By Norm Dixon
Supporters of the leader of the Kinshasa-based establishment "opposition", Etienne Tshisekedi, have called for armed struggle against the government of Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL).
The sudden militancy of Tshisekedi's Democratic Union for Social Progress (UDPS) stands in stark contrast to its "opposition" to the Mobutu dictatorship, which was confined to the largely powerless parliament. Tshisekedi served as Mobutu's prime minister on several occasions.
The decision comes as remnants of Mobutu's defeated army have launched attacks in parts of eastern Kasai province. Members of the army and militia — the Interahamwe — of the genocidal former Rwandan regime also remain active in parts of the Congo bordering Rwanda, from where they continue to launch attacks on civilians.
Former Rwandan soldiers, the Interahamwe and former Mobutu troops have also joined forces with terrorists backed by Sudan's repressive regime to wage war on Uganda from bases within northern Congo. The Sudan-backed terrorists are notorious for their brutality, having killed thousands of civilians and mutilated thousands more by cutting off their lips, noses and ears.
Thousands of officers and soldiers, along with their arms, and political operatives of the former Mobutu regime remain at large. Thousands more have fled to neighbouring Brazzaville. Thousands from the forces of the former Rwandan regime have also regrouped across the Congo river.
The South African Sunday Independent reported on July 13 that four senior officers of Mobutu's army met in Johannesburg (where they sought refuge after the collapse of the dictatorship) earlier that week to plan the formation of a rebel movement. The aim would be to fund a secession movement in the southern, mineral-rich province of Shaba.
The newspaper identified former general Kpama Baramoto, described as one of Mobutu's "hard-line favourites", who had close links with the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, and General Nzimbi Kongo wa Bassa, the commander of Mobutu's elite presidential guard.
Hundreds of Mobutuists fled to South Africa, where many have bought houses and invested millions in stolen state funds and assets.
The resistance movement, the paper reported, would be funded by the sale of cobalt the generals flew out of Congo just before Shaba fell to the ADFL. A French company has already bought US$2.3 million worth of cobalt from the contras.
Soon after the ADFL's victory, Tshisekedi called for the withdrawal of "foreign troops" from Kinshasa. He was echoing the claim of Mobutu and the dictator's imperialist backers that the ADFL-led rebellion was a "foreign" invasion from Rwanda and Uganda, a charge based on the chauvinist view that the Congolese Tutsi minority, who have lived in eastern Congo for centuries, are Rwandan.
In early July, Jacques Matanda ma Mboya, a senior member of the UDPS, called for a "popular front of armed resistance" and the formation of "armed combat cells" to overthrow the Kabila government. The aim would be to paralyse the economy and "eliminate foreign forces".
The call for armed struggle places Tshisekedi's party firmly in the camp of the counter-revolution. Congo's foreign minister Bizima Karaha accused Tshisekedi of being an "enemy of the government and the people" of Congo.