Congo, Democratic Republic of the

The early history of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still largely unknown, but certain records indicate European explorations of the region beginning in the 15th century. The Portuguese had some contact with the kingdom of the Bakongo beginning in 1482, when the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cam visited the mouth of the Congo River. It is believed that at its height the kingdom extended from the region that is now Angola into Gabon. In 1489 a Congolese embassy was sent to the Portuguese king, and in 1490 Franciscan missionaries and artisans from Portugal went to the area. The king of the Bakongo was a convert to Christianity, but his attempts to impose the religion on his people provoked violent opposition. His son, Alfonso, who succeeded him in 1507, set out to Christianize the country. Able to read and write Portuguese, Alfonso adapted the Portuguese model for his government and built many churches. The kingdom declined, however, and memory of the Christian kingdom all but disappeared. The growing interest in Africa as a source of wealth was stimulated by the reports of explorers, notably the Anglo-American journalist Henry Morton Stanley, who led an exploration of the Congo River between 1874 and 1877. As a result of a conference with Stanley, King Leopold II of the Belgians organized the International Association of the Congo in 1878. The new organization immediately engaged Stanley to return to the territory in order to set up trading stations and establish friendly relations with the native chiefs. The explorer founded a number of posts, including the city of Léopoldville (now Kinshasa); he also secured the rights to extensive regions bordering the Congo River. Conflicting claims advanced by various nations, notably Portugal and France, to territorial rights in the Congo region led to the convening in 1884 of the Berlin Conference, which recognized the sovereignty of the African International Association; it also opened the Congo Free State, as the region was named, to trade of all nations and outlawed the slave trade. The new state was placed under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold II in July 1885. Annexation by Belgium Increasingly oppressive exploitation caused continued unrest among the Africans and led, early in the 20th century, to international protest. Public opinion forced Leopold to establish a commission of inquiry in 1904. The report of the commission revealed that the Africans were victims of a slave-labor system and of other abuses. These findings compelled the king to institute certain reforms, which were not very effective. As a result, the Belgian parliament in 1908 voted to annex the Congo Free State, making it a colony that became known as the Belgian Congo. During World War I (1914-1918), Congolese troops effectively aided the Allied cause in Africa, conquering the German territory of Ruanda-Urundi, which was mandated by the League of Nations to Belgium in 1919.  Substantial expansion of the industrial facilities of the Congo took place during World War II (1939-1945). This process was particularly marked in the uranium, copper, palm-oil, and rubber industries. During the postwar years further increases in the industrial productivity of the colony occurred, and a series of reforms, designed to prepare the Congolese for eventual self-government, were initiated. On December 8, 1957, the Africans took part for the first time in voting for elective places on the township councils, winning 130 of 170 seats. After nationalists demanding independence rioted in Léopoldville in 1959, the Belgian government announced a schedule for Congolese elections, which were to inaugurate self-rule. But a congress of leading nationalist parties insisted upon immediate full independence; the two principal parties were the Abako (Bakongo Alliance), led by Joseph Kasavubu, and the Congolese National Movement, led by Patrice Lumumba. Belgium then agreed to relinquish the colony. In elections held prior to independence, some 40 parties presented candidates. Lumumba's Congolese National Movement showed the greatest strength; the Abako was second. By agreement between the two leading parties, Lumumba became premier-designate, and Kasavubu president. The independent Republic of the Congo was proclaimed in Léopoldville on June 30, 1960, by King Baudouin I of the Belgians. Independence and the Secession of Katanga Violent disorders, stemming from tribal disputes, the disappointment of the parties excluded from the government, and a revolt of Congolese armed forces, began within one week of independence. With the intention of restoring order and suppressing maltreatment of whites, Belgian forces still in the Congo were redeployed and additional troops were flown into the country, despite the objections of Lumumba. The action, interpreted as an attempt to reimpose Belgian