*Kinshasa**: Rwanda-DRC or the Frog that Swallowed the Elephant: How the
DRC government capitulated to Rwanda.*
*
Jean Yves Lualaba *
*AfroAmerica Network, Kinshasa November 19, 2007*
On November 9, 2007, the Rwandan and the DRC Governments signed in
Nairobi an agreement for the disarmament of the negative forces,
including ex-FAR/Interahamwe and Laurent NKunda. The DRC government
committed itself to repatriating the ex-FAR/Interahamwe, by force if
necessary, and to integrating Laurent Nkunda's forces. The Rwandan
government committed to . well, almost *nothing!*
The Rwandan RPF regime has always presented the ex-FAR interahamwe as
the main threat to peace and security in the region. The Rwandan Tutsi
regime argues that the Laurent Nkunda phenomenon was born out of the
Hutu ex-FAR Interahamwe threat. Some western governments agree with the
Rwandan position as evidenced by the signatures apposed on the "Joint
Communiqué" by the Representatives of the UN, USA, and European Union (EU).
*RWANDA** GAINED EVERYTHING*
Despite the bravado exhibited by the Kinshasa media close to Kabila's
regime, there is no doubt the RPF gained on all fronts. The regime in
Kigali dominated by a small clique of Tutsis raised in Uganda can know
brag that it was right all along when they claimed that the ex-FAR
interahamwe are the sole most important threat in the region. The
communiqué reinforced the argument that Laurent Nkunda is a consequence
of that threat, hence has a legitimate cause. After the signature,
Rwandans were so confident of their victory that they raised their
stakes even higher. Not only did they want the ex-FAR/Interahamwe, but
also all the armed opposition groups including the FDLR, RUD-Urunana and
the Tutsi dominated RPR-Inkeragutabara hunted down, The list transmitted
by the Rwandan government to the DRC government is split into two parts:
a) Ex-FAR/Interahamwe-FDLR, with names such as Ignace Murwanashyaka,
Mr. Musoni, Callixte Mbarushimana etc. All those are neither FDLR
members, but to qualify them ex-FAR or Interahamwe may be a strecth.
b) Ex-FAR/Interahamwe-RUD/RPR, with names such as John Higiro,
Felicien Kanyamibwa, Gerard Ntashamaje, Rukeba, etc. Again, these are
names of people hardly associated with ex-FAR or Interahamwe.
Brief, Kigali has won the battle, and wants all: the hands, the arms and
perhaps the entire body. The Tutsi clique in power in Rwanda has even
claimed the right to be the sole decider of who among the Hutus can be
repatriated to Rwanda and those who cannot.
On the positive side, Rwandans overall, whether in opposition or not,
should be happy with the accomplishment of General Kagame's government
regarding his dealing with the Congolese government. If they really are
nationalists, they should be proud of their small country humiliating
the big and sleeping giant Congo. In fact, since the invasion of Congo
(Zaire) in October 1996, Rwanda always requested Berlin II. In a speech
by Kagame's stooge of the moment, the now former President Pasteur
Bizimungu, the RPF government asked the international community to
"redraw the present border between Rwanda and the Congo [DRC] and
extend Rwanda to the eastern territories of the DRC which the Belgian
and German colonizers had carved out and given to the Congo." The RPF
regime never gave up the idea. Now the current DRC government is giving
the Rwandan government enough ammunition to lay claim on Eastern Congo.
Rwandans should be very happy and proud of the Tutsi clique in power in
Kigali.
*WHAT DO THE DRC GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT CONGOLESE TO KNOW?*
To answer the question requires us to go back to the tumultuous
relations between the FDLR and the current government in Kinshasa.
Let us start by this fact: by associating the FDLR with
ex-FAR/Interahamwe, Kigali is putting the current DRC president Joseph
Kabila between the hammer and the hard place. Kagame put the Kabila
dynasty in power by supporting the AFDL and Kabila the Father against
Mubutu/ex-FAR; what was the FDLR (the original FDLR) maintained
Kabila's dynasty by helping Kabila the Father chase Rwandans from
Kinshasa and eventually making their lives miserable in the Kivus.
