A Deadly Reversal
Why Does No One Care That The World’s Worst Conflict Has Broken Out Again?


by George Monbio

I hope that the newspapers do not represent public opinion. If they do, it means that we consider the Home Secretary's love affair several hundred times more important than the resumption of the most deadly conflict since the Second World War. On Sunday the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), already responsible for 3.8 million deaths, started again.(1) If you missed it, you're in good company.



The Rwandan army appears to have crossed back into north-eastern DRC. Rival factions of the Congolese army - some of them loyal to Rwanda - have started fighting each other. As usual, it's the civilians who are being killed - and raped and tortured and forced to flee into the forest. Last week, before the fighting resumed, the International Rescue Committee reported that over 1000 people a day are still dying from disease and malnutrition caused by the last conflict. Nearly half of them are children under five.(2)



Rwanda has already invaded the DRC (or Zaire, as it used to be called), twice. In both cases it appeared to
have justification. The Interahamwe militias who had killed 800,000 Rwandans fled there after the genocide in 1994. They were sheltered first by President Mobutu, then by President Kabila. They wanted to reinvade Rwanda and resume the genocide.



But after moving into the eastern DRC for the second time, in 1998, Rwanda more or less forgot about the genocidaires. It had found something more interesting: minerals. Better armed than the other forces in the region, the Rwandan army concentrated on seeking to monopolise the trade in diamonds and coltan. By 1999, according a report for the UN Security Council, 80% of the Rwandan military budget - around $320 million a year - was coming from minerals stolen from the DRC.(3)



The six African armies which had been drawn into the conflict, their proxy militias and the government of the DRC started fighting a monumental turf war over the mines. Millions of people fled their homes. Thousands were captured and forced to mine or to work as prostitutes. Rwanda's operation was by far the most efficient. According to Amnesty International, it was controlled directly from the capital, Kigali.(4) Even after 2002, when the armies officially withdrew, the Rwandan government left its men in the eastern DRC to continue running the mines.(5) The latest invasion appears to be a thinly-disguised attempt to deal with the militias which threaten its lucrative business.



Though we are rightly exercised about the atrocities in Darfur, it is hard to find anyone who gives a damn about the Congo. This is partly because we are used to seeing the Rwandan government forces as the good guys - the people who first suffered at the hands of the genocidaires, and then drove them out of their country. It's hard to adjust to the fact that good guys can become bad ones, harder still to recognise that they can become some of the world's bloodiest war criminals.



Those who believe that Paul Kagame's government can do no wrong concentrate their attacks on a report published in 2002 by the United Nations.(6) They allege that it has been subject to power-play between the members of the Security Council. But they fail to explain why Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, Global Witness, the British all-party parliamentary group and the US State Department have all, independently, come to the same conclusions.(7)



The reports produced by these bodies run to hundreds of pages, full of eye-witness accounts and the direct testimony of both survivors and perpetrators. They make dreadful, horrifying reading. They show how troops have repeatedly raped children as young as three; have sliced off the genitals of women who resist being raped; have forced women and children to work in terrifying conditions in the mines: scores have been buried alive. They have torched villages, looted homes, killed those who resist or those who appear to have helped the other side, and forced millions to flee into the jungle. Most of the 3.8 million have died of malnutrition and disease; but had the marauding armies filled them with lead, they could scarcely have had greater responsibility for their deaths.



The reports give the names of both agents and victims, the dates of the crimes, the precise locations, the value of the stolen resources and the names of the people and companies who bought them. It is very hard to see how they could all be disputed.



