Text:
http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/98sep1/3sep-congo.html
Congo Muslims in
Sudan back Kabila
Congolese exiles in the Sudan demonstrate in support of the Kabila government, and call on Sudan to join the war against the Uganda-backed rebels.
By NHIAL BOL
ORE than 300 Congolese 'Mujaheedins' in the Sudan have demanded to be airlifted
home to defend President Laurent-Desire Kabila against
rebels, whom they claim are backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
The Mujaheedin, made up of Congolese youth, declared a 'Jihad' (Holy Islamic war) against the rebels during a pro-Kabila demonstration in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum this week.
''We are ready to go and fight in the Democratic Republic of Congo,'' said the spokesman of the Mujaheedin (Islamic fighters), Hassan Sebit Tshimpiangia. ''We want to teach the invading forces a lesson.''
''Uganda and Rwanda are small countries. How can they dream of invading Congo,'' said Tshimpiangia. ''Without the support of the United States, Uganda and Rwanda would never have dreamt of attacking Congo''.
The demonstrators are mostly descendants of refugees who fled to Sudan in the 1960s during Congo's first civil war. Like Kabila, the refugees -- who number about 10,000 in Sudan -- are the followers of Patrice Lumumba, the first Premier of Congo, who was murdered in 1961.
The demonstrators have also
demanded, in a memo to the Congolese
Charge d'Affaires in Khartoum, that
Muslims be appointed to top positions
in the Congo.
''Muslims in Congo must be given a
chance to participate in all sectors of
the society,'' said the memo, which
accused the government of the late
dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of
marginalising the Muslims, who make
up 10 percent of the DRC's population.
The memo also has demanded the
setting up of Sharia courts in Congo.
Under Sharia, thieves' limbs are amputated, drunkards publicly flogged and
adulterers stoned to death.
Tshimpiangia appealed to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir to solicit Arab support for the people of Congo. '' I am appealing to President al Bashir to help the Muslims of Congo. We need Arab support now,'' he said.
The pro-government newspaper 'Rai Al Aam' reported on Tuesday that Kabila paid a secret visit to Khartoum on Aug. 28 to seek support.
A top official in the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, David de Chand, alleged that the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) are involved in the DRC, fighting alongside Rwandan and Ugandan troops.
''We have evidence that SPLA fighters are in the DRC helping their friends, Uganda and Rwanda,'' said de Chand, director for Human Rights and Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said the SPLA soldiers were initially sent for training in Rwanda, but when the crisis broke out, they were dispatched to Congo to fight.
He accused the SPLA of abandoning its war in the Sudan and fighting in Congo.
Sudanese political observers say both the SPLA and Sudanese government will soon be sucked into the Congolese crisis, if the conflict continues.
''I am sure (the main Angolan rebel group) UNITA will fight their government troops in Congo, the same for Sudanese belligerents. Soon you will see the Sudanese government sending supplies and troops to Congo, while the SPLA will help their friends Uganda and Rwanda,'' a Sudanese politician told IPS on Wednesday.
The conflict has already sucked in Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, who have vowed to flush out the rebels from the DRC. -- Electronic Mail&Guardian, September 3, 1998.