Statement - Congresswoman Cynthia McKinny

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

ANB-BIA Brussels
25/03/2000 Please find below a statement we received this morning from Washington
Paolo
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Washington, 25/03/2000

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delivered this statement via satelite at the 
meeting of the Parliamentarians for Global Action, Lusaka, Zambia on Tuesday 
March 21, 2000.
People of D.R.Congo, both within the country and elsewhere, immediately 
expressed their gratitude and admirmation for Congresswoman McKinney and the 
strong position she has taken on their behalf.  They want the international 
community to know that "her words are our words.  What she is saying is true. 
Please thank her for us."
It is at their request that we send this Statement to you - and invite you to 
join your thanks to Rep. McKinney with the thanks of the people.
Maureen

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Cynthis McKinney
Statement for Parliamentarians for Global Action 
Lusaka, Zambia 
March 21, 2000



Greetings.  What a very special honor it is to be asked to participate in 
such a timely conference.  I was only introduced to Parliamentarians for 
Global Action just a few short months ago and I can tell you that I am so 
impressed with what I've learned!  I am proud to be a member and supporter of 
such a wonderful organization.

And just a word about President Chiluba and the people of Zambia.  The 
Zambian people and President Chiluba have dedicated tremendous resources to 
finding peaceful solutions for the region's troubles.  I would like to 
commend both President Chiluba and the Zambian people for the brave work that 
they have done in risking it all to find peace for both Angola and Democratic 
Republic of Congo.  Not too long ago, before the Lusaka Peace Agreement was 
announced, I dubbed Lusaka Africa's City of Peace.  Your presence here today 
once again confirms the spirit of sacrifice and commitment of the Zambian 
people--from the courageous fight a generation ago against racist governments 
in southern Africa to the fight today, in the aftermath of political freedom, 
to redefine black freedom and independence to include economic rights over 
Africa's land and resources.

Your conference is about the very meaning of the words freedom and 
independence.  For if Africans are to remain subservient to outside interests 
who continue to extract African resources and leave only pain and suffering, 
guns, and enclaves of wealth behind, then . . . is that freedom?  And is that 
what the African freedom fighters fought for?

I think not.

As a young African American, I can remember watching as African and Asian 
freedom fighters risked their lives so that we all could be free.  I remember 
the first time seeing African Heads of State on television and realizing that 
as an African American something all the way over there in Africa was 
affecting my standing in my own country here in the United States of America.

I also saw how the United Nations was transformed from the private social 
club that it had been to a body more representative of all the peoples of the 
world.  In 1961, change was forced upon the United Nations and the colonial 
masters of the world.  Sixteen African states joined the U.N. 

And along a parallel track, the Civil Rights Movement in my country was 
picking up steam.  African liberation, African American freedom.  Mighty 
powerful movements that threatened more people than we would ever know in 
capital cities across Europe and in the United States.

So much so that a study was commissioned at the highest levels of my own 
government.  And the question put was what is to be done with these blacks in 
America who are reaching out to blacks in Africa.  Things in the 1960s were 
getting out of hand.

Historical assumptions of superiority and "place" were being turned on their 
head.  And African Americans dared to begin to demand that we here at home 
and our brothers on the Continent be free.

But tragically, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarksjold who was 
sympathetic to the cause of African liberation, was murdered in a plane crash 
in this very place where you now sit.

And just a few years after Hammarskjold's death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
was murdered.

As I look back over the days of the Civil Rights Movement, and the isolated 
pockets of black empowerment that it produced and today's retrenchment from 
all those gains, I wonder what did we African Americans achieve with our 
freedom.  My generation benefited tremendously from the disobedience of my 
parents.  Their refusal to accept what had been prescribed for them as their 
role in society created a Congressional Black Caucus of 38 members strong.

But just as all of Africa, from the West Coast to the East Coast down to her 
very heart, becomes engulfed in flames of war and misery I ask myself, what 
has our liberation on the Continent achieved?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fond of saying, "A man can't ride your back 
unless it's bent."  I keep hoping that one day within my lifetime all peoples 
of color will stand up and throw off from their backs those who for centuries 
have been riding them.

So I hope that as you go about the important work of this conference, you 
will remember those words from Dr. King:

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

And with that, let me begin.

Opening scene:  The haunting footage of Christine Shelley, Spokeswoman for 
the United States Department of State, trying to explain why "acts of 
genocide" being committed in Rwanda in 1994 did not constitute genocide.

We now know that the United States government was fully aware of the events 
unfolding in Rwanda.  We also know that late night video-conversations were 
held, within Washington, DC and between New York and Washington, DC.  We know 
that some participants in those conversations were begging and pleading, even 
crying that something be done to stop the carnage in Rwanda.  We know that 
the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations was fully apprised 
of the events as they unfolded, but more importantly, knew in advance that 
the genocide was being planned.

Information was not the problem.  Lack of political will was the problem.

Washington DC had decided that whatever was happening in Rwanda wasn't 
important enough to prevent or stop and that the 1996 campaign was a more 
important event to orchestrate.  The people who were instrumental in making 
that decision in 1994 are still in government today.  And so, in my opinion, 
the behavior of the United States today can and should be viewed through this 
prism:  that saving  innocent African lives was not more important than 
domestic political considerations, and that the people in charge then are the 
same people in charge now. 

With that having been said, let me just frankly say that we all must assume 
responsibility for the crisis in the Great Lakes region.

Developed nations have flooded the area with arms for decades while ignoring 
the repression of millions at the hands of a chosen few.

