FOREIGN
POLICIES UNCOVERED
CLARE SHORT AND THE CONGO WAR:
IS NEW LABOUR ONE OF THE POWERFUL HANDS PULLING THE STRINGS
BEHIND THE SCENES?
INTRODUCTION:
May
the 1st 1997. After nearly two decades of Tory rule New
Labour had swept the boards upon a wave of euphoria. Next
came the honeymoon period. The New Labour leader Tony
Blair was hailed as being a man of principle whilst the
new government's ethical foreign policies pompously chartered
by the then foreign secretary Robin Cook, appeared to
be welcomed with open arms.
But
how ethical was New Labour's foreign policies when it
was the same government that no only sold arms to Indonesia
then under the brutal dictatorship of Suharto but it also
remained - together with the United States of America
with whom it shares common foreign policies, especially
after 9/11 - the major supplier of arms to Uganda, Rwanda
and Burundi for use throughout the Great Lakes region
of Central Africa. This is according to a report by Wayne
Madsen, an American investigative journalist, presented
on 17 May 2001, before the American Congressional subcommittee
on international operations and the committee on international
relations and human rights.
Over
the past five years, more than 5 million Congolese have
been massacred in what was rightly called by the late
Sergio Viera, then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
the "silent genocide that lies under the carpet"
by troops from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, who, since
the 2 August 1998, invaded the Democratic Republic of
Congo, massacred more than 5 million Congolese, looted
its natural and mineral wealth with the complicity of
quickly masterminded Congolese rebellions and the support
of western multinationals. It makes Joseph's Konrad's
Heart of Darkness, a relived syndrome.
The
war has been dubbed by a Western top diplomat as the "First
African World War" in which Zimbabwe, Namibia and
Angola had come to the support of the government of the
assassinated Congolese President Laurent Désiré
Kabila in Kinshasa, against Congolese rebels backed by
Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa and Libya (to some
extent) and elements of Angola's Unita rebel movement.
That is the assumption that the Western media have ever
been trumpeting and the template from which all their
coverage of this war has been hinged.
But
time has shown and events have proved, that this perception
or better assumption is wrong and "distorted"
because this war is an aggression against the Democratic
Republic of Congo and its people by a Rwandan-Ugandan-Burundian
coalition; logistically supported and financed by well
known multinationals and superpowers, Britain under the
New Labour government among others.
When
the aggression was launched on 2 August 1998, it surprised
no one, neither in the United States, nor in Europe. Almost
all African heads of state knew about it. But everybody
pretended that it was a rebellion against Laurent Désiré
Kabila's dictatorial rule, whereas in reality, it was
a war by proxies that was launched, deliberately orchestrated,
concocted, financed by well-known external powers outside
Africa and waged by local combatants.
Even
Herman Cohen, the former American Secretary of State in
an exclusive interview with Congopolis admitted that the
war in Congo could be defined as "a war by proxies",
that is, a war initiated from the outside of a country,
but disguised into a civil war; the key element being
the creation of a rebel force inside the targeted country,
which is controlled, financed and armed from abroad.
The
truth is that New Labour has never ditched Cecil Rhodes'dream
to link Cape to Cairo, a British zone of influence now
meant to include Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo.
There is no secret about it! Colette Braeckman, a Belgian
journalist with the Belgian daily Le Soir and an expert
on Congo affairs wrote in her book, Les Nouveaux Prédateurs,
that the aggressors are deliberately massacring Congolese
in the east in order to depopulate eastern Congo (especially
the Ituri region, rich in rare minerals, even oil in Lake
Albert) of its inhabitants so that Isrealis fleeing violence
in the Middle East may occupy that land, beside Ougandan,
Rwandan, Burundian, even Cameroonian and Tchadian population,
as well as White farmers chased away from Zimbabwe in
search of land.
CLARE
SHORT: "OH KAGAME IS SUCH A SWEETIE!"
On
30th of July, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his
Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila signed a peace deal
in Pretoria, South Africa, which stipulated for the withdrawal
in "90 days" of Rwanda's Tusti-led army from
the Democratic Republic of Congo in exchange for Kinshasa's
demobilisation, disarmament and repatriation (DDR) of
thousands of Hutus, the ex-Forces Armées Rwandaises
(FAR) - Interahamwe militia accused of having perpetrated
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. But the latter are hiding
also in the United States of America and we doubt whether
Paul Kagame will invade the US as a result. Proof? Jean
Marie Vianney Mudahinku-ya, one of the top FAR man who
planned the genocide was tipped off by fellow Rwandans
and arrested in Chicago on 20th May 2004, where he lived,
totally disguised and known as Zuzu (a false name).
The
agreement was welcomed by the UN Security Council, the
EU, the African Union and the US. This, albeit the fact
that it does not address Rwanda's role in the war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and its accountability in
a genocide of more 5million Congolese since 1998 and the
looting of Congo's natural and mineral resources, with
the complicity of so-called Congolese rebels and the backing
of Britain, America and Western multinationals.
For
the ordinary Congolese people bearing the brunt of an
unjust war imposed on them, this latest accord between
Congo and one of its aggressors and invaders from the
east was yet another proof that maybe the rest of the
world is conceding to the dictates of Rwanda with respect
to its troops remaining definitely in Congo to annex the
eastern part of Congo (all the previous agreements have
fallen by the wayside). And they are absolutely right.
Rwanda actually circulated its currency, the Rwandan franc,
in the Congolese territories it controls, where also its
national telephone code applied. Rwandan troops were forcing
the local Congolese population under occupation to sing
their country's national anthem and the Rwandan flag was
hoisted at every public places in Rwanda-occupied territories.
