CONGO – NO WINNERS’ WAR       

1998

DUR 8’30”

 

A Hedgehog Production

 

Soldiers unloading from place

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph Obibi – rebel fighter

 

 

 

 

 

Shot of graves and coffins

 

 

 

 

 

Shots of ethnic tutsi

 

 

 

 

Two ethnic Tutsi Women

 

 

 

 

Shot of child

Hakizimana Rushambga

 

 

 

 

 

Bustling town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aziz Pahad – deputy foreign minster, South Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shots of soldiers

 

Richard Cornwall – political expert, Africa, Institute of Security Studies, Johannesburg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People on platform

 

 

 

Soldiers in trucks

 

 

 

 

Boy soldier being whipped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kalemie resident

 

 

 

Tshombo Wakabondo – journalist, Kalemie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aziz Pahad – deputy foreign minister, South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nelson Mandela at table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aziz Pahad - deputy foreign minister, South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Cornwall – political expert, Africa, Institute of Security, Johannesburg

 

 

 

Shot of soldiers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shot of child

 

 

 

 

 

 

V/O: It is not food aid or parts for typewriters, as the boxes would seem to indicate. They’re in fact weapons, being off loaded in a remote part of eastern Congo. In this war torn country it’s all about weapons and more weapons. The Tutsi led rebel movement the Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCD, now controls a third of one of Africa’s largest countries and is supported with supplies from Rwanda and Uganda. The rebels’ aim is to remove president Laurent Kabila from power, the same man they supported to oust Mobuto Sese Seko.

 

Jospeh Obibi – rebel fighter: Mr Kabila was ungrateful. First we helped him to take power and he neglected, he forgot this and we thought that while we fought with him we fought on his side we thought that he couldn't go back to his old behaviour of killing people.

 

V/O: This mass grave just outside the town of Kalemie in eastern Congo is just one of many. Both Amnesty International and the U.N. have accused the Kabila regime and its troops of murdering civilians. Mostly people that belong to the ethnic tutsi group or people just suspected of belonging to that group.

These murders took place just before the rebels took over Kalemie. Survivors men, women and children still live in fear and tell how their men were taken away, never to be seen again.

 

 

Survivor – ethnic Tutsi:

“We spend two weeks in prison then they took away the men. The men were rounded up and we do not know where they are. Later we heard that they had been killed.”

 

Hakizimana Rushambga – survivor, ethnic tutsi:

“We were beaten, I can not move my left hand. These are marks from machetes. It was the Kabila soldiers who did this to me together with the hutu extremists; they spoke with each other in Rwandan dialect.

 

V/O: Ethnic division, as an element, is exploited by all parties. Hutu militias and soldiers of the old Hutu dominated Rwandan army fled to eastern Congo after the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994. They’ve now been recruited by President Kabila to fight the rebels. There are around 10,000 Hutus willing to participate in what for them is unfinished business. They want to end what they see as Tutsi domination of the great lakes region.

 

Aziz Pahad – deputy foreign minister, South Africa:

You’ve got those statutory armies, which is the first time in Africa we’ve got those armies facing each other in the one country. On the other hand, we've got many non-statutory forces. You’ve got the ex Mobuto forces, you’ve got the forces from Congo Brasavill, you got Unita forces and you’ve got the genocidal forces from Rwanda and Burundi. And this, I think, creates a mixture that is very very explosive.

Now we are getting the mergers of groups, if we are not careful we will get warlords.

 

 

 

 

Richard Cornwall: Zimbabwe is very very conscious of the fact that it can make commercial, thinks it can gain commercial benefits from the Kabila regime in the Congo. It has invested heavily there, it’s owed a great deal of money by Kabila’s government. And there are business people who are close to the high echelons of the military and the government and who are making a fair amount of money out of the situation. So they are very much there in defence of material interests. What Kabila’s doing is trying to raise funds either for his war chest or for his retirement by offering the states assets for sale to the highest bidder.

 

V/O: Congo has some of the richest mineral deposits anywhere in Africa, but they’ve never helped ordinary Congolese.

 

This “boy soldier” is being taught the meaning of military discipline by his commander. The rebels are ruthless in their military campaign and as the beating is over the boy who belongs in the classroom, not the battlefield, is handed back his weapon. The rebels who control Kalemie have not won the hearts and minds of the civilian population who have seen men with weapons and promises come and go for years, and have nothing but destruction and deprivation to show for it.

 

Kalemie resident:

“We are very worried, very worried. We do not want to get used to weapons but what can we do. We see them every day.”

 

Tshombo Wakabonda – journalist, Kalemie

“We are tired, we have had enough. We do not need a Kabila yesterday, today the rebels and tomorrow somebody else. We have no peace, no calm. How shall we develop under these circumstances?”

 

V/O: There are more than 200 ethnic groups in Congo with different languages and cultures; often these populations are not confined within national borders. The risk is that if Congo as a national state falls apart, it could draw its neighbours into a messy ethnic and economic conflict.

 

Aziz Pahad:

What is happening is everybody in this insecure situation is trying to get rich very quickly. And the country is ignored, the masses are being ignored, the interests of the people are being ignored. No social services can be rendered in this condition, so everything is put to the war effort and then in the context of the war effort everybody is trying to see how they can make quick money.

 

V/O: South Africa’s Nelson Mandela has been trying to promote a negotiated settlement and a regional peacekeeping force for Congo but has not even managed to facilitate a direct meeting between the warring parties. He is hampered by a feeling among some African leaders that South Africa has a big brother attitude and is motivated by its own regional ambitions. South Africa certainly has its own substantial economic interests in the Congo.

 

Aziz Pahad:

Well we have to accept our responsibilities. South Africa is a member of SADAC, South Africa is a member of the ORU, a member of the United Nations. We have said that African development is not possible in an environment of conflict and war and that we will try to ensure that we have conflict resolution before conflict breaks out.

 

Richard Cornwall:

Yes, obviously South African mining houses have got big concessions in Congo, which they are eager to protect, and are probably pressuring the South African Government to do something on their behalf.

 

Richard Cornwall: I think it is only too easy to underestimate the difficulty of operating a peace keeping force, even once there’s a peace to keep, which there isn’t at present. That said, of course, the amount of Africa that’s totally out of government, any sort of state control, is now massive and what we are seeing is the penetration now with the equivalence of the chartered companies, with their own private security forces, these are able to secure resources and link those parts of Africa into the global economy whereas the rest of Africa is just allowed to go to the devil.

 

V/O: The signs are all too clear in Congo. This is a war in which there can be no winners.