Your Excellency,

I hope this letter finds you well. This is my second letter following the one I wrote to you in June, regarding my concerns on the traumatizing human rights violations happening in the eastern part of your country, where killings, hate speech, and cannibalism all targeting Rwandophone Congolese continue under your watch, and with impunity.

 

Videos and photographs of mutilated dead bodies as well as the torture and dehumanization of Rwandophone Congolese, by your security forces, continue to circulate in the media. The world is in shock wondering when this barbaric human rights violation will end.  

 

Today, I want to focus on the third round of peace talks in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. To many observers, it appears that these peace talks are a comedy act which is likely to yield nothing since innocent civilians continue to die.

 

On the day the talks began, you deployed Mai-Mai militia leader Janvier Karairi in Kitchanga, a locality in Rutchuru, to fight and push back M23 rebels. The Mai-Mai led the public in chanting a xenophobic song, “Ba Tutsi barudiye kwabo” (the Tutsi should go back home).This is an indication that there is no political will, by you and your government, to solve the crisis through political means.

 

First of all, you know very well that national, regional and international attention is focused on the war between your government and M23 rebels deemed to be the main ‘source of instability’ in eastern DRC. Ironically, instead of bringing this warring group on the table, you preferred to invite groups that are actually known allies to your national army, FARDC. It is clear that talking to these groups does not constitute dialogue for peace but simply a monologue with your supporters which will not solve the grievances of the M23 rebels.

 

You tried to create an equivalence of M23 with FDLR; calling the former a terrorist group and refusing to negotiate with them, just like  Rwanda cannot negotiate with the FDLR, a genocidal terror group. To the contrary, M23 is a rebel group fighting to prevent a genocide of the Congolese Rwandophone community. In 2012, FDLR was listed on the UN Security Council consolidated list of terror groups. Nowhere is M23 listed as a terror group except in your own black book. The population where M23 occupies is calm and peaceful even though your propaganda machine wants the world to believe otherwise.

 

You have set a dangerous precedent, as a Head of State, by disowning your own nationals – the M23 – who are fighting for their rights as legitimate citizens of DRC. The fact that they speak Kinyarwanda language and share the same culture with Rwandans does not make them foreigners. The DRC and Rwanda are not the only countries where communities share the same language and culture across borders, yet such communities are not discriminated against as you are doing.

 

Allowing the Rwandan genocidal militia, FDLR and its splinters, to be incorporated in your national army and kill innocent people is a crime against humanity. The international community must condemn and hold your government accountable through the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch recently published a report highlighting how “Congolese army units are again resorting to the discredited and damaging practice of using abusive armed groups as their proxies,” an indication that the practice has been going on for some time. By the way, the HRW report unmasks your lie before the UN Security Council that FDLR no longer exists.

 

Your approach to the crisis in eastern DRC, is taking a dangerous path; preparing the ground for the genocide against the Rwandophone Tutsi community.

 

Mr. President, if you want to be remembered as a human rights defender and a peace loving leader, courageously stop the denial, hold the bull by its horns and deal with the root causes of the war between your government and M23 rebels.

 

Using Rwanda as a scapegoat for your internal political challenges exposes the weakness of your governance credentials.

 

Mr. President, you should swallow your pride and remember that the primary reason for this persistent crisis is the failure to implement the various agreements signed with M23 in past years. Populism, political rhetoric and blaming your neighbor as the cause of DRC’s problems may help you earn political mileage and support in the upcoming elections, although it does not give you guarantee of winning the 2023 presidential elections. All your political opponents are doing the same – hating on Rwanda – anyway.

 

At the bottom of your heart, you know that blaming Rwanda, and President Paul Kagame, for all your failures will not solve the chronic security crisis in the east of your country. The crisis has been on for decades even before Kagame became the President of Rwanda.   

  

Let me hope that you will not mislead the facilitators to the peace process and the international community to help you look for quick fixes of stopping the war. The approach must be holistic to bring all parties to the crisis on board for collective ownership of a lasting solution for peace and security in eastern DRC and the Great Lakes region.

 

As Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye, who is now Chairperson of the East African Community, mentioned at the start of the third round of talks in Nairobi, the solution to the DRC crisis will not come from outsiders but from Congolese themselves.

 

Sincerely,

 

Matia Mulumba

Concerned Great Lakes Region citizen.

 

CC:

UN Secretary General

 

Chairperson of the African Union

 

Chairperson of the East African Community Summit

 

Secretary General the East African Community

 

European Union

 

US Congress