Against the Occupation of Congolese Territory

by Donatien Mukono

On 1 December 2004, the Rwandan president Paul Kagame officially announced that Rwandan soldiers had invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He claims to be pursuing former military of the Forces Armées Rwandaises (FAR) in the province Ituri. Today Rwandan military forces are engaged in fighting over 100 kilometres from their national border inside the Congo in Kanyabayonga.

All Rwanda’s alleged reasons for waging war are nothing but pretexts. It is the task of UN peacekeeping forces, and of nobody else, to pursue former war criminals. We call for the disarmament plan of MONUC (demobilisation, disarmament, reinsertion and repatriation and reintegration, DDRRR) to be supported fully by all sides. First of all, the Rwandans must leave Congolese territory. The Congolese people urgently require peace.

Rwanda has waged three wars (1996, 1998, 2004) under the pretext of pursuing former FAR soldiers who entered the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1994 after the genocide carried out on Hutu and Tutsi. These wars had terrible consequences: massacres were inflicted on the Congolese civilian population, refugee camps destroyed, innumerable acts of violence against women and children and lootings and plundering carried out. For nearly 10 years Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi have been living in the Congo and both groups have often been responsible for various crimes, plundering and economic exploitation on the one hand, and huge violations of human rights and massacres of civilians on the other.

Facts and evidence

The east of the Congo has been occupied by Rwandan forces since 2nd August 1998. In view of the forthcoming reunification of the country as a result of the peace treaties of Sun City and Pretoria two years ago, the former group of rebels became a political party, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) Goma, which is supported by Rwanda. Although in these east provinces transitional authorities were appointed by the government in Kinshasa, as laid down in the peace treaties, the political leaders of this former rebel group of the RCD Goma have never respected the peace treaties because they have failed to surrender both their military positions and their caches of weapons in the north Kivu province.

The case of Bizima Kara

Since fighting broke out Bizima Kara, a well-known warlord in the service of Rwanda and even former official representative of Paul Kagame (and since the Congolese peace treaties of Sun City [sic!] a member of Joseph Kabila’s interim government in Kinshasa!), has been very active in the province of north Kivu. In August 2004, he withdrew from the transitional parliament in Kinshasa and moved to north Kivu. He is now again organizing armed troops in the Masisi district where he owns the large farms of Lushebere. It is well known among the local people that these alleged farms are used to conceal caches of weapon. Nobody there doubts that Bizima is still in the service of Rwanda.

Bizima Kara was a former member of the AFDL (a group of rebels supported by Rwanda, which had helped Laurent Désiré Kabila to gain power in 1996 and which is responsible for brutal massacres of the civilian population) and he even became the Congo’s Foreign Minister under Laurent Kabila.

However, after Kabila broke with Rwanda, Bizima Kara turned against Kabila and became co-founder of the RCD and a warlord. He has always worked for Rwanda, for instance as Paul Kagame’s direct representative at the Rwandan internal peace negotiations in 1993 in Arusha. He also has Rwandan citizenship. It speaks for itself that Bizima Kara was twice able to become a member of the Congolese government although he had clearly acted in the interests of the aggressor.

The case of Laurent Nkunda

The Rwandan Colonel Nkunda Laurent who, as an RCD proponent, played a ruthless role during the fighting in Bukavu in May/June 2004, is free to move in the Congo without fear of facing punishment for his crimes.

In addition, according to the local population, there is increasing confirmation that Nkunda and his troops are illegally exploiting the coltan (columbo-tantalite), gold and diamond mines in the mining areas of Lubutu-Walikale. These troops also include child soldiers and Interahamwe militiamen (Rwandan soldiers who allegedly have long since been repatriated by MONUC, the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo, i.e. returned to Rwanda). The Interahamwe is said to be one of the groups that led the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Kagame is using the pursuit of these people allegedly responsible for the genocide as his main pretext to wage war on the Congo. In reality, he has always used them to ruthlessly pursue his own economic interests. The Interahamwe have always worked in places where gold, diamonds and coltan are found, in the mines of Salamabila, Kamituga, Walikale-Lubutu and Misisi.

Rwanda protects war criminals

Experience here has shown that every time the MONUC has discovered arms caches or ex-FAR members – better known as Interahamwe – the Congolese population has suffered threats and attacks from Rwanda. One gets the impression that these ex-FAR members are being deliberately protected and are carrying out a patriotic mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for their country Rwanda. We are not speaking mere cant here.

The hostilities in the city of Bukavu (south Kivu) from 25 May to 8 June 2004 was supported militarily by Rwanda, after arms caches had been discovered belonging to three ex-RCD proponents (Xavier Chirimbanya, Jules Mutebusi, Kasongo). These caches were set up in January, February and March 2004, although the peace treaty of 2002 clearly prohibited this.

The invasion of Rwandan troops in the district of Rutshuru on 1 December 2004 was nothing but a Rwandan reaction to new finds of arms caches and the arrests of ex-FAR members (so-called Interahamwe) in the areas of Walungu (in the province of south Kivu) and of Rutshuru (north Kivu) between October and November. No doubt this was meant to prevent other arms caches being found and more arrests being made.

Call for action

In accordance with the recent study of the International Rescue Committee, there are 1000 human lives lost every day in the war in the Congo. The Congo already mourns the death of over 4 million victims.

When will the world finally cease to ignore what is happening?

Please act now! Write to the following addresses:

Monsieur Joseph Kabila,

Président de la République,

Kinshasa Ngaliema,

République Démocratique du Congo;

Fax +243 880 02 120, E-Mail:

upp@ic.cd,

mindroits_humains@yahoo.f>r

Monsieur Paul Kagame,

Président de la République Rwandaise

B.P. 15, Kigali,

Rwanda;

Fax: +250 572431, Ministère de la Défense, Fax: +243 12 20 981

Mr Kofi Annan,

UN General Secretary

www.un.org