Some people, such as the former Guardian journalist Victoria Brittain, have claimed that Rwanda's critics have confused "the disciplined Rwandan army and the chaotic rebel groups".( While all the armed forces who have fought in the DRC since 1998 have committed atrocities, the Rwandan army is named in the documents again and again. The State Department, for example, summarises "numerous credible reports" of regular Rwandan troops "killing, torturing, or raping" people in North and South Kivu and northern Maniema Province.(9)



It is not easy to see, anyway, where the moral difference lies between killing people and commissioning others to do so on your behalf. Rwanda's proxy, the RCD-Goma militia, has committed innumerable atrocities all over the east. The Rwandan government is directly responsible for both its formation and its survival. In June this year, Global Witness reported that "the RCD was put together in Kigali [the Rwandan capital] rather than in the Congo" and "still remained highly dependent on its Rwandan backers to finance its military deployment in the region".(10) Amnesty International reports that the Rwandan army supplied this force with "rocket launchers, armoured cars, machine guns, light artillery, mortars and landmines".(11)



None of the reports disputes that the DRC's government in Kinshasa has also been responsible for crimes against humanity in the east of the country. But in much of this region, its writ hardly runs. As a UN report leaked to the BBC last week confirms, Rwanda and its proxy militias are the most powerful forces in the eastern DRC.(12) They control most of the minerals trade and have been involved in almost all the fighting.



Rwanda could have wiped out the Interahamwe - which is now a much smaller and weaker force than it used to be - years ago. As the International Crisis Group points out, "Rwanda had exclusive and total military control over the eastern half of the Congo between 1996 and 2002 and failed to neutralise and repatriate all its nationals."(13) Instead, it has repeatedly used its presence as an excuse to occupy the mineral-rich regions. As the British parliamentary group reports, the Rwandan army was often "located in areas where the Interahamwe did not exist, or were at least 50km away."(14) In some places, the army has even formed alliances with the Interahamwe to control the mines. Now, using the old excuse, the Rwandan government is dragging the eastern Congo back into war.



It would not be hard for the international community, and the British government in particular, to defuse the world's most deadly conflict. Rwanda is a tiny, frail state, which would collapse without foreign aid, over one third of which comes from Britain.(15) But nothing will happen until we wake up to this dreadful war, and stop pretending that the victims of atrocious crimes cannot also be perpetrators.



www.monbiot.com



References:



1. No author, 12 December, 2004. New fighting erupts in DR Congo. BBC News online.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4090717.stm



2. International Rescue Committee, December 2004. Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Results from a Nationwide Survey, Conducted April - July 2004.



http://www.theirc.org/pdf/DRC_Mortal..._RB_8Dec04.pdf



3. United Nations Security Council, October 2002. Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN, New York.



4. Amnesty International, 1st April 2003. Democratic Republic of the Congo: "Our brothers who help kill us" - economic exploitation and human rights abuses in the east.



http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620102003



5. United Nations Security Council, ibid.



6. United Nations Security Council, ibid.



7. Amnesty International, 1st April 2003. Democratic Republic of the Congo: "Our brothers who help kill us" - economic exploitation and human rights abuses in the east. http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620102003



Human Rights Watch, June 2004. D.R. Congo: War Crimes in Bukavu. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/06/11/congo8803.htm



Human Rights Watch, 19th November 2004. D.R. Congo: End Arms Flows as Ethnic Tensions Rise.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004.../congo9697.htm



Human Rights Watch, 4th December 2004. Democratic Republic of Congo - Rwanda Conflict.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004.../congo9767.htm



The International Crisis Group, 7th July 2004. Pulling Back From The Brink In The Congo. http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=2854&l=1



Global Witness, June 2004. Same Old Story - Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. http://www.globalwitness.org/reports....php/00141.pdf



The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention, November 2002. Cursed by Riches: Who Benefits from Resource Exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? http://www.appggreatlakes.org/content/pdf/riches.pdf



Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department. 31st March 2003. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2002. Rwanda. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18221.htm



8. Victoria Brittain, 15th April 2004. Rwanda Confounds Its Critics. The Guardian.



9. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department. 31st March 2003. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2002. Rwanda. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18221.htm



10. Global Witness, June 2004. Same Old Story - Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. http://www.globalwitness.org/reports....php/00141.pdf



