Western Cliché About DR-Congo Continues: Sexual Violence Or Genocide

Congolese women protesting in Goma [DRC] against Rwandan support to M23

It will be the largest gathering ever brought together on this subject, with a view to creating irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground,

Canadians protesting against the silent genocide in DRC that has already taken more than six million of Congolese lives.

One of the aims of the conference is “to create a sense of irreversible movement towards ending the use of rape and sexual violence in conflict.” Though the organizers of the event seem to agree on the fact that rapes are sometime part of the weaponry used by involved stakeholders in conflicts, they don’t appear to emphasize enough the policy mechanisms that can even deter from getting into situations of conflicts.

The usual celebrities such as Angelina Jolie will take center stage at the gathering. That she might have eventually a caring heart is not the problem. The main issue arises when her status of celebrity is used for political motives to mistaken the general opinion on the nature of conflicts like the one which persists in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the last 20 years.

When almost 10% of the Congolese population is decimated intentionally to plunder mineral resources that its communities lived above, it is genocide. Most of the victims have been civilians: women, girls, and elderly. Avoiding naming the crimes committed as such is only aimed at covering up responsibilities of the perpetrators. Several UN Reports and others from different international NGOs have pointed at Rwanda, Uganda and a number of global multinationals as culprits in that tragedy.

Scapegoat warlords such as Bosco Ntaganda or Thomas Lubanga, though themselves being criminals in their own right are still serving as the only responsible of the indescribable violence which engulfed DRC. They are the tip of the iceberg. The real perpetrators: Presidents Kagame of Rwanda, Museveni of Uganda or Kabila of DRC are taken off the hook because they continue to be useful to those in the international community benefit most from the Congolese genocide, – because that is what it should be called, nothing else.

London is staging this conference on sexual violence in conflicts while representatives of the same international community [MONUSCO and western ambassadors] are working hard on the ground to maintain the status quo in DRC, even if with time they might call upon to different puppet political actors in Kinshasa. [In case Kabila was to be forced out by his same masters of yesterday]. Reference is here done to the current political polluted climate between Kabila and external countries and institutions where he accuses them of interfering in Congolese internal affairs.

Neither the international community nor Kabila government want to consider as genocide the death of more than 6 million of Congolese lives through wars of aggression by Rwanda and Uganda plus their foreign allies. They will continue reducing the tragedy to sexual violence in conflicts as this is planned for the mentioned international conference. According to the organizers, this is what is only acceptable because that picture is fully accommodating. Unless Congolese who are ready to defend the honor of their departed stand up against the perpetrators who are trying to hide their responsibilities, the dead could die more than once. This time it could be in the hands of the victims.

Further reading:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-international-development-minister-lynne-featherstone-visits-ntarama-genocide-memorial-site

http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/the-danger-of-talking-of-genocide-against-congolese-women-only/