DRC

Once again I shall rely on the kindness of those who interpret our speeches, since I am yet again putting them to the test of working without a written text. I shall switch between repetition and familiar issues, between deception and truth. First, repetition. As last year, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Laurent-DÈsirÈ Kabila, has sent me to this very same rostrum to speak about the same issues. Once again our invaders and aggressors from Rwanda and Uganda in particular are in our country, and I shall speak about this again. This falls under the heading of repetition. I shall talk about this issue in the spirit and the letter of the principles of the United Nations. The letter is important insofar as it helps us make sense of this situation. I would suggest to delegations a small exercise regarding the reputedly historic work we do here. By playing with historic a little, by transposing a letter or two, another meaning can be found. I am awaiting the letter of the solution that the United Nations will adopt one day regarding the problem of the aggression against, and occupation of our country by, people who are here in this very Hall and who have spoken falsely yesterday and today. Uganda has said that it has come to my country in order to solve problems among the Congolese. Have the Ugandans come as tourists? Have they come as scientific researchers? We need to return to the letter of the definition of aggression. These people, who ordinarily are our neighbours, leave their country, cross our borders, come into our country and are occupying it even as I speak. And, as if they had not already gone too far, they have taken it upon themselves to say what we should do to settle the problems among the Congolese people. They do not talk about inter-Ugandan dialogue; they do not talk about inter-Rwandan dialogue. They talk about the inter-Congolese dialogue. Perhaps that is why they are slitting people's throats, massacring people, cutting off penises, burying women alive. They are planting fields of arms in the way that Van Gogh planted fields of sunflowers, burying women alive and leaving their arms sticking out of their graves with the idea of later harvesting arms. They have multiplied the number of Dachaus by thousands. They shut up our populations in their humble huts and then set the huts on fire. Perhaps this is their understanding of participating in a solution to the Congolese problem. Unjustifiably! It is a deception for the head of State of one of these countries to play around in New York and say We will not leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Notwithstanding the clear resolutions of the Security Council resolutions 1234 (1999) and 1304 (2000) which state plainly that the Rwandans, the Ugandans and Burundians must leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo, representatives of those countries come here and say We will not leave. These impostors come to this very building and dare to engage in such arm wrestling for the benefit of the 26 leaders and other representatives of the countries gathered here. I do not want someone to tell me even if it is true You have made a wonderful speech. I want to be told We shall report back to our Governments and heads of State what you said, because it is the truth: truth in response to deception. As the philosopher Spinoza said, Verum index sui et falsi; that is, truth is a touchstone both of the truth itself and of falsehood. One of our singers his name, Koffi Olomide, is worth remembering sings, in one of the languages that are well known to Africans who listen to Congolese music and from which I am translating: A lie takes the elevator, but the truth uses the stairs. The phrase is even prettier in Lingala. And so it is the lies of the aggressors have quickly arisen to fool people. They are trying to pass for little lambs, these people who are in a country that is not their own, where no one wants them to be and where they have not been invited. They are there. And they have the nerve to say We will not leave, notwithstanding the clear Security Council resolutions that enjoin them to leave our country without delay or conditions. I am repeating today what I said last year; however, I must repeat this because these people are still in my country and show no sign of leaving. They have outrageous plans, such as creating a Great Lakes Republic by cutting up our country and joining entire provinces of it to their countries. All of this will seem quite clear if you look at a map of my country. You will see that our 2.347 million square kilometres are located amid small asteroids that gravitate around it in some sort of Brownian motion. They enter our country, massacre people and, as I said earlier, shamelessly state that they are not going to leave. They believe that this lie will prevail because it has taken the lift, while our truth has to take the stairs. But I believe that our truth is making headway in your minds. Right is on our side. None of our own soldiers are in Kigali or in Kampala, but there is an unwanted multitude of foreign soldiers in my country, growing in number as well as in weaponry. No doubt they are there for tourism. Since we are embarking upon a historic millennium and we should consider the meaning of that adjective we must remind those people that they have to leave now, today. They should go home. They must not remain in my country because what they are doing is abominable. I have given the Assembly a Dantesque description of what these people are doing in my country, supposedly for peaceful reasons. They are massacring people, as I have stated. They are burying women alive and cutting off the penises of prisoners. This needs to be analysed. Why would anyone do that to prisoners? The lies in the lift will not tell you about that, but the stairway will. I hope you will inform your respective Governments of the realities of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People say it is complex, but in fact it is not complex at all. Those people are not in their country. They have crossed our borders, supposedly to secure their