Rwanda therefore already implanted all the symbols of
its national sovereignty on Congolese soil, despite local
resistance. Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian troops are
still in Congo. There is no doubt about it. Take it from
us. We are natives of Congo and we know better beyond
press releases, peace accords and communiqués.
It is hard to see how Rwandan troops are going to withdraw
from Congo after they have seized mineral mines there
which are still pumping vast sums into Rwanda's impoverished
economy, and feeding the mobile phone and the computer
, brief, the high-tech industry in the West, to name but
a few. There are 1.3 billion users of mobile phones in
the world today, soon to increase by 2 billion in 2006,
according to the Belgian daily Le Soir.
What
is surprising is the fact that right after the Pretoria
agreement, Rwanda cast doubt on the whole process.
"Hutus
can be disarmed in 90 days if Congo is serious,"
commented Charles Murigande, secretary general of Rwanda's
Tutsi-led ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF).
However,
Paul Kagame has been compared to a "tree that hides
the forest" because he enjoys the backing of Britain
and America to have a free rein in Congo. Rwanda, a tiny
country in central Africa has accordingly become the most
powerful country in that region. The US actually put a
$5 million bounty on the head of each leader of the Interahamwe
and Britain followed suit.
The
Daily Telegraph, a London-based daily, on 8th August 2003,
reported that critics of Rwandan expansionism accused
Clare Short, the then British International Development
Secretary, of providing major funding for the Tutsi-led
Rwandan regime and turning a blind eyes to atrocities
Rwandan troops are committing against the people of Congo.
The Financial Times, another British daily revealed that
the British government now gives Rwanda $36 million a
year just "to cover its budget deficit".
The
report said that according to senior UN officials, when
Miss Short was challenged about British policies vis-à-vis
Kagame's government, she replied: "Oh, but he is
such a sweetie!".
The
Labour Government under Tony Blair gives Museveni and
Kagame £60 millions a year respectively in the form
of "aid" to development - guess where the money
goes: to wage war, massacre and loot in Congo; and send
the booties to Britain. This is according to Channel Four's
documentarty last year titled "Congo's Killing Fields".
Despite
all these evidences, Clare Short still had the audacity
to spit on the victims of the genocide in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. The former British Secretary of State
for International Development stunned an important gathering
of students, academics, journalists and humanitarian workers
when she told them that "only a few people have died
as a result of the five-year-long war of aggression in
the Democratic Republic of Congo".
Speaking
at a seminar organised on 18 September 2003 by the Institute
of Contemporary Art (ICA) on the theme: "Divided
Nations, Can the UN help?" - in other words is the
UN still relevant the world's trouble spots - Ms Short
severely criticised Britain and America for having invaded
Iraq without a proper UN Security Council mandate and
explained that that is why she resigned as Secretary of
State for International Development.
Ms
Short stressed that these two superpowers now faced a
stiff Iraqi resistance, the cost of the occupation is
proving to be astronomical, some countries are [either
withdrawing or not committing their troops to go and help
the British and the Americans, casualties among British
and American troops are mounting by the day, General Tommy
Franks, the overall American commander in Iraq faces accusations
of war crimes, and above all, Saddam Hussein's Weapons
of Mass Destruction (WMD) which led us to war, have not
been found. And now you find Britain and America helplessly
asking the UN for help.
"That
must tell us that unilateralism does not work and that
the UN is still a relevant multilateral body which can
steer international relations in the right direction,"
Ms Short concluded.
It
was at that point that we reminded Ms Short that it is
today in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the UN
has deployed its biggest contingent ever since the country's
independence in 1960, under the UN Mission in Congo known
as Monuc, its French acronym. Despite this UN presence,
massacres and looting of Congo's natural and mineral wealth
still go on unabated. Those heinous crimes are being committed
by troops from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi - Congo's neighbours
in the east who are still occupying chunks of Congo's
territory today, very much against international law and
various toothless UN Security Council resolutions which
ordered them to leave. They never withdrew. More than
5 million Congolese have been massacred by those troops
of occupation and their congolese rebel puppets since
2 August 1998 - the biggest genocide ever since World
War II, according to the International Rescue Committee,
itself an American human right organisation.
We
said that the war of aggression and occupation - not a
civil war as Western media portray it - has been orchestrated,
sponsored and supported by Britain and America. Proof?
A documentary recently aired by Channel 4, titled "Congo's
Killing Fields" revealed that Tony Blair's government
gives Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi 60 million pounds ($90
million) per year respectively, under the disguise of
"bilateral aid", even as these countries have
their troops occupying Congo. So, Britain is subsidising
their military budgets as long as Congo's wealth flow
to the West through its multinationals which very much
milking the Congolese cow on the trail of occupying troops:
timber, gold, diamond, fauna and flora, and especially
coltan out of which mobile phones, computers and everything
high tech is made.
We
said that the documentary was also broadcast in Ireland
and that country has now threatened to cut off its $45
million per year bilateral aid to Uganda, until it ceased
its terrorist activities in Congo.
We
added that it was unjust and unfair for the people of
Congo having to pay the price the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
because they are not responsible for it. Rwandans - Tutsi
and Hutu - slaughtered each others, some survivors fled
into Congo and we welcomed them in our land. The refugees
were mixed up with the Interahamwe who organised and carried
out the genocide. The UN which administered the refugee
camps refused to sort the Interahamwe from the civilians
whom the Interahamwe basically held hostage and prevented
them from returning to Rwanda. Why should the people of
Congo pay the price for their hospitality? And when Rwanda
helped Laurent Kabila overthrow the dictator Mobutu in
Congo, Rwandan troops took revenge and slaughtered many
refugees in the camps in eastern Congo indiscriminately,
despite Kabila's opposition not kill unarmed civilians
and shed their blood on the Congo soil.
