Sources: Le Soir, De Standaard, Africa News Online, Africa Infodoc
June 26 2000
-The International Court of Justice in The Hague opens today the case concerning the DRC request for provisional measures against Uganda. The DRC is now asking for an Order by the Court because of the combats between the Ugandan and Rwandan armies in the beginning of June when more than 600 people were killed in Kisangani and these belligerents caused enormous damage to the city. Congo requests the withdrawal of Ugandan troops without delay and termination of illegal looting of Congolese minerals. The proceedings against Uganda instituted by the DRC in June 1999 will be treated next year.
-On Sunday 25 a meeting took place between the Presidents of the DRC, Zimbabwe and Namibia to talk about the progress of the Lusaka peace accord. The three countries Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola have declared to continue their support to President Kabila as long as the Lusaka accord not has been fulfilled. Uganda says 4000 men of its troops to be withdrawn from the Congo.
June 28 2000
-The Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louis Michel, has departed for a visit to the DRC. He will visit Kisangani accompanied by a convoy of medical aid. On June 30 he will assist at the celebration of the forty years Independence of Congo. Michel thinks that the International Community and specially the European Union ought to pay more attention to the problems of the Congolese population. He wants to restore the Belgian cooperation with Congo concerning some social /economic areas: communication, transport, legal system and administration.
June 30 2000
-Military and civil defiles take place in Kinshasa in presence of President Kabila and Belgian Minister Michel.
-Amnesty International calls up the Presidents of Uganda and Rwanda to stop the cruelties of their troops against the Congolese people in Eastern Congo. Ugandan troops have been involved with massacres of Lendu-people in the region of Kibali-Ituri. 7000 civilians were killed there during the second half of 1999 and ten thousand Lendu have fled their houses to live in the forest. Ugandan military is looting gold and timber there.
In the beginning of June hundreds of civilians were killed in Kisangani due to combats by soldiers of Uganda and Rwanda.
Amnesty presses the UN to send observers to these regions and to inspect the human rights violations of Ugandan troops and of the rebel movement RCD-ML.
July 1 2000
-The International Court of Justice has made today an Order indicating provisional measures in the case concerning the armed activities of Uganda on the territories of the DCR. Both parties have to comply with UN Security Council resolution 1304, which states that Uganda and Rwanda must immediately withdraw from the DRC. The Court observes also "that the fighting between Uganda and Rwanda has caused great a large number of civilian casualties in addition to substantial material damage…"It adds that it is also "not disputed that grave and repeated violations of human rights and international law, including massacres and other atrocities have been committed…"
-The UN information office, IRIN, reports that the distress and shortages in Kisangani are very extensive. There are ten thousands of displaced persons in the city and 5000 houses are destroyed. The number of deaths are estimated up to more than 600 and the injured up to 3000. An UN evaluation-team has departed for Kisangani to inspect the situation. Meanwhile, the Presidents of Uganda and Rwanda, Museveni and Kagame, have meet each other and they have declared that they will demilitarise Kisangani.
July 3 2000
-The present OAU leader, Algerian President Bouteflika, proposes to discuss the Congo war during the next OAU summit in Lome, July 10-12.
July 4 2000
-Kabila has announced the appointment of a Constitutional Assembly to prepare the text of the Constitution. The draft of the Constitution will later be submitted to a referendum. Candidates from the whole country have been recommended for the Assembly. A special committee under the direction of the Minister of Home Affairs, Kakudji, will make a selection of 240 of these candidates. In addition, Kabila will designate another 60 representatives in such a way that the total number will be 300. The opposition doesn't agree the institution of this Assembly and calls it contrary to the Lusaka peace accord.
July 5 2000
-Some 10 000 people have fled the war in the province of Equateur following new clashing between the government army and the rebel movement MLC of Bemba.
-Belgian Investigating Judge Van der Meersch has given out an international warrant against Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yerodia Ndombasi. He is accused having set on to hatred against the Tutsi population during a public speech in August 1998.
