The Congo: UN support for uprising and the Nguesso-Mandela rift

November 5, 4:10 AMLafayette Political Buzz ExaminerKen LaRive

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Nguesso
Free Press Stock Photo

The Congo is deploying a combination of local police and soldiers to put down an armed resistance blamed for killing 47 police officers in the Democratic Republic of Equateur as reported throughout European Television. The main sources seem to be coming from Information Minister Lambert Mende and the United Nations-supported Radio Okapi.

Mende was interviewed several times yesterday and said that anyone found with a weapon will be arrested, and that these men, originally about 50 youths armed with machine guns, AK-47, and other assorted weapons, have now grown to about 300.

The government of Congo has been struggling to reestablish dominance over their vast central African nation since the humanitarian disaster between 1998-2003 where it is estimated that 5.4 million people were killed, predominately caused by ethnic clashes.

Though this violence has been mostly quelled for the moment there is also trouble brewing on Congo's eastern borderlands where Rwandan and Ugandan rebels are uniting.

This region is known for its untapped mineral resources, the true reason for war.

Author's side notes: These past weeks I have been traveling from Belgium to the South of France...

Yesterday, our last day, we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in Brussels' airport. For the last few days we had stayed in Avignon, Provence France where my room number was 5011. My number at the Sheraton was 2013, and of course I got mixed up when I was sent to get coffee and tried to get into the room 5013. Nest door in the room 5011 a black African man was hovering around. I thought he was trying to steal something form a cart in the hall. As my knock went unanswered I went to the front desk with my key and ID and they told me I was on the second floor, and that particular string of rooms was for the President of the Congo who had arrived just hours before. Whether this is true is not substantiated. That man, I was told, was one of his guards.

Denis Sassou Nguesso may have been there to seek Belgium support.

In his recent book Straight Speaking for Africa, Nguesso has been accused by Nelson Mandela to have faked the forward of that book where it is purported that he praised the man who came to power in a coup in 1979 after losing in the election, and regained power by winning a civil war as "one of our great African leaders". A law suit is pending.

Mandela, also known in the area by his clan name Madiba, says it is totally outrageous, that he has never read the book, and it is a brazen abuse of the Mandela name.

The alleged foreword reads: "In President Denis Sassou Nguesso, I recognize a man who is not only one of our great African leaders ... but also one of those who gave their unconditional support to our fighters' demand for freedom, and who worked tirelessly to free oppressed peoples from their chains and help restore their dignity and hope."

There was also a man I struck a conversation with on the plane back to Atlanta who said he was from the Congo. He was traveling with a woman and he was the only one on the plane wearing a suit. Wearing a suit is a sign of power throughout Africa. Only a vivid imagination could explain why. He spent the entire 9.5 hours working from an overfilled brief case with Congo letterhead.
Once called the Belgium Congo, ties must still exist.

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song by Billy Joel that makes reference to The Congo.