Joseph Kabila, the son of his father Laurent Kabila, owes to both Kagame
and the original FDLR. That is where things get complicated and the so
called International Community fails or doesn't want to grasp the
difficulties facing the Congolese government and the manipulation of
Kagame's government. To measure the magnitude of the oblivion of the
international community, let us revisit the history of the FDLR.
FDLR was created, first to defend the beleaguered Laurent Kabira's
regime, when he had decided he had enough with the Rwandan RPA troops
who once helped him. Laurent Kabila, having nowhere to turn, readily
found auxiliary troops, before convincing Angola, Tchad, Namibia, and
Zimbabwe to help. The auxiliary troops included ex-FAR, well trained,
hardened, and ready to do anything, especially given the prospects of
revenge against their RPA nemesis. The ex-FAR were supplemented by young
Rwandans refugees recruited from camps across Congo-Brazzaville, Central
African Republic, DRC, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda. Some of
the young Rwandan refugees had witnessed their relatives being hacked to
death, massively executed, raped, mutilated, drowned, maimed and
savagely killed by Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Army when the army
destroyed camps in Congo, in 1996-1998. These youths, too, wanted to
avenge their relatives or at least to protect the remnants. Hence,
Laurent Kabila supported the creation of the FDLR so that they can help
maintain him in power. For the Rwandan refugees, though, Kabila was just
a sponsor and providential ally, and their goal was: reorganizing and
rearming while fighting to maintain Laurent Desire Kabila in power, the
self-defense of the Rwandan refugees survivors of their massacres by the
Rwandan Army in the DRC since October 1990, and eventually invading
Rwanda where they claimed the new RPF regime oppressed and discriminated
against the Hutus.
When the Rwandan Patriotic Army invaded the DRC in 1998 to fight Laurent
Kabila, the aim was really to reestablish a pro-RPF regime in Kinshasa
and the extermination of the Hutu refugees remaining in the Eastern
DRC. The creation of the FDLR and the support Laurent Kabila obtained
from Angola, Nambia, Zimbabwe, and Tchad stopped the Rwandan bloody
adventures. The FDLR fought very well. They were the ones who were able
to flee Zimbabween troops trapped behind Rwandan positions in Kasai and
Katanga. The well trained and armed Zimbabwean and Angolans had failed
to accomplish what the FDLR did cleanly. With exploits like that the
FDLR became a big player. Kagame realized the implications.
Hence, the FDLR as one of the military allies of the late President
Laurent Desire Kabila had engaged more that 10,000 combatants, divided
into two groups. One group was based in Eastern DRC with the primary
mission to protect Rwandan refugees in the Eastern DRC (North-Kivu and
South-Kivu) and help the local fighters known as Mai-Mai to resist the
occupation of the RPF and his backed rebellion RCD/Goma. The other FDLR
group was deployed on the internal Congolese frontline. Beign better
trained and hardened fighters than the Congolese troops, the Congolese
government and Zimbabwean troops relied on them to engage the Rwandan
RPA, while the Congolese Forces and the official allied Forces stayed
behind as reinforcements or patrolling and protecting liberated
territories. The FDLR were able to contain and push back the advance of
the RPF-RCD/Goma and the MLC of Jean Pierre Bemba, on the following axes:
-Axis Gbadolite-Kotakoli-Kakuma ( Province of
Equator-/North/);
-Axis Gbadolite-Businga- Karawa-Gemena (Province of
Equator-/North/);
-Axis Mbandaka- Bokungu-Boende-Ikela (Province of
Equator-/South/);
-Axis Mbandaka-Basankusu and Basankusu-Befale (Province of
Equator-/North/);
-Axis Mbujimayi-Kabinda (Province of Oriental
Kassai);
-Axis
Manono-Kiambi (Province of
Katanga);
-Axis Kamina-Kabalo-Nyunzu (Province of
Katanga);
-Axis Poweto, Cantonnier-Pepa-Kapona (Province of Katanga).