-5 UPDF (3000 - 4000) battalions have from Kisangani been returned to Uganda. The main part of Ugandan troops still stays in Congo while Uganda pretends it corresponding with the Lusaka accord.
July 6 2000
-The European Union has promised 20 million Euros for humanitarian aid to Congo.
July 10 2000
-The OAU summit in Lome is treating the war in Congo. All OAU members demand the withdrawal of foreign troops. Uganda says to have already removed in the next days half of its troops.
-In North-Kivu fights take regularly place. In the beginning of June a hundred civilians were killed in the place of Bwito by combats between some unknown troops. It is not at all clear who is combating whom. In Beni a faction of the Ugandan ADF rebel movement, the NALU, has caused havoc. An armed group (Interahamwe?) has killed in Sake (Southern of Goma) 25 civilians. There is also fighting in Rutshuru and Lubero. Last 3 weeks more than hundred thousands people have fled this region.
-The Red Cross published precise numbers of victims in Kisangani caused by the clashes from 5 - 10 June between Ugandan and Rwandan armies: 619 civilians and 141 soldiers have been killed. There are still 2500 places with unexploded munitions.
July 23 2000
-UNHCR reports that some 22 000 people have fled the war in Equateur to Congo-Brazzaville. The UN estimate to 1,3 million the total number of displaced persons in the Congo.
-Doctors without Borders suspends its activities in Kivu after attacks on two refugee camps near Sake (Southern of Goma). More than 25 civilians were killed at that occasion. A DwB convoy was also attacked on its way to Uvira and one medical aid worker and 6 others were killed.
July 24 2000
-The Congolese government announces not to be ready to accept armed UN troops on its territory. The UN has consequently decided to suspend the sending of peacekeeping forces.
-President Museveni in his function of chief of the Ugandan Army has instituted a commission that has to investigate the role of the UPDF in the Congo. The speaking man of the UPDF, Phinehas Katirima, declares that the Ugandan army is not aimed of looting diamonds and gold.
July 27 2000
-In East Congo is set up a new rebel movement in the surroundings of Bunia. It is said that the Banyamulenge makes the front of this movement fighting against the UPDF and the RCD-ML of Wamba dia Wamba.
July 29 2000
- Some 6000 people have fled the region of Rutshuru to Uganda because of the fighting between the Rwandan army and the Interahamwe and Mai-Mai.
-The head of the UN-mission in the DRC, Kemal Morjane, says that the Congolese government is misunderstanding the role of MONUC. It should think that MONUC will be stationed in the rebel region to drive away the foreign armies and it does not think necessary the stationing of UN troops in government zone. Morjane wants UN troops to be present in by rebel hold cities Kisangani and Kindu but also in Kinshasa and Mbandaka to protect the UN observers. 266 military UN observers are staying in Congo at this moment, and it will be 500 according to the planning.
Morjane thinks that the Congolese government must alter its opinion. He regrets also that the Congolese dialogue is not yet started. He will asks the UN Security Council to prolong the MONUC mandate. The UN will send an evaluation team to Kisangani to investigate the damage caused by Ugandan and Rwandan military.
The UN Security Council wants to determine the compensation to be paid by Uganda and Rwanda.
July 30 2000
-The government army is said to advance in the Northeastern region of Congo and to have captured the cities of Imese and Dongo. In the South are also carried out combats by the government army around the cities of Kabinda and Kabalo. Uganda and Rwanda have protested against this advance of the Congolese army.
-A dissident group has tried to fire Wamba dia Wamba last week. Now they surrender themselves to the Ugandan army.
-It is reported that ten thousands refugees from North-Kivu have fled to Uganda. and some thousand refugees from Equateur to the Central African Republic.
August 4 2000
-The Congolese organisation Avocats sans Frontieres have brought a charge at the Belgian Attorney-General against Museveni and Kagame because of crimes against humanity.
August 7 2000
-Uganda announces the real withdrawal of 4000 men troops. 450 men have now been flown out of Congo. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs calls upon Rwanda and other foreign states to leave Congo.
