U.S.-CONGO: Washington to Offer Aid With Strings

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 6 1997 (IPS) - President Bill Clinton has sent a high- level mission with offers of aid to the Congo’s new government led by President Laurent Kabila.

The delegation, led by U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson and Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, left Washington Thursday. The team also includes senior officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Treasury Department, and representatives of other agencies with an interest in the former Zaire.

It will be the first high-level delegation to go to Kinshasa since Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) ended the 32-year reign of Mobutu Sese Seko.

Officials told IPS that Richardson will offer Kabila a “significant” aid package that includes possible debt relief, provided that he satisfy U.S. concerns in four areas.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Thursday that Washington wants to be assured that Kabila’s government will be broad-based and inclusive and that it is “devoted to an economy that will be open to Western investment, including, we hope, American investment.”

He also said the United States expects the new government to “put human rights at the forefront of its agenda.” In that connection, Washington, he said, is most concerned about the United Nations’ ability to investigate reports about recent and possible ongoing massacres allegedly committed by Tutsi-led ADFL forces against Hutu rebels from Rwanda.

Finally, the delegation will be seeking guarantees that the new government will cooperate fully with international and non- governmental organisations in providing humanitarian aid to the Congo, Burns said.

“If we can be assured of (these), then I think that the United States will be ready to extend economic assistance to the Congo,” he said. “We have not yet communicated any specific numbers to them, and will not be making any ironclad promises until we have a greater perspective to see the performance of this particular government.”

Other officials also declined to cite figures, insisting that they have hardly begun assessing the country’s needs. But it is understood that non-food economic and development aid could exceed 30 million dollars a year. That would propel Kinshasa from among the least of U.S. development aid recipients in Africa to among the top five.

The package was put together after considerable debate within USAID and the State Department over whether the bulk of the aid should be directed to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in order to build up civil society in the Congo, or directly to the new government in hopes of gaining influence with Kabila and his political associates.

Washington cut off all aid to the government in the early 1990s after Mobutu reneged on pledges to cooperate with opposition parties in devising a democratic transition. Instead, it channelled modest amounts of assistance through NGOs.

Now, policymakers have decided to restore aid to the government itself, according to officials, if they get satisfaction on their major concerns.

In his remarks Thursday, Burns said Washington has not yet made an assessment as to whether Kabila could meet U.S. conditions, adding that his “track record is not very long.” He added, however, that one “good thing” accomplished by the new government was its inclusion of “some members of other political parties who are not part of the rebel alliance.”

At the same time, Burns noted that Kabila has banned demonstrations by political parties and reduced freedom of the press. “These are important criteria that we have to measure him by,” he said.

Independent analysts are also worried. “Rule by decree is about as non-inclusive as you can get,” says Salih Booker, head of Africa studies at the influential Council on Foreign Relations.

Booker hopes the delegation will meet with Etienne Tshisekedi, a prominent longtime foe of Mobutu’s with a substantial popular following in Kinshasa and the central province of Kasai. Since taking power, Kabila has ignored Tshisekedi, although he has recruited two of his party’s members into the new government.

Steve Weissman, a Zaire specialist who used to direct the staff of the Africa subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, is also concerned about Kabila’s willingness to share power with non-ADFL figures. “Mobutu also brought opponents into his regime, but he kept all the power,” according to Weissman.

He is worried, too, that Washington may be more interested in cultivating Kabila than in helping build a democratic culture in the Congo. “Are they looking at this as another regime they should get on the good side of, rather than making sure it’s an accountable regime?” he asks.

At his inauguration, Kabila promised to hold elections within two years. But he has not indicated when political parties might be re-legalised and permitted to organise.

In pressing their demands, U.S. officials must be careful not to appear self-righteous, however, says Booker. “The U.S. is not in a position to lecture on democratic principles and human rights in the Congo,” he says, citing Washington’s long backing for Mobutu, one of Africa’s most dictatorial and rapacious rulers.

Some officials believe it is still too soon after the ADFL’s victory last month for Kabila to know how he plans to proceed. The Congo leader has just returned to Kinshasa from Harare after a summit of the Organisation of African Unity. “He’s just trying to keep afloat,” says one official, who notes that Kabila still hasn’t filled his cabinet.

“He’s got an army he doesn’t fully control, and now he will be asked to do things he can’t really do much about,” according to the official, who says that Washington still knows very little about power relationships within the Alliance.

Of special concern is the situation in the eastern part of the country, especially around Kisangani, where Tutsi forces from the Alliance have reportedly been hunting down and killing Hutu refugees and burning their remains. Tutsis, who launched the insurgency last October by attacking Hutu camps along the Rwandan border, are thought to be the most powerful group within the Alliance.

Kabila has repeatedly denied his troops are responsible and has ordered them to cooperate with U.N. officials. But U.N. and other relief officials — most recently, U.N. emergency-relief coordinator Yasushi Akashi — have said they are being denied access and suspect the worst. “We need to see the action,” Burns, the State Department spokesman, said Thursday.