Regional
UN ‘experts’ on DRC at it again; leak genocide denial, dangerous narratives
Twenty
four years ago, the UN set up an independent international commission of
inquiry to establish the organization’s responsibilities during the 1994 genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda where more than one million innocent people were
massacred, in 100 days.
About
a year later, in a report submitted to the UN, in April 2000, the Commission chaired
by the former Prime Minister of Sweden, Ingvar Carlsson, concluded that UN
intervention in Rwanda before and during the 1994 genocide was "the
absolute failure of the UN in Rwanda."
The
Commission indicated that while the UN had not been able to prevent or stop the
Genocide against the Tutsi, the blame was put on several actors, in particular
the Secretary-General, the Secretariat, the Security Council, the then United
Nations Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) and UN member states. As noted, the primary
failure was that of not mobilizing resources and political commitment
commensurate to the gravity of the situation. Member states failed to
demonstrate political will and refused to act decisively.
Nearly
three decades later, regrettably, the UN system continues to fail Rwanda and
humanity.
Consider
the case of the leaked final report of the UN Group of Experts on DRC led by Mélanie
De Groof (Belgium).
The
report was provided to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to
resolution 1533 (2004) concerning DRC on May 1, 2023. It was considered by the
Committee on May 19. The Group of Experts wanted the report to be brought to
the attention of the members of the Security Council and issued as a document
of the Council.
Instrumentalizing genocide narrative?
There
are way so many things wrong with this leaked report. But let’s consider, among
other things, the blatant allegation that the M23 “exploited the narrative that
it was protecting the Congolese Tutsi and Banyamulenge communities in eastern DRC
from extermination in order to justify its aggressive territorial expansion in
North Kivu.”
In
public communiqués, the UN Group of Experts noted, M23 referred to an “imminent
genocide” against the Tutsi community it purported to protect, thereby
inextricably linking the Tutsi community to its belligerent and expansionist
objectives.
The
report added: “This narrative was similarly used by Rwanda, as well as
Twirwaneho, with regard to the Banyamulenge community.”
Perversely,
De Groof and co noted, this genocide narrative created a dangerously fertile
ground for the fearmongering, hateful discourse, and violent reprisals,
including killings, against the above-mentioned communities “by those who
opposed M23.”
“Members
of the Tutsi community interviewed by the Group of Experts confirmed that
incidents of violence, including the killing of Tutsi civilians, had coincided
with the resurgence of M23,” the Group of Experts reported, indicating that
they relied on witness testimonies, community leaders, civil society and
MONUSCO sources.
“The
Group of Experts notes that, while incidents of violence against Rwandophone
communities in the current context were beyond doubt, the manipulation of the
genocide narrative by M23 and the Rwandan authorities has significantly
increased the risk of civilians being targeted and could trigger widespread
inter-ethnic violence between communities.”
Now,
there are questions to answer here.
First;
the Group of Experts notes that incidents of violence against Rwandophone communities
“in the current context” are beyond doubt. How so different is this current
context from the context in 1994 and the years thereafter? It is hard to
understand the current state of affairs out of context. The Group of Experts
should able to, for example, tell the world how for nearly three decades, the
UN has maintained, with billions of dollars, a force supposed to stabilize
eastern DRC, with a contemptible or non-existent result and, to find a
scapegoat for its failure, all the blame is put on Rwanda.
Why
is it so hard for these so-called experts to see the reality? Why can’t they see
the fact that the responsibility for the eastern DRC mess lies first with the
Congolese government, or leaders, who are only too happy to find an excuse for
their own weakness, and then with the Western powers involved in the creation
of the problem?
And,
what is so wrong with properly clarifying the fact that the Congolese Tutsi and
Banyamulenge communities in eastern DRC face extermination? Why gloss over this
serious problem and simply portray M23, and Rwanda, as the problem?
Important
facts – that shed light on the root cause of the endless conflict in eastern
DRC – are being glossed over.
The
readers of the Group of Experts’ report should not be duped.
The
so-called experts should shed good light on, among others, who are “those who opposed
M23” and why they oppose it. And they should properly explain the genesis of
the DRC conflict without glossing over issues.
Following
her official visit to the DRC from November 10-13, 2022, the UN Special Adviser
on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, was deeply alarmed about
the escalation of violence in the region where a genocide - the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda – happened.
“The
current violence is a warning sign of societal fragility and proof of the
enduring presence of the conditions that allowed large-scale hatred and
violence to erupt into a genocide in the past,” she said.