authority, provoked even greater violence against the Europeans. The political picture was further complicated when on July 11 Moise Tshombe, then premier of Katanga Province, proclaimed that province to be an independent country and requested Belgian military aid. In response to an appeal from Lumumba, the United Nations (UN) Security Council authorized Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld to recruit a military force to be sent to the country to restore order; the Security Council also demanded withdrawal of Belgian forces. The UN force, comprising units from African countries, Sweden, and Ireland, gradually began to supplant Belgian troops. When the Security Council ruled that no UN forces should be used to affect the outcome of any internal conflict in the province, Tshombe permitted UN troops to enter Katanga. In September technicians and advisers from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were flown into the Congo, causing much tension between the United States and the USSR. Tension increased when President Kasavubu announced that he had dismissed Premier Lumumba, replacing him with Joseph Ileo (later called Sombo Amba Ileo). Lumumba claimed that his dismissal was illegal and that Kasavubu was no longer president. On September 13 the UN forces gave up control of the airports and Radio Kinshasa to Lumumba. The Congolese army, however, led by Colonel Joseph Désiré Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko), a supporter of Kasavubu, seized control of the government, and Mobutu ordered Soviet and Czechoslovak ambassadors out of the country. President Kasavubu, on September 29, transferred executive and administrative authority of the Congo to the College of High Commissioners, the caretaker government sponsored by Mobutu. In November the UN General Assembly voted to seat the Kasavubu delegation. Shortly afterwards, Lumumba escaped from his UN-guarded villa in Léopoldville. He was captured the same day and was told by Mobutu that he would have to stand trial for inciting the Congolese army to rebellion. On December 13, 1960, Antoine Gizenga, former deputy premier in the Lumumba government, proclaimed himself premier and designated Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as the capital of the Congo. Within the next few months his government was recognized by most Communist and Arab nations and by Ghana. On January 9, 1961, pro-Lumumba soldiers invaded northern Katanga, and the UN Congo Command sent troops there to prevent outbreak of civil war. President Kasavubu replaced the caretaker government of Mobutu in February with a new provisional government including members of the former parliament, with Joseph Ileo as premier. Lumumba, who had been imprisoned in Katanga, escaped and was killed while in flight (February 12). It was not established clearly who was responsible for his death. UN Peace Efforts On February 21, 1961, the Security Council authorized the UN to use force to prevent civil war in the Congo and demanded withdrawal of all foreign military personnel not under UN command. Opposing the council decision and hoping to forestall further UN intervention, 18 leaders of Congolese factions (not including Gizenga) agreed on March 12 to abolish the central government in favor of a confederation of sovereign states. At a follow-up meeting convened in April, Tshombe withdrew his cooperation. Arrested and charged with treason, he secured his release by agreeing to dismiss all foreign advisers and military forces in Katanga, but repudiated his assurances when he returned to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi). The UN Congo Command launched limited military action against his forces in September and again in December. While trying to arrange a cease-fire between the UN forces and the Katangese forces in September, Secretary General Hammarskjöld was killed under mysterious circumstances in an airplane crash at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Meanwhile, Gizenga agreed to join the central government after former senate member Cyrille Adoula, named Congolese premier on August 2, promised to follow the policies of Lumumba. Gizenga was made first vice-premier, but was removed from his post and censured by parliament in January 1962 for defying a parliamentary resolution that he come to Léopoldville from Stanleyville to face secession charges. During the first half of 1962, Tshombe held intermittent talks with Adoula, but the two leaders failed to reach a final agreement. To compel Tshombe to come to terms, Acting UN Secretary General U Thant proposed a three-stage plan for ending Katanga's secession. Tshombe announced his acceptance of the plan but made little effort to implement it. Adoula demanded that the UN plan be put into effect, by force if necessary. In December, UN forces moved decisively against Katanga and gained control of Elisabethville. Tshombe, fleeing before UN troops, established