Refugee plight is Laurent Kabila's first public crisis<\/p>\n
By Nicholas Kotch<\/p>\n
NAIROBI (Reuter): Cruelty meted out to Rwandan Hutu refugees
\nin eastern Zaire is turning into a diplomatic and public
\nrelations disaster for Laurent Kabila, the rebel leader hoping to
\ntake charge of Africa's giant state.<\/p>\n
Within hours of eye-witness testimony from villagers on
\nWednesday that rebel soldiers killed refugees, both the United
\nStates and the United Nations warned Kabila of the damage being
\ndone to his image as a credible replacement for Zaire's ailing
\nautocrat, President Mobutu Sese Seko.<\/p>\n
"I am shocked and appalled by the inhumanity of those who
\ncontrol eastern Zaire to these refugees, most of whom are
\ninnocent," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in New York.
\n"If the rebel alliance would like to have normal relations with
\nWestern governments, they've got to act in a credible way and a
\nhumanitarian way, and that doesn't seem to be the case right
\nhere," echoed U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns.<\/p>\n
The people at the center of the latest crisis are up to
\n100,000 Hutu refugees who were camped in desperate conditions
\nsouth of rebel-held Kisangani, the biggest northeastern city.
\nSince Kabila's Alliance launched the rebellion last October, with
\nas yet ill-defined support from Rwanda and Uganda, the veteran
\nformer Marxist has enjoyed a honeymoon with ordinary Zaireans as
\nwell as most foreign diplomats and journalists.<\/p>\n
His crusade to end Mobutu's 32-year reign, and install a
\nsemblance of good governance in black Africa's largest country,
\nstruck a chord throughout the continent.<\/p>\n
But the persecution of the remaining Rwandan refugees in Zaire
\ncould change positive perceptions and force a rethink in those
\nWestern countries, led by the United States, which have displayed
\nmost sympathy for Kabila's cause.<\/p>\n
"Kabila has no interest in allowing this kind of incident.
\nPolitically it's not good for him and from a humanitarian point
\nof view it's unacceptable," a senior African diplomat said.<\/p>\n
"Kabila doesn't want this on the front page, definitely not on
\nthe eve of his triumph," added a foreign aid worker in Zaire.
\nKabila's first response on Wednesday night was to blame any
\nproblems on UN inefficiency and what he said was an attack on
\nvillagers by Hutu former Rwandan troops among the refugees.<\/p>\n
"It is absolute nonsense. There is no truth whatsoever in
\nthese reports," Kabila said from his base at Lubumbashi.<\/p>\n
The rebels sealed off the camps area from Monday to aid
\nworkers and journalists. Villagers said rebels killed hundreds of
\nrefugees on Tuesday, burying bodies with a mechanical digger.<\/p>\n
Annan accused the rebels of starving the refugees to death,
\nblocking out aid workers and preventing a repatriation airlift
\nwhich Kabila grudgingly authorized on April 5.<\/p>\n
Since then not a single refugee has been allowed to leave.
\nThe refugees are the rump of the millions of Hutus who fled
\nRwanda in 1994 to escape Tutsi rebels. The others have gone back,
\nsome to swell the number of Hutus in prison accused of the
\ngenocide of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.<\/p>\n
The refugees near Kisangani are the largest concentration of
\nan estimated 300,000 still in Zaire. They have trekked 600
\nkilometers (375 miles) westwards over volcanic rock and through
\nforest to reach the makeshift camps south of Kisangani.<\/p>\n
UN and other aid agencies want to care for the refugees as
\nwell as possible. This policy has been opposed by many in Africa
\nsince 1994 as naive and provocative because it does not allow for
\nthe terrible crimes many of the refugees committed.<\/p>\n
For the Tutsis who now dominate Rwanda, the refugees who fled
\nfurthest are the most guilty of genocide and include thousands of
\nex-soldiers and militiamen. This view is shared by ethnic Tutsi
\ntroops who spearhead the rebel forces.<\/p>\n
Events this week have underlined the different agendas within
\nthe rebel Alliance, according to diplomats and other sources
\nclosely following the conflict.<\/p>\n
Tutsis and Rwanda want the armed Hutus in exile neutralized
\nfor decades to come and unable to use eastern Zaire as a
\nlaunchpad for attacks, they say.<\/p>\n
Kabila and Zaireans of other ethnic groups want to topple
\nMobutu. The fate of the Hutus is not a top priority for them.
\nThe suspicion in Kisangani among many aid workers was that the
\nTutsis' anti-Hutu agenda would be implemented in the camps to the
\nsouth whatever the cost to the Alliance's reputation.<\/p>\n
"Kabila's image as he rides into Kinshasa is the least of
\ntheir concerns," the senior foreign aid worker said.<\/p>",
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