According to Eric David, Professor of South Africans condemn Lesotho incursion International Law at Belgium's Université libre de Bruxelles, this incitement to racial hatred is criminal. "It is also a recognised sociological phenomenon: by devaluing. and dehumanising the opponent, lt becomes... much easier to achieve his physical elimination."
The 1948 Geneva convention establishes a specific crime of genocide, defined as "any act committed in the intent of partial or total destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such."
Fortunately, we are not yet witnessing genocide. But what happened in August must not go unpunished. And if the discourse of racial hatred does lead to further, greater crimes, then the top leaders of the Congo government must be considered directly responsible. The rebellion
The rebels in eastern Congo say Kabila has become totalitarian. Their campaign to replace him depends on support from the Rwanda and Ugandan governments. Although western governments have not condemned the rebellion, they, like Kabila, denounce the "outside interference" of Rwanda and Uganda.
But the fundamental problem with this rebellion is elsewhere. Unless the people themselves are the principle actors in a struggle for emancipation, what can stop a new dictator emerging? If the goal is to have more democracy, then a military struggle, with the usual tactics of war, is surely inadequate.
The RCD rebels hoped to win a rapid military victory, thanks to active support from Rwanda and Uganda. They wrongly expected that Angola would remain neutral. The rebels say that they would have introduced a transition to democracy. This emphasis on the military aspect of struggle, with the people relegated to a passive role, reflects the authoritarian conceptions which dominate the regimes in Rwanda and Uganda. And which reveals their similarities with Kabila's regime.
The rebellion was clearly dominated by military, rather than civilian groups. The political structure, the Congolese
Workers Organisation for Socialist Action (WOSA) condemns the incursion of South African troops into Lesotho. This military fiasco has led to the deaths of tens of people, including civilians, and the maiming for life of many
Besides questions of "international law", WOSA notes that this ill-considered attempt to intimidate the people of an independent state most of whom are our worker brothers and sisters in the mines of Gauteng and the Free State, on the farms of the northern provinces and in the factories and offices of our cities, will have consequences for which South Africa will have to pay for many years to
Coming so soon after the fiasco of the "peace" initiative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this militaristic extreme demonstrates that South Africa's so-called foreign policy is in a shambles and that the new regime sees itself as the sub-region's sub-imperialist policeman acting under the cloak of the Southern Africa Development Council (SADC) [a regional co-operation group dominated by South Africa]. It is an ineffectual, counter-productive and destructive force which, essentially, increases the sufferings of ordinary citizens and
We reject and oppose the doctrine which was agreed on by the SADC leaders in Mauritius earlier this month. That doctrine amounts to a guarantee of permanent tenure for the incumbent middle-class regimes, most of which are the very opposite of even the limited liberal democracy we still enjoy in the new South Africa.
This action also demonstrates that elements of the apartheid old guard and the present office-holders in South Africa will combine to suppress any mass democratic challenge to their power. This is one of the most sinister implications of this action from the point of view of those of us who stand for the socialist alternative in southern Africa.
The most lasting and most tragic result of this insane move will be the hatred of all things and people South African that the South African troops have engendered in the breasts of our worker brothers and sisters in Lesotho. The inevitable consequence will be an even more disastrous increase in the levels of hatred of foreign workers among South African workers, especially among the unemployed. It could take decades to heal this unnecessary wound.
As revolutionary socialists, we call on all workers and socialist of southern Africa to join the South East Africa Forum which will be launched in Mauritius at the end of 1998 so that we can fight as a united force against the antiworker and anti-democratic policies and practices of the middle-class govern-
We say that as the producers of the wealth of these countries and as citizens entitled to our human rights, we shall not be dragooned into wars and other international conflicts calculated to ensure the profits of the international and local capitalist classes. There is no doubt, for example, that, as in the Congo, the decisive reason for this intervention is protection of the interests of South African and foreign capitalist investors. They want to secure the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and its ramifications for the Free State and Gauteng mines.
WOSA makes a special call on the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to come out clearly against the South African military adventure in Lesotho from where many, if not most, of its members come. The workers have no fatherland An injury to one is an injury to all. Let us stand together against all racism, national chauvinism and capitalist *This resolution was approved at the 5th National WOSA Conference, Johannesburg, 25-27 September 1998. See