EngRegional
DRC crisis: Will Tshisekedi listen to Pope Francis’ advice?
According
to the Vatican’s envoy to the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Pope Francis visited the country first to remind the world
not to ignore decades-long conflicts.
Secondly,
the Pope, in his message, encouraged political actors in DRC to resolve the
country’s problems.
But
at the heart of the Pope as the global leader of the Catholic Church, he was
like a shepherd visiting his own flock who suffered for long, knowing that
about 45 million people of the DRC’s
estimated population of 100 million are Catholics.
In a
Mass celebrated by the Pope and attended by President Felix Tshisekedi on
February 1, at the Ndolo airport, the Pope reminded the Congolese that peace in
eastern DRC is possible only when Congolese people work for it and believe in
it.
"Peace
is possible, let us believe in it and work for it. This country will not have
peace until it is achieved in its eastern part. Never again violence, never again
resentment, never again resignation!” Pope Francis said.
Although
the Pope prayed for peace in DRC, his message was a reminder to Tshisekedi and
his cronies that his prayers are not enough. The DRC leadership has the key to
peace and unity of the Congolese people.
Tshisekedi
appears to be a desperate man hoping that he will solve the eastern DRC
conflict by military force. When the East African Community
Regional Force (EACRF) was deployed in eastern DRC, Tshisekedi
expected the force to fight M23, yet this was not their mandate. He is now
against the force, and has gone his own way to hire foreign mercenaries,
complicating the already volatile situation.
The Pope’s message was clear; Tshisekedi has to believe in
peace and work for it, short of which, his intransigency to change his attitude
on the war in the east will only plunge the country in deeper chaos and human
suffering.
If
only Tshisekedi understood and took heed of the Pope’s counsel, the country
would be different. The guns would be silent and the country would embark on
development.
It
is a shame that DRC is ranked among the poorest countries in Africa yet one of
the richest in the world in terms of unexploited mineral potential estimated at $24 trillion.
As
if responding to Tshisekedi’s continued scapegoating neighboring countries, especially
Rwanda for the conflict in eastern DRC, the Pope invoked the Bible scriptures
of good neighborliness where a neighbor should be considered as a bother. "Brothers and sisters, your neighbours
are your brothers. All your neighbours are your brothers, whether they are Burundians,
Ugandans or Rwandans."
If
only Tshisekedi would listen to the Pope’s counsel, and know that his neighbors
are the ones who can help him to end the conflict rather than scapegoating them
for his own failures. Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi also harbor thousands of Congolese
refugees, thus carrying the burden of his own country.
On
ethnic discrimination, Pope Francis said that, “a new future will come about if
the other, whether Tutsi or Hutu, is no longer an adversary or enemy, but a
brother or sister."
Tshisekedi
knows well that M23 rebels are Congolese but because of discrimination, his government
persistently calls them Rwandans, confusing the world that the conflict is
between his country and Rwanda, hence refusing to sit at a negotiating table to
solve the grievances of Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese.
“We continue to be shocked to hear
of the inhumane violence that you have seen with your eyes and personally
experienced,” Pope Francis said after listening to the horror stories of
survivors in a private meeting in Kinshasa.
Some of them told the Pope stories
of how they were forced to eat human flesh of their human beings who had been
killed, while others had their limbs chopped off.
“To you, dear inhabitants of the
east,” the Pope further stated, “I want to say: I am close to you. Your tears
are my tears; your pain is my pain. To every family that grieves or is
displaced by the burning of villages and other war crimes, to the survivors of
sexual violence and to every injured child and adult, I say: I am with you.”
The
message of the Pope to the leadership and the people of DRC showed a clear
understanding and concern of the conflict in eastern DRC, more than Tshisekedi
himself and the international community.
If
only Tshisekedi could listen to the message of Pope Francis, the discrimination
with genocide dimensions and conflict in eastern DRC would come to an end.
