both and jointly going to "work towards" their "being instituted democracy" in that third country. How thoughtful of them! And how can it be that they've hit on that great idea precisely now? Up until some seven months ago, there had been no consul- tations by those powers, for instance, on any such theme. The reason is no big secret of course. The difference is that today, the former regime in ex-Zaire has been toppled by a popu- lar uprising led by Laurent Kabila's AFDL. It was precisely that regime which they themselves, the USA and France, and some other allies (and semi-competitors) of theirs had put into power in the first place and then massively supported, against the peop- le, for more than 30 years, as long as that was at all possible, the more and more "kleptocratic", disastrous regime of Mobutu. So, judging by the past record with respect to Congo of those now consulting with each other, brazenly stating it as their in- tention to continue interfering concerning the social order in that country, what kind of regime is it that they now want there and are calling, distinguishing it from the present one, "demo- cracy"? It's another Mobutu regime that they want, obviously. And so, at the same time as their leaders had their talk on this, they're organising - or at least helping organise - demon- strations in Kinshasa. Well, this they haven't said in public, and these demonstrations may well in part be caused by some ge- nuinely popular grievances too, in that country with so many different ethnic etc groups and so many problems left over from the former, catastrophic, regime, but everyone but the very most naive must clearly see the hands of the imperialists to be in- volved in this. Take the picture of a Kinshasa placard covering half the front page of one of the US and generally superpower muppet dailies published here in Malmö, Sweden, the Arbetet Nyheterna, last Thursday, 29.05, for instance. Whenever did you see that paper or a similar one here featuring, on any occasion whatsoever, and with as much as a tenth of that present space devoted to it, what some "people in the streets" of some city or other in a country in distant Africa were saying? But here we could read, in 20-mm-high letters in that Swedish paper, the placard's text in French: "PEUPLE CONGOLAIS ATTEN- TION! DESIRE KABILA EGAL DESIRE MOBUTU." ("Watch out, Congolese people! Désiré Kabila equals Désiré Mobutu." - It "cautiously" didn't say "Zairian people" either.) Where has this placard's "theory" - which by no means is true, of course, which events so far at least precisely contradict - been seen or heard before? Actually, repeatedly since last November, on the Marxism-General mailing list managed by the Spoon Collective, a discussion forum which is one of the places to which I intend to post this. There was "no reason" for people abroad to support the uprising against the Mobutu regime, this theory maintained, since the AFDL led by Kabila was "basically of the same sort as Mobutu anyway". Some of those embracing it may well have been sincere and well-intentioned too. But clearly, as I for instance repeatedly have pointed out and have brought information to support, this "theory" precisely *emanated and emanates from the imperialists and their muppets*. When recently in Congo, the new government has put a temporary ban on political activity in the capital, as reported in the me- dia, is this justified or not? In my opinion, considering the abovementioned facts, it may well be entirely justified. On the basis of the information received here in Sweden at least, there is no reason to criticize it. Governments actually representing the majority of people have done similar things before, and with good reason. South African president Nelson Mandela, for instance, in this case has expres- sed his understanding of this action, saying that in his judge- ment, the AFDL so far has been acting democratically in those areas which have already for some time been under its rule. Friends abroad of the Congolese people should watch further de- velopments, with open eyes and minds, in order to see whether the actions of the AFDL government should be opposed or suppor- ted. So far, that governemt to me absolutely seems to be a con- siderable improvement over the former in Congo (ex-Zaire). Re- cent developments in that country, the victory of the people's insurrection in only some seven months, most definitely are a very hopeful fact concerning the entire present international situation. Rolf M. 9. IN SUPPORT OF THE DEMOCRATIC 31.05.1998 REPUBLIC OF CONGO Intro Note: This leaflet is published on the occasion of "Africa Day" in Malmö, Sweden. In late 1996, the people of the then Zaire rose up in armed re- volt against the reactionary regime of Mobutu. The insurrection was organized by the AFDL led by Laurent Kabila. After it had scored important successes, the foreign powers profiting from Mobutu's regime, in particular the USA, threatened armed inter- vention, for so-called "humanitarian" reasons. Here is a Call for support against that threat, from April 1997: Call for Support of the People of Congo/Zaire, April 1997 {See reproduced posting No. 6 above, Call by Committee of African Women, Brussels, Belgium, 10 April 1997.} ......... ......... *Proposing a Committee in Sweden to Support the Democratic Republic of Congo* The above Call appeared in issue No. 16-17/1997, 16 April 1997, of the French-language "Solidaire", weekly of the Parti du Tra- vail de Belgique (PTB; address: Bd M. Lemonnier 171, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium; tel: +32 - 2 - 513.66.26; e-mail: ). It was reproduced by me (address, see below) in French and in English in an Internet posting, 25.04.1997. The former Zaire was completely liberated on 17 May 1997 and the Democratic Republic of Congo then founded in the entire country, with Laurent Kabila as President. Massive outside pressure against that Republic still continues however, with economic strangulation attempts and vilification in the media of many countries. I therefore propose the founding of a Committee here in Sweden to support it. (There is one such in Belgium. Contact with it could be established.) Others who are interested in this too, please contact me at the below address. - RM ________________________________________________________________ Leaflet published by: R. Martens Nobelvägen 38 SE - 214 33 Malmö Sweden Tel: +46 - 40 - 124832 e-mail: rolf.martens@mailbox.swipnet.se 31.05.1998 ________________________________________________________________ [So far reproduced posting No. 9, the last here] UNITE! / VEREINIGT EUCH! / UNISSEZ-VOUS! / ¡UNIOS! / FÖRENA ER! Info en/de/fr/es/se series: Advocates the political line of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. Each item # will be posted in one or more language(s). Leaflets in the INFORMATIONSBLAD series published by me, mainly in Swedish, since 1975 are available on request. Befürwortet die politische Linie von Marx, Lenin und Mao Zedong. Jedes Nummer # wird in einer oder mehreren Sprache(n) gesandt werden. Flugblätter der Reihe INFORMATIONSBLAD, von mir hauptsächlich in Schwedisch seit 1975 veröffentlicht, sind auf Anfrage erhaltlich. Avocate de la ligne politique de Marx, Lénine et Mao Zedong. Chaque numéro # sera envoyé en une ou plusieurs langue(s). Volantes de la série INFORMATIONSBLAD, publiée par moi principalement en suédois depuis 1975, sont accessibles sur demande. Partidaria de la línea política de Marx, Lenin y Mao Zedong. Cado número # sera enviado en una o varias lengua(s). Se pueden conseguir a la demanda volantes de la serie INFORMATIONSBLAD, publicada por me principalmente en sueco desde 1975. Förespråkar Marx', Lenins och Mao Zedongs politiska linje. Varje nummer # kommer att sändas på ett eller flera språk. Flygblad i serien INFORMATIONSBLAD, publicerad av mig huvudsakligen på svenska sedan 1975, kan fås på begäran. Postal address: Rolf Martens Nobelvaegen 38 SE - 214 33 Malmoe SWEDEN Tel: +46 - 40 - 124832