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Roundup: Congolese President Pays Root-Seeking Visit to Tanzania
When he left Dar es Salaam six years ago, he was just a student. But when he returned last Saturday, he has become a head of state. Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the third largest country on the African continent and one of the most mineral-rich corners in the globe, has impressed the Tanzanians deeply over the past three days.
On the rainy Saturday, Kabila jetted in for his first official visit to Tanzania, where he once lived and studied for more than a decade while his father, the late DRC president Laurent Kabila, was fighting against the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko in the then Zaire.
Thousands of Dar es Salaam residents jammed the streets to give him a hero's welcome, with many of them regarding his visit as a homecoming. They were curious to see this young general who has brought great hope for the resumption of peace in the Great Lakes region.
Some even could not help bursting into tears when they saw a smiling Kabila, in a dark blue suit and a blue tie, waving aboard an open military jeep in the presidential motorcade together with his host Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, who is at his father' s age.
Eldest of Laurent Kabila's sons, Joseph Kabila grew up and studied in Tanzania until 1995 when he joined his father in the guerrilla war and finally toppled Mobutu in 1997.
Joseph was rewarded with the title of Major General and a post as the head of the DRC armed forces.
But Laurent Kabila's presidency was shaken on August 2, 1998 as his former allies Uganda and Rwanda turned against him.
A full-scale civil war has since pulled in six neighboring countries, with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi on the rebels side and Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia on the government side. Contrary to the six neighboring countries, Tanzania has been keeping neutral by withdrawing its military advisors from the DRC when the civil war broke out.
Urging countries backing rebels in the DRC to pull out their forces and allow the United Nations (U.N.) troops to be deployed, Tanzania asserted that it will continue to do whatever it can to contribute to the realization of peace and stability in the DRC and the Great Lakes region as a whole.
In January this year, Joseph Kabila was thrust into power to succeed his father, who was assassinated by his own bodyguard in the presidential palace in a mystery that surprised the world.
Since he assumed the presidency, Joseph Kabila has toured many countries to seek their supports for his efforts to try to resume peace to his war-torn motherland.
In February, he was in Tanzania with other Heads of State from the Great Lakes region to attend a summit on Burundi peace process held in Arusha, northern Tanzania, invited by the facilitator of the Burundi peace talks and former South African president Nelson Mandela.
Laurent Kabila made his last contribution to the Burundi process in January when he initiated, together with President of Gabon Hadj Bongo, the first direct meeting between the Burundian Tutsi-dominated government and the Hutu rebels in Libreville.
While holding talks with Mkapa at the State House in Dar es Salaam, Joseph Kabila emphasized the need for the speedy implementation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, which provides the basis for resolving comprehensively the conflict in the DRC.
Kabila denounced Uganda and Rwanda, whose leaders were once friends of his father, for their confirmed plundering of DRC mineral wealth, urging the U.N. to impose sanctions on them as punishment.
In April, Kabila fired the entire cabinet he inherited from his father, which observers said was a move to create a new and clean government capable of leading the Congolese people out of the mire of the civil conflict.
Kabila is seen by many as the right man to bring to an end the war, which has torn apart this resource-rich country in the heart of the African continent. The peace agreement to end the 33-month- old war, reached in Lusaka in 1999, has been revived since Kabila came into power.
Kabila stressed that the priority for the DRC now is to secure peace rather than yearning for joining regional blocs like the East African Community.
On the presence of 150,000 DRC refugees in Tanzania, Kabila promised his compatriots that he will try to arrange their return once the security improves.
He even mentioned the Kiswahili, a leading business language spoken in much of the Great Lakes region, encouraging Tanzania to contribute to its promotion.
In his meeting with leaders of Tanzanian business community on Sunday, Kabila challenged them to play a leading role in promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation, especially in the fields of communications and transport infrastructures.
He said that despite insecurity in the DRC, his government is keen to strengthen the existing social, political and economic relations with Tanzania.
For this purpose, Kabila Monday toured the Dar es Salaam Harbor and the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, the pivots to speed up movement of cargo between the two countries.
According to uncompleted statistics, informal corss-border business between Tanzania and the DRC is currently about 150 million U.S. dollars a year.
At a state banquet in his honor Saturday, Mkapa highly commended Kabila for the efforts he is making in restoring peace in the DRC in line with the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, promising him with Tanzania's consistent support in this endeavor.
Mkapa said that Tanzanians once helped in making sure that the Lusaka agreement was signed, affirming it is again ready to spearhead its implementation towards building a new DRC.
Reports said that so far, Rwanda and Uganda have started to pull back their troops, while Zimbabwe and Angola are beginning to follow suit, and the U.N. has already deployed 828 military observers and troops.
"God bless, one of these few days we will fully liberate our country from the hands of aggressors," said Kabila,. "The future of Congo should and must be decided by the Congolese, not others."
During his tour in Zanzibar on Sunday, Tanzania's semi- autonomous offshore state, Kabila met with President Amani Abeid Karume, with whom he shared almost same suffering: Karume's father Abeid Amani Karume, founding president of the Zanzibar Republic, was assassinated too by his bodyguard in 1970s for unknown reason.
Hours before concluding the visit on Monday, Kabila flied to Butiama village near the shores of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania, where he laid a wreath on the grave of Tanzania's founding father Julius Nyerere.
Nyerere, who sheltered Laurent Kabila in Tanzania for many years, died in October 1999 from leukemia in London.
Prior to his departure for Kinshasa, Kabila told a news conference at Dar es Salaam International Airport that he was very satisfied with the reception by the Tanzanians, saying that his visit was not just an invitation, but the truth was that he has come back to his roots.
"This is a root-seeking visit," a Tanzanian official from the Presidential Office said. "He has his roots deep here in Tanzania. "
When his white presidential plane disappeared from the view, Tanzanian leaders were still waving their hands as players danced and shouted in Kiswahili: Karibu tena (Welcome again) !
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