July 22,2000
The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Laurent Kabila, on Saturday accused the UN mission in DRC (MONUC) of "laziness" in its failure to stop Rwandan and Ugandan pro-rebel forces breaching a ceasefire signed last year.
State radio quoted Kabila saying he could not understand why the international community was ignoring the fact that UN Security Council resolutions calling on Rwandan and Ugandan troops to leave DRC were being ignored.
"Three weeks ago, MONUC people, who shine in their laziness here and who do not know what to do on the territory they are supposed to be here to defend, had confirmed the repeated violations by the clique of (Ugandan President Yoweri) Museveni and (leader of rebel Congo Liberation Movement, Jean-Pierre) Bemba," Kabila said after a ministry council meeting, according to the radio station.
Kabila said Uganda was helping Bemba's Congo Liberation Movement (MLC) take back land it had occuped before the Lusaka ceasefire accords were signed in July 1999.
The Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) said Friday that invading troops -- as they are called by President Laurent Kabila -- had on Thursday killed civilians "on a massive scale" in the Mboko and Lusenda regions of Sud-Kivu province.
Kabila said he saw no need for MONUC's forces in his country since they had not been able to defend people from the attacks. The DRC president also said he was surprised that the international community was conspiring to find reasons to accuse the DRC government -- not the rebels or their foreign backers -- of violating the ceasefire accords.
The UN Security Council said late Wednesday that it was "concerned" by reports of a government offensive in Equateur province in the northwest DRC. Government forces retook the town of Imese in Equateur, 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Kinshasa, on July 16 after days of fighting. The town had fallen under the control of MLC rebels at the beginning of the year.
Kabila said his troops planned to launch an offensive in the north of Equateur province, where Ugandan and Rwandan troops backing separate rebel groups have clashed, when the time was right. He added that it would be a case of legitimate defence against military operations in the area over the past few days.
