Kinshasa welcomes Security Council call

Information Minister Didier Mumengi on Friday hailed the UN’s call for the withdrawal from the DRC of foreign troops. In a broadcast on Congolese national television, he said that “condemning unequivocally the aggression perpetrated against the DRC” and demanding that Rwanda and Uganda leave its territory as soon as possible could only mean justice for Congo and honour for the UN. The Rwandan government also supported the call for foreign forces to withdraw. However, Eugene Rudasingwa, a director in the Office of the President, expressed concern at the clause on compensation for the Kisangani fighting and said western powers which had despoiled Zaire had not been asked to pay compensation, Radio Rwanda reported. The people of Kisangani had lived through troubled times, but Rwanda had not caused “the unfortunate events”, it quoted Rudasingwa as saying. Ugandan Attorney-General Bart Katureebe said his country was willing to go to court to contest any case for reparations that DRC might bring. “Of course, Kinshasa has already taken us to court before. We are waiting to see if they will file a fresh application after the Friday resolutions,” the semi-official Ugandan ‘New Vision’ newspaper on Monday quoted him as saying. The DRC last year filed cases against Rwanda and Uganda with the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, demanding the withdrawal of their troops and war reparations.