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Human Rights Watch alleges M23 committed war crimes. Why now?
Six
months after the alleged Kishishe massacre in eastern DRC between November 23
and December 1, 2022, Human Rights Watch released a report accusing M23 rebels of
killing many civilians after fighting with Mai-Mai Mazembe, Nyatura, and the
genocidal militia, FDLR.
It claimed
that in April and May, after the M23 withdrew from Kishishe, it interviewed 21
people by telephone, and some said they had witnessed executions or they were forced
by M23 to bury bodies.
“All
interviewees believed that the M23, which controlled Kishishe between late
November and early April, executed the vast majority of the victims,” reads
parts of the report.
Attaching
Rwanda to M23, Clémentine de Montjoye, a researcher at HRW, called out the international
community to impose sanctions “on those implicated in abuses, including Rwandan
commanders supporting the M23.”
An
innocent reader could think that HRW released a report after six months because
it took time to collect evidence so as to tell the truth, protect the rights of
people and bring perpetrators to justice as it claims. However, the reason
behind its report is far from that.
Though
it brands itself as a human rights defender, HRW’s activities are nowhere near
human rights advocacy. It engages more in political advocacy, while hiding behind
the banner of human rights.
In the
Kishishe case, the HRW report is advancing Kinshasa’s narrative of finger-pointing
Rwanda in the M23 conflict, which exactly falls in its long-time goal of
tarnishing the country’s image.
Their
evidence gathering methods are equally questionable. The report relied on witnesses
whose stories cannot be verified and who may testify for political advantage or
because they fear retaliation from their own government.
HRW claimed
to carry out the investigations after M23 withdrew. But they used telephones to
conduct interviews with villagers, satellite imagery, photographs, and videos.
Regardless of how poor and unreliable the research method was, this could be
done even in two weeks. However, the right timing for them was when the M23
crisis is being sorted out and Rwanda is not being linked to the chaos in eastern
DRC. HRW’s is to ensure that a smear campaign against Rwanda never ends. So,
this was good timing.
Human
Rights Watch excessively focuses on condemning Rwanda and promotes an agenda
based solely on Kinshasa’s narrative of victimization and Rwanda’s aggression.
Since
1994, after the genocide against the Tutsi, HRW has been releasing false reports
that serve to pursue the organization’s malicious campaign against Rwanda and riding
on various situations, incidents, or events.
For
instance, in 2017 right after the presidential elections, HRW released a report
on supposed extrajudicial killings in Rwanda which was later found to be
completely inaccurate. Following the sham report, a counter-investigation
carried out by the Rwanda National Human Rights Commission discovered that many
of the alleged victims turned out to be alive. Other supposed victims could not
be traced and were found to be unknown in the villages they reportedly came
from. The rest were found to have died of various natural causes – all
accounted for by their families.
In
September 2021, nine months before the Commonwealth Heads of States and
Government Meeting (CHOGM) took place in Kigali, HRW tried some sabotage so
that Rwanda would fail to host the meeting.
Without evidence, proof or verifiable fact, the organization released a
report accusing Rwandan security forces of a “clear up” of the streets of
Kigali and taking people deemed “undesirable”, such as street children, street
vendors, sex workers, homeless people, and beggars, to an unofficial detention
facility. Perharps some readers who know nothing about how Rwanda’s government really
cares for its people believed the lies.
But
the malicious allegations, just like many others before, turned out to be a
fairytale, and the meeting took place.
From
advocating for the Rwandan genocidal militia, FDLR, and its splinter groups to
be integrated in Rwandan politics, to portraying Ingabire Victoire as an
innocent victim of oppression, and alleging that pardoned terror convict Paul
Rusesabagina was convicted in a flawed trial, Human Right Watch has never been
at ease unless it has some nasty thing to say about Rwanda and its leadership.
All
evidence indicates that HRW’s discourse on Rwanda is a threat to the country
and to peace and stability in the entire region.
