DRC: Genocide unfolding as world looks on

Author: Lindah Uwase

• 2023-05-17 05:44:00

Signs indicate that the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may soon see a full scale extermination of Congolese Tutsi, considering the prevailing signs of the preparation of a Genocide there.

Scholars classified Genocide in 10 stages, which are foreseeable and preventable. These stages happen in sequential style. They start from classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, extermination and end in denial.

Recent events prove that the DRC is in the eighth stage of the Genocide against the Congolese Tutsi community which is being persecuted.

In stage eight, experts have put it that victims’ properties are seized and destroyed, they are alienated, and the victim group’s basic human rights become systematically abused through extrajudicial killings, torture and forced displacement.  Genocidal massacres begin. They are acts of genocide because they intentionally destroy part of a group. The perpetrators watch for whether such massacres meet any international reaction. If not, they realize that that the international community will again be bystanders and permit a genocide.

A recent event sealed the conviction of the fact that a Genocide against Congolese Tutsi in the DRC is in its final stages.

On May 8, 2023, a gruesome video was shared on social media showing a group of militiamen dressed in rags and armed to the teeth. In front of them lay dead a herd of Friesian cows estimated to be around 450 all belonging to the Congolese Tutsi.

The militiamen who were speaking Kinyarwanda have since been identified as members of the FDLR terrorist group and members of the Nyatura militia group. They were filmed as they opened fire on the heard. In the video one of the assailants is shooting them in the head at a close range while others are heard instructing one of their assailants to use a machinegun. Suddenly a machinegun is loaded and rapid fire is splashed on the cows.

The herdsmen who had for long been subjected to gross discrimination, torture, dehumanisation, and persecution, among other forms of inhumane mistreatment, had decided to lead their cattle out of harm’s way from Masisi and were heading to Rutshuru. They were ambushed along the Kalengera – Tongo corridor.

Following the gruesome events, the M23 rebel group issued a statement blaming the DRC government and its affiliated militia groups including FDLR, PARECO, CODECO, APCLS, MAI-MAI, and the youth militia known as wazalendo for the mass massacre of cows and indicated that 200 cows were killed while over 150 were left injured.

The cows belonged to the Congolese Tutsi. To them, a cow is wealth, abundance, fertility, generosity, motherhood and prosperous life among many symbols a cow stands for. Going after their cows is literally soul-killing and not any different from physically killing them.

Targeting the properties and livestock of particular group is classified as persecution which is stage eight of a Genocide. Genocide scholars note that at this stage, a Genocide emergency must be declared. Indeed, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention, has made several calls indicating that there are "alarming reports" of multiple attacks against civilians along ethnic lines.

In one of her statements Nderitu indicated that while the situation in North and South Kivu requires immediate action, so does the situation in Ituri. Civilians are being massacred based on ethnic identity, yet again.

“The conditions necessary for the commission of atrocity crimes continue to be present in a region where a genocide happened in 1994.”

Silence and inaction of international community

The Ugandan army, UPDF, which is on the ground in DRC issued a statement on May 11, 2023 confirming that the armed men who shot at the cows were members of the FDLR terrorist group and that the cows belong to the people of Masisi who are predominantly Congolese Tutsi. The FDLR is composed of remnants of criminals who prepared and orchestrated the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Shockingly, the UN mission in DRC which maintains a nearly 19,000 strong force there has deliberately ignored the Genocide against the Congolese Tutsi, being caused by the existence of the FDLR genocidal force.

It’s not the M23 rebel group that is a problem to DRC. In fact, the group came into existence to defend the rights of the Congolese Tutsi after decades of persecution.

When they recently withdrew from their positions in accordance with several agreements, the killing and persecution of Congolese Tutsi escalated, including the recent gruesome killing of cows.

The situation is a ticking bomb.

The more the international community deliberately looks aside and ignores the realities of the Genocide against the Congolese Tutsi, the more innocent people are going to die.

To date, despite all signs of Genocide against the Congolese Tutsi, there is little or nothing being done at the local, regional and international community level to prevent it.