Sudan's support for Kabila is "political": Sudanese FM
CAIRO, Sept 16 (AFP) - Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on Wednesday said his country was offering "political" support to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent Kabila.
But Ismail declined to confirm or deny a report by the DRC rebel political coordinator Lunda Bululu that Khartoum had dispatched 2,000 Sudanese soldiers to help Kabila. "Our support for Kabila is political in nature," Ismail told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab League ministerial conference in Cairo.
Asked to confirm reports that 2,000 Sudanese soldiers were deployed in the government's forward military headquarters in the eastern Congolese town of Kindu, Ismail said: "Let me first ask you a question.
"Is Kabila the legitimate and official president of the DRC? The answer is yes," Ismail said. "When Kabila came to power he took part in anti-Sudanese activities in the south of the Cairo with the help of other countries such as Eritrea and Uganda," he said.
"Now that the magic is gone, Kabila finds himself threatened by Uganda. Our position is that Kabila is the president of the DRC and that the other countries should not intervene to change the current regime," Ismail said. "Our support for Kabila is political because he is the legitimate president of his country," he added.
Kabila made a secret visit to Sudan at the end of August for talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
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Kinshasa denies Sudanese troops are in DRC, insults Kagame
KINSHASA, Sept 16 (AFP) - Army headquarters in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday "categorically denied" a rebel claim that Sudan had sent some 2,000 troops to fight in support of President Laurent Kabila. "The general staff of the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) denies in the most categorical fashion the presence of Sudanese troops in DRC," an official statement read on television said.
Sudan's foreign minister, Mustafa Osmane Ismail, said in Cairo on Wednesday that "our support for Kabila is of a political nature" and that he was "the president of DRC, and other countries should not intgervene to overthrow the current legitimate regime".
Tutsi-led rebels in Goma, the base of the insurgents in eastern DRC on the Rwandan border, claimed Tuesday that the Khartoum government had flown in 2,000 soldiers to back Kabila, including an unspecified number of men who had served former Zaire's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Meanwhile, the minister in the presidency here, Pierre-Victor Mpoyo, on Wednesday said that Rwandan strongman Paul Kagame was a "big ignoramus" for accusing Kabila of "usurping power" from the DRC alliance that helped him overthrow Marshal Mobutu in May last year.
Mpoyo upheld Kinshasa's position that Rwanda has invaded the DRC and presented Kagame, Rwanda's defence minister and vice president in a mainly Tutsi regime, as an upstart on the political stage in the Great Lakes.
Kagame headed Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels who had been mostly Tutsi soldiers long exiled in Uganda before they ousted genocidal Hutu extremist forces in Kigali in July 1994.
Mpoyo said that Kabila, who comes from the vast DRC's southeast Katanga province, had been a regional political figure for three decades and had maintained a constant policy, whereas "Kagame's action is unspeakable in that instead of informing himself by way of his elders, he has preferred to resort to his own knowledge and ignorance."
DRC authorities wanted to prove that "Mr. Kagame is lying and that most of his army is on Congolese territory where it is carrying out crimes of all kinds", the minister said. "Kagame should bother with his own little country. He shouldn't consider himself the lawman of the whole region," Mpoyo said.
Kigali has warned it will intervene if Kabila carries out a "genocide" of ethnic Tutsis in DRC, where Banyamulenge of Rwandan origin, unrecognised as DRC nationals, played a key role in the uprising that began on August 2.
On Tuesday, Kagame charged that Kabila had betrayed the multi-tribal Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, which helped him oust Mobutu. Kagame also justified Rwandan cross-border action in fighting near Goma early this week to prevent attacks by Rwandan Hutu insurgents, but Kigali hosts the only government among embroiled countries to deny direct military intervention in the war.
On his side, Kabila late last month mustered Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, while accusing Uganda and Rwanda of invading. Rebel political coordinator Lundu Bululu late Tuesday said Sudanese Ilyushin planes had flown soldiers to the big FAC advance base at Kindu, the capital of Maniema province less than 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the rebel front lines.
The rival sides have reported and denied military confrontations around key eastern towns. On Wednesday, the general staff here said that the FAC and their allies "disposed of a major strike force" at Kindu and said "the enemy was being routed".
On television, Information Minister Didier Mumengi said that the FAC and allied troops had launched a "counter-attack" from Kindu against rebels at Kisangani, the DRC's third city 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from Kinshasa, and at Kalemie, 1,200 kilometres from the capital. |
