Preceding the assassination of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, there were reports that the US were planning a decisive blow against the DRC for this year. First, in the beginning of 2001, chaos and disorganization were to be instigated and then new intervention forces should enter the country nearby the country's most important central areas. According to Congolese press reports commando groups from Uganda were infiltrating the capital Kinshasa in the time before the assassination and Ugandan sources were the first to spread the news of Kabila's death. And nearly all of the observers agree in the assessment that Uganda as well as Rwanda can only uphold their aggression in the Congo for such a long time and on this level of intensity because of the backing by the USA. Also the reports shortly after the assassination that Belgium was keeping paratroopers ready "to bring the Belgians living there out of the country" goes with all that very well.

Several voices from other countries announced chaos and disorganization caused by that assassination. Just the time of the assassination does not seem to be occasional, it's the day before the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Congo. This assassination, just one year after reaching independence, with the CIA and the former colonial power Belgium pulling the wires from behind, is combined with sad memories of imperialist interventions, bloody turmoil and secessionist wars. Also the first reports about Kabila having been shot during a dispute with his generals and the announcement of his death at a time when he probably was still alive belong to the arsenal of propaganda weapons, used in order to stimulate a coup d'état, to aggravate the contradictions in the country. During the last days various rumors did the rounds in order to stir up animosity in the camp of the Congo and his allies. But the chaos desired by these circles failed to materialize for the time being.

L.-D. Kabila was the last still living well known companion of national hero Lumumba, who fell for the independence and integrity of this country, he was an important leading personality with unifying force. Wanting to push through a development of his country as independent as possible and, above all, wanting to stop the squandering of the rich mineral resources (besides diamonds and many other precious minerals a considerable part of the world's known deposits of uranium is situated there) and putting the mining and the export under strict control by the state for this purpose, he was a thorn in the side of the forces of worldwide capitalist exploitation. (Also look at our Internet Statement #99-19 and the speech by L.-D. Kabila reproduced there). At the beginning of his campaign to overthrow the Mobutu regime he received some support from Uganda and Rwanda and also a certain goodwill of the USA because Mobutu's days were numbered at any rate: the regime was absolutely run down, the infrastructure of the country was totally destroyed, also physically Mobutu came to his end. But after Kabila's government did not show its will to play the role of their governor things were changing soon. The new government made concepts to develop the country by its own efforts (See Kabila's speech to the representatives of the committees of people's power, Jan. 21, 1999), the armed forces of Uganda and Rwanda were requested to leave the country. The Congo under Kabila also took the initiative for a unified economic area in Central Africa in order to create a counterbalance against the international dictate by the IMF and the big imperialist powers.

In the time after, the civil war going on since a long time in and around the Kivo province near the frontier of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi was stirred up and transformed into a war for the occupation of the Congo and for the overthrow of the Kabila government. Whereas in the beginning certain conflicts in the neighboring states, transferred into the Congo by great floods of refugees and by ethnically related sections of the population, above all the well known conflict between militant Hutu- and Tutsi groups, sometimes caused military operations in the neighboring areas of the Congo, now troops from Uganda and Rwanda intervened to quite another extent and with the official goal to replace Kabila's government, cooperating with so called "opposition rebel groups" sponsored by the invaders, often based on former followers of Mobutu and military rulers who could not get a sufficient look-in in the Congo under Kabila. These forces have established a regime, cruel and eager for booty, being a heavy load for the domestic population which puts up the fight in various ways, sometimes in their desperation using machetes, clubs or just bow and arrow.

It was said that this war has caused up to now, directly and indirectly, more than two million victims. The invaders are controlling half of the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this country being as big as the whole of Western Europe but with a population of only 48 million inhabitants, 10 % of them living in the capital area. In the occupied areas near the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, 1000 kilometers far from the capital city, there are lucrative mineral resources which are exploited and sold on the world market by the occupying forces. The war the Congo is forced to wage further exhausts the country which already before had been in a desperate condition and it undermines the endeavors for an independent development.

On the side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia are giving military support. This collective military action of several African states against neo-colonialism is of great significance.

