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| CONFLICT IN CONGO | |
| October 22, 1998 |
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After two months of political violence in Congo, neighboring countries, such as Zimbabwe and Rwanda, are taking sides in the conflict. After a background report, correspondent Charles Krause and guests discuss the impact of Congo's civil war on the region. | |
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CHARLES KRAUSE: It was just 18 months ago that Laurent Kabila and
his rebel army swept to victory, |
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CHARLES KRAUSE: Within just a few weeks, by the end of August, the rebels had reached their goal. Kinshasa, a city of more than 5 million people, became a virtual ghost town when it appeared that the capital and the government were about to fall. |
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| Genocide. | ||||||||||||||
But
then on August 25th, Kabila made a dramatic re-entry. And once in Kinshasa,
he rallied his troops, many of them reportedly sent by his allies in neighboring
countries. Kabila’s troops took no prisoners. The fighting was brutal,
and eventually the rebels were forced to withdraw from Kinshasa, at least
temporarily. In July, he accused the Tutsis and the Rwandans of interfering
in the Congo and ordered them out of the country. For their part, the
Rwandans accused Kabila of forming an alliance with the Hutus, their hated
rivals who've been accused of slaughtering 800,000 Tutsis in 1994. The
Hutus were eventually defeated, and many of them still live in U.N. refugee
camps inside the Congo near the Rwandan border. Earlier this year, President
Clinton was in Africa -- where during a brief stop to Rwanda, he apologized
for not doing more to stop the slaughter four years ago. |
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CHARLES KRAUSE: During the trip, the President also met with Kabila and a number of other African leaders, expressing his conviction that Africa is finally on the road to peace and democracy. But despite mediation efforts by South African President Nelson Mandela and others, the situation in the Congo has continued to deteriorate. And now, fearing a power vacuum, its neighbors have been drawn into a conflict that appears increasingly dangerous. |
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