We
further explained that the Rwandan President Paul Kagame
- whom Clare short described as "such a sweetie"
- and some members of his entourage are being shielded
from accountability by Britain and America for their role
in the shooting down of the plane which led to the killing
of Rwandan Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana and his
Burundian counterpart, Cyprien Twagiramira (an investigation
carried out in France proved it) in the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, in the massacres of Hutu refugees in Congo
in 1997, and now in the genocide of more than 5million
Congolese. Proof? The Swiss Magistrate Carla Del Ponte,
genocide prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, based in Arusha, Tanzania, was sacked for
Rwandan President Paul Kagame. She officially asked the
UN Secretary General Koffi Annan that she should relinquish
her post as prosecutor at the Hague involving Mlosevic's
case so that she can concentrate her time and efforts
in investigating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the war
crimes that followed the genocide and imputed to Kagame
and his RPF movement, which in taking power in Rwanda
put an end to the killings. Since Del Ponte insisted that
no stone should be left unturned even among the current
ruling elite she was forced to relinquish her position
in Arusha by the UN Secretary General Koffi Annan because
she had a showdown with President Kagame of Rwanda last
year. In her first ever interview since her dismissal,
Madame Del Ponte told the Italian daily, La Republica
how Mr Kagame screamed at her "as if he was giving
me an order", telling her that it was up to the government
to investigate the military and up to her to investigate
the genocide.
"This
work of yours is creating political problems for me,"
she quoted Kagame as warning her. "You are going
to destabilise the country this way."
To
wind up, we told Ms Short and the audience a story reported
by the Guardian on 10 April 2003, according to which Richard
Dowden, a former editor of Economist's African Affairs
and now heading the Royal African Society, once asked
Ms Short why Rwanda needed to occupy Kisangani, a diamond-rich
town 700 miles into Congo to protect its borders, she
threatened to throw him off her "fucking plane".
Then
we asked Ms Short: "Would you then agree that this
government has perhaps directly or indirectly sponsored
terror and looting in Congo and whether an international
criminal tribunal for Congo will be set up?"
To
be frank, Clare Short was very surprised. She never expected
anybody, let alone a Congolese stand up to her and challenge
the Labour Government record or involvement in the Congo
tragedy.
And
so, obviously, she started by denying any involvement
of the British government in Congo and threw the ball
into Congolese's own camp.
"I
don't know why Rwandans are subjected to a kind of anti-semitism
in Congo, whereas the problem in Congo is that it has
always been ungovernable," she said.
"What
you describe as tragedy in Congo stems back from the time
of King Leopold II. But it is mainly the legacy of Mobutu's
long dictatorship and kleptocracy. If there trouble in
the Great Lakes region today, it is because Mobutu messed
it up. He welcomed and supported the forces of 1994 Rwandan
genocide [the Interahamwe] in what was then Zaire. These
people had to be neutralised because they posed a danger
for Rwanda's security and stability. Kabila then came
along [well, Kabila did not simply come along. The people
of Congo were fed up with Mobutu and rose up in support
of Kabila. it was a popular revolution irrespective of
external support] and with Rwandans and Ugandans'support,
he chased away Mobutu from power. But not all forces of
genocide were eliminated but the danger has been minimised
and Rwandans and Ugandans have left Congo in 2002."
But
it hurt even more to hear Ms Short say: "I don't
believe at all that 5 million Congolese have been massacred
by troops from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, as you will
have us believe. The death toll of the Congon war is very
small. Of course a few people have died but only as a
result of hunger and diseases [therefore there is no need
for an international criminal tribunal for Congo to be
set up?].
"There
is now an inclusive transitional government of national
unity in place in Congo and we hope that it will lead
to democratic elections."
Unable
to shallow this insult to the memory of more than 5 million
Congolese who have been literally massacred, we could
not take it anymore, and so we interrupted Ms Short and
told her that "there was no anti-semitic feelings
against Rwandan in Congo. We are not against the people
of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi as such. A Tutsi Rwandan
born in Congo was even our Foreign Affair Minister. We
are against the dictatorship and the boot-licking politics
of President Kagame of Rwanda and Museveni of Uganda vis-à-vis
Western superpowers and the interests of their multinationals
to the detriment of Congo. That is why the Great Lakes
region is in such a turmoil".
"There
is no dictatorship in Uganda and Rwanda. Museveni was
democratically re-elected last year and Kagame has just
been democratically elected with a huge majority,"
Ms Short retorted.
"As
a citizen of Congo who knows better the situation in my
country and who has just lost a mother in Rwandan-occupied
part of The Democratic Republic of Congo," we continued,
"I would like to assure Honorable Clare Short and
this gathering that Rwandans and Ugandans troops are still
operating in broad day light my country. A list of the
post of commands still controlled by Rwandan and Ugandan
generals has been presented to William Swing, a former
American ambassador to Congo and now head of the UN Mission
in Congo (we sent the list to Honorable Clare Short by
post). Addressing a conference in South Africa, Mr Swing
has just shed a crocodile's tears by denouncing Congo's
neighbours'interference in Congo's internal affairs, including
a new rebellion that they are now trying to foment, headed
by some military officers who escaped after being found
guilty of taking part in the assassination of the late
President Laurent Désiré Kabila. This is
endangering the actual "peace process" made
in America via South Africa. You have a new transitional
government within which looters, rapists, killers and
traitors are rubbing shoulders with each other, all non-elected!
