POLITICS-D.R.CONGO: Rebels Control Power, Kabila Flees Capital

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Chris Simpson

KIGALI, Aug 14 1998 (IPS) - Just weeks ago, Congolese border officials were giving out free copies of Laurent Kabila’s book, ‘Zaire: The Shipwrecked Democracy’, to visitors from Rwanda. Now, just 15 months after he took power, Kabila looks to be on his way out.

The Congolese capital Kinshasa is left without electricity, with rebel forces apparently in control of the Inga Dam, some 25O kilometres west of the capital. State radio and television fell silent on Thursday. The state radio came back on air Friday.

Kabila himself is back in his native Katanga, having fled the capital pausing only to sack his controversial and ineffective Chief of Staff Celestin Kifwa. According to Belgian Foreign Ministry officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the control of the army has been taken over by Kabila’s son.

The border post at Goma is controlled by rebel soldiers who accuse Kabila of being “worse than Mobutu”.

From the initial skirmishes in Kinsaha to the fall of Inga, events have moved with surprising speed in Congo. Military analysts believed that Kabila’s early losses in the east were still retrievable, and that a major counter-offensive could still be staged.

But despite endless broadcasts from Kinshasa denying any rebel gains and pointing to a major fightback, Kabila’s forces seem to have put up minimal resistance so far.

The anticipated government counter-offensive has simply not materialised. Military analysts had believed Kabila would deploy his strongest fighters, the Angolan-trained Katangese gendarmerie, on his western flank. But the west has been left poorly defended.

Rumours of a coordinated counter-attack in the east, backed by airstrikes, have also proved unfounded. As in 1996 and early 1997, when a Congolese coalition headed by Kabila but backed by Rwanda moved steadily west, rebel forces have found themselves pushing at an open door.

In a conflict which has been characterised by a severe lack of independent reporting, the balance appears to have shifted steadily towards the rebels. The early capture of the towns of Bukavu, Goma and Uvira was followed with a clear push on the west.

Rebel commander Jean-Pierre Ondakane confirmed in Goma that his army had been flying troops west to the military base at Kitona “two or three times a day”, with the aim of putting immediate pressure on Kinshasa. A rebel supporter in Goma said simply: “there will be no long march this time, we have support all over the country”.

From Kitona, where rebels claim to have won over thousands of ex-soldiers of the former Zairean army (FAZ), attacks were directed at the western towns of Moanda, Banana and Boma. Traffic along the River Congo was quickly disrupted, while the hydro- electric dam at Inga was left vulnerable.

According to Ondakane and his deputies, the east fell with barely a shot fired in anger, while the rapid transfer of crack forces west was accomplished with no help whatsoever from outside Congo. The line from Goma remains the same.

“This was never a ‘rebellion’,” a civilian spokesman made clear. “A rebellion implies external support and an invading force. This was an insurrection, a revolution from within”.

Reports that Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have all sent troops across their respective frontiers with DRC have been consistently denied, both by the rebels and the governments concerned.

Both Angola and the People’s Republic of Congo appear to have stayed out of the conflict. Angola’s support could have helped Kabila in the west, but the government of Jose Eduardo dos Santos has apparently decided not to bail out its former ally.