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Online NewsHour Special Report:
Conflict in Central Africa
Oct. 22, 1998:
Discussion of the impact of Congo's political
unrest.
May 19, 1997:
Experts analyze whether free elections or another dictatorship
are in store for Congo.
May 16, 1997:
Zaire's
parliament elects a new president.
May 9, 1997:
Is peace possible in Zaire?
April 9, 1997:
Pres.
Mobutu has fired his new prime minister and replaced him with
a general as rebels advance on Lubumbashi.
May 22, 1997:
Who
is Kabila?
May 19, 1997:
Kabila
comes to power in the Congo
May 19, 1997:
UN
envoy Richardson discusses the Congo
May 5, 1997:
U.N. Commissioner for Refugees discusses the terrible plight
of Rwandans in Zaire.
April 9, 1997:
Is the end near for Mobutu's
Zaire?
March 17, 1997:
Zaire's third
largest city falls to the rebels.
Feb. 17, 1997:
Zaire
on the brink
Dec. 26, 1997:
A
report on Zaire
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CHARLES KRAUSE: It was just 18 months ago that Laurent Kabila and
his rebel army swept to victory,  defeating
the forces of the Congo's corrupt and brutal dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
In Kinshasa, Congo's capital, the rebel soldiers were greeted with jubilation.
After 32 years in power, Mobutu was finally forced into exile, and for
the first time in memory, there was real hope for a new beginning. But
today, Africa's third largest country is once again torn by political
violence. And this time, what was essentially a civil war threatens
to become a far more dangerous regional conflict -- drawing in countries
on all sides. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia  have
formally announced their support for Kabila, and are believed to have
sent troops and arms to support his beleaguered government. On the other
side, Rwanda -- and reportedly Uganda and Burundi -- are backing a new
rebel army, which calls itself the Congolese Movement for Democracy.
In August, the rebels -- many of them once loyal to Kabila -- seized
control of several Congolese towns near the Rwandan border, and their
leaders vowed that Kabila would soon be gone.
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 REBEL
LEADER : We are determined to fight, we are determined to win, and control
the city of Kinshasa.
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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 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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 PRESIDENT
CLINTON: We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should
not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers.
We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name – genocide.
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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