Is AU really willing to finance ethnic cleansing in DRC?

Author: Moses Kayinamura

• 2024-03-11 05:38:00

The International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events was created in 1998 by the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU), with a mandate to investigate the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda and the surrounding events in the great lakes region.

It was part of efforts aimed at preventing further widespread of conflicts in the great lakes region. The OAU appointed late Sir Quett Ketumile Masire, the former President of Botswana, as Chairman of the team.

The findings of the report traced the real causes of the Genocide against Tutsi from the colonial era, and political turbulence of 1959 to the execution of the genocide, highlighting the role of the international community and providing recommendations to the OAU Secretariat. Some of the recommendations of the report include establishing measures to prevent further genocides in Africa, determining the intentions of perpetrators, and outlining the legal obligations of states when genocide is declared.

Today, shockingly, the stance of the AU on the escalating insecurity in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo goes against the recommendations made by the OAU 26 years ago.

Inspite of all the warnings against the decision, the AU Political Affairs Peace and Security Council has endorsed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) troop deployment to eastern DRC to support the Congolese army coalition to fight M23 rebels. The Congolese army coalition has been involved in mass killings and bombarding populated areas, targeting especially Congolese Tutsi people.

In a communique of the PSC meeting held on March 4, on consideration of the situation in eastern DRC and the deployment of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), the PSC requested the AU Commission, working in close collaboration with SADC, to devise practical modalities of AU support to SAMIDRC. But there is a problem since endorsing SAMIDRC, which operates with the Congolese army, South African and Burundian soldiers, the FDLR terrorist group, and a myriad of Congolese armed militias grouped into what is called Wazalendo, contradicts the AU's programme, especially in conflict resolution, peace and security.

Any AU support to SAMIDRC undermines the peaceful settlement of the three decades long crisis in DRC. SAMIDRC is fighting alongside a FARDC-led coalition which includes the FDLR genocidal forces, ethnic driven Congolese armed groups allied to FDLR under the umbrella of Wazalendo, and Burundian armed forces under a bilateral arrangement, as well as eastern European mercenaries and Private Military Security Companies including one associated with the former Blackwater, as reported by the United Nations Group of Experts on DRC in December 2023.

As such, SAMIDRC as an offensive force in coalition with these elements cannot substitute for a political process that has been blocked by the Congolese government.

Why then would, for example, the AU overlook the dangerous use of mercenaries – something which was condemned by the OAU? The belligerent character of SAMIDRC, especially its cooperation with FDLR and mercenaries only serves to worsen the insecurity crisis in eastern DRC.

Worse still, ethnic hatred in eastern DRC has reached tragic proportions.

The Congolese army coalition in eastern DRC continues to target Congolese Tutsi, Hema and Banyamulenge communities. Congolese Tutsi communities especially continue to be subjected to widespread hate speech, discrimination, and violence rooted in the genocide ideology kept alive by the FDLR and embraced by the Congolese leadership and security apparatus.

There is a historical context to everything that is happening today. The current crisis in eastern DRC can be traced back 30 years ago when, in July 1994, the defeated Rwandan genocidal government and forces that included the notorious Interahamwe militia fled to the then Zaire. Instead of disarming the defeated genocidal forces, the Zairean government supported by foreign actors helped the genocidal forces to re-organize, and they are now known as the FDLR. The genocidal militia has become a permanent threat to Rwanda and has exported genocide ideology to DRC.

Their presence in eastern DRC led to the persecution and displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the Congolese Tutsi community who fled to Rwanda and other countries in the region. The FDLR is primarily motivated by its genocidal anti-Tutsi agenda.

In 2013, the SADC led Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) established to fight illegal armed groups in eastern DRC, selectively fought the M23 and refused to tackle the FDLR and Uganda’s Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).  Currently, SAMIDRC supports DRC's belligerent posture, focusing on a military solution against the spirit of all regional peace initiatives including the EAC-led Nairobi Process and the Angola-led Luanda Process.

Worryingly, but not surprisingly, sources have revealed how SAMIDRC, mainly composed of South African forces, is driven more by economic interests than fighting negative groups.

According to the OAU recommendation report, determining the intention of perpetrators is crucial for monitoring and preventing genocide. In eastern DRC, FDLR’s sole intention is the continuation of the genocide against Tutsi, fuelled by imported genocide ideology from Rwanda by the former armed forces of the genocidal regime (ex-FAR) in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 and their Interahamwe militia.

By endorsing SAMIDRC, a member of the Congolese army coalition, the AU is actually supporting the ongoing acts of genocide driven and committed by local Congolese armed groups, FDLR, and others, supported by SAMIDRC, against the Congolese Tutsi communities.

The OAU's 1998 communiqué recommended the legal obligation of states when genocide is declared. But the Congolese Tutsi, Banyamulenge and Hema communities continue to see their people lynched in broad daylight, with impunity. The OAU report identified the impunity of perpetrators of Tutsi massacres in 1959 as one of the causes of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

But AU member states remain silent in the face of the on ongoing heinous acts of genocide in DRC.

By endorsing SAMIDRC, which collaborates with armed groups involved in human rights abuses targeting the Congolese Tutsi, the AU is repeating the same mistake done in 1994 during the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, as condemned in its report.

The AU should invest in peace and security by emphasizing conflict resolution and addressing the root causes of insecurity in the region, rather than supporting military means.

With all the information and evidence out there, will the AU later claim that it was not aware of the situation and the real motivation of SAMIDRC forces?