EngInternational
EU parliament scandal points to treachery
Senior Belgian MEP Maria Arena, resigns from EP human rights subcommittee for Qatar corruption scandal ‘Qatargate’
The
end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 has engulfed the European Union
Parliament in a corruption scandal often referred to as ‘Qatargate’.
The
most recent development in the scandal is the resignation of Maria Arena, a senior
Belgian politician. She resigned from her position as Chair of the European
Parliament's subcommittee on Human Rights after reports emerged of her
suspicion in the scandal. Arena, 56, served as a Member of the European
Parliament since 2014. Ever since she stepped into the office, she never ceased
to advance an anti-Rwanda government agenda within the EU parliament.
In
December 2022, Arena opposed a grant of 20 million euros by the EU to the
Rwandan army for its fight against terrorism in northern Mozambique, alleging that
the support is not justifiable given that the Rwandan army is responsible for
serious human rights violations in the DRC. She also alleged that Rwanda supports
the M23 rebels.
Her
allegations were not a first. In December 2022, Arena alleged that Rwanda was
helping the M23 rebels to launch attacks against the Congolese army, FARDC. She
said Rwanda’s aim was looting DRC’s minerals.
Anyone
not familiar with this Belgian MP would ask themselves, why the hostile attitude
towards Rwanda? The answer is simple. Arena is DRC’s strong ally, and is
exceptionally close to Dr Denis Mukwege, an aspiring presidential candidate. In
September 2022, she was received by the Congolese Ambassador in Brussels. She made
a trip to the DRC, from October 30 to November 4, 2022, as the head of an EU
delegation in the framework of formal meetings between the DRC and the EU.
Her biases
and hatred against Rwanda, are often shared with Dr Mukwege. The gynecologist is not clean either.
Mukwege
is an honorary board member of the human rights group, Fight Impunity, an NGO
established in 2019 and used as a shield for illegal transactions by former
Italian Socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who is now in jail pending trial in
relation to the scandal.
Mukwege
is one on a long list of luminaries who Panzeri persuaded to join his honorary
board. Belgian authorities seized €1.5 million in cash amid raids around
Brussels and made several arrests of members of the European Parliament.
With
Arena and Dr Mukwege’s reports of involvement in the corruption scandal emerging,
one wonders if the Belgian MP is not serving Kinshasa when she advances her anti-Kigali
agenda.
Ever
since the arrest, trial and sentence of terror convict Paul Rusesabagina, the Belgian
MP rallied her fellow lawmakers to vote and push for his release, while calling
his detention ‘unlawful’.
Rusesabagina
was arrested for terrorism related charges, a case he shares with 20 other
people for attacks on Rwandan territory by the National Liberation Front (FLN),
an armed wing of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), of which he
was the leader.
Rusesabagina
was tried and convicted of terrorism by a Rwandan court in September 2021. He
is now serving a 25-year old sentence in jail.
Arena
claims to be a human rights advocate. But how is releasing a convicted
terrorist justifying any cause? She has never mentioned or condemned the terrorists’
attacks in western Rwanda and nor has she offered any message of sympathy
towards the victims! She shows total lack of empathy, and ‘selective
humanitarianism.’
Rwanda
does not take any lessons from corrupt MPs, so should the EU. Allowing corrupt
MPs and lobbyists to advance their ill-intended agenda and make resolutions out
of them is, in itself, an injustice and abuse of human rights of the highest
order.