his last stronghold at Kolwezi. On January 15, 1963, he surrendered to integration demands and was promised amnesty for himself and his followers. A few months later Premier Adoula formed a new cabinet, which included Katanga representatives and gave strongest representation to the Lumumbist Party. Strikes and rebellions continued to beset the country, however, and in June 1964, Adoula resigned as premier. A new constitution was adopted, a government was formed under Tshombe, and the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then, in August, Stanleyville fell to Lumumbist rebels. After troops of the Congolese National Army, aided by white mercenaries, began a drive to recapture the city, the rebels threatened to kill whites being held hostage in the city; among the hostages were about 60 Americans. On November 24, Belgian paratroopers, carried in U.S. planes, landed in Stanleyville and, together with Congolese troops, recaptured the city. The Belgian troops left after their rescue mission. The Mobutu Government A fragile coalition organized by Tshombe won the parliamentary elections of early 1965, but shortly thereafter Kasavubu ousted Tshombe from the premiership. In late 1965 Mobutu again intervened, installing himself as president in place of Kasavubu. In 1966 Mobutu established a presidential form of government; the change was formalized in a new constitution adopted in 1967. In his first years as president, Mobutu brought political stability to the country, although there were a number of short-lived regionally based revolts, and students occasionally protested his allegedly dictatorial rule. Some foreign-owned mining firms were nationalized, and in 1966 the European names of several cities were replaced by African names (Léopoldville became Kinshasa; Stanleyville, Kisangani).  In 1970 Mobutu's political party, the MPR, was declared the only legal party and Mobutu was elected to a seven-year term as president. In the early 1970s he undertook a major program of Africanization. In 1971 the country's name was changed to Zaire; in 1972 the president renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko, at the same time urging other Zairians to drop their non-African names. In 1973 many foreign concerns were taken over by the government. Some economic-development projects were completed, but Zaire remained dependent on income from copper exports. World copper prices fell sharply in the mid-1970s, and largely as a result of the consequent drop in Zaire's export earnings the country's foreign debt had risen to nearly $4 billion by 1980. At the same time the domestic economy experienced high rates of unemployment and inflation. In 1977, and again in 1978, Zaire (with the help of Belgium, France, Morocco, and other countries) repulsed invasions from Angola by former residents of Shaba region (as Katanga had been renamed in 1972). A sluggish economy remained Zaire's greatest problem in the early 1980s. The country's foreign debt was rescheduled in 1981, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) extended a billion-dollar loan; further aid in 1983 and 1984 followed a currency devaluation and other austerity measures. In 1986, however, Zaire abandoned the IMF program, and the economy took a downturn. The government again attempted economic reform in 1989, and in 1990, facing popular demands for multiparty democracy, Mobutu legalized opposition parties. Discontent with Mobutu intensified in the early 1990s, as Mobutu's wealth grew while the nation's economy deteriorated. Outbreaks of violence and looting led many European and American civilians to flee the country. A national conference for the democratization of Zaire opened in 1991, but was soon closed. The conference was reopened in January 1992, only to be closed again by the prime minister for seemingly unreasonable objections to enacted business. In retaliation, some Zairian soldiers attempted to overthrow the government, but were crushed by loyalist troops. In April 1992 the conference reassembled to draw up a new constitution. Shortly thereafter the conference declared its sovereignty as the rightful governing body of Zaire and appointed opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi prime minister in August. Mobutu consented to recognize this arrangement in return for retaining the position of head of state and his control of the army. In December the conference adopted a draft constitution shifting most executive and military powers to the prime minister. The conference dissolved itself and an interim government, the 453-member High Council of the Republic (HCR), was established to organize presidential and legislative elections. Although this legislative body was formally recognized by some foreign nations, President Mobutu refused to acknowledge its authority and appointed a different transitional government and prime minister. Throughout 1993 Mobutu and the HCR operated