11. Amnesty International, 1st April 2003. Democratic Republic of the Congo: "Our brothers who help kill us" - economic exploitation and human rights abuses in the east.



http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620102003



12. Mark Doyle, 10th December 2004. Rwanda Controls DR Congo, UN Says. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4085463.stm



13. The International Crisis Group, 7th July 2004. Pulling Back From The Brink In The Congo. http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=2854&l=1



14. The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention, November 2002. Cursed by Riches: Who Benefits from Resource Exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? http://www.appggreatlakes.org/content/pdf/riches.pdf



15. Jonathan Clayton, 26th June 2004. British Mission Heads off War in Central Africa. The Times

A Deadly Reversal
Why Does No One Care That The World’s Worst Conflict Has Broken Out Again?


by George Monbiot; December 14, 2004 [indent][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][size=2]
I hope that the newspapers do not represent public opinion. If they do, it means that we consider the Home Secretary's love affair several hundred times more important than the resumption of the most deadly conflict since the Second World War. On Sunday the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), already responsible for 3.8 million deaths, started again.(1) If you missed it, you're in good company.

http://www.crisisweb.org

http://www.africafocus.org/peaceexp.php

http://www.africafocus.org/country/countries.php

What can i say.... This Christmas as everybody is celebrating, us Congolaise all we can do is sit in agonising pain as we see our country being reaped apart because the rest of the world is too busy either going after imaginary terrorists or stealing our mineral wealth.

Rwanda has literally been given the green card by the UNto attack our country in the pretense that it is going after the Hutu rebels, this of course is rubbish. All evidence shows that most of them have died by diseases or been killed in sporadic fightings. Most of them now areactually younger generation of Hutu refugees who were NOT involved in the 1998 genocide in Rwanda. All they want is to go home, but they scared that their government is going to kill them when they leaveCongo.

Nobody is disputing the fact that there are still some fraction of the the rebels that took part in the genocide, The UN along with the Congolaise army had started disarming them for a few months before Rwanda attacked. They don't want to know because they have been seduced by the prospects of getting rich by stealing the country's vast mineral wealth.

I cannot describe the helplessness that we all feel..........

When I was in Belgium I met a lot of Congolese...even a few Muslims

Brussels has a large Congolese community.

Shocked the HELL out of me when I saw so many!

From:New York Times

by Marc Lacey

In the corner of the tent where she says a soldier forced himself on her, Helen, a frail fifth grader with big eyes and skinny legs, remembers seeing a blue helmet.

The United Nations peacekeeper who tore off her clothes had used a cup of milk to lure her close, she said in her high-pitched voice, fidgeting as she spoke. It was her favorite drink, she said, but one her family could rarely afford. "I was so happy," she said.

After she gulped it down, the foreign soldier pulled Helen, a 12-year-old, into bed, she said. About an hour later, he gave her a dollar, put a finger to his lips and pushed her out of his tent, she said.

In this same eastern outpost, another United Nations peacekeeper, unable to communicate with a 13-year-old Swahili-speaking girl who walked past him, held up a cookie and gestured for her to draw near. As the girl, Solange, who recounted the incident with tears in her eyes the other day, reached for the cookie, the soldier reached for her. She, too, said she was raped.

The United Nations said recently that it had uncovered 150 allegations of sexual abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers stationed in Congo, many of them here in Bunia where the population has already suffered horrendous atrocities committed by local fighters. The raping of women and girls is an all-too-common tactic in the war raging in Congo's eastern jungles involving numerous militia groups. In Bunia, a program run by Unicef has treated 2,000 victims of sexual violence in recent months. But it is not just the militia members who have been preying on the women. So, too, local women say, have some of the soldiers brought in to keep the peace.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said recently that there was "clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place" in the United Nations mission in Congo, which began in early 2000 and is known by its French acronym, Monuc. Mr. Annan added, "This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it."

The number of cases may be impossible for United Nations investigators to determine precisely. Helen and Solange said in recent interviews that they had not told their stories even to their parents, never mind to United Nations officials. Rape carries a heavy stigma here, both girls made clear. They told their stories when approached by a reporter.