The situation in the Congo, the expectation of chaos and disorganization inspires colonialist fantasies - also in our country. The Berlin daily "Der Tagesspiegel" published in its issue of Jan.19, 2001 on the front page a commentary concerning the situation in Africa entitled: "For a New Colonialism" (!). Countries like Mozambique and Sierra Leone where today the most important positions allegedly are filled with British specialists are held up as an example. Whereas the war in the Congo, despite its great importance for Africa, hardly had been worth a line, now the smear articles against the assassinated Kabila take by far more space. In another article by the Tagesspiegel of Jan.18, 2001 "The End of a Man Carrying Hopes" so-called "mistakes" of Kabila are given in an open language:

"... that he destroyed the confidence of those investors who after his coming to power showed their interest in the mine industry." (Among them American Mineral Fields - AMF. After the failure of a multi-billion deal there were appeals from this direction to overthrow Kabila already years before.)

"... Kabila angered the foreign giving countries with his arbitrariness and his missing readiness to reform. His refusal of a closer cooperation with the United Nations in order to settle the civil war in his own country had the consequence that the foreign countries could not force themselves to help the Congo in paying its enormous foreign debts of more than 15 billion US-dollars." That means because he didn't want to reunite with the old followers of Mobutu and with the allies of the foreign intervention who sell off the country's richness and because he did not want to restrict his sovereignty the financial thumbscrews were put on.

"Kabilas main mistake was to scare off just the allies to whom he owed his coming to power in May 1997: the governments of the eastern neighboring states Uganda and Rwanda." (And the USA standing behind them).

And finally there was said:

"Today nobody in this country is fighting any longer for democracy or for re-establishing law and order. Like in old colonial times all what it is about for the different parties of the war is plunder of the mineral resources, above all diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper and uranium." This obviously means: there is no legitimate power in this country and so a foreign intervention should be justified. But of course for the "new colonialism" it is not about the mineral resources at all!

In the end of the 19^th century the Congo was declared a blank area on the map and international conferences of the imperialist powers were upheld in order to share it out. Today they are talking about a "dark zone" again - the British "Economist" titled "The Heart of the Darkness" - where all the political forces only want to "exploit the mineral resources". In a relatively open language they welcome the death of Kabila. Even Belgium today appears again with a certain arrogance in this region. They "had left the Congo alone too early" was said by the former colonial power, just by them who in 1960/61, a short time after the new won independence, in cooperation with other imperialists spread murder and civil war in the Congo because they did not agree with the direction of the development there. The Belgian daily "Het Laatste Nieuws" wrote on Jan. 17, 2001 according to dpa news agency about the death of Kabila:

"The world certainly will be better without this man. But it's not sure that the population of the Congo is heading towards a better future. (...) They don't deserve to suffer this way. Perhaps Belgium could try to change the situation definitely."

The people of the Congo know this kind of solicitousness. When in 1885 at an international conference in Berlin the Congo was given to the Belgian King Leopold as his private colony allegedly it was about "the development of trade and civilization" and ending slavery (which had cost Africa dozens of millions of people, a considerable number of them coming from the Congo area. Only the smaller part of them reached their place of destination alive, above all the American continent.) And so the "solicitous" King Leopold made the Congolese people his private slaves, always treated with a whip made of hippo-leather and threatened by getting an arm hacked off and other acts of terrorism if, for instance, they didn't hand in the targeted quantity of natural rubber. During the Belgian colonial rule the population decreased about the number of 10 million people representing 50 percent of the whole then. But in contemporary Belgium, housing the head offices of NATO and European Community, there are voices saying that the country, not being able to manage a trial against a professional child murderer and child abuser within 5 years, should "put things in order" in the Congo.

Kabila was right one hundred times insisting in an independent development. For a long time this potentially rich country was foreign power's plaything and object of exploitation. The Congo also has had its very bad experience with the UN. There, in the heart of Africa, they care very -much that there is not a development too independent. After all this country must get the chance to mind its own affairs without interference by imperialist forces. This is also an important chain link for the development of the whole of Central Africa. We hope that they will further keep up their independence and that the justified objectives of the Congolese people will gain support all over the world. Every imperialist and colonialist intervention must be condemned and fought.
 

In the meantime the new State President Joseph Kabila shortly after his nomination was welcomed in the USA, flew to France and to Belgium. In some public leaflets such a development was hinted already at the end of the year 2000. Now it is said that all foreign troops should withdraw from the Congo. But the acid-test is still to come when the economic laws of the new government will be announced. No government can leave out the objective contradictions, and already now one thing is for sure: the new colonialists may have their plans, but they will never work the way they are speculating. Africa has made much too many experiences for that during the last decades.

Neue Einheit Editorial Staff

W. Gerhard

In the beginning of February 2001