EngRegional
How long will Rwanda be sacrificed for the West’s interests in DRC?
For over three decades,
successive Congolese governments have shielded and supported the FDLR genocidal
militia, with the full knowledge of the international community. Kinshasa has
never been sanctioned for that.
The FDLR is a terrorist group
formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi
in Rwanda. Its sole mission – genocide ideology – is to forcefully return to
Rwanda, grab power, and finish its unfinished job; massacring the Tutsi.
The UN, in December 2010,
sanctioned the genocidal militia. It documented evidence showing that FDLR
actively conducted child recruitment. A HRW report identified at least 83
Congolese children under the age of 18, some as young as 14, who had been
forcibly recruited by the FDLR, in Masisi territory, killing six civilians,
raping two women, and abducting at least 48 people.
The same genocidal group is
working with the DRC government.
Instead of sanctioning
Kinshasa for not halting collaborations with FDLR, Western powers have turned a
blind eye, and supported DRC’s narrative of blaming Rwanda for the endless
insecurity in eastern DRC where more than 260 armed groups have found a safe
haven.
This agenda is driven by a
thirst for the mineral resources in the volatile country.
Western mining companies have
been involved in mineral exploitation in DRC for decades. Belgian mining
company Société Générale de Belgique, Anglo-Swiss Glencore International,
Canadian company Ivanhoe Mines, American Freeport-MacMoran, and the London-based
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation are just a few of the hundreds of
Western mining companies operating in DRC.
The West has been using a
number of means to portray Rwanda as a troublemaker in DRC’s problems, while
masking their role in exploiting the mineral-rich country heinously.
The UN GoE experts, is among
the political tools that the West uses to maintain its agenda. While it
undermines the threat FDLR poses to Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region, it
alleges that Rwandan troops are invading DRC.
In September 2019, Rwanda saw
its bloodiest attack in over two decades when dozens of civilians were killed
and many others injured by FDLR in Kinigi, a touristic region in Northern
Province. The genocidal militia attacked the inhabitants of Kinigi with knives
and rudimentary weapons.
The October 2022 report by
Human Rights Watch (HRW) cited one FDLR fighter confirming that: “It’s the
government [troops] that would always provide us with ammunition. They also
gave us uniforms and boots.”
By equipping FDLR with arms,
DRC’s national army is only worsening an already bad situation. Congolese
commanders are arming the militia that, in turn, will massively murder innocent
civilians in both countries.
If they are really experts,
the UN GoE should report the truth on the ground, instead of politicizing their
research.
The UN GoE report is used as a
political tool of the West to bully Rwanda. It portrays Kigali as the villain
yet the facts are all out there, showing who the real villains are.
There is no doubt that the
soon to be released (in June) latest UN GoE report is intended to whitewash the
crimes against humanity committed by armed groups supported by Kinshasa and put
all the focus on smearing Rwanda, and M23 a rebel group fighting for a good
cause - the safety and rights of persecuted Congolese citizens in the east of
DRC.
But for how long will Rwanda
be sacrificed for the West’s interests in DRC?
The West should keep exploiting and plundering DRC’s minerals without involving Rwanda. The West’s behavior is no different from that of Kinshasa which supports a genocidal militia, and then cries out that Rwanda causes trouble as if they don’t know what the reports say about FDLR.
