DRC: Botenga’s views reek of European hypocrisy

Author: Junior Rutikurabanzi

• 2023-03-05 06:56:00

It is no longer news that the European Parliament is engulfed in a series of corruption scandals. It has been the trend for some time now. This is always compounded by biased positions on matters concerning areas far removed from their jurisdictions, like the African great lakes region, mainly the situation in eastern DRC.

The latest comes from MP Marc Botenga who is taking a similar direction in blindly accusing Rwanda for the mess in DRC, despite being in position to get the facts right; should he make the slightest effort.

From the onset, it makes one wonder; is it just being naïve or does it suggest a premeditated manoeuver to protect the EU’s interests in the DRC? The latter seems to be more close to the reality of things.

The European Union has on its records that the insecurity question in DRC is a long dated problem and that it did not surface with the formation of M23 – which is just one rebel group among over 130 armed groups that exist in the east of the country.

Long before M23 emerged, DRC was dealing with a multitude of insecurity problems that are caused by some of the most notorious armed groups such as the FDLR and ADF-NALU that accounts for tens of thousands of deaths and countless other human rights violations.

The FDLR was created by perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It was blacklisted by the UN Security Council as a terrorist organization in 2014.

The FDLR is one of the largest foreign armed groups operating in eastern DRC where it controls large swathes of territory where it kills, mimes, loots and forcefully recruits children.

These are a few facts that MP Botenga should have considered before embarrassing himself and perhaps the institution he serves with the allegations he made on Rwanda.

However, MP Botenga seems oblivious to all this, which invites the question as whether this is genuine innocence on his part or it is just an agenda he is pushing, so much that he fails to notice that the problems in DRC are primarily for the Congolese government to sort out.

How can insecurity reign for almost three decades and fail to be resolved despite all the regional and international mechanisms that were operationalized to bring about peace and security in eastern DRC? 

Additionally, assuming that the Congolese has completely failed to perform its duties due to leadership deficiency, what about the UN peacekeepers, MONUSCO, that have been operating in DRC for close to 30 years now while enjoying huge financial and logistical supports from the United Nations?

Europeans are the first people who never cared about the lives of Congolese people as hundreds of them were killed by their Belgian compatriots while others were mutilated. This was done in a so called mass campaign to discourage Congolese from “stealing” the minerals that were primarily theirs. 

At the time, we never heard of any European condemning such acts because they all benefited from the loot.

Botenga should stop pretending that Europe cares more for the Congolese and their security, yet just like in the past years, all they need is cobalt and other minerals.

The EU parliament and their so-called human rights advocate should also be reminded that in 1994, while Tutsi people were being massacred in Rwanda, their countries never sounded an alarm to advocate for an intervention to stop the killings. 

Instead, those who were in Rwanda, found it easy to save their pets and left the Tutsi at the mercy of killers. Botenga was certainly no baby at the time.

On the issue of the prevailing insecurity in DRC, he seems to have selective amnesia.

He has turned a deaf ear to the disturbing facts of hate speech targeting Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese and the disturbing images of the same people being lynched in the full glare of the public but he is too eager to protect his personal interests like has been the trend with some EU MPs of late. 

Botenga and the EU Parliament, should see Rwanda as a victim of the insecurity in eastern DRC, especially the current FARDC-FDLR coalition.

He should also be advised to bear in mind that Rwanda is a sovereign state that reserves the right to protect its territorial integrity, just like DRC should protect hers.