Mapping Report > Section I. Inventory of the most serious violations > CHAPTER III. August 1998–January 2001: The Second War
From late 1997 onwards, the relationship between President Kabila, Rwanda and the Tutsi soldiers present in the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) had deteriorated significantly, primarily because the Rwandan authorities and certain Congolese Tutsi soldiers had accused the Congolese president of favouring his Katanga clan, failing to respect his commitments in relation to recognising the right of the Banyamulenge to Congolese nationality and being too conciliatory towards the ex-Forces armées rwandaises/Interahamwe [ex-FAR/Interahamwe] and Mayi-Mayi militias, which were hostile to the presence of the Armée patriotique rwandaise (APR) in the Congo. In July 1998, fearing a coup d’état, President Kabila dismissed the Rwandan general James Kabarebe from his position as Chief of Staff of the FAC and ordered the APR soldiers to leave Congolese territory. In response, on 2 August 1998, some Tutsi soldiers mutinied and, with the help of the APR, the Ugandan army [Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF)], the Burundi army [Forces armées burundaises (FAB)] and some soldiers from the ex-Forces armées zaïroises (ex-FAZ), launched a rebellion intended to overthrow President Kabila.
Within a few weeks, this coalition, under the banner of a new political and military movement, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD),464 took control of the main towns in North and South Kivu, Orientale Province and North Katanga and broke through into the province of Équateur. Its offensive into the province of Bas-Congo and Kinshasa failed, however, due to the military intervention of Angola and Zimbabwe alongside President Kabila. During the following months, the DRC therefore found itself divided into two zones, one led by Laurent Kabila with the support of the armed forces of Zimbabwe [Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF)], Angola (Forças Armadas Angolanas – Angolan Armed Forces (FAA)), Namibia [Namibia Defence Force (NDF)], Chad [Armée nationale tchadienne (ANT)] and Sudan, and the other controlled by the armed wing of the RCD, the Armée nationale congolaise (ANC), the Rwandan army (APR), the Ugandan army (UDPF) and the Burundian army (FAB).
Over the months, the military situation became more complex. To limit the ANC’s and APR’s grip on North and South Kivu, Laurent Kabila formed alliances with the Mayi-Mayi armed groups, the Burundian Hutu armed group, the Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (FDD)465 and with ex-FAR/Interahamwe and “Hutu armed elements”, now reorganised within the Armée de libération du Rwanda (ALiR). Uganda, meanwhile, whose army was in control of a large part of Orientale Province, created and supported a second political and military movement, the Mouvement pour la libération du Congo (MLC), led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, to manage the areas it had conquered in the province of Équateur. In March 1999, against a background of growing disagreement between Rwanda and Uganda as to which strategy to pursue against President Kabila, the RCD split into a pro-Rwandan wing (RCD-Goma) and a pro-Ugandan wing [RCD-Mouvement de libération (ML)]. In spite of these divisions, the RCD-Goma army (the ANC) and the APR continued to extend their area of influence into North Katanga, the Kasais and Équateur.
On 10 July 1999, under intense diplomatic pressure, an agreement was signed in Lusaka between the principal belligerents.466 In addition to a ceasefire, the agreement called for the disarmament of all armed groups, starting with the ex-FAR/Interahamwe, the departure of foreign troops and for inter-Congolese political discussions to be held. This highly ambitious agreement had no effect on the ground, as the belligerents continued to seek a military solution to the crisis and the conflict became more entrenched, against a background of the pillaging of the country’s natural resources and an exacerbation of violence directed at civilians, especially women, in particular in North and South Kivu, North Katanga and Orientale Province.
464 The RCD was officially created on 16 August 1998. Led by a Congolese, Wamba Dia Wamba, the movement’s stated aim was to end the presidency of Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
465 The FDD was the armed wing of the Burundi Hutu movement of the Centre national pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD).
466 For the text of the Agreement, see S/1999/815, appendix.
