Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 23:15:04 EST
From: MuziwakheA@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: ABC Niteline to show "Heart of Darkness" on Congo/Zaire
starting Monday ...
To: ,

If you read this in time please send message to Ted Kopel. In
struggle.
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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 03:50:48 +0000
From: "Coalition for Peace, Justice and Democracy in the Congo/Zaire"
Subject: ABC Niteline to show "Heart of Darkness" on Congo/Zaire
starting Monday 1/21
To:,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters:

Starting Monday 1/21, on ABC-TV "Niteline": Cover-Up for International
Mining Conglomerates, Lies, Misinformation, and Lack of Reporting
Integrity on the Congo/Zaire???

On 9/7/2001, ABC-TV "Niteline" with Ted Kopel reporting personally
from Bukavu (a Congolese town near Rwanda just like GOMA, the Congolese
town in the News now for the volcano that erupted), showed the first
segment of a series Ted Kopel called, with insensitivity and undertones
of racism, "Heart of Darkness." At the time, CongoCoalition launched an
E-mail campaign to request that "Niteline" corrects its errors for the
sake of journalism's integrity and historical accuracy.

Now, it is reported that "Niteline" intends to continue showing
these series beginning tomorrow, Monday, January 21, 2002. Even though
we sent Ted Kopel the book "Genocide in the Congo (Zaire)", we have not
heard from "Niteline" in terms of inviting us to give the Congolese side
of the Genocide in the Congo.

The town of Goma, where the volcano erupted (is the eruption a
message from the spirits of the millions of the Congolese slaughtered by
Rwandans?) as well as the town of Bukavu, from which Ted Kopel did his
reporting, both are just walking distances and have been invaded and
occupied by Rwanda since 1998. The Media in America is not saying this.

"Doctors Without Borders" just reported that Congolese nationals
from Goma refuse to enter Rwanda to run away from the volcano because
Rwandans are invaders and occupiers of their country, the Congo, and
Rwandans are responsible for terrorizing and killing (with Uganda and
Burundi) three (3) million Congolese people since 1998. The Media in
America is not saying this.

So, we are asking you to, once again, participate in this campaign
for justice, fairness, and accurate reporting in journalism:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters:
HELP THE CONGO!! Please forward the message below to Ted Kopel at
niteline@abc.com, in order to show him that the world and the Congo of
2001 are not those of 1885. Also, please forward it to everyone else
you know, including the media, asking them to send it to other people
who will send it to Ted Kopel. Thanks, and let Justice (Maat) triumph!
Y. Ngemi. (p.s. The next segment was going to be aired on Tuesday,
9-11-01 - Now postponed due to the events of 9-11. Please Check your
ABC-TV listing for the next 3 segments).

Dear Mr.. Kopel (niteline@abc.com):
I am writing to register my complaint against the title of your series
and against the segment you aired on 9-7-2001. I am also demanding,
trusting in your long-reputation and standing as a serious journalist,
for you to air this complaint and make the necessary corrections to
clear your misleading report.

RACIST AND MISLEADING TITLE:

Titling your series, "Heart of Darkness," a title lifted up from the
FICTIONAL novel of the same title by Joseph Conrad of the late 1800's
and early 1900's is racist. It is misleading. It denigrates Congolese,
Africa, and Black people in general, as if to say, the Congo, inhabited
by Black people, is the heart of darkness. If the Congo is the "heart",
Africa is the body and also in darkness. And if Africa, the land of the
Blacks is darkness, it means all Blacks are in darkness.

Mr.. Koppel, in 2001, it is inconceivable that you will use such a
title when you must know, in your heart as a WHITE man, and based on the
history between the black and white races, that "Heart of Darkness" like
"Tarzan" movies, conveys the idea of a savage, backward,
inferior-to-the-whites, non-human, close-to-the-gorillas, and forbidden
Congo. Why, Mr. Koppel? Are you deliberately telling the American
viewers that the Congolese are in such "darkness" that the 2.5 million
Congolese who died in the war you pretend to be reporting on are not to
be concerned with, in spite of your lamenting these killings without
reporting the true cause of the genocide of the Congolese?

Even Joseph Conrad who wrote that infamous novel, Heart of Darkness,
Mr. Koppel, he knew how to SEPARATE the fiction in his novel, from the
fact of the 10 million Congolese slaughtered by King Leopold II, in
complicity with other European and American business interests. DO A
LITTLE RESEARCH, Mr. Koppel. The 2.5 million Congolese who have been
killed are FACT, not fiction. And it has little to do with "darkness"
but it has all to do with voracious greed, expansionism, and racism.

In fact, after the likes of George Washington Williams, Reverends
Sheppard, Morrison, Harris, and countless of missionaries, travellers,
and government officials in Europe and America, Joseph Conrad joined
Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, E.D. Morel, and millions of justice,
Peace, and Humanity-loving British and American citizens to denounce
King Leopold and his acolytes in Europe and America in their murdering
the Congolese people in what Joseph Conrad described as "the vilest
scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience
and geographical exploration." Joseph Conrad did not call this Genocide
"Heart of Darkness," Mr. Koppel. You need to apologize on the air and
change this vile title. This is not the 1800's and nobody is in
"darkness" anymore, whatever you mean by this term!

IS ABC-TV AND "NIGHTLINE" BEING USED BY THE CIA AND THE MINING
INTERESTS TO EFFECTIVELY PARTITION OR BREAK UP THE CONGO???