President Joseph Kabila who faces a coup d'État
(according to the Belgian daily Le Soir, Mobutuists are
ready to pass into action, an American mercenary has already
been recruited, a Stinger ground to air missile to be
used for shooting down Joseph Kabila's plane has already
been purchased from London. It actually occurred in March
2004 but was foiled. A mercenary hired by the Mobutuist
Bemba to kill Joseph Kabila from Congo Brazzaville was
arrested and deported). But Joseph Kabila accepted to
share power with Rwandan and Ugandan-masterminded Congolese
rebel leaders if that is the price that we have to pay
for peace, for preserving our national sovereignty and
territorial integrity; but he is adamant that the first
democratic elections since the savage murder of Patrice
Lumumba by CIA agents and Belgian secret services - the
only elected leader in Congo so far - must be held in
two years'time (June 2005). That is why he faces such
a hostility from those who have always held the people
of Congo hostage."
A
woman stood up from the audience and told Clare Short
that "to say that the toll of the people who have
died in Congo as a result of this war is negligible is
in itself 'morally untenable'."
Another
woman called on Western governments to "change their
foreign policies, stop propping up dictators like Mobutu
and Saddam Hussein and when they fall out with them because
they no longer represent their interests, they fight them
as dictators, costly wars of which ordinary people bear
the brunt".
Imperialists
powers indeed have no permanent friends, they only have
permanent interests. In fact the Belgian daily Le Soir
revealed on Monday 25 February 2002 that the EU is very
much divided with regard to the war of invasion against
the Democratic Republic of Congo, launched by Rwanda,
Uganda and Burundi since 2 August 1998. The paper said
that while France and Belgium support the Congolese government
in defending the principle of Congo recovering its national
sovereignty and territorial integrity, Britain, Germany,
and The Netherlands support Rwanda and Uganda. So the
West would like to see Congo divided in two: the western
and southern part controlled by Joseph Kabila's government
to remain under the French influence and the northern
and eastern part controlled by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi
with their Congolese rebel allies to fall under the anglo-american
influence.
Is
this the stake in this war? Yes, but the people of Congo
know it and they won't accept it. It won't work. They
don't want their country to be partitioned. Resistance
therefore continues. As an example, Goma, a Congolese
city on the shore of Lake Kivu and close to the Rwandan
border with the Democratic Republic of Congo was almost
destroyed following the volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo
on 16 January 2002, that sent rivers of lava burning to
ashes everything in their way and leaving a trail of destruction,
deaths and injuries before catapultating into the lake.
East
Goma is totally cut off from West Goma, 80% of the city's
economic infrastructure have been destroyed, all warehouses
where multinationals stocked minerals, especially boxes
of coltan - a mineral whose heat-resisting elements are
used to store and regulate energy flows and therefore
very strategic in the manufacture of mobile phones, computers,
satellites and play stations - as well as the Rwandan-sponsored
RCD rebel movement's headquarters were completely burn
to ashes, Goma's cathedral consumed by the flames (even
the international Goma airport was not spared by the fires),
400,000 people forced out of their homes, more than 145
people dead, 50 of whom were killed when the lava set
off an explosion at a local petrol station and 40 shot
dead (mainly escaping prison inmates and disaffected Congolese
soldiers who no longer wanted to fight beside Rwandans)
by the Rwandan occupying troops during the commotion that
followed the eruption, more than 400 injured, and 500
children separated from their parents…according
to News Agencies.
The
volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo was a tragedy too
many for the already long-suffering people of Goma in
particular, and the people of Congo in general. We must
not forget that prior to the current devastating war of
occupation, the people of Congo were already impoverished
by more than three decades of insecurity, corruption and
mismanagement under Mobutu's dictatorial and kleptocratic
rule.
Nevertheless,
this natural calamity carried a very strong political
message and should constitute a wake up call for everybody
involved in Congo's man made tragedy - we mean the current
war of invasion in Congo - and for the international community
at large which should not be ignored.
For
the first time in the history of humanitarian intervention,
baffled Aid workers were forced to rethink their plans
after most of Goma's residents returned to what was left
of their homes, leaving the hastily constructed Mudende
and Nkamira refugee camps inside Rwanda, almost deserted,
ready to face hunger, thirst (the water of Lake Kivu on
the shore of which Goma is built was polluted by the lava),
homelessness, almost sleeping rough under a cold and a
pouring rain…
"We
repeat with emphasis that we cannot take refuge in Rwanda,
nor in any other foreign country. Our country is large,
let them deliver aid here," declared one local aid
worker who never left Goma.
Moreover,
Congolese did not feel welcomed in Rwanda and Uganda at
the wake of the volcanic eruption. The initial reaction
from the Rwandan and Ugandan governments whose troops
are now occupying almost half of the Congo, was to close
their borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo for
"security reasons" - imagine Congo closing its
borders to the survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda!.
Stranded Congolese fleeing the fury of the spilling lava
noticed that there was still a border between Rwanda,
Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in four years.
Rwanda only opened its borders to Congolese refugees when
UN and Rwandan troops and their Congolese rebel allies
also fled the city to seek refuge in Gisenyi, the neighbouring
Rwandan border town with the Congo, which was also being
threatened by the rivers of lava. Gisenyi was also shaken
by the tremors and 300 buildings collapsed there as a
result.
"Congolese
had to buy water at five Rwandan francs a tumbler and
had to pay the same amount before using toilets in Rwanda,"
Colette Braeckman reported for the Belgian daily Le Soir
on 25 January 2002. Such a behaviour on the part of the
Rwandan and Ugandan governments baffles many observers.
