Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Radio-Trottoir, the relay of rumors and unsourced information in the DRC,
has gone into overdrive ever since the appearance of M23 and this round of
Rwanda-fueled instability in North-Kivu Province.
And some of those rumors could trigger riots, as the one that flared up in
Goma on Thursday, July 18--a rumor alleging that the FARDC North-Kivu
operational commander, Col. Mamadou Ndala, has been relieved of his command
and recalled to Kinshasa. This caused such anger and outrage among Goma
residents--with mobs of unruly youths and army wives cutting off roads--that
the government and the FARDC took the unusual step of having Col. Ndala deny
the rumor at hastily-convened pressers.
(Dangerous rumor for the powers that be, indeed, as Goma demonstrators were
chanting anti-Joseph Kabila slogans alleging that he was in cahoots with his
old pal, Paul Kagame!)
People in the Kivus and throughout the DRC are still reeling from what they
view as the betrayal by Kinshasa authorities when, in 2004, the late Col.
Budja Mabe, then operational commander in Bukavu
Col. Ndala told Radio Okapi:
"It's not true; it's a rumor. A manipulation by rebels who want to
destabilize the morale of the population and of troops engaged on the
theater." He added: "Secondly, my chief, the region commander, General
Bauma, I am in contact with him every five minutes. If I had to be relieved
of my command, it's he, my immediate superior, who'd have indicated it to
me. Therefore, it's absolutely untrue."
In Kinshasa meanwhile, there are three rumors that make Kinois laugh their
heads off: 1) the Rwandan joke of strayed mortar shells lobbed by the FARDC
and MONUSCO on Rwandan territory AND the desecration of dead M23 bandits; &
2) MONUSCO being caught between the rock of Rwanda and the hard place of the
DRC.
1) The Rwandan joke of FARDC strayed mortar shells landing on Rwandan
territory AND The Desecration of dead M23 bandits
The Rwandan accusation of FARDC and MONUSCO strayed mortar shells falling on
Rwandan territory caused much merriment in Kinshasa.
"Do these Rwandan bastards remember what they did to Kisangani during the
6-Day War?" I heard a woman yell at a sidewalk bar.
She was referring to the blanket shelling of the city of Kisangani during
what has been dubbed "The 6-day war" in 2000 pitting Rwandan against their
erstwhile Ugandan allies. A stupid plunder war over the share of turfs and
loots of Congo resources.
The 6-day war devastated the third Congolese city! And Congolese dead bodies
were desecrated by Rwandans on a mass scale.
The feeling in Kinshasa is that more mortar shells should be aimed at
Rwandan cities and that more M23 bodies ought to be desecrated!
2) MONUSCO between a rock and a hard place
Citing a local journalist reporting in North Kivu Province, veteran Belgian
Africa reporter Colette Braeckman charged in a post published on her blog on
July 17 that MONUSCO tanks at first had attempted to stop the FARDC
offensive against M23 at Munigi.
"He'd seen with his own eyes Munusco in the process of blocking the road to
FARDC with their tanks so as to prevent the tanks to get to the frontline
with their munitions," Braeckman wrote.
"According to that witness," she goes on to say, "the civilian population
then intervened: pelting stones in the direction of Monusco, they ended up
opening the road to government forces."
It seems that MONUSCO doesn't want war, but a negotiated political
settlement between the DRC government and M23. The very solution advocated
by Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
The collusion of MONUSCO with DRC foes is a persistent rumor here anyway.
And this situation is seen by people as the unenviable situation of MONUSCO
being between the rock of Rwanda and the hard place of DRC.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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