Politicians here and there bought into Cold War agendas over a people's 
agenda.

We've worn the diamonds without asking ourselves the troubling questions 
about their source.

We've watched my own country persuade others to go to war for oil so I can 
have the luxury of pumping cheap gasoline into my car while not worrying 
about the human cost of how it arrived in my tank.

We've watched the mobilization of the international community in Kosovo and 
albeit late in
East Timor, yet not demanded accountability from those who stood by and 
watched nearly a million innocent souls perish in Rwanda.  In the case of the 
United States, we've provided extensive military training and assistance to 
countries that have effectively partitioned DRoC in pursuit of unstated 
agendas.  

Despite U.S. complicity in the current state of affairs, I watch 
optimistically as a reluctant Security Council approves peacekeepers for the 
Congo.  In one sense, applause is due.  This tragic war has claimed thousands 
of lives and is creating misery for millions.  Yet this small detachment of 
500 observers and their 5,000 person security force has no mandate to protect 
the people--only the observers.

The horror of Srebrenica remains fixed in my mind.  There, armed U.N. 
peacekeepers stood idly by as Serbian troops committed atrocities in their 
presence, then rounded up the men and boys, civilians who had sought U.N. 
protection, and carted them off to their deaths.

In the years since the Rwandan genocide, where nearly one million people were 
brutally murdered, the evidence has slowly mounted before us of the UN's 
callous indifference, cowardice and complete abject failure.  A few months 
ago, I convened the first, and only, meeting between eyewitness survivors of 
the Rwandan massacre and the Independent Inquiry into the United Nations Role 
in the Rwandan Genocide, better known as the Carlsson Commission.  I heard 
chilling eyewitness testimony about U.N. forces that slipped out the back 
gate when the killers arrived and even worse, that drank stolen beer while 
family members were being tortured by the Rwandan extremist Presidential 
Guard.

So while I welcome United Nations deployment to DRoC, I remain fearful that 
history might repeat itself, and once again, the international community will 
bear witness to slaughter but do nothing to prevent it.  You and I must not 
allow that to happen.

The basic flaw in U.S. policy has been the cloak of silence surrounding the 
actions of our regional allies, Rwanda and Uganda.  These countries and their 
proxies have committed crimes and atrocities in eastern Democratic Republic 
of Congo that are on par with any in Bosnia or Kosovo.  Roberto Garreton, 
Special Representative on Human Rights to the United Nations has even used 
the words "crimes against humanity" in describing what is alleged to be 
taking place in eastern Congo.

Since June, in the Lake Albert area of northeastern Congo alone, more than 
7,000 people have been killed and 150,000 forced from their homes.  In 
January, 416 people, mostly women and children were systematically murdered 
in one small village in eastern Congo. The United Nations High Commission on 
Refugees has reported a sharp increase in incidents where raped women are 
returning to their abductors who impregnated them due to the stigma of being 
a single woman with child in the Congo.  And of course, we all have heard the 
horrific reports of women being buried alive.

Rather than sending the message that aggression against other nations is 
unacceptable, the U.S. (and international) non-response has communicated 
tacit approval and has emboldened these countries to perpetrate their 
injustices.  Turning a blind eye to injustice now is no way to pay for 
turning a blind eye to injustice in 1994.

Uganda and Rwanda must withdraw from Congolese territory.  

The Democratic Republic of Congo must be helped affirmatively on the road to 
transparency, respect for human rights, and democracy.  And the same goal of 
open and transparent government that includes all segments of society, must 
be attained in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.  Mandating democracy in Democratic
Republic of Congo without similar appeals for Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi 
will do nothing to enhance Great Lakes security.

Democracy is good for everybody.

Clearly the current U.S. policy hasn't worked.  I have called upon the 
Clinton Administration to fundamentally change its approach to the DRC 
conflict.  In a broader context, the U.S. must send a clear and unambiguous 
message of disapproval to those who are engaged in large-scale human rights 
abuses and the bilking of both natural resources and cash from lands they 
illegally occupy.  Failure to do so is a recipe for more killing, more abuse, 
and further descent into chaos for the millions of innocent people who live 
across that huge swath of land that I call the heart of Africa, from Angola 
to Somalia.  We must not allow that to happen.

The international community owes Rwanda for what it allowed to transpire in 
1994.  That debt, however, should not be paid by innocent Congolese, but by 
the permanent members  of the Security Council and their cohorts within the 
bureaucracy of the United Nations who angled behind the scenes and allowed 
genocide to occur.

Again, finally, before I leave you: First, perhaps Canada should consider 
conducting an inquiry of the events of 1994 just as I'm trying to get our 
Congress to do here in the United States.  Canadian nationals were murdered, 
and Canadian personalities figure prominently in the course of events from 
1994 to today.  Second, I'd like to applaud the Canadian Ambassador to the UN 
for his recently released report on those who are busting the sanctions 
against UNITA and fueling more war.  Calling names and holding people 
publicly accountable for their actions is long overdue.  It is not acceptable 
for those who are complicit in extending the pain and suffering of Africa's 
people to complain from the mountaintop about conditions in Africa.

We've got a lot of work to do.  We can't end this war a day too soon.

We all have a responsibility to act on behalf of peace.  Those who came 
before us were willing to risk everything so that Africa could have peace and 
dignity.  Let us remember those fallen freedom fighters of yesterday.  And 
the unnamed heroes who worked alongside them.  And let us remember that when 
we each stand up, we all stand up.  And we must stand up and remain standing 
until Africans are the masters of their own destiny and justice rolls down 
like a mighty stream.

Thank you.





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