own borders and supposedly because the génocidaires are in my country, occasionally returning to their own countries to sow disorder. Once again, look at a map of our country. You will see that the asteroids that I mentioned, Rwanda in particular, have borders on Lake Kivu. It is a very small area that is the real border between us. If you look at the map, you will see that these asteroids, in order to secure their borders, have gone 2,000 kilometres beyond this real border, to the Atlantic, to start a war. We do not know how they manage to move their soldiers around because they do not have aeroplanes; however, know that they manage. They move heavy weaponry 2,000 kilometres in order to start a war, the purpose of which is to defend their borders 2,000 kilometres away. Who can possibly believe this? Who can claim that this is the truth? When you wish to defend and secure your border, you put your troops at your border so that others do not cross. There is yet another lie: they say that they are pursuing the perpetrators of the genocide that everyone remembers from 1994. They claim that they are pursuing them because they have hidden in our country. Well, these people occupy two provinces in the border area of our country and one other province that is even farther away, farther from the equator. They have never caught any génocidaires, living or dead. It would be a shock if they did. The Rwandans 27 are saying that there are génocidaires in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to justify their presence. However, they have never caught any. Why have they never caught a génocidaire? I think they are incapable of doing two things at once. Each Rwandan or Ugandan has only two hands, and those two hands are busy. Do you know what they are doing? They are taking our diamonds, copper, gold, precious wood and rare animals, which they do not have on their asteroids. And they are becoming diamond exporters. If you look at the stock exchange, you will see that Rwanda this month exported so many diamonds, but those diamonds are covered in the blood of the Congolese people. The gemocracy that employs them is doing the same thing in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola. One could say that the common denominator between those countries and ours is that we are under the thumb of gemocrats who prevent us from creating democracy. We have gemocrats against democrats. That is the deepest meaning to be found in these poor countries that wish to become rich through pillaging and plundering, which they do in the full light of day where everyone can see them. What is more surprising still is that nobody tells them to stop their plundering and go home. This is an absolute fraud, and it threatens our African brothers as well. A country that is one eightieth the size of ours, that not long ago, before Lumumba, held the reins of our country, dares to allow its justice system because in our country there are patriots and nationalists I come from a province near the Atlantic, 2,000 kilometres away from the Rwandan border. I see appear in my province people who are easily recognized by their phenotype, accompanied by some Congolese passing through the province on their way to Kinshasa. They even go to the airport to defend their borders, which are 2,000 kilometres away. Our patriots and nationalists stand up and do not welcome them. We tell them what we must tell them, as a true patriot would do in the face of the invader. That country, one eightieth the size of our own, allows its justice system to prosecute me, to issue an arrest warrant against me and to inform all other countries that if I go to their country, I should be arrested for crimes against humanity, just because I spoke as a patriot against those who have come into my country. One country, more powerful than the others, has asked, because of the thrashing it has received, to be allowed a corridor to the Atlantic. We do not know how these people got to the province of Kivu, which they have virtually annexed. They have changed the local administrators, appointed new governors and changed the telephone system. In order to call this province, you have to dial the code for Rwanda. This is well known. They even direct automobile traffic. In other words, they have completely taken over our province. Nonetheless, in their speeches they say they are in favour of the territorial integrity and political independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the same time, though, they are appointing governors in our country, changing the names of our streets and making decisions as if it were their country. These countries have spilled blood in our jungle and dare to assume the right to tell us who our Minister for Foreign Affairs should be. In threatening my freedom of movement, perhaps they imagined that I would not manage to reach New York, but we have more than one trick up our sleeve. Here I am. I will leave New York and go wherever my President tells me to go. We hope that other countries that wish to maintain good relations with us will refuse to heed these uneducated judges. I say uneducated because I have urged our people to rise and crush the invaders and to make them eat their words, but these judges thought I had called for the invaders to be strangled. These judges are so uneducated they did not realize that I was quoting Voltaire. And now that I've admitted to quoting Voltaire, they will probably issue international arrest warrants for him, because they have no idea who he was. Who are these countries to appoint themselves universal judges and to prosecute people who are not their citizens for acts that were not committed in their territories? These judges do not rely on law since their position is indefensible but on the law of the jungle, because they are hunters. They made their pronouncements two years ago. They are like hunters who make no sound as they stalk their prey, but I too am silent. I have not been warned or notified, but INTERPOL knows it must arrest me if it gets its hands on me. They have been just like big game hunters. Everyone knows what happened to our Prime