"I didn't tell my mother because she would beat me," said a grim-faced Solange, starring at the ground. Solange, a sixth-grade dropout, said she had no interest in visiting a health clinic or seeing one of the psychologists that Unicef has paid for to counsel the many rape victims in and around Bunia. If she seeks help, the girl said, her mother might find out.

Helen's mother is dead, and Helen did not dare tell her father for fear of a beating. She said she knew he would blame her for going near the soldiers in the first place and might even throw her out of the house.

Helen did go on her own to a health clinic soon after the assault because she said she hurt between her legs. The health worker gave her something to drink, which she paid for with the same dollar that the soldier had given her, she said.

"I was so afraid when he took my clothes off," Helen said, fidgeting with her dirty T-shirt. "I was quiet. I didn't say anything."

The allegations leveled against United Nations personnel in Congo include sex with underage partners, sex with prostitutes and rape, an internal United Nations investigation has found. Investigators said they found evidence that United Nations peacekeepers and civilian workers paid $1 to $3 for sex or bartered sexual relations for food or promises of employment. A confidential report prepared by Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the United Nations, and dated Nov. 8, says the exploitation "appears to be significant, widespread and ongoing."

Violators described in the investigation, which continues, appear to come from around the globe. Fifty countries are represented among the 1,000 civilian employees and 10,800 soldiers who make up the United Nations mission in Congo. Already, a French civilian has been accused of having sex with a girl, though it is unclear where that case stands, and two Tunisian peacekeepers have been sent home, where the local authorities will decide whether to punish them.

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in which some soldiers tried to obstruct investigators.

When they arrive for duty, peacekeepers are presented with the United Nations code of conduct, which forbids "any exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

The home countries are responsible for punishing any of their military personnel who violate the code while taking part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations, which has had previous scandals in missions in Cambodia and Bosnia, also warns the soldiers against sexual contact with girls under 18, even though the law in Congo permits sex with girls as young as 14.

The United Nations policy says that mistakenly believing someone is older "cannot be considered a defense." The youth of Helen and Solange cannot be mistaken. They said they were abused while selling bananas and avocados to soldiers. Each girl said she was among the girls and women who have flocked to the camps that peacekeepers have set up around Bunia. These two girls walked from tent to tent with fruit balanced on their heads, using gestures to make deals.

Helen would sell her fruit for 10 francs apiece, or a few cents, and would earn about $1 a day. She would give the money to her older sister.

Solange would trade her fruit for the small containers of milk issued to soldiers. She would then sell the milk in town, making about $1.50 a day. She used the money to help her family buy food.

Some of the girls and women who have entered the peacekeepers' camps concede that they had less-than-innocent intentions.

Judith and Saidati, both 15 and sexually experienced with Congolese boys, acknowledged that they were looking for foreign boyfriends as they sold their fruit.

The girls, who have the same father, said in a recent interview that they both found French boyfriends first, when the French Army controlled Bunia last year. Then they each found soldiers from Nepal, one of the countries supplying peacekeepers to the United Nations mission. After that, the girls spent time with soldiers from Morocco, who make up the bulk of the force now patrolling Bunia.

The girls said they each stuck to one soldier apiece and switched to new ones only when their boyfriends were transferred out. Each time they had sex, the soldiers gave them $5, they said. Sometimes, they got other gifts, too, they said.

One day, however, after their latest boyfriends had gone, a social worker visited them and told them of the dangers of having sex with soldiers. The woman sat them down and told them about AIDS and the other sexually transmitted diseases they might get. "She told us not to go anywhere near the soldiers," said Judith, who like the other girls agreed to be identified only by her first name. "She said we're still young and they might make our lives short."

