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from page 1
According to the World Bank, (a long-time
supporter of Mobutu's), 64.7 percent of
Zaire's budget was reserved for Mobutu's
"discretionary spending" in
1992. Official Zairian figures put the
number at 95 percent. Such astounding
pillage made Mobutu (according to himself)
one of the three richest men in the world,
while impoverishing Zairians and destroying
the country's infrastructure. One-third
of Zaire's citizens died from malnutrition
under Mobutu with "countless others"
suffering permanent brain damage in youth.
A Balkanized Congo
Mobutu's unlimited greed was his undoing.
As long as he shared the looting with
U.S.A., Belgian, French, British, Dutch
and other Western corporations which dominated
the Zairian economy, the Americans supported
him. But, as one observer put it, "when
he kept too much for himself - and became
an embarrassment - the U.S.A. was ready
to see him overthrown." In October
1996, the Rwandan army along with Ugandan
troops invaded Zaire and by May 1997 had
taken over the country and forced Mobutu
to flee. To give the invasion the cover
of a local rebellion, the Tutsi Rwandan
forces called themselves the Alliance
of Democratic Forces for the Liberation
of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) and recruited Laurent
Kabila, an exiled Congolese Marxist opponent
of Mobutu's, as a figurehead leader. As
the Wall Street Journal put it, "Many
Africans [concluded that] the Zairian
rebellion was the brainchild of Washington
from the very start." Rwanda and
Uganda are the U.S.A.'s "staunchest
allies in the region." Paul Kagame,
the Rwandan leader, was trained at the
U.S.A. Army Command and General Staff
College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. American
Special Forces had been training the Rwandan
army since 1994 in counterinsurgency,
combat and psychological operations. This
included instructions about fighting in
Zaire. Rwandan soldiers were also trained
at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (U.S.A.),
in July-August 1996 (just before the invasion),
in land navigation, rifle marksmanship,
patrolling and small-unit leadership.
Once the Rwandans had installed Kabila
in power, his relations with them quickly
deteriorated. In July 1998, Kabila expelled
Rwandan and Ugandan forces from the Congo.
He cited as his reasons a failed assassination
attempt against him and the Rwandan army's
killings of Hutu refugees. On August 2,
Rwanda and Uganda invaded the Congo and
occupied its eastern half where they remain
today having set up surrogate "rebel"
armies called Congolese Rally for Democracy
(RCD-Goma--created by Rwanda) and Movement
for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC--created
by Uganda). Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia
sent their armies to support Kabila and
Burundi joined the Rwandans and Ugandans.
Thus began "Africa's First World
War" involving seven armies, which
has killed 2.5 million people and further
devastated a country crushed by more than
a century of Western domination.
This domination is being continued through
Washington's use of Rwanda and Uganda
to partition the Congo and loot its resources.
At the start of hostilities, the U.S.A.
reacted with "a remarkable silence."
When a statement was issued it explained
that the invasion was intended to counter
genocide and blamed the Congolese government
for failing to deal with border security.
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