as rival governments, each claiming authority. In 1994 Mobutu declared the HCR and his own government dissolved, replacing them with a transitional legislature known as the High Council of the Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT). In April the HCR-PT approved the Transitional Constitutional Act, calling for a constitutional referendum and presidential and legislative elections within a 15-month period. Léon Kengo wa Dondo, a more moderate opposition figure than Tshisekedi, was elected prime minister by the HCR-PT, but Tshisekedi maintained his claim to the office. The rivalry between the former HCR and the HCR-PT further confused an already chaotic political scene, effectively fracturing the anti-Mobutu movement. In June 1995 the HCR-PT voted to extend the transition period for another two years. In July 1994 refugees from Rwanda began streaming into Zaire because of the outbreak of ethnic war in that country. More than 1 million Rwandans gathered in camps along the Zairian border. In 1995 the government of Zaire and the UN struggled to find a method of safely repatriating the refugees. In February the first 150 of 1500 Zairian troops were sent by the UN to maintain order in the camps. Over a period of four days in August 1995, the Zairian government ordered that refugees be forcibly expelled from the camps. After approximately 15,000 refugees had been forced back into Rwanda, the government halted the operation in response to international pressure. In November 1995 Mobutu attended a summit in Cairo, Egypt, with the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, and a representative from Tanzania, to discuss the refugee situation. The leaders agreed on a plan to encourage the refugees to return to Rwanda, but most refugees resisted being repatriated, particularly the Hutu who feared reprisals from Rwanda's Tutsi army. Many of the camps were controlled by small, armed Hutu militias made up of former members of the Rwandan army, some of whom used the camps as staging areas for raids into Rwanda. Rebellion In September 1996, near the Hutu refugee camps along the border with Rwanda and Burundi, a small minority population of Zairian Tutsi known as Banyamulenge became targets of harassment by local non-Tutsi and the Zairian army. Recent national legislation had established new criteria for Zairian citizenship, and locals decided to expel the Banyamulenge, who had lived in the region for about 200 years. The Banyamulenge, armed and trained by the Rwandan government in preparation for such an attack, retaliated and, reinforced by Rwandan Tutsi, successfully fought off the Zairian army in October. Accompanying tension between Zaire and Rwanda led to brief cross-border mortar fire around Lake Kivu. By the end of October the resistance had been organized into the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), led by longtime anti-Mobutu revolutionary Laurent Désiré Kabila. Kabila declared the goal of the AFDL to be the overthrow of the Mobutu government. The AFDL began capturing towns and cities near the border, easily defeating a disorganized Zairian army. While continuing to fight the Zairian army, the AFDL, likely at the bidding of Rwanda, also began to attack the militias in the Hutu refugee camps in November. These attacks put at peril hundreds of thousands of refugees, who moved farther west into Zaire. The refugee population at Mugunga camp, northwest of Lake Kivu, grew to more than 500,000. A United States military task force was drawn up to intervene in eastern Zaire and coordinate the repatriation of Rwandan refugees. Just before it was to be deployed in mid-November, the AFDL routed the Hutu militias in several camps, forcing them west. The refugee population in eastern Zaire was split, with about 800,000 streaming home to Rwanda and several hundred thousand moving west, deeper into the jungles of Zaire. The AFDL captured more of eastern Zaire in the next months. The Zairian army was consistently routed, as the underpaid and inexperienced soldiers frequently surrendered or fled instead of fighting. Meanwhile, the AFDL, with its stated intention of overthrowing Mobutu, drew volunteers from every region it captured. Despite employing a contingent of international mercenaries, the Zairian army lost Kisangani, a strategically located Congo River port, to the rebels in March 1997. Lubumbashi, Zaire's second largest city, fell in April. In mid-May, with rebels nearing Kinshasa, Mobutu fled the country. The AFDL captured Kinshasa with minimal resistance, and the rebels found themselves in control of all of Zaire, which was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila declared himself president and promised a democratic constitution and elections. Former prime minister and longtime Mobutu opponent Etienne Tshisekedi clashed with the Kabila's new administration in May and June, demanding a leading role in the transitional government.