EngRegional
DRC: Genocide perpetrated as international community watches
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is
home to more than 250 tribes and communities, each with its own customs,
dialect and ancestral land. Of all, Congolese Tutsi from the
Kinyarwanda-speaking communities, have always been discriminated. This often through
a series of criminal activities targeting them especially through systematic
killings as in the current situation.
All the atrocities happen in broad day light.
Thanks to social media, the evidence is there for the entire world to see. But
there is complete indifference from the international community.
The Congolese Tutsi are victims of repeated
attacks perpetrated by the Congolese army, FARDC, in addition to local and
foreign militia groups in the eastern part of the country. Since 1994, armed militia
groups such as the FDLR, the Mai Mai and others have targeted the Rwandophones
in eastern DRC.
Many have found themselves as refugees in
neighbouring countries, out of fear of execution. From 2017 to 2021, more than
300 villages of the Banyamulenge community in South Kivu province were burnt;
hundreds were killed, while thousands fled the violence and joined their
relatives in refugee camps.
Unlike in other similar scenarios in some
parts of the world, the international community has remained silent and
continues to show total indifference to the fate of the Congolese Tutsi.
In Rwanda, 28 years ago, the Genocide against
the Tutsi unfolded and the sad memories are still fresh.
Since the late 1950s, the Tutsi in Rwanda
were forced to flee their country. Ultimately, from April to July 1994, the
Tutsi were killed in the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 20th century.
The massacres were happening in the full
glare of cameras of the few members of the international press corps who stayed
back to document the atrocities, while the international community was
preoccupied in a senseless debate on whether to term what was happening in
Rwanda as a genocide.
It was only after the death of over a million
people that the international community realised that it was time to face the
reality and call the systematic killings a genocide.
Sadly, almost three decades later, we are
witnessing a similar scenario in eastern DRC.
Kinshasa has engineered vicious campaigns that call for the
extermination of Rwandophones, specifically Tutsi, referring to them as
foreigners from Rwanda who should be eliminated.
Today, a genocide is being perpetrated in
eastern DRC while the international community watches.
In DRC, the state is free to either deny or
destroy evidence of centuries-old existence of Congolese Tutsi in eastern DRC,
just like it does to deny and destroy all evidence of their systematic
extermination.
The United Nations peacekeepers have, for
long, provided a false sense of security
but failed to intervene to stop the atrocities committed against the
Congolese Tutsi community.
The UN Mission in the country stands by, as
an accomplice, and watches – in total indifference – every time the Tutsi are
slaughtered. For how long will this go on?