August 8 2000
-Washington Post reports that in 1960 President Eisenhower supported the CIA plan to poison the first Prime Minister of Congo Patrice Lumumba.
-Rwanda and the rebel movement RCD say to be ready to remove their troops 200 km from every front if the UN will fill up the gap.
August 10 2000
-American Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says in an interview in The East African that some rich people in America are accomplice to the illegal diamond trade. She dislikes the American policy to support Uganda and Rwanda, which are committing grave crimes in the DRC. She presumes that Uganda and Rwanda still stay in Kisangani because of diamond mining.
August 13 2000
-A two days meeting of the SADC-countries takes place in Lusaka under the leadership of Zambian President Chile also assisted by Uganda, Rwanda and the rebels. A discussion will be held about the propositions of partial withdrawal of Uganda, Rwanda and the rebels, which are insufficient according to the Congolese government .Indeed, the UN has not spoken about a withdrawal of 200km from the fronts (Rwanda) or of half the number of troops (Uganda), but about a complete withdrawal from the country. [As fronts were named: Dekese (Kasai), Ikela (Equateur) en Moba (Katanga)]
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola continue their support to Congo and will only withdraw when the sovereignty of Congo is not longer threatened.
August 15 2000
-At the meeting in Lusaka Kabila does not make any concession about the stationing of UN troops. He rejects also former Botswana President Ketumile Masire as mediator because according to the Congolese government he is not enough respectfully to it. Kabila propose some other African leaders as mediator: De Klerk (ex-President of South Africa), Kaunda (ex-President of Zambia), Diouf (ex-President of Senegal) or Ramaphosa (ex Secretary-General of South African party ANC).
-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wants to lengthen the MONUC mandate till September 30 in expectation of changes in the DRC situation.
-Jeune Afrique reports that the Congolese government has made an exclusive contract with the Israeli company IDI Diamonds. It will take up the total diamond trade of the DRC, which is estimated to $ 600 to 800 million yearly.
The illegal trade from the occupied regions in Congo is estimated to $ 400 million.
August 18 2000
-The in the Congo war involved African countries agree to seek another mediator.
August 19 2000
-Kofi Annan appoints former Nigeria President Abubakar as special UN envoy of the DRC.
August 21 2000
-The institution by Kabila of the Constitutional Assembly takes place in Lubumbashi. 300 members form this Assembly. Opposition and rebels are rejecting it and the UN think it does not agree with the Lusaka peace accord.
August 23 2000
- Human Rights Watch condemns the renewed ethnic violence in the by Uganda occupied Ituri region. She urges Museveni and rebel movement RCD-ML to stop the massacres of civilians.
August 25 2000
-Abubakar has visited Kinshasa and talked to Kabila. Now he says to be optimistic about the removal of obstacles against the stationing of UN troops. He will also speak to rebel leaders and regional state leaders.
chronicle 9, september 29 -october 12 1997
chronicle 10, october 13 - october 26 1997
chronicle 11, october 27 - november 9, 1997
chronicle 12, november 10 -november 23 1997
chronicle 13, november 24 -december 7 1997
chronicle 14, december 8 1997 - january 4 1998
chronicle 15, january 5 - january 18 1998
chronicle 16, january 19 - february 1 1998
chronicle 17, february 2 - february 15 1998
chronicle 18, february 16 - march 1 1998
chronicle 19, march 2 - march 15 1998
chronicle 20, march 16 - march 29 1998
chronicle 21, march 30 - april 26 1998
chronicle 22, april 27 - mei 10 1998
chronicle 23, mei 11 - mei 31 1998
chronicle 24, juni 1 - august 26 1998
chronicle 25, august 27 - september 28 1998
chronicle 26,september 29- october 31 1998
chronicle 27, november 1- december 5 1998
chronicle 28, december 6 - january 24 1999
chronicle 29, january 25 - march 14 1999
chronicle 30, march 15 - may 9 1999
chronicle 31, may 10 - october 24 1999
chronicle 32, october 25 - january 9 2000
chronicle 33, january 10 - april 2 2000
chronicle 34, april 3 - june 25 2000