The sadness of the woman in the picture is the same as that of millions of Congolese and it calls upon on our common humanity to do something.
Today, the Democratic Republic of Congo, under the plight of more than 6 millions of victims, finds itself to be the only country on the planet where its dead appear not to be seen as human beings, considered the near total indifference of the entire humanity in front of the never ending tragedy Congolese people and the whole region are experiencing since 1990.
One could claim that above assertion is an exaggeration provided the presence of more than 17,000 UN peacekeepers of the MONUSCO forces which has been in the country since 1999 with a varying personnel and mandate. I would enjoy being contradicted with substantial arguments to demonstrate that that UN contingent has not been rather part of the problem than its solution.
Having said that, the UN published on October 1st 2010 the Mapping Report which is an official account of big scale crimes of war, crimes against humanity and crimes of a genocide nature, if they could be brought in front of a court. Many other reports before that had highlighted these atrocities. Producing reports has been the only effective thing about that conflict.
Responsibilities have always been known: the primary actors are the heads of states of Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Local warlords operating on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo are only direct and indirect agents of the formers in the well tuned strategy of decimation of populations and plundering of Congolese mineral resources.
Some people might still be wondering what makes these two presidents untouchable despite their despicable crimes. As the most active soldiers of the imperialist system of the Eastern and Central region of the African continent, they don’t need to worry too much as long as their masters in London and Washington and other western capitals are happy with the bounty.
Under such context, it is easy to understand that so far the murder of the 6 millions Congolese and more has remained with unaccounted responsibilities and subsequent measures of ending impunity for criminals who are heads of states in the Great Lakes region. The question which arises is of wondering what people should do when governments become indifferent to their suffering. Should they too give up on claiming some justice for the wrong which was done to them and their communities?
The petition that the citizen movement Don’t Be Blind This Time launched on Thursday July 4th, 2013 with the support of Congolese, Ugandan and Rwandan organisations, some operating in Eastern Congo and others in Europe, gives the answer. As I write it has gathered 400 signatories. The authors of the petition want the UN Secretary General, African Union and African governments to officially acknowledge the Congolese genocide. It would be a first in the 21st century that the murder of more than 6 million people of one nationality would be ignored as genocide, if history was to remain silent about that fact forever.
Dr Denis Mukwege
Dr Denis Mukwege, managing director of the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, has endorsed the said petition and used twitter to send it too to the same political national and international authorities as the petitioners did, and shared it to all his followers. Understandably, the doctor who repairs women victims of rape in Eastern Congo wants you too to sign this petition as he did. Governments and concerned supra-national institutions might be reluctant to recognize the Congolese genocide, but we the people and among them the victims should not rest until the criminals who took the lives of our loved ones are taken in front of a court.
In the meantime, we’ve learnt that fighting had resumed between M23 and FARDC near Goma, this since Sunday July 14th, 2013. The number of victims continuing to increase, every day, every month, every year, does not this situation calls upon on everybody’s conscience to do the least they could, by just one click signing at least the mentioned petition? And as usual Rwanda is apparently playing again the victim game as his supported M23 is losing the ground further to the fire of the FARDC forces.
