rebels under attack from European mercenary force
Zaire unravels, west panics
White mercenaries hired by the Zairian regime continue their counter- offensive against the rebels in the Kivu area. President Mobut is dying of cancer, with no clear successor. There have been attempts to restore discipline in the army by trials of deserters, including officers. Alain
In order to maintain themselves in power, the African neo-colonialists manipulated clan and ethnic differences. The ruling factions appropriated the state apparatus and created ethnically-based forces. In Rwanda, this led to genocide and the subsequent defeat and
Mathieu wonders whether the dictator's imperialist patrons can halt the disintegration of Zaire, a pillar of neo-colonialism in the heart of Atrica
Coming at the same time as the rebellion in Kivu, the illness of the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko,' opened up a crisis for the regime. No successor is in sight. The Zairian army has been in a process of disintegration. But Mobutu remains the key to safeguarding French interests. Paris prepared the way for with the help of mercenaries and the French military, to restore the prestige of his army by a reconquest of Kivu.
Last summer, when the former Rwandan government forces, backed by the Zairian army, attacked the Banyamulenge people? in Kivu, guerrilla forces came to their aid. The capitalist press portrays the guerrilla leader Laurent Kabila as a self-proclaimed chief set up by the Rwandans. Nothing could be further from the truth.? Who are the rebels?
The Alliance of Democratic Forces of the Congo, which was formed in Kivu, includes four parties. Its stated goal is to overthrow Mobutu and replace his regime with a democratic state organisation. This is supposed to open the way for social justice and development by breaking from the system of corruption and neo-colonialism.
The Alliance is distinguished from the official opposition (led by Tschisékédi) by its 16 International Viewpoint rejection of any compromise with Mobutu. The Rwandan army gave it logistical aid and training so that it could break the grip of the genocidal militias on the refugee camps. After it accomplished this, it went on to pursue its own objective of overthrowing the Zairian regime. Hundreds of Zairian army men, including officers, began deserting to the rebels, and the guerrillas started recruiting civilians as they advanced. They have been helping the populations of the liberated territories to organise themselves thereby leading the people themselves to assume more and more control of the struggle to overthrow Mobutu. The Alliance seeks to combine liberation of the eastern territories with a resumption of mass mobilisations in the cities. France backs the dictatorship
France's international role as a middle-sized capitalist power rests on two pillars: possession of the atom bomb and close links with its former empire in Africa, and the former Belgian colonies of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. President De Gaulle established the French presence and influence on the basis of a patronage system involving inextricable ties between French and African
Successive French presidents have kept their Africa policy teams outside the control of the government and the parliament. This system degenerated into extortion and Mafia-type criminality, which infected both African and French political life. African bosses like Mobutu accumulated enormous fortunes which they used to bribe French businessmen and politicians.
But then the world economic crisis and the fall in raw materials prices reduced the size of the cake, with manifold consequences. In order to maintain their resources, the African strongmen resorted to all sorts of traffic (drugs, arms, precious minerals). The transfer of the resulting wealth abroad created a class of thieves, totally tied to French interests and completely unconcerned about industrialisation and development of their own countries.
In Zaire, Mobutu lost any illusions about amassing a personal fortune - thought to be at least as large as Zaire's total foreign debt.
flight of the murderous government. The genocide in Rwanda in 1992 exposed the degeneration of the French system of domination. President Francois Mitterrand then tried to camouflage French complicity by a so-called humanitarian mission, Opération Turquoise. In fact, this was nothing less than a military intervention to allow the orderly retreat of the genocidal regime, which set up a state-within-a-state in the refugee camps which sprang up across the Zairian border from Rwanda. The genocidal regime controlled the refugee camps, with the goal of one day returning to Rwanda and regaining control.
At the end of last year, the foundations of this system of domination were deeply shaken. In November, Zairian rebels with support from the new Rwandan government defeated the butchers who controlled the refugee camps in Eastern Zaire. One and a half million Rwandan refugees returned home. The eruption of this rebellion confirmed the death-crisis of the Mobutu regime. Finally, part of the army in the Republic of Central Africa, another pillar of the French military establishment in Africa, rebelled, obliging France to intervene "to protect its interests"
The military relationship of forces may be favourable to Mobutu at the moment, but his social base is weakening. The moderate opposition has stayed out of the government and is calling for negotiations with Kabila.
We have to redouble our solidarity with the Zairian resistance and mobilise against the French imperialist intervention that is being tacitly supported by the United States. It is essential to prevent a repetition of what happened in the 1960s, when imperialist intervention managed to kill the hopes of all the peoples of the region for a better Notes 1. He was operated on for cancer in Switzerland, near his bank accounts, and went to recover in France, near his protectors and triends). 2. The Banyamulenge have lived in their present home in Zaire for centuries. They are called Tutsis by the Zairian regime, and the capitalist press, because of their common roots with that traditional group in Rwanda and Burundi 3. Kabila began his struggle in 1960, fighting in the name of the central government headed by Lumumba against the Katanga secession organised by Tshombe, and supported by France, among others. In 1963, Kabila took the leadership of the Lumumbist forces. They were defeated by the imperialist counteroffensive following Mobutu's seizure of power in 1965, which was aided by mercenaries. They have kept on fighting for 30 years. They have managed to arm themselves without outside help by selling gold from Kivu.
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