Conspiracy in plain sight

Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in November 2022, reported that in eastern DRC, the current violence is mainly the result of the refugee crisis which led to “the flight of many individuals involved in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda to eastern DRC, forming armed groups” such as the FDLR – a UN sanctioned genocidal force responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda – “which are still active in eastern DRC.

 

The Rwandan genocidal force is the cause of the racial hate speech - reminiscent of the racist propaganda in Rwanda before the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi - that is growing in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

 

Earlier, in July 2022, a meeting of the Joint Permanent Commission on Rwanda and DRC, held in Luanda, Angola’s capital, re-emphasised the need to eradicate the FDLR and its splinter groups.

 

Later, in November 2022, when Heads of State including Presidents João Lourenço, Felix Tshisekedi of DRC, and Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, met in Luanda, to consider the security crisis in eastern DRC, they ordered the FDLR to disarm immediately and embark on an "unconditional repatriation."

 

Fast forward. When East African Community Chiefs of Defence Forces, on February 9, 2023, met in Nairobi, Kenya, to address the peace and security challenges in eastern DRC, they agreed that FDLR was one of the foreign armed groups that continue to instigate insecurity in eastern DRC and across national borders.

 

They recommended that the EAC regional force deployed there in November would gather necessary information on the militia group effective March 30 to April 20 after which a report will be produced to trigger operations against the group.

 

But there is a catch. Why, or how, has this genocidal militia group survived in eastern DRC for nearly three decades despite all of its crimes against humanity? Who protects it? How do you explain that it is still active, 29 years after the 1994 genocide, despite the continued presence of the UN's biggest and most expensive mission, MONUSCO? 

 

These and many other questions, if answered, shed good light on the dilemma of fighting or eradicating a genocidal group that has been emboldened to wreak havoc in the region for years.

 

FDLR a movement, or a terrorist group?

 

Pressed on the available credible reports about his government’s complicity – in supplying the genocidal group with arms as highlighted in a Human Rights Watch report – Congolese government's Minister of Communication, Patrick Muyaya, on February 17, told Aljazeera that: “First, you must be clear! You cannot make any comparison between M23, which is like a part of the Rwanda Defence Forces, and a movement like FDLR.”

 

A top Congolese government official calling the genocidal militia group “a movement” is telling.

 

An October 2022 Human Rights Watch report detailed how the Congolese army was supplying arms and ammunitions to the terror group. The FARDC has used the Rwandan genocidal militia and other militia groups in DRC to fight M23 rebels.

 

An FDLR fighter told HRW that he witnessed four transfers of ammunition.  “It’s the government [troops] that would always provide us with ammunition,” he said. “They also gave us uniforms and boots.”

 

The FDLR has, for years, launched incursions into Rwandan territory with the aim of continuing the genocide against the Tutsi. The HRW report disproves Tshisekedi’s claim that there is no longer an FDLR force in DRC that constitutes a serious security threat to Rwanda.

 

“FDLR fighters have killed hundreds of civilians over the years in eastern Congo, at times hacked them to death with machetes or hoes, or burned them in their homes. The fighters have committed countless rapes and other acts of sexual violence.”

 

It is no secret that Congolese authorities, at the highest level, are collaborating with the FDLR. The genocidal militia is integrated within the FARDC and that is where the problem lies. The sustained collaboration between the Congolese army and armed groups, especially FDLR, in eastern DRC is at the heart of the insecurity affecting the region.

 

Never lost sight of plan to complete extermination of the Tutsi

In an interview with a French journalist, just over two months ago, Bernard Maingain, a Belgian lawyer who has, for years, condemned the anti-Tutsi hate speeches in eastern DRC,  shed more light on the reasons why the M23 – a Congolese rebel group which Kinshasa and its allies prefer to put more emphasis on at the expense of its persecuted community – decided to take up arms.

 

In the DRC, Maingain noted, the plan to complete the extermination of the Tutsi was never lost sight of by the Rwandan genocidaires who managed to stay in the country and mingle with the local population. It is under the impulse of these people that the ideology is propagated while in Europe their relays speak of human rights being flouted, he said, stressing that the entire Great Lakes region is now "infested by this Manichean discourse that led to the massive massacres in Rwanda in 1994."

 

"In the Congo, the plan to complete this programme of extermination of the Tutsi was never lost sight of by the genocidaires.’

 

It should be remembered, Maingain said, that this discourse had been formulated and refined in Rwanda since 1959: "The Tutsi are a predatory race, the only solution is to eliminate them, from the child to the old man.”

 

When the genocidaires took refuge in DRC, they immediately attacked the Banyamulenge and the Tutsi herders. And this has hardly ever stopped since.

 

Just days before the November 2022 regional leaders meeting in the Angolan capital, raw video footage emerged on social media platforms indicating that the genocidal militia were actually fighting alongside the Congolese army in its battle against the M23 rebel group. In the video, about 10 militia men in both military uniform and civilian attire were heard speaking Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili.

 

Commands were given in Kinyarwanda, a language spoken in eastern DRC but not known to be officially used there on the battlefield.

 

Amidst gunfire, two militiamen were heard exchanging in Kiswahili on the walkie-talkie: “Mpaka Kigali;” “Mpaka! Mpaka!” (‘Until Kigali’).

 

Earlier, in June 2022, a United Nations report indicated that the FDLR controls large territories in eastern DRC.

 

“FDLR remained active in Virunga National Park, launched a new recruitment drive and consolidated its cooperation with local armed groups,” read part of the dated June 14, 2022.

 

FDLR controls 95% of charcoal trade

 

The DRC's Virunga National Park borders Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. The Congolese park has, for long, been used as the terrorist group’s rear base, where they hold hostages, some of who are only released after paying ransom.

 

“It is impossible for anyone to operate in the Park without at least the tacit consent of FDLR or some of its members, as the Park is controlled by that armed group.”

 

The FDLR is identified as the largest illegal foreign armed group operating in DRC and the UN’s Group of Experts has also confirmed that the genocidal militia collaborates with the Congolese army.

 

Apart from Kinshasa’s protection, the strength of FDLR comes from the fact that it is located in a natural resource-rich area. This enables it to amass wealth by illegally exploiting and transporting resources such as gold, timber, poaching and taxing the local population in areas it controls.

 

The 2022 Pole Institute report revealed that FDLR controls 95% of the charcoal trade in Goma and generates more than $45 million annually. This refutes the claim by Congolese leaders that the Rwandan genocidal militia is no longer a threat to reckon with.

 

According to the Pole Institute, the charcoal produced in Virunga National Park makes the largest portion of FDLR’s source of revenues after losing mines controlled in Walikale and Masisi.

 

As reported, the FDLR and its business partners – top Congolese military and political leaders – receive at least $20 million. The militia group pockets $11.6 million and $8.2 million goes to business representatives.

 

Besides the extraction and trade of minerals in Lubero, the militia group also fixed taxes on transportation of goods transiting through its controlled areas.

 

The Pole Institute report noted that, for example, a politician running for electoral campaigns or following up other businesses can be charged up to $2,500 so that FDLR can provide safe passage for vehicles through Virunga National Park in Kalengera, in Bwisha or Tongo in Bwito.