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To: dvid who wrote (58)	9/25/1998 6:47:00 AM
From: pete meyer	Respond to of 73

Yahoo! News World Headlines Thursday September 24 5:05 PM EDT Hutus And Sudan Raise Stakes In Congo War By John Chiahemen KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo's President Laurent Kabila has turned to exiled Hutus, blamed for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, to help put down a rebellion in a move that risks rekindling Rwanda's ethnic carnage, diplomats say. With indications that Kabila is also receiving military support from Sudan, despite denials, diplomats say they fear national and ethnic conflict could engulf large parts of central Africa. ''We are seeing very worrying signs that Kabila's government is calculating on the Hutus taking this war to Rwanda,'' said a senior United Nations official in Kinshasa. ''This calculation, according to our information, involves the overthrow of the government in Kigali. If that happens we are likely to see new massacres in Rwanda on the scale of what happened in 1994,'' said the official, who asked not to be named. The same fear is repeated by senior Western diplomats in Kinshasa who met Kabila's Foreign Minister Jean-Charles Okoto last week to push for a diplomatic solution to the fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Four rounds of talks have failed to produce a cease-fire. Francophone Central African leaders, including Kabila, met in Gabon Thursday for fresh talks. Some diplomats said exiled Hutus in Congo and other neighboring states were being armed under Kabila's plan to hand weapons to citizens for a ''people's war.'' Kabila says this war would end in Rwanda, which he accuses of supporting the Tutsi-led rebels, once his allies in his own successful rebellion last year. Other beneficiaries are his one-time enemies, diehard loyalists of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko -- the so-called Ex-FAZ or former Zaire Army soldiers who lost the civil war won by Kabila and his then Rwandan-backed rebels in May 1997. The Ex-FAZ and the Ex-FAR (former Rwandan Army) soldiers are now grouped in the pro-Kabila alliance of convenience that has as a common enemy the Tutsi leadership in Rwanda. ''The only people who are willing to fight in Rwanda are the Ex-FARs and the Interahamwe (Hutu militias),'' said one Western diplomat. ''The Hutus desperately want to overthrow the government in Kigali but lack arms and organization. Suddenly Kabila comes along with arms and logistics. Of course they will jump at the opportunity.'' In the last two weeks Hutu Interahamwe militiamen, Ex-FAR soldiers and Congolese Mai Mai warriors have killed over 350 people in two attacks near Goma, the headquarters of the anti-Kabila rebellion located in the east on the Rwandan border. It was the so-called Banyamulenge Tutsis of eastern Zaire -- themselves of distant Rwandan origin -- in Kabila's army who launched the rebellion on August 2 with Rwandan and Ugandan backing that has snowballed into a full civil war. Allied troops from Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia evicted the rebels from positions in the west but appear reluctant to be involved in ground fighting in the east, on the borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan. About 200 Zimbabwean troops headed for the government's eastern stronghold town of Kindu Tuesday for deployment but the plane transporting them was inexplicably ordered to return to Kinshasa half an hour before it was due to land, commercial airline sources told Reuters. ''The Zimbabweans don't want to fight in Rwanda and (Zimbabwean President Robert) Mugabe has shifted his emphasis to a search for peace,'' one diplomat said. ''The Angolans also seem content to stay in territory close to their own interests.'' Diplomats said Kabila had instead been quietly rallying exiled Hutus not only in Congo but also on recent tours of Chad, Gabon and the Central African Republic -- all of them anxious to get rid of Hutu elements on their soil. In addition, airline sources familiar with the transport of troops and equipment say Sudan has been supplying both military experts and war material to back Kabila's forces in Kindu. The government has officially denied Sudan is involved -- but a senior government official in Kinshasa privately told Reuters Sudan was prepared to send troops to stop the rebels advancing beyond the eastern town of Isiro, located on a major highway to Sudan and Uganda. Rebels took Isiro last week. Diplomats say Sudan's involvement in the war could escalate the conflict, notably by drawing in Uganda further. Sudan and Uganada each support for rebels in the other's country and cut diplomatic ties in 1995. Conflict in the former Zaire since 1994 is largely rooted in the historic Hutu-Tutsi rivalry that culminated in the massacre of up to 800,000 minority Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 by Hutu soldiers and militias. More than a million Hutus fled to eastern Zaire to escape reprisals as the Tutsis went on to win a civil war and take power in Rwanda. The authorities in Rwanda have since made containment of armed Hutus in Zaire a cardinal national policy -- and believed they were serving this end by backing Kabila's successful campaign against Mobutu last year.

To: dvid who wrote (58)	9/26/1998 1:03:00 AM
From: dvid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 73

Tenke are also involved in the DRC. Their site contained the following: Message 5843215 September 24, 1998 By Times Reporter Lusaka - The United States has called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops currently defending Democratic Republic of the Congo President Laurent Kabila's government and hailed peace initiatives by some SADC leaders. According to the Washington Line released yesterday, state department spokesman James Rubin on Tuesday urged all foreign troops to immediately leave the trouble-torn country to end hostilities. Mr Rubin said his government supported peaceful means to resolve the conflict. He said the continued presence of foreign troops from Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Namibia, would undermine peaceful efforts being undertaken by the international community. Mr Rubin appealed to leaders in the region to ensure interested parties in the Congo refrained from joining the fighting. He said his government was concerned about the human rights abuses in rebel-held areas." Also, take a look at the ILP thread. Doug