The two half sisters said the social worker's words frightened them, and they said they had not had any boyfriends for the last few months. But they also acknowledged that fewer Moroccan soldiers were propositioning them, reducing their temptation. The soldiers' new commander is keeping a closer eye on them, the girls said. "They want to come to us but their chief is watching them," Judith said.

Judith and Saidati said they wanted the soldiers to remain in Bunia for many years. The girls said the United Nations troops had succeeded in stabilizing the town, which was a war zone just over a year ago. The foreigners also have much more money to spend than local boys, the girls said.

"I like them," said Judith, smiling coyly.

"They treat us so nice," added Saidati, who was beaming.

But the two younger girls, Helen and Solange, were far more sober when they spoke of the foreign troops. They said they stopped selling fruit at the military camp immediately after they were attacked and had never been back. They said they had trouble sleeping at night and could not forget what the soldiers did to them.

"Whenever I see one of them, I remember what happened," said Helen, who lives near a military checkpoint operated by soldiers wearing blue helmets just like the one she remembers seeing in the tent. "I'm afraid of them."

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in which some soldiers tried to obstruct investigators.




Outside of SA & Uruguay ,what do these nations have in common?

@dimoke aka MEZ

do you believe in that famous conspiracy about Tutsi and their wider project within the great lakes region? I dont believe it though I am suprissed that Interahamwe are causing the whole thing in that region..well thats what we are told in East Africa



I am not sure if you have been to kisangani or Kivu,but If youve been to that part of the world then you will get the real reason of that war in congo and its deep rooted down and guess what they wont tell you in the western media and in that area there are special areas that if you are not American you are not allowed to go,the same applies to chinese,French,British and South Africans



after all for some time now, there have been recurring allegations that Western powers and multinational companies are fuelling the crisis in order to benefit from the rich mineral resources of the war-torn country.


Now what we need to ask ourselves ss the UN going to crack down on these powerful interests? Is the UN going to expose the evils perpetuated by top world leaders involved in such illegal acts, whether covertly or overtly?


If the three governments – Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi – continue to deny their involvement in the plunder of DRC resources, can a UN embargo be enforced? At the moment, Congo has no control over the territory where the exploitation is taking place, and is unable to issue licenses, or regulate or tax it to complicate any possible remedy in the form of sanctions, there is a whole set of buyers involved, some of them with powerful international contacts



First are the original buyers who cut deals either with Kigali or Kampala or Bujumbura then these buyers become sellers and sell to someone who processes the mineral or timber then the mineral or timber processor sells the processed product to a manufacturer who uses it for a finished product hese complex linkages complicate the process of demanding accountability, not to mention the double standards of some Western powers who have condemned the war yet continue to provide support both financially and militarily to the parties to the conflict.


the truth about the war in the great lakes region is that foreign corporate organisations are actually the instigators of the war in Congo using soldiers from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi eg,the US has been is deeply involved in training, arming, financing, and supplying technical and intelligence support to armies in the region.






Mercenary groups such as MPRI (USA), Executive Outcomes-these guys are linked by the current situation in the coup plot in Equitorial Guinea and Foreigh Office knows about them (South Africa), Sandline (UK) and others are also allegedly being used by the Pentagon to promote their African expeditions, particularly in the Great Lakes region


Other Western governments have been accused of snubbing a call to condemn Uganda and Rwanda's invasion of Congo while being quick to castigate those countries that came to the rescue of Congo's sovereignty – Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola of course


wanna know more? there were reports that the Banque du Commerce du Developpement et d'Industrie in Kigali, Rwanda, Banque National de Paris (BNP-confused2), B&L Trading International Ltd of Dublin, Ireland, and Kenrow Inc of Maryland, were involved in a deal to develop Tantalite and other key minerals obtained from the Rwandan occupation zone in Congo,I am sure Dimoke you are aware of thi and of late, the RCD-Goma faction backed by Rwanda has been involved in the exploitation a mineral which is used in cell phones, col-tan. The Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) is accused of controlling gold mines in Bafwasende and other areas.


