In this issue:

Fizzled Congo Coup Attempt Could Be Rehearsal for Real Thing

Plot Revealed To Overthrow Congo's Kabila

African Nations Cooperate To End Mercenary Activity

Mbeki Issues Call for South African Unity and Progress

Namibian To Expropriate Large Land Holdings

From Volume 3, Issue Number 13 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Mar. 30, 2004
Africa News Digest

Fizzled Congo Coup Attempt Could Be Rehearsal for Real Thing

A coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo was foiled after several hours of fighting March 28. Coordinated attacks—involving gunfire, rocket launchers and grenades—were launched on key government facilities and a TV station in Kinshasa at 0300 hours local time March 28. The President's residence, two army barracks, the naval base, and Ndolo air base were all attacked.

Head of the army Gen. Sylvain Buki, UN military personnel, and the British ambassador all claim the fighters were members of former President Mobutu's 3,000-man army, living across the Congo River in Congo-Brazzaville, although this has not been confirmed by the minister of information or the Presidential spokesman.

By the afternoon, fighting had ceased, 20 of the assailants had been captured, and the government said 18 others were still at large. President Kabila, whose whereabouts are not public, is said to be safe.

The small scale of the operation indicates that it is probably a preamble to something larger, EIR notes (see next item).

Plot Revealed To Overthrow Congo's Kabila

Only a day before the armed attacks on the government in Kinshasa, Demain le Congo reported March 27 on an alleged full-scale coup plot to overthrow DR Congo President Joseph Kabila.

Vice Presidents Azarias Ruberwa and Jean-Pierre Bemba, says Demain le Congo, are the leaders of a takeover plan called Operation Ndani ya Kitanda. Ruberwa and Bemba are agents of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Preparations for the coup "are going well" and it is planned for about April 1.

Kabila is to be kidnapped and forced into exile à la deposed Haitian President Bertrand Aristide. "Everything is prepared to prevent him from taking refuge either in Mbuji-Mayi, or particularly in Lubumbashi, his stronghold, where he could be able to organize resistance... In the same way, a team of MONUC [the UN Mission in DR Congo] is already prepared. It will be charged to simulate the protection of Joseph Kabila, but its real mission will be to ensure his evacuation to exile."

The wives of certain pro-Rwandan military officers in the East are being moved to Kisangani for their protection, while those in Kinshasa are either being sent to Congo-Brazzaville or to MONUC safehouses in Kinshasa.

"The neutralization of the East, where the populations are more than ever hostile to RCD [Rwanda-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy] will be ensured by Col. [Jules] Mutebusi ... and a General living in Goma.... [T]he wife of Col. Mutebusi is the niece of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. She is in charge of missions and contacts of Kagame with civilian and military officials of RCD-Goma," Demain le Congo reports.

African Nations Cooperate To End Mercenary Activity

African cooperation against mercenaries in the Equatorial Guinea affair is designed to end mercenary activity, according to Theo Neethling, Professor of Military Science, at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, who was interviewed by The Australian March 27. "Prof. Neethling believes the arrests are meant to signal that soldiers of fortune will no longer be able to operate on the continent," said the paper, referring to the arrests of mercenaries in Malabo and Harare March 7 and 8.

Although not mentioned by The Australian, the corollary seems to be, that the hiring by African governments of "private military companies" (like Executive Outcomes and Sandline)—as in the recent cases of Sierra Leone, Angola, and Liberia—will now be discountenanced in Africa. That will become clear in how the big fish, Simon Mann, is treated. Mann, among those arrested in Zimbabwe March 7, is formerly of the Special Air Services and was a founder of Executive Outcomes. He is an old Etonian of the family that owns Mann's Ale.

The South African government sprang a trap on the mercenaries, spying on them while they trained in South Africa and letting the plan to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea proceed, while alerting Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe of the mercenaries' intentions.

The executive head of the African Union (AU), Alpha Oumar Konaré, a former President of Mali, said March 15, "Africa must take drastic action against the bastion of mercenaries and make the continent the cemetery of these running dogs.... Terrorists have caused lots of damage in a number of African countries."

The AU Executive Council, meeting in Addis Ababa March 15-17, declared, "The Executive Council ... welcomes the cooperation of the governments of Angola, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, which made it possible to foil the planned invasion." The statement added that those found guilty should receive exemplary punishment. Article 7 of the 2002 AU Convention on the Elimination of Mercenarism says mercenary activity is punishable by the severest penalties, under the laws of the countries where suspects are tried.

Mbeki Issues Call for South African Unity and Progress

While the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is virtually certain to be returned to power in the April 14 general election, South African President Thabo Mbeki is attempting to use the electoral process to strengthen national unity. Mbeki told reporters in Matipane March 27, after addressing a stadium crowd there, that "he would invite the opposition to join the government, even if his African National Congress is easily re-elected," Reuters reported. "Our interest is to unite the people of South Africa, so after the elections ... let's invite other people to come and work together for the progress of this country," he said. The same offer, made at the time of the 1999 election, was largely rebuffed.

Since 1999, the New National Party, dominated by Afrikaner whites, has moved into alliance with the ANC. The pro-free-trade Democratic Party, dominated by British whites, leads the Democratic Alliance of right-wing parties, and is teamed up with the Inkatha Freedom Party of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, which dominates KwaZulu-Natal province, the only province not under ANC control.

The ANC is aggressively attempting to capture KwaZulu-Natal, and Buthelezi has reportedly said that the 1999 pact to end violence between ANC and IFP supporters (20,000 died in such violence before the 1994 election) is effectively dead.

"Police cocked their guns when a large group of IFP supporters tried to disrupt an ANC election rally in Ulundi, Buthelezi's home town... according to a Reuters witness. The IFP supporters backed off," Reuters reported March 27.

There is also a threat of violence from the left-wing Landless People's Movement (LPM). LPM national organizer Mangaliso Kubheko said, March 13, "We will not vote on April 14, but we will take farms and chase away white farmers like dogs." Three hundred LPM members occupied the offices of the Eastern Cape provincial government March 3.

Namibian To Expropriate Large Land Holdings

The Namibian government will begin expropriating large land holdings, now mainly in the hands of whites, Reuters reported March 4. Whites represent only 5% of the population, but own 75% of the arable land. Until now, redistribution has been done on a willing seller/willing buyer basis, but very little land has changed hands. Namibian Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba told Parliament March 2, that compensation for expropriated land "shall be based primarily upon the market value." "Excessive land" held by blacks will also be targetted. The Lands Ministry hopes to redistribute 22 million acres of commercial farmland.

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