By Norm Dixon
While the United Nations, the aid industry and the world press continue to accuse — without evidence — the new government of the Democratic Republic of Congo of systematic human rights abuses during the uprising that overthrew the Mobutu dictatorship, they remain tight-lipped about counter-revolutionary massacres in eastern Congo.
Ethnic chauvinism is again being whipped up by an alliance that includes remnants of Mobutu's defeated regime, the army and Interahamwe death squads of the genocidal former Rwandan government, overthrown in 1994, and supporters of the Kinshasa opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi. Their goal is to depose the governments of Laurent Kabila and the Rwandan Patriotic Front in Kigali.
On August 21, contras attacked a refugee camp in western Rwanda with guns and machetes, killing 107 and wounding 55. The camp housed Congolese Tutsis who had fled attacks by Mobutu's army and the Interahamwe in 1995 and 1996.
The attack was the latest in an escalating terrorist campaign inside Rwanda by Rwandan and Congolese contras. Major Emmanuel Ndahiro, spokesperson for the Rwandan Patriotic Army, told the Inter Press Service news agency in May that after the victory of the uprising in Congo "many ex-FAR [Rwandan army] and Interahamwe who had been fighting alongside Mobutu's army made their way back to Rwanda".
The contras have set up bases in the Virunga mountain range on the border between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, from where they launch attacks on schools, hospitals and government offices. Captured ex-FAR soldiers have disclosed that these attacks are intended to create insecurity and discredit the government by random killings of Tutsi civilians.
The contra alliance has also sought to link up with the Hutu rebellion in Burundi in the hope that the overthrow of the regime there would provide a base for attacks on Rwanda and Congo. Interahamwe have been involved in terrorist attacks inside Burundi.
The contra alliance has resumed attacks inside Congo. It is active in North Kivu province, near Masisi, and in the Fizi region of South Kivu. Several towns have been attacked in recent weeks.
On September 12, some 3000 Congolese Tutsis abandoned a refugee camp in North Kivu and crossed into Rwanda after they came under attack by contras.
The attacks follow the formation in August of the Democratic Resistance Alliance, whose goal is to "liberate" eastern Congo. It is led by the virulently anti-Tutsi Celestin Anzaluni Bembe, first vice-president in Mobutu's last government. The DRA is based in Tanzania and groups oppositionists from Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
In early September, Gerard Kamanda wa Kamanda, Mobutu's foreign minister, and Kin-kiey Mulumba, Mobutu's information minister, also formed a "resistance" movement called the Congolese Patriotic Assembly. Tshisekedi's Union for Democratic Progress joined the movement to resist the "regime of foreign occupation of Mr Kabila".
The silence of the UN, aid agencies and western governments in the face of resumed civil war is understandable. Following the defeat of the Rwandan regime — responsible for the murder of more than half a million Tutsi and anti-government Hutu Rwandans in three months — the French army intervened to usher the killers over the Congo border.
Under French protection, tens of thousands of Rwandan soldiers and the Interahamwe drove almost a million Hutu refugees into Congo. There the UN and aid agencies allowed the armed mass murderers to rule the refugee camps with a iron fist as they openly prepared to reinvade Rwanda and complete the genocide.
In league with the army of Mobutu, the Interahamwe launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Congolese Tutsis.
Beginning in January 1996, thousands of Banyarwanda from the Masisi region of North Kivu province sought refuge in Rwanda following attacks by Mobutu's army and the Interahamwe.
Prior to the Belgian colonisation of central Africa in the late 19th century, North Kivu was part of the kingdom of Rwanda. The imperialists drew borders without regard to existing ethnic boundaries, so the Banyarwanda were incorporated into the Belgian Congo, becoming Congolese citizens at independence in 1960. The Banyarwanda include both traditional castes in Rwandan society, Tutsi and Hutu.
The arrival of Hutu refugees in 1994 increased antagonism between the Banyarwanda and local non-Banyarwanda. Supported by Mobutu's army, the Interahamwe began an ethnic cleansing operation against the Banyarwanda Tutsis.
The pogroms were part of the Rwandan contras' plan to build up a "pure" Hutu rear base from which to reinvade Rwanda. This was supported by Mobutu and tolerated by the UN, aid agencies and western governments, which continued to pour aid into the Interahamwe-ruled camps.
When Mobutu and the Interahamwe began to attack the Tutsis of South Kivu — known as the Banyamulenge — they fought back.
The resistance of the Banyamulenge triggered the anti-Mobutu uprising which liberated North and South Kivu and freed the Hutu refugees — who streamed home to Rwanda in their hundreds of thousands — then swept across Congo, culminating in the liberation of Kinshasa in May.
The hard-core Interahamwe moved west, fighting with Mobutu's forces to the end. They were accompanied by tens of thousands of family members and Hutu refugees who were kept as hostages and human shields. The casualties resulting from the callous tactics of the contras are now being blamed on the rebel forces that overthrew Mobutu's 32-year, western-backed tyranny.
The reluctance of the UN and the aid agencies to admit their role in resuscitating the Interahamwe is at the root of the dispute between the Kabila government and the team sent by the UN to investigate alleged human rights violations.
The government insists that the team also investigate the Interahamwe massacres in the east. The UN team is demanding to investigate claims of violations in Congo's north, hundreds of kilometres from the east.
The Kabila government is convinced that the UN is not prepared to investigate Interahamwe atrocities, so as to absolve itself from blame.