So why are Rwandans and Ugandans in Congo anyway if they
don't like the Congolese? Is it because they are only
interested in Congo's wealth?
The
courageous home coming by the people of Goma has sent
a strong political message to the international community
at large and calls for decisive action.
First
of all they did not want to be labelled as "refugees"
and to become subsequently a "political football
in the hands of the Rwandan government, which by looking
after them would blight its responsibility in the massacre
of more than 5 millions innocent Congolese civilians since
its troops invaded the Congo, as confirmed by Human rights
organisations, particularly the US-based International
Rescue Committee and Amnesty International. The Washington-based
Refugee International has called it a "Slow-Motion
Holocaust".
Moreover,
they remember only too well how four years ago, several
hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees who fled their
country in the wake of the 1994 genocide were slaughtered
by Kagame's army in the Mugunga and Kibumba refugee camps
in north Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, near
Goma and the Rwandan border. Up to today, they are still
unaccounted for.
Secondly,
the people of Goma, well aware of Rwanda's hegemonic tendencies,
strongly oppose any possible annexation by Rwanda of the
eastern part of Congo (if you want to call somebody in
Goma now, you need to use Rwanda's international code!).
Rwandan. Ugandan and Burundian troops occupy almost half
of the Congo very much against international law and despite
many UN Security Council resolutions (now four) compelling
them to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The people of Goma have posed a strong resistance against
this Rwandan's plan and feared that if they completely
evacuated Goma, Rwanda's dream could easily come true,
as it deployed tens of thousands troops after the Nyiragongo
fell silent and now they have resulted to the use of chemical
weapons (napalm) against innocent civilians, which has
prompted UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) to investigate.
"Rwandan
must leave our country, we don't want to be refugees in
their country. Let the aid agencies help us in our own
home," Congolese returnees told the Belgian daily,
Le Soir.
The
situation in Congo is no different from the ones that
prevailed in Kosovo and in Afghanistan given the fact
that Congolese have been living under terrorism for the
last six years and more than 5 millions have been massacred.
The fact that the West has not decisively and swiftly
acted to put it to an end amounts to a sheer hypocrisy
if not complicity. Even the Catholic Church remained silent
until priests and many worshipers were massacred in cold
blood by Rwandan troops in a Church in Kasika on a Sunday.
Soon
after there was a Franco-British "convergence"
of views on Congo. Foreign Secreatary Robin Cook and his
French Counterpart Hubert Vedrine visited the Great Lake
Region. It had been informed by a new report released
by Oxfam International.
The
report, "Poverty in The Midst of Wealth", called
on the UN Security Council to impose binding sanctions
against foreign countries which are exploiting Congo's
mineral wealth as a result of the war, force them to withdraw
their troops and disarm and demobilise the various factions
within the Congo.
"Natural
resource exploitation has increasingly become the driving
force behind the war. The "wait and see" approach
of the international community as endorsed by the Security
Council cannot continue any longer," according to
the report which calls for a UN arms embargo to be imposed
on all countries with military forces in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, as well as those which help arms flows
into Congo [so why has Prime Minister Tony Blair ruled
out any investigation on the British Multinational companies
involved in the looting of Congo after they have been
named in the UN report?]
"The
eruption of Mount Nyiragongo has made the situation dramatically
worse for the people of eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo," said the Oxfam report. "But this is
only the latest crisis on top of years of conflict and
suffering…There is now an urgent need for action,"
the report concluded. Let us see it now! Nature has settled
the matter where humans for the sake their various vested
interests have failed to do so.
Nevertheless,
irrespective of the fact that charges of genocide and
looting are hanging over his head, Clare Short will support
Paul Kagame till the cows come home.
Three
times and under the nose of UN peace keepers, the armies
of Rwanda and Uganda have fought each other over diamond
in the city of Kisangani, leaving 3,000 Congolese dead,
the city destroyed, and this at 1,500 km away from their
borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo which they
claim to be securing from rebel incursions! More than
500 people were either decapitated, disembowelled and
thrown into the Congo river or buried in mass grave by
Rwandan troops and their Congolese RCD rebel allies(mercenaries
were also involved) following a carefully stage-managed
and faked mutiny against the Rwandan presence in Kisangani,
last year.
In
the north-eastern part, Ugandan-masterminded ethnic clashes
between the Hema (pastoralists) and the Lendu (hunters
and cultivators) and their respective rebel allies have
claimed 600,000 lives as a result of mass murder, rape,
and villages raised to the ground since last April in
the area of Bunia alone. It is a pretext used by Uganda
to prolong its presence in this area rich in rare minerals
and the recently discovered oil in Lake Albert. Tony Buckingham's
Oil Heritage is ready to put its hand on these massive
oil reserves. Hence the link with Uganda and the ethnic
cleansing going on. Somalian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and
Sudanese thugs (including John Garang's men are used for
the dirty job. The French Opération Artemis in
Bunia did not make so much a difference and all the weapons
were given to Museveni when the French troops left.
Headmistress
Clare Short called her tow pupils, Museveni and Kagame
to London and in Lancaster House, instead of ordering
them to withdraw their troops from Congo, she rather remonstrated
them and urged them to "settle their differences
over Congo"(as the flow of minerals suffered a set
back). In doing so, Clare Short trampled on the sovereignty
of Congo and openly encouraged the invasion, the aggression,
the looting, the massacres and the annexing of eastern
Congo by Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda to their respective
territories. This with the support of other eastern African
countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea
were mercenaries are also recruited by Museveni and Kagame.
