Regional

Political advocacy: Of HRW affixing M23 to Rwanda

2023-06-18 05:11:00

For three decades, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has never been at ease unless it has some nasty thing to say about Rwanda and its leadership.

Rwandan legislators, foreign diplomats and observers have all noted that HRW has an agenda in Rwanda that goes beyond concern for observance of human rights.

There is a sinister political purpose behind the unrelenting attacks on Rwanda's leadership.

Their aim is to demonize Rwandan leadership, bring it to the same level as génocidaire organizations like FDLR and allied groups such as FDU-Inkingi and RNC and create a kind of moral equivalence. It would then be easy to replace the government or force it to negotiate with them as equals, as HRW wishes.

As has always been the case, on June 13, HRW again published a report that, to no one’s surprise, affixed Congolese rebels to Rwanda.

Titled “DR Congo: Killings, Rapes by Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels,” the report regurgitated a number of allegations of human rights violations in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo allegedly committed by M23 rebels with support from Rwanda.

“The United Nations Security Council should add M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials who are assisting this abusive armed group, to the council’s existing sanctions list,” it reads.

Political commentators raised questions about the “report”. Instead of highlighting the escalated violence, hate speech, ethnic based killings as well as anti-Rwanda rhetoric being taught in Congolese primary schools, HRW put all its efforts in attaching M23 to Rwanda, to diminish the real root cause of evil and human suffering in DRC.

With its latest machination, HRW is creating chaos in the great lakes region and ruining all sorts of well intentioned regional efforts meant to halt violence in eastern DRC and restore good relations between Kigali and Kinshasa.

Political advocacy

But, again, this is nothing new. Since July 1994, HRW’s overt activism against Rwanda has persisted.

Retired American diplomat Richard Johnson, in his analysis of HRW’s bias against Rwanda, “The Travesty of Human Rights on Rwanda,” published in March 2013; argued that what Human Rights Watch does on Rwanda is not human rights advocacy but political advocacy which has become profoundly unscrupulous in both its means and its ends.

Richard who lived in Rwanda from 2008 to-2010 explained how HRW’s decision-making process is not transparent; the aura of sanctity around its professed mission deters public scrutiny of its policies and practices, and its degree of accountability to anyone is quite unclear.

“HRW’s discourse on Rwanda is a threat to that country and to peace and stability in Central Africa… It perpetuates impunity for important genocide perpetrators. It pains many Rwandans and particularly the genocide survivors,” he added.

The June “report” was no surprise regarding HRW’s agenda on Rwanda. There is no way a rights group should leave reporting rights violations committed in east DRC by more than 130 armed groups – including the genocidal FDLR militia – as well as Congolese security forces documented by the United Nations, and turn to crafting sham accusations aiming at affixing Congolese rebels to Rwanda.

HRW joking over plight of Congolese

The American watchdog claimed that Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have committed unlawful killings; as if there might be other killings deemed lawful?

But even if the M23 rebels were to be guilty as HRW claimed, are the other more than 130 armed groups killing Congolese lawfully?

At least 46 civilians, including 23 children, were killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Ituri province. A dozen others were injured in the attack by CODECO militia on June 13. Three days before, in neighboring North-Kivu province, an attack by Islamic State group-affiliated ADF left eight dead.

Groups like CODECO, FRPI, FPIC, Mai-Mai Nyatura, APCLS, FDLR, Wazalendo and many others are at the center of insecurity in DRC. On the other hand, there is the Congolese national army which is supplying arms to them.

Trying to fit in HRW’s ways of reporting, the above mentioned killings by CODECO and ADF are “lawful killings” because those armed groups are in Kinshasa’s alliance to fight against M23.

The HRW “report” quoted a Congolese raped woman witnessing: “As they [M23] were raping me, one said: ‘We’ve come from Rwanda to destroy you.’”

Except utilizing every single maneuver to include Rwanda, would a criminal reveal their origin and purpose to the victim and leave her alive? Even an insane robber will never act that way.

The report further quoted a survivor saying: “[The M23 told us:] ‘Anyone who is against us will die. We are not coming to fight; we are here to take back our land”.

With this alleged quotation, HRW is pushing for Kinshasa’s allegation of balkanization by Kigali. The group creates lies without even knowing who the M23 really are!

The M23 are Congolese rebels fighting to defend themselves against an existential threat.

The M23 is fighting for the rights of its persecuted and disowned community to be recognized as legitimate citizens with full rights as any other Congolese nationals. They are protecting the lives of Congolese Tutsi and Rwandophones who are now targets of the ever rising hate speech and violence orchestrated by their own state or government.

Thousands have, so far, been murdered in various parts of eastern DRC.

But HRW is neither highlighting these massacres nor condemning the hate speech being overseen by Congolese government officials.

The UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, noted that the abuses currently taking place in eastern DRC includes the targeting of civilians because of their ethnicity or presumed affiliation with warring parties.

Bernard Maingain, a Belgian lawyer who has, for several years, condemned the anti-Tutsi hate speeches in eastern DRC, said that among the reasons why the M23 decided to take up arms includes the fact that the plan to complete the extermination of the Tutsi was never lost sight of by the Rwandan genocidaires who managed to stay in DRC and mingle with the local population.

Unfortunately, HRW is intentionally ignoring all the facts and concerns of the Congolese Tutsi, but puts more efforts in linking M23 rebels with Rwanda to satisfy its agenda.