Vol. 72/No. 46      November 24, 2008

The imperialists portray the conflict in Congo as one rooted in “tribal rivalries” that can only be resolved by outside intervention. But the conflicts between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups in Congo were originally fostered by the Belgian colonialists who once ruled that Central African nation. This method applied by the colonial powers throughout the African continent served to keep working people divided and unable to resist.

The United Nations has a long and bloody history in Congo. The Central African country won independence from Belgium in June 1960. Patrice Lumumba, leader of the independence struggle, became Congo’s prime minister. Brussels immediately organized an antigovernment rebellion in Katanga, the region where U.S., British, and Belgian mining companies had major investments. When Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for help, UN “peacekeepers” arrived and disarmed Lumumba’s troops, not the Belgian-backed insurgents.

In September 1960 Washington instigated a coup led by Mobutu Sese Seko. The UN “peacekeepers” stood back and watched. Lumumba was arrested and murdered a few months later. When his followers attempted to lead an uprising against the Mobutu dictatorship in November 1964, U.S. planes bombed the villages they controlled and ferried Belgian and mercenary troops into combat against them. Thousands of Congolese working people were killed in that bloodbath.

In a pointed speech to the UN General Assembly in December 1964, Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara denounced the “hyenas and jackals” of “Western civilization.” That is the only name, he said, “that can be applied to those who have gone to fulfill such ‘humanitarian’ tasks in the Congo.”

Since the 1960s many more Central African toilers have died in fighting between rival capitalist regimes and factions over mineral resources. The frequent presence of UN and other “peacekeepers” has offered no protection. Rather, it has prevented working people from charting a course to win genuine political independence and social and economic development.

Working people should demand the withdrawal of all the UN troops from Congo and oppose the deployment of any more “peacekeepers.” That is the only solution that gives the workers and peasants of that country the political space they need to organize a fight against their exploitation by both local capitalists and the imperialist powers.
 
 
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