L'Avenir,
a Kinshasa-based daily revealed on 5th September 2000,
that hundreds of Hema youth (from the war torn Ituri province)
were being trained to use fire arms by Rwandan, Ugandan
and Tanzania instructors at Mandro-Katoto camp where Ntuba
Lwaba, Congolese minister for human rights was held hostage
militia, adding that, arms were dropped on daily basis
by a plane fairing from Tanzania.
L'Avenir
said: "On appearance, Congo is in very good terms
with Tanzania. But we have always denounced that country's
covert involvement in the war of aggression that our country
has been subjected to since 1998. All the wealth looted
in Congo usually pass through Tanzanian ports. It is no
surprise that we called Benjamin Mkapa's country, 'the
fourth aggressor of Congo that dares not tell its name'.
"Can
Mkapa really resist the pressure from the Anglo-saxon
powers who are sponsoring this invasion if they asked
him to fulfil his part of the duty? Absolutely not. We
have always known that Canadian and British marines were
training Tanzanian troops. It is a matter of putting your
money where your mouth is."
After
it has been confirmed (by the UN Mission in Congo) that
Rwanda was not only pouring in fresh troops and Tutsi
population (30.000 in total) into north and south Kivu,
but also conquering all the territories that have supposedly
been evacuated by Ugandan troops, including Mungbere,
Gombari and Lubero and are pushing in towards Watsa, the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, in a
letter to Paul Kagame denounced this forced implantation.
Clare
Short already made insensitive and controversial remarks
over the Congo invasion in August 2001 when she told Radio
Four that "peace in Congo depended on 'negative forces'
being disarmed - which is also the Rwandan position -
as well as that the toll of a genocide in Congo has been
exaggerated." Clare Short knows very well that most
of Museveni and Kagame's troops deployed in Congo are
HIV positives and after raping Congolese women indiscriminately,
this is another crime against humanity and a ticking bomb
for Congo.
Yet
Colette Braeckman, the Congo expert of the Belgian daily,
Le Soir, said: "President Kagame always stresses
that his troops are in Congo in order to disarm the Interahamwe,
but at the same time observers are concerned that the
Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), occupying the eastern Congolese
provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu for five years
now, have not really engaged in any serious fighting with
those militias. Contrary to all belief, the RPA is collaborating
with some of them for exploiting coltan and other rare
minerals in Congo."
James
Astill, a Congo correspondent of the British daily The
Guardian, wrote in early May:
"So
far the West [including international financial institutions]
has been a spectator to Congo's tragedy, hiding behind
the well-worn notion that African problems need African
solutions.
"Perhaps,
if Israeli and Western diamond and coltan dealers, as
well as Russian arms suppliers… had not fuelled
the war throughout, it would be Africa's problem and not
ours too. Unfortunately, much as we would like to sweep
it under the carpet, Congo is clearly our crisis too."
Astill said it all.
Robin
Cook, former Foreign Secretary, her boss, when presenting
his Mémoires, intitled Point of Departure, at City
University, London, said that "although Rwanda's
security concerns can be undertood after the 1994 genocide,
the present regime in Kigali bore a great responsibility
in the Democratic Republic of Congo."
AMERICA
TURNS A BLIND EYES TO THE POLPOT OF AFRICA'S CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY
Britain
and America are the major suppliers of arms to Uganda,
Rwanda and Burundi for use throughout the Great Lakes
Region (central Africa). According to a report by Wayne
Madsen, an American Investigative journalist, presented
on 17 May 2001, before the American Congressional subcommitee
on international operations and the committee on international
relations and human rights, the CIA is funding Rwandan
and Ugandan military operations throughout the Great Lakes
Region.
"It
is very disturbing," he said, " to see that
the world's greatest democracy is concocting deadly conflicts
in Africa at the same time pretending to be a peace-maker.
An American Mobile Training Team (MTT) is grooming regional
insurgents, he revealed . "American troops,"
he said, are stationed in Uganda at Entebbe old airport,
Nakasonga, Kabamba, Ssingo, Nkozi, Gulu, Ssese Islands,
and at Bugesera in Rwanda and other mobile locations."
The
MTT is unfortunately made up of Black American marines.
Anybody who remembers the slave trade and colonialism
knows that economic exploitation of Africa was its main
objective. Imperialists set up political administrators,
just like Mobutu, Museveni and Kagame in modern day Africa,
for the purpose of defending their foreign economic agenda.
In
a White House press briefing following the accord, Pierre
Prosper, the US State Department ambassador-at-large for
War Crimes said: "We want to see Rwanda withdraw
from the Congo. But we also want to see the Democratic
Republic of Congo take steps to address Rwanda's security
concerns."
Prosper
then went on "reminding" all states in the Central
African region "of their international obligations
to co-operate with the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR).
"This
means that all the states in the region, particularly
the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Republic of the
Congo 9the neighbouring former French colony), and Angola,
must seek and arrest all inductees that may be on their
territory. Only through a concerted regional and international
effort will we be able to take the steps that are necessary
to achieve lasting peace in region," he said.
Asked
whether the US had any intention of putting in place sanctions
in case Rwanda failed to withdraw its troops from Congo,
Prosper was rather vague.
"What
you can see and expect from the US is a country that will
be engaged with the parties in the region, will work with
South Africa as the broker of the peace agreement to find
a way to move this process forward by way of a 'monitoring
mechanism'."
At
the meeting of the UN Security Council on the Democratic
Republic of Congo, held in New York on 8th August 2003,
UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan called the agreement
"an ambitious agenda whose objectives could only
be met if the international community invested all its
energy and resources".
