Congolese protesters on November 28th, 2012 in front of the Rwandan High Commission in London – UK.
It is Congolese only chance to succeed against invaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo AND their sponsors.
This was a reply Charles Onana, Cameroonian journalist and author, gave during the launch of his book “Europe, Crimes, Censure au Congo” on November 29th 2012, to a question from “Un Combattant” who was asking what else they could do.
[Any rebellion which erupted has never been about the people, but its leaders; any negotiations with rebels have been to benefit the latter, not ordinary people. Congolese people are the only ones that can save DRC, not Kabila’s government nor M23 – my emphasis].
Mobilising Congolese people inside DRC and in the Diaspora is the only option, because the government of Joseph Kabila is part of the problem if it is not the entire problem.
In fact, without its numerous collaborators working for the balkanisation of the country, doing Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni’s job at the level of Congolese institutions, it would be difficult to imagine that this recurring insecurity in Eastern Congo could exist.
The apparent relative temporary ceasefire and peace achieved with M23 getting out of Goma won’t last very long. Despite its precarious state it was only gained when Congolese people and the general public everywhere demonstrated their outrage against these persistent interferences of Rwanda and Uganda in DRC and continued misery and humanitarian tragedies they cause.
As some Congolese politicians would pretend to claim some credit about M23 accepting to withdraw temporarily from Goma, if this was under their control they would’ve then managed to send back the rebel movement to the Bunagana area where the rebels were initially located during the first months of their rebellion back in April.
Presently the president of Uganda Joweri Museveni is openly complaining about MONUSCO presence in DRC, not certainly because the UN contingent is inefficient in its mission, but visibly because they are becoming an obstacle to his territorial ambitions for the balkanization of the country.
He succeeded with South Sudan, of course acting on behalf of his masters in Washington and London, and he considers that he should undoubtedly be able to replicate his performance in the Congolese case.
The Ugandan president, who unfortunately seems to have become the spokesperson of the Great Lakes region, when he portrayed Monusco personnel as military tourists, was speaking at the recent conference of Southern African Development Community [SADC] held in Dar-es-Salaam [Tanzania] to discuss among other things the situation of insecurity in Eastern Congo.
It surprised many that the conference adopted the line stressed by the ICRGL of getting M23 negotiating with Kabila government knowing well that that rebel group, though operating from the Congolese soil, was fully backed by both Rwanda and Uganda in terms of recruits, weapons and military command.
As I write this piece, two days ago I learnt from the online Radio Itahuka based in Washington DC and run by the Rwandan National Congress, a political party opposed to the Rwandan president Paul Kagame that it was receiving information from sources inside Rwanda saying that the Rwandan government continued recruiting for M23.
On Sunday December 9th, 2012 the Rwandan political party from the opposition PS Imberakuri for its part posted on its facebook pages that the government was apparently kidnapping young people from their families across the country and these would not have any authority to turn to and ask the whereabouts of their children.
And this is happening after that the final report of the UN Group of Experts has been published, confirming irrefutably that Rwanda and Uganda were working with M23 in a closely intertwined manner.
The same group has also supplied testimonies saying that the capture of Goma by M23 was mainly the action of Rwandan forces which were coordinated by General Emmanuel Ruvusha.
The source informing on the ongoing recruitment for M23 inside Rwanda indicated that government authorities had during the week rounded up more that 50 young people in the region of Nyamasheke [western province] who were unemployed and taken them away to undisclosed destinations. As that had happened before these young people are forcibly taken into speedy military training and sent to join M23 ranks.
All Africans, wherever we are, we are with you [Congolese people] in the suffering imposed upon your populations, by the criminal regimes of Rwanda and Uganda, which are acting as agents of global predators of your riches.
Rwandans who have particularly suffered since 1994 from the rule of Paul Kagame and survived can understand more than anybody else what Congolese are going through, because they have had and continue their share of suffering from the same man.