I remember sometimes back an RCD-Goma leader claimed on bbc swahili service that theyraise more or less $200,000 per month from diamonds. Col-tan gives them more $1 million a month its also an known fact that countries, illegally occupying Congo are not only profiting from the wealth they are taking out of that country, they are using a portion of that wealth to pay for their illegal occupation


Ever wonder whyBA,KLM&AIR FRANCE bound toNairobi,Kampala,Dar esalaam &Kilimanjaro(Arusha ) if full of those jewish diamond dealers?sipmle we are bussy praisin,n creamin and so on


Look Dimoke the situation there is more complex than the TUTSI/INTERAHAMWE CONSPIRACY THEORIES that you are made to believe

@ Coltrane, there is NO Congolaise law that permits sex with girls under the age of 18! I just wanted to correct that mistake in the article. They will use anything to exscuse the misconduct of the UN's so called peacekeepers. Remember they used thesame argument in Ethiopia and Eritrea to make us Africans look like we have no laws to protect our children!

Anyway, i have to stop there..this is just to painfull for me, those are people.

Coltrane

The other missing point in what you said is the rumour that those countries you named who came to the "aid" of Congolese democracy did so for the lucrative diamond contracts for their heads of state.

@Coltrane, you have made very good and important points that i did not touch on in my previous post. i will get back to you later, sorry too busy at work and the internet connection is playing up.

@DM

the truth about the war in Congo isnt about BANYAMULENGE or INTERAHAMWE but its about plundering its natural resourses in the east.

did you know that one of the most important material in mobile phones cant be found anywhere else but in CONGO?

Indeed Un officials are among the world's worst abusers of charity funds. I hear in Darfur a place where people do not even have clean water yet the UN has sent God knows how many representetives most of whom are staying in 5 star hotels in Khartoum (capital of Sudan) and not in Darfur where the crisis is taking places.

These offocials are being driven in 50,000 dollars vehicles and have provision for dozens of body guards and and have to be paid massive salaries for their posting abroad. Over the whole operation the cost of keeping one UN official in Sudan could usually reach a million dollars money which would have been better spent digging wells and building mud homes for the people who are struggling.

A Sudanese man once told me you could build a whole village in Darfur for 100,000 US dollars.

@dimoke

I am not a congolese but I've been to both Kisangani& Kigali and guess who I was with? I was with the son of Wamba Dia Wamba philipie (he is dead now)...his mom at that time was a lecturer at Dar es salaam university..while Kabila sr& jr were also based in Dar and believe its the west who were grooming Kabila and his movement that led to the oust of Mobutu..off and philipie's dad Professor Wamba Dia Wamba's is married to African American women who had some guy in the stste dept who were pulling the strings for his movement..I think they were RDC (GOMA)



Now back in 1993we were in Rwanda and mind you the genocide was underway with hassan Ngezi and that radio station were doing their job is scare mongering and guess what? they got the funding from France and Belgium I am perfectly sure that French andBelgium govts are whitesand not black.I've lots pple that I know inboth Rwandaand Burundi who were simply at the wrong place and wrong time.Its a known fact that the genocide in that region is not about ethnicity but more of money and power



Its a known fact that whites especially Europeans have been the main source of genocide in that region from the day they arrived whether its the Belgian help to Prince Rwegasore in Burundi or the killing of Patrice Lumumba in Katanga and I am sure there isnt a weapon factory based in the great lakes region.



I am suprissed when Europeans blame africans for war and corruption while the biggest facilitators of it and them Europeans they dont have BAE SYSTEMS or CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON in Africa for arm manufacturers in Europe there need to be a war so they could sell and after that a corrupt African leader like Mobutu would take him money to a European Bank



At the top of the heap sat the chief pilferer. Nobody knew for sure the size of his bank accounts, the range of his company holdings and investment funds. Deeds were made out to front companies, business associates and family members in order to cover his tracks. But it was easy enough to monitor the gradual build-up of a portfolio of desirable residences at home and abroad.




