DATE=2/11/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=AFRICA'S WIDE WAR
NUMBER=5-45439
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S Defense Department is working with the
United Nations to set up a peacekeeping group for the
war-torn Congo, where several nations are now engaged
in a bewildering conflict that has no clear reasons or
solutions. The war threatens to spread into other
countries, adding to the devastation of a continent
that has had its fill of tragedy. V-O-A's Ed Warner
reports some views of the conflict and how it might be
concluded.
TEXT: It began with genocide, and nobody knows where
it will end.
In 1994, hundreds of thousands of Hutu people fled
Rwanda to Zaire, now known as the Congo. They were
escaping the possible revenge of the Tutsi, a people
they had earlier slaughtered by the hundreds of
thousands.
From their sanctuary in Zaire, Hutu extremists
launched attacks on Tutsi-controlled Rwanda. In
response, the Tutsi, allied with Uganda, threw their
support to a rebel named Laurent Kabila, who managed
to take over Zaire and restored its previous name -
"Congo."
But Mr. Kabila fell out with his old allies and is now
helped by troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe,
who have joined the war against Rwanda and Uganda for
their own reasons.
Observers say it is almost impossible to tell who is
winning as soldiers hack away with machetes in a
dense, often impenetrable jungle. What is clear is
the mounting toll of civilian casualties and the
destruction of the region's great resources on which a
revival could be built. Diamonds, gold and silver are
lost to violence or simply looted.
Africans are truly fed up with all this, says George
Ayittey, professor of economics at American
University, who has written extensively on his native
Ghana and the rest of Africa:
/// Ayittey Act ///
Now you have a continental curtain of fire
stretching all the way from Ethiopia through
Somalia, Sudan, Congo and to Angola. The time
has come to get tough and put these civil wars
behind us in the new millennium. And this is
the
responsibility of the Organization of African
Unity (O-A-U) to do something for Africa.
/// End Act ///
Professor Ayittey says the O-A-U should assemble
forces from African nations to invade the Congo and
establish an interim government. Otherwise, he says,
the conflict will spread to other countries in what
could be called Africa's first world war.
/// Ayittey Act ///
We have 54 countries in the African continent,
and we must be able to put together 50-thousand
troops to end the carnage, which is going on in
the Congo. I recognize that Congo is a vast
territory, but the Congo is vital not only for
East Africa, but for the entire continent.
/// End Act ///
Too little, too late, contends Marina Ottaway, senior
associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace in Washington. In her opinion, the O-A-U cannot
cope. It is too divided and lacks the resources. She
believes several hundred thousand troops would be
needed to restore order to the Congo. Since these are
not available, she fears the war will continue and the
Congo will disintegrate.
In the long run, she says that may not be such a bad
thing. The Congo and other African states were the
artificial creation of the colonial powers. Now that
Africans are on their own, she says, they can redraw
more realistic borders:
/// Ottaway Act ///
We got so fixated during the Cold war about the
idea of immutable borders because we were afraid
of the consequences essentially. All you have
to do is look at the historical maps of Europe,
and you know that boundaries have always changed
all the time. A lot of states do not survive.
/// End Act ///
Marina Ottaway says other African nations have managed
to avoid Congo's fate. While they may not be models
of democracy, they exercise control over most of their
national territory and provide adequate
administration.
Geography and luck play a part in their survival. But
there are also other factors:
/// Ottaway act ///
If you take a country like Tanzania, it has so
many ethnic groups, none of which can dominate
because they are small. They really have no
choice but getting along with each other. That
makes it much easier for the country not to fall
apart. In some cases, you have had a strong
leadership that took in hand countries that had
virtually disappeared, like Uganda, for example,
and managed to put them back together.
/// End Act ///
Marina Ottaway says the way to avoid war is to
consolidate states. It is the weakness of the Congo -
its statelessness - that has made it a prey to its
neighbors. (SIGNED)
NEB/EW/ENE/JP
11-Feb-2000 17:43 PM EDT (11-Feb-2000 2243 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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