News and Notes

Violence Erupts in Congo-Brazzaville

Serious setbacks to peace and democracy have occurred in Congo-Brazzaville since the July 1997 issue of the Journal of Democracy containing John Clark’s article, “Petro-Politics in Congo,” went to press. The following update is based on a report that Clark, who was evacuated from Brazzaville in June, submitted in late August:

The tenuous civil and ethnic peace that had prevailed in the Republic of Congo since 1994 was decisively shattered on June 5 this year, and Congo’s democratic experiment has been sidelined for now. On the day in question a detachment of the national army tried to arrest certain associates of former president Denis Sassou-Nguesso (1979–92), a candidate in the presidential election that had been scheduled for July 27. The national government of President Pascal Lissouba had accused these Sassou partisans of instigating violent incidents in two northern towns a month earlier. Lissouba had also apparently hoped to disarm Sassou’s militia (the “Cobras”), which the former president has maintained since his electoral defeat in 1992. In the event, Sassou’s militia not only prevented any arrests, but launched a bid to seize power on behalf of their leader. Over subsequent days, large numbers of Sassou supporters defected from the national army and joined his cause, leading to civil war.

It was known that the various militias assembled during the 1993–94 ethnic violence had remained intact, ready for another confrontation. Lissouba’s regime had also been delinquent in making preparations for the July elections, having failed to complete the census or issue identification cards by early June. Yet many had been heartened by the public accord signed by Lissouba, Sassou, and Brazzaville mayor Bernard Kolélas, another opposition leader, at the end of May. This agreement had committed all parties to participate peacefully and honestly in the electoral process.

The effects of the war have been devastating. Within three weeks of the outbreak of fighting, the French military had evacuated some six thousand foreigners. Although the number of dead is uncertain, reports suggest that it is more than five thousand, and up to half of Brazzaville’s 800,000 residents have fled the city. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of internal refugees have crowded into the districts of Bakongo and Makélékélé, two fiefdoms of Kolélas, who has remained neutral in the conflict. Some refugees have been taken from trains and executed by Lissouba partisans, while various quarters of Brazzaville have been “ethnically cleansed.” Virtually every business in downtown Brazzaville has been looted and destroyed.

Mediation efforts have led to a series of five short-lived cease-fires, the last of which came into effect on July 14. Unfortunately, this cease-fire was broken in early August after Sassou rejected a plan for an interim government and a peacekeeping force.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has contemplated sending a peacekeeping force. The Council, however, has set three conditions: the implementation of a “viable” cease-fire; international control of Brazzaville’s main airport; and a clear indication from both sides of the desire for a political settlement. None of these conditions has yet been met.

Other outside forces may be intervening in Congo in a less therapeutic manner. Lissouba’s camp has accused the leaders of Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, and Rwanda of providing arms and even troops to Sassou; meanwhile, Sassou’s clandestine radio has accused Lissouba of employing French and Moroccan mercenaries, as well as UNITA troops from Angola.

Much of the Congolese middle class, including the exile community in Europe and America, is disgusted with these leaders’ belligerence. Indeed, only Kolélas has behaved responsibly, keeping his partisans out of the fight, and allowing his fiefdoms to become a sanctuary for refugees. This round of political violence is clearly attributable to political provocateurs and a few hundred desperate followers, not to “primordial” ethnic antagonisms in society. Accordingly, there is some hope for a return to civil peace, and eventually democracy —if the moral authority of civil society can be brought to bear on a ruthless political class.

François Furet (1927–1997)

On July 12, historian François Furet...