Under Laurent Kabila's father the FDLR were hailed as heroes. Their
leaders lived in villas and hotels in Kinshasa and were part of the DRC
government military and political advisers. Then two things happened
that compounded the misfortunes of the FDLR: the assassination of
Laurent Desire Kabila and the internal conflicts within the original FDLR.
With the assassination of Laurent Kabila, the new government led by
Joseph Kabila forgot about the role played by and the value of the FDLR,
and bargained his staying in power by sacrificing the interests of his
allies, including Zimbabwe Angola, and most importantly, the FDLR. The
Angolans and Zimbabwean went home; the FDLR went east, after some of
their top officers were brutally assassinated by the Congolese troops in
Kamina, and some political leaders shipped by Joseph Kabila's government
to Kigali and Arusha. Among the top FDLR officers assassinated by the
Congolese was the commander of the FDLR troops in Kamina, Colonel
Ndanda, whereas General Renzaho was captured and sent to Arusha.
The internal disputes within the RPF, especially following embezzlement,
ineptitude and lack of common vision regarding how to deal with the RPF
eventually led to the exit of the most active members, such as the
overall commander General Aloys Ntiwiragabo, Brazzaville overall
Commander General Ruvubi and his deputies, Vice-President Dr. John Marie
Vianney Higiro, Executive Secretary Dr. Felicien Kanyamibwa and the
omnipresent spokesperson Alexis Nshimyimana of Austria. Almost all of
the regional and local leaders deserted the original FDLR. These include
Emmanuel Hakizimana and Felicien Ngirabanzi for France, Dr. Guillaume
Murere of Canada, Bonaventure Hakizimana for the Netherlands, Dr. Deo
Twagirayezu for Europe, Peter Kamanzi for Northern Europe and Francois
Serushyana of USA and a host of other local leaders. Among executive
committees members who left the FDLR are Goretti Abayizigira, Dr.
Augustine Dukuze, Verite Kabanda, and the entire military and civilian
teams based in Congo-Brazzaville, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania,
Uganda, and Zambia.
Basically the FDLR was emptied of most of the founders and the original
more credible leaders. Even those that remained within the FDLR
disintegrated and created splinters groups: FDLR-CMC of Emmanuel
Hakizimana and Major Seraphin Bizimungu (who eventually surrendered to
the Rwandan Government), FDLR of Ignace Murwanshyaka and Mudacumura, and
FDLR of Lt Colonel Hakizabera and Hyacithe Nsengiyumva, Rastas, Mudumbi
40, FDLR of Lt Claude and Ndayambaje (surrendered to MONUC, were sent to
Rwanda and came back in Congo and were recently fighting alongside the
Congolese Mai Mai Kasereka). Recently, Igance Murwanashyaka and
Mudacumura's group split further after their spokesperson Aloys
Munyandekwe embezzled more than US$60,000.
From its original form, the current FDLR has become the shadow of
itself, while other armed groups formed by former FDLR and RPF members
gained momentum. Among these groups are the RUD-Urunana, which
ironically include: Dr. John Marie Vianney Higiro, Mari Goretti
Abayizigira, Dr. Felicien Kanyamibwa, Alexis Nshimyimana, Dr. Augustine
Dukuze, and almost the entire team of regional and local leaders and
most of the troops and officers who deserted the original FDLR.