Mr. Koppel, how come you did not tell your viewers that the US
government had a military base in the BUGESERA district of Rwanda and
has been arming and training the Rwandan Army which had invaded the
Congo two times, in 1996 and 1998? Were you briefed about the American
private military and mining companies that have been working with Rwanda
to sell weapons and STEAL Congolese resources through Rwanda? How come,
Mr. Koppel, you did not mention the role of America through its US
Special Operations Command and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in
helping Rwanda invade the Congo? Were you paid by the US government?
Whatever happened to "Freedom of the Press?" Have you heard of the
American investigative journalist Wayne Madsen and his book titled
GENOCIDE AND COVERT OPERATIONS IN AFRICA 1993-1999, or the
Congolese-American scientist and historian Yaa-Lengi Ngemi's book
GENOCIDE IN THE CONGO (ZAIRE) (iuniverse.com), which was sent to you by
expres! s mail? Did you read or would you DARE READ AND REPORT ON THE
AIR Mr. Wayne Madsen's testimony before the Congressional Subcommittee
on International Operations and Human Rights Committee on International
RElations?

Mr.. Koppel, This in not 1885. We are going to expose this type of
bad faith reporting, and this conspiracy to shield Rwanda, Uganda, and
those business and military interests that have invaded the Congo and
killed 2.5 million innocent Congolese. We hope we are not seeing here
Koppel's heart in darkness!!

YOUR MANIPULATION OF HISTORICAL FACTS AND INACCURATE REPORTING WERE
TOO GROSS TO BE DUE TO IGNORANCE

1. You ended your segment saying you were reporting from BUKAVU. Yet,
you failed to say that Bukavu was a Congolese city that was invaded and
has now been occupied by the Rwandan Army since 1998. (It is equivalent
to Mexico, with the help of Russia, having invaded and occupied the US
state of Texas, and a Russian reporter (you), pretending to be an
independent reporter, was reporting from Dallas, Texas, without
mentioning to his fellow Russian citizens back home who in the most part
know nothing about Geography, that he was reporting in occupied
territory, thereby leaving the impression that Dallas was a Mexican
town).

2. You pretend to be talking about the 2.5 million Congolese killed
during the war in the Congo, yet you begin your series on a false
premise, on a big lie, by saying that the Tutsis invaded the Congo in
1996 to go after the Hutus, whom you repeatedly referred to as "these
killers." This premise is a big lie, and if you have a brain of
honesty, you should find out and make the correction on the air.
Because, the United Nations and everyone else know that this "African
World War" did not originate in 1996 but rather in 1998, when the armies
of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, former allies who helped put Laurent
Kabila in power in 1997 (that was the 1996-1997 war you were talking
about) by getting rid of Mobutu, turned against him when he asked them
to leave and return to their respective countries. Of course we hope
you are honest enough to say this on the air.

You said you are reporting on the 2.5 million Congolese who died in
the war that started in 1998, yet you interviewed some Tutsis children
who were mutilated or raped by the Hutus in 1994 or 1996, and neither
one of them being Congolese. You even failed to separate the war in the
Congo (you were supposed to be reporting on) from the back-and-forth
inter-tribal war that has been going on between the Tutsis and the
Hutus, both Rwandans. REMEMBER THIS, Mr. Koppel: These inter-tribal
wars between Hutus and Tutsis have been and are still going on in
Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi (Nelson Mandela was trying to help end the
one in Burundi). And the Hutus militias whom you dubbed "killers"
operate also out of Tanzania, the Sudan, and Central African Republic;
yet, you or anyone else did not suggest that these other countries be
invaded like the Congo. Ah, but it is well known that these other
countries have no minerals that can be stolen under ! the pretext of
going after the "killers!"

3. Most shameful of all is that you announced that you are reporting
on the Congolese who perished, yet everyone you interviewed were Rwandan
Tutsis, the same people who are responsible for the Genocide in the
Congo and the killing of the 2.5 million Congolese.

The world at large knows the truth, but, because most Americans don't
read and don't know their Geography, here you are misleading them. Did
you check the United Nations Investigative report on the War in the
Congo that has blamed Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi as well as the
business interests that have murdered these 2.5 million Congolese? It
came out this past March 2001, and it revealed that American Mercenaries
were involved in the war in the Congo, and they were on the side of the
invaders. Another report just came out in July 2001 detailing and
naming the business companies and the types of minerals that are being
systematically stolen from the Congo (also see The New York Time's
editorial page of Tuesday, 5-29-2001's editorial titled "The Looting of
the Congo").

It is unfortunate that a well-known journalist like you, M.. Koppel,
is contributing to spreading falsehoods on the Congo and creating the
atmosphere for the American public to feel sympathy for and therefore
accept the Rwandans' invasion and occupation of the Congolese territory,
in total disregard of the universal principles of TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY,
SOVEREIGNTY, and SELF-DETERMINATION. Shame! Shame!

We just hope that you have deep personal INTEGRITY that is going to
drive you to look at the facts herein pointed, and that this will lead
you to make the necessary corrections to these series, beginning with a
change of the racist title of "Heart of Darkness."

Yaa-Lengi Ngemi (Scientist, Historian, Linguist, and Consultant on
Africa. President of the New York based Coalition for Peace, Justice,
and Democracy in the Congo/Zaire, author of GENOCIDE IN THE
CONGO/ZAIRE - iuniverse.com, October 2000)
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