Washington — The leader of the rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is calling for a broad-based conference of national organizations to map out the country's future and resolve the conflict, which threatens to engulf a large swath of the African continent.
"Congolese have to sit around a table and come out with a position on how to organize the transition to democracy," said Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, a U.S-educated historian who now heads the rebel alliance in Africa's third largest nation. A coalition of opposition forces, known as the Congolese Assembly for Democracy (Rasemblement Congolais pour la Democratie), is fighting to oust Laurent Kabila, who directed last year's overthrow of long-serving dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. A former army sergeant who took power with help from the CIA and changed the country's name to Zaire, Mobutu died in exile a few months after losing power.
"The source of the Congolese problem is three decades of protracted dictatorship since independence," Wamba said in an interview via satellite telephone from Goma, the eastern city where the coalition is headquartered. He accused Kabila of "reproducing" Mobutu's authoritarianism and nepotism, relying more and more on people from his family, clan and home region as former allies have grown increasingly critical of his high-handed approach.
"Even Mobutu never thought of making his own son commander-in-chief of the armed forces, a son of 27 years, with very limited military training " Wamba said. Corruption has steadily increased, he charged. "Where Mobutu demanded 20%, Kabila is asking for 30%."
In August, the rebel offensive advanced across Congo from the east at a rapid pace and appeared poised to capture control of Kinshasa, the capital, riding a swell of popular discontent with the new government. Assistance provided by Rwanda and Uganda, Congo's eastern neighbors who formerly backed Kabila, was key to the rebellion's swift progress, but intervention by troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia halted the rebel advance and allowed Kabila to rally support at home and abroad.
While downplaying the importance of outside backing for the uprising, Wamba said Rwanda and Uganda have "genuine concerns about their security." He said Kabila has been providing equipment and training for the Interhamwe, the Hutu movement responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which resulted in at least 500,000 deaths. Kabila has also heightened ethnic tensions in Congo, leveling vitriol at the country's Tutsi population and targeting many for elimination, Wamba said.
Wamba, who is from the Bakongo region in the west, said it was the prospect of another anti-Tutsi genocidal wave, this time throughout the Congo , which prompted him to leave his university lecturer post in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and accept the coalition chairmanship. "It was so painful being in Dar in 1994 seeing people being killed with machetes and being able to do nothing," he said. Wamba backed last year's campaign against Mobutu, although he did not join Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces.
The rebel coalition includes several former aides to Kabila as well as major Congolese political parties with whom Kabila refused to share power, despite their role in forcing Mobutu out.
Wamba denied that the rebellion has been quashed and said that the decision to pull troops out of the eastern port city of Matadi and surrounding areas near Kinshasa was a strategic move. "If the Angolans and Zimbabweans want to fight, we will fight," Wamba said. "But we don't think our problems are going to be solved by fighting. They have to be resolved politically."
Not all Congolese who share Wamba's critique of Kabila support the current rebellion. "I don't see how they can govern with Rwanda and Uganda behind them," said Nzongola Ntalaga, a prominent Congolese pro-democracy activist who has refused to join the coalition. Nzongola, a former professor at Howard University in Washington, DC, was in Durban, South Africa at the summit of the Non Aligned Movement last week for behind-the-scenes peace talks aimed at negotiating a cease-fire.
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While a cease-fire is an essential first step, Nzongola said, the solution to he conflict cannot be found outside the Congo. Like Wamba, though, he advocates an all-parties conference.
A meeting of presidents from the countries involved in the conflict is now being organized by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. However, there appears little immediate prospect for negotiations between the Congolese factions. Kabila has said he will not negotiate with groups receiving outside support. Another factor stalling a cease-fire is the lack of a monitor acceptable to all the warring parties.
Because Congo sits at the heart of Africa, sharing borders with nine nations, any conflict within the country has region-wide implications. The involvement of at least five outside armies is a further concern, both in the area and globally. "We're already feeling the effects," said one U.S.-based investor with business interests in a number of African countries. "This war is making people nervous."
