04 October 1999
Wolpe Cites Support for Multinational Force in Congo/Kinshasa
(He tells House Africa Subcommittee trust fund would pay) (900)
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
State Department Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. Special Envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) and Great Lakes Region Howard Wolpe told Congress September 21
that the U.S. government would be willing to support a regional armed
force aimed at preventing insurgents from using Congolese territory to
launch raids into neighboring countries.
In a statement he read to the House of Representatives Africa
Subcommittee, Wolpe said, "A sustainable resolution of the Great Lakes
crisis will require a concerted regional effort to disarm and
neutralize the various insurgent forces that have been using the DRC
as the base for launching attacks into neighboring countries." The
war, centered mainly in eastern Congo, has involved nine African
nations and directly affected the lives of 50 million Congolese.
Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi were behind the rebel movement that tried
to topple Congolese President Laurent Kabila more than a year ago,
Wolpe explained. Uganda sought to stop attacks by rebels sponsored by
Sudan and operating through eastern Congo while Rwanda and Burundi
were out to stop the incursion of Hutu insurgents into their
territories. None of the three countries felt inclined to back a
cease-fire agreement that did not address their border security
concerns.
Wolpe, a former congressman from Michigan and former chairman of the
Africa Subcommittee, said that the United States would be willing "to
consider supporting a U.N. mandate for a multinational force." He
added, however, that "any such force would have to be funded through a
mechanism such as voluntary contributions to a trust fund rather than
through expenditure of U.N. funds."
According to the envoy, the regional multinational force would be
"comprised of troops from belligerent and possibly non-belligerent
countries" and would be controlled by a regional Joint Military
Commission (JMC) consisting of belligerent nations and established by
the Lusaka agreement "to work out mechanisms for the tracking,
disarming, cantoning, and documenting of all armed groups in the DRC,"
especially those forces identified with the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The JMC force would be in addition to the agreement-implementing group
of up to 90 military liaison officers the U.N. Security Council has
begun to deploy to the DRC, Lusaka, and the warring capitals to help
in implementing the Lusaka cease-fire agreement signed last August,
Wolpe said.
Wolpe told the lawmakers that the multinational force is needed
because "it is virtually certain that the Security Council will reject
the Lusaka signatories' urging that a U.N. peacekeeping force be
empowered not only to monitor the cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign
troops, but also to engage militarily insurgent fighters that refuse
to lay down their arms."
As for the nations most concerned about cross-border raids, Africa
Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce said: "A year ago at a subcommittee
hearing on this crisis, I raised difficult issues of foreign
intervention and territorial integrity that I wasn't sure the
international community was handling well. I'm still troubled by the
military presence of Uganda and Rwanda on Congo's sovereign territory.
... This development is profoundly troubling for the region and
beyond."
Representative Donald Payne agreed with Royce , saying, "We need to
get tougher on nations that break the peace and breach the security of
other countries."
Royce asked Wolpe, "Have we publicly condemned Uganda and Rwanda for
their military intervention in Congo?"
Wolpe responded: "We have, in fact, condemned the intervention of
Uganda and Rwanda in the Congo as a violation of the fundamental
principles of the U.N. Charter and the OAU (Organization of African
Unity) Charter. And we have expressed, both through diplomatic
channels and publicly, our determination to see the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the Congo restored."
Wolpe emphasized that "there are a number of objectives that we and
the Lusaka signatories together are seeking to achieve: restoration of
the sovereignty of Congo, "prevention of the resumption of any
genocide and holding accountable the genocidaires, and, finally,
securing the borders of the Congo and all the neighboring states."
Asked about the reported arrest and harassment of journalists by the
Kabila regime, Wolpe acknowledged that he had also heard the reports
and added, "We have spoken about our concerns publicly" on the
subject. He told Royce, "We believe that the only hope for the Congo
is that it develop the conditions that allow a truly open and
inclusive debate about Congo's future. And actions that appear to be
designed to threaten those who have diverse viewpoints ... are
enormously counterproductive. We are hoping that the [Congolese]
government, and all the parties, will work to create an atmosphere
that can produce the kind of decisions that can be fully accepted by
the Congolese population and become a basis for the kind of inclusive
transition that is the only hope for a stable Congolese future."
Another point Royce raised was the issue of North Koreans being
sighted working at a uranium mine in Congolese territory. Wolpe said,
"We have seen reports of a North Korean presence of perhaps a few
hundred people, [but] I cannot today give you with any precision the
nature and location of those activities." Asked if he believed uranium
"was leaving the country [DRC], Wolpe responded: "I assume that is the
case ... [and] it is certainly very much on the radar screen" of the
U.S. government.
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