"I
think the international community has the obligation to
provide every necessary support - financial and logistic
- to ensure the success of this initiative," Annan
said.
It
is the same Annan who visted Kisangani and announced a
demilitarisation after the masscres there, which was never
implemented.
On
the same occasion, Léonard Okitundu, Congo's then
foreign minister also called on the international community
"to invest itself concretely without sparing any
means". Mr Okitundu accused Rwanda of still deploying
more troops into Congo even as it was signing the agreement.
"Rwanda,"
he said, "remained the only country that was still
engaging in military operations on a big scope on the
Congolese soil."
Okitundu
said his government was ready to make similar peace agreements
with Uganda and Burundi, Congo's two other invaders beside
Rwanda, as well as hold an all-inclusive power-sharing
inter-Congolese dialogue, including with various Congolese
rebel factions created by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
He
called for the UN to rewrite the mandate of the UN Mission
in Congo (known by its French acronym, MONUC which enjoys
a budget of $650 million a year) to allow peace keepers
- together with the soon to be deployed 1,500 South African
troops - to help his government demobilise, disarm and
repatriate Hutu militias . The Hutu militia are now widely
known to be scattered across eastern Congo, the very territory
Rwandan troops have occupied for almost six years now
without managing to flash them out, albeit their "military
superiority".
"MONUC,"
Okitundu said, "needed 'new operations concepts'
and should thereafter be stationed as a buffer between
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo."
Kagame
still has more cards to play now that he can still hold
on the pretext of the Interahamwe to kill, neutralise
national resistance and loot in Congo in order to occupy
it definitely and enrich himself and the clique around
him.
As
long as Kagame is backed by Britain and America, he will
have the last word as far as the outcome of any peace
agreement in Congo is concerned. He can dispute the number
of the Interahamwe living in Congo. So 'a new war of number
will emerge. The Congolese government says there are no
Hutu militia in the territories still under its control
after it rounded up 2,000 Hutu fighters in the military
base of Kamina. But Kagame doesn't want to know about
them. He estimates that they are more than 50,000.
Kagame
is also afraid of withdrawing his 35,000 troops from Congo,
most of whom have not been paid since the invasion, while
his top generals have amassed wealth looted in Congo and
have built beautiful villas throughout Rwanda. Many Rwandan
soldiers have died in the jungle of Congo and their families
are claiming their bodies back. Kagame has no answer for
them. In fact Kagame ordered that the head of any Tutsi
soldier that fall in Congo be cut off and brought back
to Rwanda. For what purpose? Does need more skulls to
show the whole world how many Tutis were killed during
the genocide?
He
is not therefore in a hurry to withdraw his troops from
Congo. Kagame is also trying to remote-control the political
process in Congo, underestimating Congolese nationalism.
His ambition and dream to conquer Congo is clearly not
working.
In
fact, this latest peace accord intervened at a time when
Kigali had politically and militarily been weakened in
Congo. The RCD, a Congolese rebel movement it created
to use it as a "smoke screen" for its occupation
of Congo is almost on the brink of disintegration following
massive defections.
The
French daily Le Monde reported on 27 July 2003 that Kigali
has lost more than 2,000 men as a result of fighting between
its troops and the Mai-Mai Congolese combatants backed
by Kinshasa since April this year.
In
an interview with Le Monde, General David Padiri, the
leader of the Mai-Mai vowed "to fight on until the
last Rwandan invader is either captured and killed or
expelled from the Congolese territory."
Whatever
happens, "sweetie Kagame" has no more pretexts
to brandish in order to cling to the "land of milk
and honey" he has found in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
But
one day like Polpot, Kagame's crimes will catch up with
him.
KAGAME'S
CRIME RECORDS INSIDE RWANDA
The
following are some of these crimes, just a few. Rwanda
Patriotic Army's criminal records compiled by Jean-Christophe
Nizeyimana, a Rwandan himself:
General
Paul Kagame's and his Rwandan Patriotic Army's criminal
records(some of them):
A.
BEFORE APRIL 1994
Massacre
of Burundian refugees resettled in Commune Muvumba and
massacre of Hima in Commune Muvumba, Prefecture of Byumba
in October 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
invaded Rwanda from its military bases in southwestern
Uganda.
Massacres
of the population of Shonga, Commune Muvumba, Prefecture
Byumba. The RPF occupied Shonga from October 1990 until
its victory in July, 1994. The RPF decimated the population
living in Shonga.
Between
1991 and 1992, RPF massacred Hutu in the communes of Bwisige,
Cyumba, Cyungo, Kibali, Kivuye, Kiyombe, Mukarange, Muvumba,
and Ngarama of the prefecture of Byumba.
Massacres
were also carried out in the communes Butaro, Cyeru, and
Nyamugali of Ruhengeri. Some of the people from these
communes were deported to Uganda and disappeared. RPF
killings generated massive internally displaced persons
who sought refuge at makeshift camps. The RPF shelled
these camps although these internally displaced persons
were not armed.
On
February 8, 1993, the RPF attacked the town of Ruhengeri
and massacred unarmed civilians. During the attack the
RPF summarily executed a large number of civilians including
Barengayabo, President of the Appeal's Court and Philippe
Gakwerere, Inspector of mining and their families.
During
its military offensive of February 1993, the RPF massacred
unarmed civilians in Ngarama, Commune Gituza, Prefecture
of Byumba.
In
the night of November 17 and 18, 1993 the RPA under Colonel
Kayizari massacred 48 unarmed civilians in the sous-prefecture
of Kirambo, prefecture of Ruhengeri.
