Citation
BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuter) - More than one hundred years ago, Belgium
built an empire that brought unimagined wealth to the kingdom and
untold misery to the people of central Africa. It also left a painful
legacy.
Amid the bloodshed and civil war in Rwanda, Belgians again watched in
horror as their soldiers died in a faraway country and, not for the
first time, Belgium sought to send troops to a former colony to protect
and rescue its nationals.
Although Belgium gave up its empire in the 1960s, it has spent millions
of dollars in aid and thousands of aid workers, missionaries and
business people remained in countries like Zaire and Rwanda.
But, after the killing of 10 Belgian soldiers who tried in vain to
protect Rwanda's prime minister last week, opinion is divided over
whether the country should feel any continuing obligation to help to
restore order and save lives.
Once again, the blood of Belgian soldiers has flowed in Africa,
the
right-wing daily La Derniere Heure wrote in an editorial on Saturday.
If the local tribes want to slaughter each other for the 10th or 15th
time in 20 years, that's their business, not ours! The Rwandans won
their independence, let them manage it as they see fit. And let them
pay for their mistakes.
Some other papers said Belgium, which ruthlessly exploited the mineral
and natural wealth of its African territories for decades, had no
choice but to remain engaged.
Does Belgium have the right to turn away from a country for which it
is still responsible?
asked the daily Libre Belgique.
It was King Leopold II who started the drive to make Belgium a colonial
power as he saw Britain, France, Germany and other European powers
grabbing vast tracts of land all over the globe in the late nineteenth
century.
Leopold claimed the Congo, which became Zaire after independence, as a
personal fiefdom although the Belgian government took it over in 1908.
Rwanda and Burundi, part of the German empire in Africa, were handed
over to Belgium as protectorates after Germany was defeated in World
War One.
The Belgians in Africa cut roads through the jungle, built schools,
hospitals, fine villas. They set up and ran administrations. They made
money.
Life was sometimes hard for the colonial masters but it was much harder
for the Africans. The cruelty and degradation were immortalised in
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.
By the 1950s, Belgium was under pressure, like other colonial powers,
to relinquish control. Zaire was granted independence in 1960, Rwanda
in 1962.
Since then, Belgium has frequently run into trouble with the countries
it once ruled.
In July 1960, paratroops intervened to evacuate thousands from the
Belgian Congo, which was gripped by a civil war. In 1964, the red
berets were called in again to free hostages held in Stanleyville, now
called Kisangani.
In 1978, 1,000 paratroops descended on Kolwezi in Zaire to rescue
people from more fighting.
When civil war flared in Rwanda in 1990 between the minority Tutsi and
majority Hutu tribes, 300 Belgians were evacuated. Even before Rwanda
won independence, ethnic bloodshed had claimed thousands of lives.
Paratroops went back to Zaire in 1991 when more civil disturbances
erupted and thousands of foreigners were pulled out.
Belgium and other Western powers tolerated the iron-fisted rule of
Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who seized power in 1965, during
the Cold War because of the country's strategic importance and mineral
wealth.
But, as Zaire slides further into chaos and poverty, relations have
chilled. Belgium suspended aid and cooperation in 1990 and has put
increasing pressure on Mobutu to step down.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
