From the Salem-News.com
Open memo to the UN Secretary General, G8
Members, UN General Assembly, EU, AU, and all Representatives to the UN
Security Council.
Courtesy: theburningsplint.blogspot.com
|
(WASHINGTON DC) - The following is an Open Memo to the
UN Secretary General, G8 Presidents and Prime Ministers, President of
the UN General Assembly, EU President, AU Chairman and President, and
all Representatives to the UN Security Council.
MAY 11, 2012
PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME IS TO BLAME FOR THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN EASTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO(DRC)
On behalf of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), let me
take this opportunity to bring to your kind attention concerns
regarding the deepening humanitarian and security crisis in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has been reported by the United
Nations Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs that there have
more than 300,000 internally displaced people in North and South Kivu
in the first quarter of this year alone. In the last few days,
escalation of fighting has led to more internally displaced people, and
refugees fleeing to Rwanda and Uganda. Many millions, including women
and children have died, displaced and raped in eastern DRC since 1994.
In the May 3, 2012, statement the U.N. Security Council
expressed concerns over recent attacks by armed groups in eastern DRC,
in particular the former elements of CNDP under General Bosco Ntaganda,
against the Congolese armed forces and called for immediate cessation of
the rebellion. The U.N. Security Council statement further called for “
all crimes, including crimes against women and children, to be
expeditiously investigated and the need for all the perpetrators of
those crimes, in particular Ntaganda, to be brought to justice.”
THE CONTEXT
You might recall that the 1990- 1994 war and genocide
in Rwanda resulted in millions of Rwandan refugees in the region, mostly
in DRC, including thousands of Rwanda government military forces (FAR)
and militia (interahamwe). The Government of Rwanda attacked the refugee
camps in Congo in October, 1996 under the pretext of a ‘Abanyamurenge
rebellion’. The war culminated in the overthrow of President Mobutu in
May, 1997.
Thereafter, Laurent Desire Kabila succeeded Mobutu as
President with the help of the Rwandan Armed forces. The alliance
between Paul Kagame and Laurent Desire Kabila could not last more than
two years and both countries were again involved in war in August 1998.
First, then Vice President Paul Kagame expected to
control the new government of DRC and believed President Kabila would
always solicit political direction from Rwanda. To ensure this, Rwanda
deployed LTC James Kabarebe (now General) as Chief of Staff of the
Congolese Army to keep President Kabila on the leash. This was detested
by Kabila and his followers which resulted in friction and conflict in
the Congolese Army.
Second, then Vice President Kagame demanded mineral
concessions to be granted to Rwanda as compensation for expenses of the
war and as a personal reward for installing President Kabila in power.
This did not happen and Paul Kagame hatched a plan to remove President
Kabila through a coup d’etat, which failed. President Kabila retaliated
by expelling LTC James Kabarebe together with all Rwandan troops in DRC,
precipitating the all-out war into which several African countries,
notably Zimbabwe and Angola, were sucked. President Laurent Kabila was
assassinated, and succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila.
Third, a reason had to be found to begin a war and the
EX-FAR was a perfect excuse, although at the same time the war was waged
under the pretext of a mutiny by the Congolese army, with President
Kabila being accused of allying himself with the EX-FAR. At first,
Rwanda concealed its involvement. As the conflict intensified and drew
many African countries, Rwanda’s deceptions had reached a limit and had
to create a proxy politico-military organization. Thus was RCD born. The
war ended in a stalemate, and a negotiated political settlement led to
the establishment of a broad-based government that included all fighting
forces. However, against all advice, Paul Kagame dissuaded some
political and military elements of the RCD from joining the new
broad-based government in Kinshasa. Out of these former RCD elements, a
new proxy force, CNDP, was established under the leadership of General
Laurent Nkunda.
CNDP, GENERAL LAURENT NKUNDA AND GENERAL BOSCO NTAGANDA
The justification for creation of the CNDP was to fight
the FDLR and “protect the Tutsi community in Kivu.” However, the true
objective was to keep the government of DRC weak through endless war.
Like many millions of Congolose who have died due to the unending
conflict and its consenquences, the Congolese Tutsi have been both tools
and victims of President Kagame’s policies and actions in DRC.
Furthermore, the proxy forces facilitated resource plunder by President
Kagame’s ruling RPF companies and associates. At a personal level,
President Paul Kagame became the focal diplomatic contact about the
security situation in DRC. While he precipitated this horrendous
humanitarian situation and should have been held to account, he has on
the contrary been viewed in many capitals as the solution and
indispensable interlocutor for the realization of security in DRC and
the Great Lakes region.
In 2009, Gen Laurent Nkunda was “arrested” (President
Kagame said on BBC that he is his guest) and was replaced by Gen Bosco
Ntaganda by the government of Rwanda. Gen Bosco Ntaganda was integrated
in CNDP after the war in Ituri in DRC and was helped by the government
of Rwanda to depose Gen Nkunda.
It is well known that Gen Bosco Ntaganda is a Rwandese
from Masisi, and should have had no interest in the “Ituri wars” between
the Balendu and Bahema in Kivu. The Ugandan rebels of ADF were
allegedly operating among the Ituri tribes and Rwanda sought to exploit
the situation by arming Thomas Lubanga and seconded Bosco Ntaganda as
his military Commander. Thomas Lubanga has been convicted by the ICC and
Bosco Ntaganda is being hunted by the ICC. It is only fair that
President Paul Kagame on whose behest these two individuals committed
war crimes should be part of the indictment.