In Zaire itself, the palace complex at Gbadolite gradually blossomed into life like one of those lush tropical flowers which virtually poison the air around, so potent is their scent. In each major town, a villa lay ready for the president's use. Kinshasa, of course, also boasted a choice of residences, including a hillside mansion whose grounds served as a private zoo. But Mobutu came to prefer the pagoda in the Chinese village built at Nsele, east of the capital, or his luxury cruiser Kamanyola furnished with oyster-shaped settees in pink silk.


and some presents Mobutu made himself were simply too ostentatious to remain secret for long heard the most notorious was the £5 million Villa del Mar in Roquebrune Cap Martin, not far from King Leopold's former French Riviera estate....the story goes that when buying this neoclassical property, the president agreed a price, then as an afterthought enquired whether it would be in dollars or Belgian francs – the 39-fold difference in value held no meaning for a man of such careless wealth






Things didnt end there,on a similar lavish scale were Les Miguettes, a converted farmhouse in the Swiss village of Savigny and the over£ 3 million Casa Agricola Solear estate in Portugal's Algarve, blessed with 800 hectares of land, a 14,000-bottle cellar and 12 bedrooms and here was also a vast apartment on Paris's Avenue Foch, conveniently close to the furrier who made his trademark leopardskin hats and the fashion designers patronised by his family all in all rom Cape Town to Madrid, Marbella to Marrakesh, Abidjan to Dakar, were scattered a string of farms, villas and hotels, not very sure about London though






its also said that the bulk of his real estate network was located in Brussels where he had tturreted Chateau Fond'Roy was just one of at least nine buildings scattered across the upmarket districts of Uccle and Rhode St Genese, a sign that this most nationalist of African presidents was ready to forgive colonial wrongdoing when it came to finding a safe investment for his money and I think for those who have been to Brusles will tell you thatit was an impressive collection for a man who in 1959 claimed to have just£3 to his name.Who knows he might have as well own MAMA MAPASA restaurant in 7 SISTERS!



I am sure some in the blacknet would be asking how was this possible..for once I know Dimoke would remember Mobutu would warm his audience up with a question-and-answer session sorry dim I am not making fun of congolese but this is how it goes:



Mobutu shouts: Nye, nye? (Can you be silent?)


Crowd roars: Nye (We are silent)


Mobutu: Na loba? (Can I speak?)


Crowd: Loba (Speak)


Mobutu: Na sopa? (Can I speak frankly?)


Crowd: Sopa (Speak frankly)


Mobutu: Na panza? (Can I speak openly?)


Crowd: Panza (Speak openly).


wanna know what would follow?? yeah...a speech in Lingala, the language which, unlike the French mastered by only an educated elite, was accessible to the common man. It would be full of puns, wordplay and wisecracks and that Mobutu would get the crowd giggling, cheering and laughing then nothing happens and those white guys would more than happy that they got those contracts to buil a palace in Dgabolite

oooh,did I say our own Nyerer was also goot at talking and speeches?



I beg to differ with you Dimoke as an African I will always blame whites for all the problems in that continent and I wish to stand by my that view and it didnt take Horrace Campbel to tell me that

sometimes the fact that I used to hit MAMA MAPASA'S in 7 sisters gave me that feeling like shit how many of these folks have had it so bad back inGoma?

Money Corrupts all, But I'd rather blame the person getting paid to do the deed than the person paying.

@coltrane, I have already explained to you that i do NOT dispute the involvent of the west in African affairs, be it nationaly or internationaly.

What i think is of importance here is that WE Africans have willingly participated in their conspiracies against our nations, either due to greed or Just plain miseducation. You in fact have proven my point with your above post. You have sited Mobuty's wealth which hestole openly and enriched his own imediate family and thosein hisclose circles. You have also claimed that RDC Goma had someone in the state department puuling some strings for them.....

