WRITTEN QUESTION E-3174/97 by Johanna Maij-Weggen (PPE) to the Commission (13 October 1997)

Subject: Zaire

Is the Commission aware that at the end of August a new UN team went to the former Zaire to investigate the human rights violations which have been perpetrated there since March 1993?

Is the Commission aware that the head of the UN committee of inquiry, Mr Amega, has said that he has received no assurances that he will be able to work independently in the former Zaire?

What is the Commission's opinion of this statement and what has the Commission done vis-à-vis the UN and Zaire in order to help ensure that the UN committee in question is enabled to carry out an independent inquiry?

What are the Commission's own findings to date regarding the human rights situation in the former Zaire, and what has the Commission done to influence President Kabila in the direction of introducing a more democratic regime in his country?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (21 November 1997)

The Commission would point out that on 22 January 1992 the Community and its Member States suspended their cooperation programmes in former Zaire, except for humanitarian aid, owing to the obstacles placed in the way of the democratisation process by the Mobutu regime. That suspension still applies.

Since the Democratic Republic of the Congo came into being in May 1997 the European Council in June 1997 and the Council (General Affairs) meeting on 15 September 1997 have defined the position of the Union on the new authorities: the gradual resumption of cooperation with them depends on respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, a genuine commitment to democracy and the establishment of a State in which the rule of law prevails.

The Commission has found that the political dialogue with the Congolese Government begun in May this year has not yet produced any practical results. It regrets that the United Nations fact-finding team has not been able to begin work owing to lack of cooperation on the part of the Congolese authorities. In these circumstances the Commission is not in a position at present to consider the gradual resumption of Community cooperation. It is continuing, however, the political dialogue with the Congolese Government in order to persuade it to drop a policy of confrontation with the United Nations which may compromise cooperation with the international Community which is so essential.

With regard to the resumption of the democratisation process in preparation for the multi-party elections which President Kabila has undertaken to hold in April 1999, it has to be observed that no practical action - and in particular the establishment of a Constituent Commission before 1 September 1997 - has flowed from that policy commitment by the head of the alliance with a monopoly of powers in the Congo. The Commission can therefore only point to the failure on the part of the authorities in Kinshasa to relaunch the democratisation process, a failure which has precluded it from making the Community contribution of ECU 30 million for election preparations.

Meanwhile the Commission carries on with its humanitarian programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.