Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), the ranking member on the subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, has utilized her leadership position to be an advocate for a variety of humanitarian causes around the world, and to speak out against U.S. complicity in human rights abuses by dictators who are often U.S. allies and recipients of aid from this country. Rep. McKinney recently returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo where she joined Atlanta Hawks basketball player Dikembe Mutombo in his native land during the distribution of medical and pharmaceutical supplies donated from the United States. During his visit to local hospitals, Mutombo administered polio vaccines to children. She spoke with Askia Muhammad, Final Call White House correspondent, in an exclusive interview on her return home.

Final Call (FC): Tell us about your trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (CM): I was only on the ground for 48 hours, but I was there long enough to visit the three potential sites for (Dikembe) Mutombo�s hospital, and Mutombo actually gave a baby a dose of the polio vaccine. We heard that mothers walked on foot to bring their babies for vaccinations, so the campaign was a very successful one. While I was there, I learned that the so-called rebels were signing the peace agreement. Which meant that there was going to be peace. So, it was a particularly meaningful and timely visit. Later, I met with the Amnesty International representative, who had done an investigation of western Congo, the government held areas of Congo. I got a briefing from him on the current human rights situation.

FC: What is the status of human rights?

CM: Well, they�re going to produce a report, but they, quite frankly they did note that there was marked improvement from previous times. You know there are still problems. They were at least appreciative of openness of the (Laurent) Kabila government to allow them in in the first place. And secondly to listen to their concerns. They had a private meeting with President Kabila.

FC: You met with President Kabila, didn�t you?

CM: Yes. I met with the women ministers in his government. There are five ministers and vice ministers who are women. He has (former President) Patrice Lumumba�s daughter as a minister of Culture and the Arts. He has (former President) Moise Tshombe�s daughter as a vice-minister. I met with Mwenzi Congolo, who is minister of justice, and then I met with President Kabila. After that I met with Roberto Gariton, who is the United Nations Rapporteur for Human Rights. Gariton is the one who was refused admittance to the Congo before, just after (President) Kabila took control, when there was concern that the Rwandan Army had committed massacres in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but (President) Kabila had met with Gariton and had allowed Gariton to come in and do an investigation as well. We, of course, were heartened by the openness, but understand that we still have a long way to go, in terms of transparency, democracy, respect for human rights, and the kind of good governance that we hope for and expect in the post-Mobutu days.

FC: On the one hand you have Congo and its allies�Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe�and on the other hand you have Uganda and Rwanda ...

CM: ... and the United States ...

FC: ... and the United States, which are all respected powers. Are there any "good guys" and "bad guys" involved?

CM: You cannot forget the terrible tragedy that Rwanda experienced in 1994, and the subsequent compounding of that tragedy in �95 and �96, with what transpired in the refugee camps in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. That is what in fact led to the ouster of (President) Mobutu and the installation of Kabila as the president of that country. Now, the international community is complicit in all of the pain and suffering that has been visited upon the Congolese people, particularly the United States, which maintained this fiction of a policy that called Uganda and Rwanda "un-invited entities" when it was clear to everybody that they had invaded the territory of Democratic Republic of Congo. Not only had they invaded, but in the middle of the war, either the World Bank or the IMF (International Monetary Fund) granted hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to both Uganda and Rwanda, which was a clear signal to anyone who pays attention in the international community, that this was an aggressive offensive sanctioned by the so-called international community, which is nothing but a nice way of saying "the United States." So, now that we have the opportunity to have peace, we really need to have peace. The United States government needs to help rebuild what it so despicably helped to tear down.

FC: What do you see as the future role of the House International Relations Committee in possibly bringing about a correct awareness in the U.S. government?

CM: I�ve already written a letter to the President (Clinton) which was pretty clear in my disapproval of the current status of things. We intend to have a hearing in the not-too-distant future, which will focus on the 1994 genocide and its aftermath. We�re going to really personalize it, by focusing on two individuals who are survivors of families that were murdered, and looking at the role of the United Nations and its complicity in the deaths of their families. Something has got to be done about the United Nations and whom it responds to. We all know that, ultimately, these huge multi-lateral organizations respond to the people who pay their bills, and that basically is the United States. The United States is the sole superpower, and we exercise that power. However, our policy is neither kind, nor friendly to indigenous peoples of the world. Our policy is geared toward extraction of vital resources, at the expense of the people in these countries. I have legislation that we are introducing, "The Corporate Code of Conduct", which will take a look at the behavior of U.S. corporations abroad. We would like to introduce the notion of corporate social responsibility. If trade and investment are the order of the day, then that trade and investment ought to reflect American values in its behavior. We should not have a situation like we have with Chevron, where they actually aid and abet in the murder and massacre of hundreds of people.

FC: In what country is that?

CM: That was Chevron in the Niger Delta. Chevron is being sued right now because of that. We are beginning to receive reports of U.S. corporate misconduct around the world, from India, to Columbia.

FC: Thank you.