Nderitu
is not a fool.
She
understood how, in eastern DRC, the current violence mainly stems from the
refugee crisis that resulted as many individuals
involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda fled to eastern DRC,
forming armed groups such as the FDLR which is still active in eastern DRC. In
response to the presence of this genocidal militia group, new armed groups were
formed and the failure to bring non-state armed actors to book is the consequence
we now see, she added.
How
does the UN Group of Experts explain the fact that a genocidal militia is still
active, 29 years after the 1994 genocide, despite the continued presence of
MONUSCO, the UN’s biggest, most costly, and most ineffective peacekeeping
mission?
The endless
accusation that Rwanda is backing M23 does not really matter considering the
real issues. The important factor is to know why – without spins as is the case
in the latest leaked UN Group of Experts’ report and others before it – Rwanda would
get involved.
The
Rwandan government has never minced words on this.
The
threat posed to Rwandans’ security by a group filled with genocidal ideology – the
FDLR – is undoubtedly likely to lead Rwanda to intervene in DRC, “without
apology or notice.” The Genocidal militia is integrated into the Congolese army.
That
is a serious matter of national security for Rwanda. And it should be a matter
of concern to the international community considering the fact that genocide is
a crime against humanity.
Nderitu
has noted that finding a solution to the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC would
require addressing the underlying causes of the violence and learning lessons
from the past.
“The
abuses currently occurring in eastern DRC, including the targeting of civilians
based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation to the warring parties must
be halted. Our collective commitment not to forget past atrocities constitutes
an obligation to prevent re-occurrence,” she stressed.
If De
Groof was serious about getting to the bottom of the eastern DRC conflict she
should have sat down with her compatriot, Bernard Maingain, and got educated.
The Belgian
lawyer has, for years, condemned the anti-Tutsi hate speeches in
eastern DRC and is well-versed in issues there.
De
Groof and her team should have asked Maingain why the genocide ideology in
eastern DRC and the region did not dissolve with time, with the flight and
dispersion of the genocidaires in 1994. But, at least, French journalist
Jean-Francois Dupaquier, asked. De Groof should have read
the entire transcript which is in French, a language she understands.
Below
is how part of the interview went:
Jean-François
DUPAQUIER: Why
didn't the genocide ideology dissolve with time, with the flight and dispersion
of the genocidaires?
Bernard
MAINGAIN: Théoneste
Bagosora, the 'architect of the Tutsi genocide', one of the main defendants
before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, expressed the programme
most clearly in various writings and during his trial. In summary, and I hope
correctly, he said: "We have lost the war in Rwanda for the time being,
but we will come back to power sooner or later because that is the way of
history.”
This is the ideology we are facing
today. I will remember for a long time the image of a new generation of
extremists, shouting at the big barrier in Goma on 15 June 2022, that they will
cross to complete the genocide in Rwanda... How can these words be uttered
today?
In the Congo, the plan to complete this
programme of extermination of the Tutsi was never lost sight of by the genocidaires
who managed to stay in the country and mingle with the 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. The entire Great Lakes region
is now infested by this Manichean discourse that led to the massive act of
violence in Rwanda in 1994.
It should be remembered 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.”
With the emergence of social networks,
this discourse is taken up again and again and is growing in the DRC, but much
further afield, as hate speech can be found in Belgium, France, Canada, the
United Kingdom and the United States….
By
and large, just like the genocide ideologues who are determined to continue denying
the 1994 genocide, the Group of Experts have mounted an information war against
the current Rwandan government.
They
are trying so hard to persuade the world with well-crafted disinformation that
the victims, the Tutsi, in DRC and Rwanda, brought the catastrophe upon
themselves.
The
leaked UN report is an effort to absolve the UN of its failure in Rwanda and
DRC and shift blame to others. Its narrative feeds into the last stage of
genocide, denial.
As
previously noted by Romeo Dallaire, a retired Canadian general who served as UN
Force Commander in Rwanda, in 1994, it is critically important that the world remains
vigilant against calculated deceit, and the dissemination of misinformation by
unwitting dupes and bald-faced lies.
Despite
the evidence, genocide deniers continue to claim through their writings and
publications that the 1994 genocide against Tutsi was not planned.
Despite
the evidence of the poisonous genocide ideology being spewed by the Rwandan
genocidaires – and their allies – in DRC and Western capitals, among other
places, the UN continues to leak genocide denial and dangerous narratives.