One common characteristic of the Rwandan armed apposition groups,
whether based in Congo, including those labeled FDLR, or waging the
guerrilla warfare in Rwanda, such as RUD-Urunana, is that the majority
of the combatants were minor in 1994. Most of these combatants have been
orphaned two, three, four times: The RPF killed their biological
parents since the beginning of the war in 1990. They were adopted by
other families in the camps for the internally displaced people in
Rwanda. When the RPF troops destroyed these camps, they also massacred
the adoptive parents. Other families took the orphans into exile in the
DRC. Even there, the RPF followed them and massacred the adoptive
parents in Mugunga, Tingi-Tingi, Mbandaka, Walikare, Shabunda, etc.
These are the multiple time orphaned youth, who now the international
community, the UN, the USA, the EU, and the Joint Communique are calling
ex-FAR and Interahamwe.
Besides the FDLR, there is another interesting character in the
Congolese saga: Haile Menkerios, the UN Envoy who signed the Nairobi
Joint Communiqué on the behalf of the elusive international community.
Haile Menkerios is the representative of the UN Secretary General in
charge of the FDLR Affairs. He is the Under Secretary General for the
Political Affairs. That is publicized biography. What is overlooked is
that Haile Menkarios is a retired Erythrean Colonel. He was the adviser
of General James Kabarebe, Rwandan Chief of Staff, when the latter was
the Commander of the Rwandan troops during the war against Mobutu in
1996-1997. During the war in which Haile Menkarios served as an
military advior, more than 4 millions Congolese and 200,000 Rwandan
refugees were systematically massacred by the RPA troops. He obviously
knows very well who is responsible for the massacres of the Rwandan
refugees in Tingi-Tingi, Kisangani and Mbandaka in 1997. When Laurent
Desire Kabila took power, the DRC remained under the Rwandan Army
occupation, with James Kabarebe as the Chief of the general Staff of the
new Congolese Army and none other than Mr.Haile Menkerios as the
military adviser to James Kabarebe and political adviser to Laurent
Kabila. This time, he has changed his hat as an international diplomat,
but did he change his heart. This is the man who signed, in the name of
the international community, the Joint Communiqué of Nairobi.
*WHAT DO THE DRC GOVERNMENT AND THE CONGOLESE GAIN?*
The answer is very simple: The DRC government gained nothing. The
Congolese people lost everything. The Rwandan refugees remain in limbo.
The DRC government may think that by signing anything Rwanda proposes,
the Rwandan government will stop supporting the General Laurent Nkunda.
General Nkunda has summarized his intentions in an interview aired by
BBC-Kinyanrwanda over the Summer 2007 and repeated in several western
media, when asked how and why he acquired a broadcast radio: "our aim is
not limited to Kivu, or to defending the Tutsis. We have a long plan.
Our plan goes away to Kinshasa." If anything, General Nkunda has been
consistent and clear in his intentions: Kinshasa, if not Kivu, or
death. General Nkunda is the iceberg of the Berlin II case claimed
higher and lauder by the current Rwandan government: Rwanda wants its
territories back. General Nkunda is a man on a mission and the ex-FAR
and interahamwe are his weapons.
*WHAT DO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY GAIN.*
The coalition against the Rwandan refugees in the DRC seems to be an
international effort. It is curious that this happened when the new UN
Secretary General just decided to open an inquiry into the massacres
committed in the DRC between 1993 and 2003. With the new political
dynamics, the Rwandan Patriotic Army is able to stop or, at least
manipulate that inquiry and possibly get away with the genocide of 4.5
millions of Congolese and more than 200,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees.
*IN CONCLUSION*
Once again, the RPF wins, the Congolese people lose, and the Congolese
government capitulates. By signing the Joint Communiqué, the DRC
government has betrayed the 4.5 millions Congolese victims of the RPF
genocidal rampage, the Congolese integrity, and the Rwandan refugees who
helped the Kabila dynasty stay in power when everybody else had
abandoned them.
As the saying goes "THIS IS AFRICA (TIA) [Blood Diamonds]." Yet, those
involved in the sage will be one day judged. People may manipulate, lie,
cheat oppress, rewrite, dissimulate, and betray but, in the end, History
never forgets.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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