I also what to comment in the point that you made about Americans supporting Kabila&co.....Coltrane, haven't you ever wondered whyKabila tried but failed(resulting in his death) to sever any relationship with the Rwandan government that helped him oust Mobutu? Me Thinks because he was trying to break free from the Americans, but unfortunatly he knew he had to get read of the predominantly Tutsi government first. WHY?Because THEY were the gate keepers of the Americans'access to Congo.

No man can come into your home without some kind of corperation from within. that is why people with big mouths( in Congo we call them "ba songi songi") have a hard time infiltrating families who are verytight together. There comunication and loyalty to the FAMILY.


And that Coltrane is what Rwanda has shown the Lack of.

Peace

Lol Coltrane, MAMA MAPASA in Seven Sisters? Wow you my man is connected to your exteded African family aren't?

And you gave me jokes about Mobutu owning the placebighairlol

Now that you have mentioned, i will pop around there after work for some take away.

Peace

@DIMOKE

They dont have CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON OR BARCLAYS CAPITAL in AFRICA

and those are few of many banks that keep looted money from Africa in Europe

Ever wondered why western governments are refusing return back 5 billion dollars stollen by ABACHA of NIGERIA?

they they are quick calling Africans corrupt

do you know the main reason why Mugabe fell out with the BRITS? its because a highly profitable arms contract was given to the French and Chinese but they wont tell you that publicly

As far as Rwanda is concerned all I know its one of the few favourable countries in Africa and what ever they do is seen by the west as ohhh theyve been through genocide so let them protect themselves

The Congo makes a mockery of the very first sentence of the preamble to the UN Charter – "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". no wonder Rwanda thinks it can opt the US was of going after the so called Terrorists
I remember reading a statement from American NGO Refugee International (RI) describes the Congolese war as "equivalent of daily volcanic eruptions, but with far greater social and economic consequences". well isnt that what Kabila and his comrades wanted when they requested the tutsi(museveni of Uganda and Kagame of Rwanda) to help him oust Mobutu..isnt it funny when the RPF took Rwanda their main song war talking about the Revolution by Tracy chapman but I guess now they are talking about plundering

As far as I know is that Israeli arms companies are many some huge profirs in that region and it doesnt stop there..Baroness AMOS knows alot about that UK mercenary comapny EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES role in congo and seems that there is significant interest from that tower hamlets MP

offtopic.gif@dimoke

Yeah its part of networking .... as far as mama mapasa at seven sisters is concerned I've been to that place about twice and I wasnt impressed but its a place where meeting Kanda Bongo man and the remaining members of TP OK Jazzband who will tell you endless stories of it was back in the day ohhh and some zairwaa who will tell you he needs a place to sell his diamonds from Goma..interesting though

ohh I wouldnt advise you to go to the wash rooms either unless its extremely urgent

ohh its also a place where young men meet older women...(MARIOS)

Marios?bighairlolI have not heard that word for ages!

Yeah you are right that place is a joke of a restaurant

Sexual abuse of young girls by UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is widespread and ongoing, a UN agency has said.

Over the past year, the peacekeepers have been accused of gang rapes, sexual harassment and bribing children as young as 12 or 13 with food or a few dollars to have sex.

There are nearly 11,000 military personnel in the Congo to help keep the peace after a civil war. The force is the largest among the 64,000 soldiers in 16 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is one of several agencies probing the charges. It has investigated 72 allegations against both military and civilian UN personnel, which resulted in 20 case reports.

In seven cases, young girls identified the soldiers from a line up.

One French UN member of staff, who made ****ographic videos of children, was jailed in France for rape.

South Africa is taking action against two soldiers. Allegations have also been made against soldiers from Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, and Nepal.

Barbara Dixon of the OIOS said: "A lot of the girls were traumatised, by war as well as abuse. What they knew was if they wanted to eat, this was a way to do it."

The UN has jurisdiction over its own civilian staff but troops are contributed by individual nations. The organisation therefore has only the power to demand a specific country repatriate an accused soldier and punish him or her at home

http://www.itv.com/news/world_219089.html