EMERGING SCENARIOS
After the conviction of Thomas Lubanga in the ICC,
international pressure has mounted on President Kabila to arrest Gen
Ntaganda. For President Kabila, it is a perfect opportunity to dispense
with an officer in his Army who takes orders from another country,
Rwanda in this case. The problem however, is that President Kabila does
not control the CNDP because, as Rwanda’s proxy force, they have never
been fully integrated in the Congolese Army and he cannot transfer any
of them from Kivu. The government of Rwanda would do whatever it takes
to make sure that Gen Ntaganda is not arrested because of the
information that implicates President Kagame he would divulge at the
ICC.
Some of the likely scenarios include the following:
1. The government of Rwanda will arm and help Gen
Ntaganda fight the Congolese government forces until President Kabila
realizes that he will have to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
2. If international pressure continues for the arrest
of Gen Ntaganda, the government of Rwanda will offer to assist ( already
doing so), by sending its Special Forces or use elements within CNDP to
kill Gen. Ntaganda to make sure he is not taken to the ICC.
3. As the war rages on and the international community
needs assistance, President Kagame will, as usual, reposition himself as
the regional leader and savior for resolving this stalemate, in the
“interest of regional stability.” As political crisis looms large in
Rwanda and the Kivus, he will use the opportunity to conceal and deny
his own misdemeanors while dictating his own terms of any new
arrangements.
4. Like in 2009, under the ‘Amani Leo’, this situation
may provide a perfect opportunity for another deployment of Rwanda
government forces into the DRC.
5. A wild card triggers a worst-case scenario, in which
full-fledged civil wars erupt in Rwanda ( as mounting domestic
pressures lead to implosion) and DRC, with grave consequences for the
whole fragile region, thus perpetuating the cycle of genocide, war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
IMPLICATIONS
Due to President Paul Kagame’s policies in Rwanda and
the DRC, the Tutsi community of DRC are frequently singled out and
blamed to a larger extent by other tribes for atrocities in DRC since
1996. The Rwandan community in DRC (Hutu and Tutsi) in general has been
drawn into a conflict among themselves and against all other tribes who
view them as proxies of a foreign government. Since 1996, the proxy wars
in DRC especially in both North and South Kivu have resulted in
millions of deaths, displacement and refugees, which occasionally
President Kagame deceptively justifies as “collateral damage” for
hunting down FDLR, whose numbers have in any case diminished over the
years.
The endless conflicts in DRC have resulted in
uncontrolled proliferation of arms from the governments to militias over
whom they have a lose control. Some of these militias have been
involved in massive rape of women and deaths of children.
Most importantly, as we all have witnessed during the
last two decades, crisis in any one country poses great risk to the
whole Great Lakes region. Crisis in the Great Lakes region has before
escalated to a “continental” war when several African countries
intervened in the 1998-2002 Congo war. Already there are several
millions who have died in this region due to genocide, war crimes,
crimes against humanity, other gross abuses of human rights, and the
consequences of humanitarian catastrophe. Clearly, the current
escalating situation in the Great Lakes region has serious implications
for international peace and security.
At the center of endless conflict and humanitarian
crisis in DRC and the Great Lakes is lack of accountability and the
impunity it fosters. For example, In the United Nations Human Rights
Commission Mapping Report on DRC of October, 2010, the Government of
Rwanda under President Kagame is implicated in war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and even “possible acts of genocide.” The crimes have
been investigated but the perpetrators are yet to be brought to account.
Why would the U.N. Security Council seek accountability from Thomas
Lubanga General Bosco Ntaganda alone, and fall silent on President Paul
Kagame and his other accomplices, who have created the conditions and
organization that sustain the crimes?
Furthermore, President Kagame seeks to draw attention
away from his human rights abuses in Rwanda by diverting the
international community and media to focus on DRC. Since 1994, the
Rwandan armed forces have been kept at war both in DRC and recently in
peace keeping missions. This facilitates President Kagame to blackmail
and manipulate domestic and international opinion that the country is at
war. Depicting himself as indispensable to Rwanda’s and regional
security, he uses the pretext of war to close avenues for peaceful
reform and to brand his critics as accomplices, terrorists or
sympathizers of rebels.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The events unfolding in eastern DRC have the potential
to trigger massive violence and humanitarian tragedy of catastrophic
proportions.
The greatest danger, recent history shows, is that the
international community may be silent, indifferent, act in an unfair or
timid fashion, or rather too late.
The international community must engage President Paul
Kagame and other stakeholders candidly and forcefully to halt the
current escalation and work towards sustainable peace and security.
Since President Paul Kagame’s policies and actions in
DRC are conditioned by his domestic requirements in Rwanda, the
international community should insist that the government in Rwanda
immediately and unconditional release all political prisoners, end
persecution (including arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture,
involuntary disappearances and extra-judicial killings) of government
opponents and critics and their relatives, engage in comprehensive and
unconditional dialogue with the opposition to resolve the political and
security impasse engulfing Rwanda and the Great Lakes region, and stop
proxy wars in eastern DRC.
The international community should be even and act
fairly by using international mechanisms to ensure that all those who
have committed crimes, including President Kagame himself, are held
accountable and brought to justice.
Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa
Co-ordinator
Rwanda National Congress (RNC).
Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa
Co-ordinator
Rwanda National Congress (RNC).
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