bub

Today, Congolese officials are angry at Karel De Gucht, former Minister of Foreign affairs, who said that cooperation with Congo was difficult because they are not "valid (worthy?) interlocutors"

He then evoked the huge waste that Congo had become, where everything has to be remade, starting with the rebuilding of the State, whose absence is at the core of the problem

7s7 Belgique - Karel de Gucht "se prend pour un donateur divin" (1043044)

And it is true that De Gucht does not hesitate to be very critic: he is the one who closed the Flemish ambassy in NY, he was acerb with former Yougoslav countries about the lack of cooperation with the international justice...but he is mostly famous for his harsh remarks towards Congolese officials.

Indeed, he created a diplomatic incident in February, when he was still Minister of Foreign Affairs, when he has been a bit too "frank", saying in a single interview that
- Michel (the Belgian dude who leads cooperation with Congo) had failed
- It was needless to talk with Congolese President Kabila, as it doesn't change anything anyways
- Nkunda should be tried for war crimes

7s7 Monde - De Gucht critique Michel, Kabila et Nkunda (491704)

Last year, he had also made Congolese officials angry when he told them how Belgium was involved in the rebuilding of Congo (we give them 200 millions€/year) and that we could not accept the repression of the province of Lower Congo, "nightmaresque" sexual violence at the East of the country, corruption, and the "fabulous privileges of some" (= that was aimed at the Congolese politicians), adding that the latter do not hesitate to sacrifice the wellbeing of their population for the sake of their own enrichissment

Les leçons de De Gucht à Kabila - lesoir.be

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