Kabila Scornfully Dismisses Amnesty Propaganda
May 21, 1998 - 0:0
WINDHOEK Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila scornfully dismissed Tuesday an Amnesty International claim of widespread human rights abuse in his country as a mound of machination. I'm telling you that it is complete propaganda to disinform the world. There are no violations of human rights, he told a news conference at the end of a Southern African Economic Summit. They are collecting information from Mobutist Guards transformed now into human rights associations.
They were not there before, so why do you want me to believe in their report when it is wrong. That is my answer, he said in a blanket dismissal of Amnesty's latest report on the country. He invited journalists to go to the DRC to see for themselves. You will meet a big number of beggars and they will start telling stories of what they have seen for a little money.
The human rights report we don't believe in it. It is a mound of machination, said an angry Kabila, whose dubious human rights record has been sharply criticized by the International Community since he swept Mobutu Sese Seko from power a year ago. His victory after a seven-month civil war was widely applauded during a cheerleading business seminar whose participants appeared more in awe at Kabila's presence than willing to pose challenging questions on his country's investment climate.
Kabila, here with an entourage of key DRC ministers and businesspeople, used the gathering to call on the International Community to scrap his government's debt and redouble its efforts for the reconstruction of the country. And, at a special post summit seminar on Central Africa, he was eager to show that his government wanted to attract investment from across southern Africa. He called for investment in transportation and power infrastructure, health and educational services, as well as capacity-building and skills training in an economy depleted by three decades of Mobutu's kleptocratic dictatorship.
The head of his Central Bank, Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo said new policies were restructuring the banking sector and laying the foundations for greater investment, with inflation down from double-figures to 5.0 percent. You as investors have a safe place to bring your money, and we are waiting for it, he said. Kabila said his country was gradually assuming a new identity.
I am not so naive as to believe that social and economic reform, without political transformation, will be sufficient to ensure Congo's success and help drive forward Africa's renaissance. We fought for change because our people were deprived of the fundamental civil, political and economic rights, and we are determined to secure these for all our citizens. He dismissed the concerns of South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who told an earlier press conference that Kinshasa risked electoral confusion by moving too quickly towards elections promised for next year.
We wanted to be fast and we reacted to the tremendous propaganda and the pressure coming from abroad. We are doing everything to make it possible, Kabila said. (AFP)
They were not there before, so why do you want me to believe in their report when it is wrong. That is my answer, he said in a blanket dismissal of Amnesty's latest report on the country. He invited journalists to go to the DRC to see for themselves. You will meet a big number of beggars and they will start telling stories of what they have seen for a little money.
The human rights report we don't believe in it. It is a mound of machination, said an angry Kabila, whose dubious human rights record has been sharply criticized by the International Community since he swept Mobutu Sese Seko from power a year ago. His victory after a seven-month civil war was widely applauded during a cheerleading business seminar whose participants appeared more in awe at Kabila's presence than willing to pose challenging questions on his country's investment climate.
Kabila, here with an entourage of key DRC ministers and businesspeople, used the gathering to call on the International Community to scrap his government's debt and redouble its efforts for the reconstruction of the country. And, at a special post summit seminar on Central Africa, he was eager to show that his government wanted to attract investment from across southern Africa. He called for investment in transportation and power infrastructure, health and educational services, as well as capacity-building and skills training in an economy depleted by three decades of Mobutu's kleptocratic dictatorship.
The head of his Central Bank, Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo said new policies were restructuring the banking sector and laying the foundations for greater investment, with inflation down from double-figures to 5.0 percent. You as investors have a safe place to bring your money, and we are waiting for it, he said. Kabila said his country was gradually assuming a new identity.
I am not so naive as to believe that social and economic reform, without political transformation, will be sufficient to ensure Congo's success and help drive forward Africa's renaissance. We fought for change because our people were deprived of the fundamental civil, political and economic rights, and we are determined to secure these for all our citizens. He dismissed the concerns of South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who told an earlier press conference that Kinshasa risked electoral confusion by moving too quickly towards elections promised for next year.
We wanted to be fast and we reacted to the tremendous propaganda and the pressure coming from abroad. We are doing everything to make it possible, Kabila said. (AFP)