ZAIRE

Mobutu Plays with the Fire of Ethnic Conflicts

The Shaba and Kivu provinces of Zaïre have experienced a year of massacres and migrations.

BY FABRICE BOULÉ

Already paralyzed by a political crisis, Zaïre is now threatened with ethnic conflicts which are supported and exacerbated by President Mobutu.

Travelling through Switzerland, Célestin Kalambay, chief cabinet minister in the government of Etienne Tshisekedi (who was elected Prime Minister of the National Sovereign Conferencenot recognized by Mobutu) sounded the alarm concerning the situation in two eastern provinces of Zaïre. To date, there are estimates of 2000-3000 dead in Shaba (formerly known as Katanga) and northern Kivu, and 200,000 displaced persons near Rwanda and the eastern and western Kasaï province. In Kivu, Mobutu has incited the "indigenous" population (Hundes and Nyangas) to expel the "foreigners," Hutus and Tutsis, both of whom also occupy neighboring Rwanda. And in Shaba, in an August 1992 speech given at Lubumbashi, Nguz Karl I Bond, the current defense minister in the puppet government of Faustin Birindwa and governor of the province of Kyunga wa Kumanza (which was secured by the president), called for the Katangais (the people of Shaba) to expel the relatively prosperous Kasaïens who control the mining industry. Seizing the work and property of the Kasaïens was proposed as revenge against Tshisekedi, who is from eastern Kasaï. Kalambay explained that along with Mobutu's refusal to accept a power transition, there has been a "utilization of ethnic strife as an additional manifestation of a multi-faceted strategy which includes usury, force, lies, and his omni-present cunning and trickery."

Kalambay referred to Mobutu's cunning because the president wants to demonstrate to the international community that he alone is capable of putting an end to the ethnic disorder. According to Kalambay, Mobutu "starts the fires and then presents himself as the only firefighter capable of putting them out." Another lie: last March 24, Etienne Tshisekedi asked the UN for urgent humanitarian aid; a technical team was rapidly formed in order to evaluate the situation, but their travel to the region was blocked by Mobutu who denied that there was any urgency. However, Faustin Birindwa claimed shortly thereafter that he was unable financially to assist the displaced populations.

For now, the Tshisekedi government is counting on Western countries to increase pressure on the dictator. His only hope for immediate success is to convince Western leaders to translate clear recognition of his government into action.

(published in the Geneva Tribune 176:30, 31 July-1 Aug. 1993); translated by Lori Hartmann.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fourth World Bulletin • December 1993