Regional
DRC: Tshisekedi disregarding father's will to end genocidal militia
While
in exile, around 1999-2000 Etienne Tshisekedi, father of the current President
of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, appeared in the
media saying that Kinshasa shouldn’t blame Kigali for its woes.
Once
the advisor of Patrice Lumumba, former Congolese Prime Minister, Etienne,
drafted the 1965 Zaïre Constitution. He said that the country had signed a pact
with the devil from the moment Mobutu Sese Seko, agreed to protect and defend
the genocidal regime in Rwanda led by Juvenal Habyarimana. Mobutu groomed
Habyarimana.
Their pact became stronger in 1992 when the
latter on several occasions went to seek advice from the former on how to
maintain power. From their meetings, Habyarimana learnt how to polarize the
political situation in Rwanda, promote ethnic divisions, and eventually carry
out a genocide.
In
April 1994, when Habyarimana died, Mobutu took his body to his hometown,
Gbadolite. However, when the first Congo war broke out and Mobutu realised that
he was likely to lose power, he ordered for Habyarimana’s body to be flown to
Kinshasa for cremation.
This
act marked a seal on Mobutu’s pact with Habyarimana.
In
Etienne’s view, the curse on the DRC worsened when the country opened its
borders and welcomed mass murderers who committed the 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi in Rwanda and settled them on the common border.
Etienne
who had long wanted to take power wished for the elimination of the FDLR - a militia
group made up of individuals responsible for the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Had
he gotten a chance to power, DRC would possibly be a much safer and organised
country.
But
it is not.
Etienne’s son, Felix, is in power.
Anyone would have thought that any son would
want to walk in the footsteps of his father when it comes to righteousness.
Unfortunately, he chose the opposite route and resurrected the Mobutu curse
that his father wanted to undo.
Be
it culturally or religiously, going against your parents is taboo and never
ends well. Tshisekedi has gone against his father’s will by all standards
including the integration of FDLR into the national army as highlighted in the
October 2022 Human Rights Watch report.
Etienne
was against blaming Rwanda and, in fact, stated that Rwanda has a right to
defend herself from the FDLR which was settled and integrated in the DRC.
However,
his son is geared to undo him. He is hauling blame on Rwanda yet he is in bed
with the same terror group his father was fighting.
The
late Etienne is definitely not resting well in his grave. And Félix’s ending
may be as miserable as that of Mobutu who initially brought the curse into DRC.