Minister, Mr. Lumumba. In the tragedy in which a Secretary-General of the United Nations lost his life, the people one person in particular who carried 28 out that dirty work dissolved Lumumba's body in sulphuric acid. Perhaps they are after me now because they are suffering a shortage of sulphuric acid. This gentlemen kept one of Lumumba's teeth as a talisman and displayed it on television, admitting that they had dismembered Lumumba's body, dissolved it in sulphuric acid and kept his tooth as a charm. These universal judges have not been moved to prosecute the person who boasts of having dissolved Lumumba's body and kept one of his teeth. I think these people intend to open a museum some time soon and to grow rich charging admission to see Lumumba's tooth. My African brothers may also be prosecuted when people arrogating the right to appoint members of Government issue warrants for them. That is why my brothers should not remain silent. They are foreign ministers and the same thing could happen to them. They should react. They should not think of me as someone who is uneducated. These countries must be prevented from acting beyond their rights. No one assigned them the task of running the world's affairs through their own brand of justice. I do not wish to linger on this ridiculous topic, but I would go even further in discussing truth and mendacity. Everyone is convinced that we are erecting obstacles to the diplomatic work of the United Nations, but Lumumba's tooth should be a sign that we have historical reasons for our actions. What goes around comes around. I recognize that we have been very particular about how the United Nations forces may be deployed, but we have acceded to the Organization's wishes. We agreed to the Mission and to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, although the fire has yet to cease. People persist in believing in the validity of the Agreement, but it was signed on 10 July 1999 and the fires are still burning today and the war continues. Still, people keep talking about the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. Well, the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement designates the invaders, the aggressors, as parties. These parties signed the Agreement, but Security Council resolution 1304 (2000) implies that they are the aggressors and enjoins them to leave my country. Thus, they are no longer parties, but aggressors who should leave as soon as possible. Moreover, their Congolese puppets are playing the role of Trojan horse. These invaders have exploited certain Congolese supporters of Mobutu to justify their invasion of our country and their aggression. Now, one of these asteroids is giving shelter to Mobutu's former soldiers. They are training in Kampala and their aim of returning to Kinshasa has been openly declared. One large country is helping others to build military bases on our borders and is training their soldiers in order to increase tourism in our country. We must be vigilant. We must act to ensure the implementation of the United Nations resolutions. We would tell the United Nations that, in order to be more effective and to have a greater chance of success, it must implement its own resolutions. I would express the hope that I shall not have to return here next year to repeat yet again that the Rwandans are still in my country, sowing death and pillaging our land. The United Nations must finally implement its own resolutions. How can it do so? It can compel the Ugandans and Rwandans to return to their homes. We do not want them in our country. They are our eternal neighbours, asteroids that orbit our planet. Let them go home. Let them talk to us. We want this war to end as all others do: with negotiations. The Second World War ended in negotiations; the war in Algeria ended in negotiations between France and the National Liberation Front; the war in Viet Nam ended in negotiations between the host country here and the Vietnamese; the war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, which has broken all endurance records, is showing signs of ending soon. How? Through negotiations between the Catholics and the Protestants. Just the other day, in reference to another topic, I mentioned that Security Council resolution 242 (1967) was adopted over 40 years ago, but that it is only now beginning to be implemented. Now, we are not going to wait 40 years for our Clinton and our Camp David. The United Nations must implement its resolutions immediately. It must support us to ensure that the aggressors, whatever they may say, go home. They are not at home. We do not want them in our country. They must go home. The Second World War erupted after a long incubation. We now see hope for perpetual peace following that war, but I agree with Paul …luard that we must be vigilant because the womb that bore the vile beast is still fertile. We want all men, even our enemies, to be our brothers. We want to rebuild our country, which was dismantled by the excesses of 29 Mobutu. Like luard, we want to turn water into light and, as I said, to make every man our brother. That is my message to the Assembly. I repeat: do not tell me (spoke in English) You have made a wonderful speech. (spoke in French) Say We have understood your message and we shall tell our Governments to implement the relevant United Nations resolutions immediately so that the aggressors go home. Please help us to talk with them, in order to put an end to this war, which should end as all wars end. Some of us lost all our hair waiting for the blessed day, 17 May 1997, after 32 years of activity. Look at President Kabila's head and mine; we can be recognized by our advanced baldness, which came about while we were waiting for the moment when we could re-enter Kinshasa. So, my African brothers and my brothers from other countries, including many from Latin America, I conclude with a Spanish saying. I do not wish to translate it, so those who do not understand will have to stop a Spanish-speaking colleague and ask What did he say?: (spoke in Spanish) When your neighbour's house is on fire, watch out for your own house.