In
the same month of November 1993, the RPF Massacred of
unarmed civilians in Commune Mutura, prefecture Gisenyi
and Commune Bwisige, prefecture of Byumba. The United
Nations Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) investigated the massacre
of Mutura and Kirambo and never published its findings.
On
March 15, 1994 RPF soldiers under Colonel Kayonga carried
out the assassination of Nathanael Nyilinkwaya, director
of the tea factory of Cyohoha Rukeri, his wife, and two
factory employees.
From
1991 to 1993, RPF agents posed mines and bombs on roads,
minibuses, and public places. Some of these agents were
arrested carrying explosives. Others were arrested crossing
into Rwanda from Burundi, Tanzania, and Zaire (the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC).
B.
FROM APRIL 6, 1994 TO PRESENT
According
to a UN secret report and to Jean-Pierre Mugabe, a former
RPF official, General Kagame ordered the shooting down
of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana and
his Burundi counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamira. The plane
was shot down on April 6, 1994 at 8:30 PM as it was about
to land at Kanombe International Airport. Presidents,
their aides and the crew died on the impact.
In
April 1994, the RPF under Colonel Kayonga went from house
to house in Remera, Kigali killing businessmen, intellectuals,
politicians, and all members of their families. RPF soldiers
executed unarmed civilians who fled to Amahoro Stadium.
Following
are the names of the people executed by the RPF. The list
is not exhaustive.
-
Ndagijimana, Celestin, Chief Administrator officer at
IMPRISCO
-
Claudien Habarushaka, former prefect of Kigali;
-
Baliyanga, Sylvestre, then prefect of Ruhengeri, his wife
and children;
-
Jean-Marie Vianney Mvulirwenande's wife and children;
-
Mujyanama, Theoneste, former attorney general;
-
Habimana, Aloys, former director in the ministry of agriculture;
-
Stanislas Niyibizi's wife and children;
-
Hategekimana , Raphael, director of Village Urugwiro
-
Major Bugenimana, Helene and her children;
-
Bahigiki, Emmanuel, former secretary general in the ministry
of planning, his wife, and children;
-
Gahutu, Jean, his wife and his children;
-
Nsengiyaremye, Theodore, pharmacist, his wife and his
children; Munyangabe, Marcel, former president of the
General Accounting Court, his wife and his children;
-
Ndaziramiye, Herson, his wife and children.
-
Gashegu, Dismas, former vice chancellor of the National
University of Rwanda;
-
Mbanzarugamba, Felicien, employee at Bralirwa, his wife
and children;
-
Kayibanda, Irenee, employee at Societe Nationale d'Assurances
(SONARWA);
-
Hategekimana, Jean, president of the Court of Kigali,
his wife and children;
-
Mupenda, Frederic, employee at the ministry of public
works
-
Donat Hakizimana, his wife and children.
-
Nyungura, Emile, his wife and children;
According
to Human Rights Watch and the FIDH, by April 25, 1994
the RPF had opened a corridor from Kigali to Byumba. It
evacuated civilians from Amahoro Stadium, Kigali to Byumba.
Some of the people it evacuated were summarily executed
in Byumba. Among them was Gregoire Kayinamura, vice president
of MDR, Norbert Muhaturukundo, employee at the ministry
of information, and Sebulikoko, Celestin, businessman.
This list is not exhaustive. So far, no RPF soldier has
been prosecuted.
On
April 21, 1994 the RPF killed Catholic priests who had
sought refuge at Rwesero Seminary. These priests are:
Christian Nkiliyehe, Anastase Nkundabanyanga, Joseph Hitimana,
Gaspard Mudashimwa, Alexis Havugimana, Celestin Muhayimana,
Augustin Mushyenderi, and Fidele Mulinda. So far, no RPF
soldier has been prosecuted.
On
June 5, 1994 RPF soldiers summarily executed three Catholic
bishops: Vincent Nsengiyumva, Archbishop of Kigali; Thaddee
Nsengiyumva, bishop of Kabgayi; Joseph Ruzindana, bishop
of Byumba; and nine Catholic priests: Mgr. Innocent Gasabwoya,
former General Vicar Bishop of Kamonyi; Mgr. Jean-Marie
Vianney Rwabilinda, Father Emmanuel Uwimana, Chancellor
of the minor seminary of Kabgayi, Father Sylvestre Ndaberetse,
Father Bernard Ntamugabumwe, Father Francois Xavier Muligo,
Father Alfred Kayibanda, and Fidele Gahonzire Human RPF
soldiers also executed Brother Jean Baptiste Nsinga, President
of St Joseph Brothers. So far no RPF soldier has been
prosecuted.
RPF
soldiers summarily executed priests, nuns, and pastors.
- From April 7, 1994 through August 1994, the RPF summoned
people to public meetings. After people had gathered to
listen to RPF officials, RPF soldiers massacred them.
The following terms are reminiscent of these episodes:
kwitaba inama or to attend a public meeting; kwikiza umwanzi
or to get rid of the enemy, and gutegura or to clean up
a place. When people were summoned to attend a public
meeting, they were summarily executed. When people were
summoned to clean up a place to supposedly resettle internally
displaced people, they were summarily executed. When people
were summoned to attend a public meeting to learn how
to smoke out interahamwe, they were asked to tie each
other arms behind the back using ropes. Then they were
summarily executed. Human Rights Watch and the FIDH have
reported these massacres in the publication mentioned
earlier.
A
UNHCR report prepared by a team of three people headed
by Robert Gersony on these numerous massacres that occurred
as the RPF took control of Rwanda in 1994 was buried under
pressure from the United States and the UN. According
to Human Rights Watch and the FIDH, "From August
1 through September 5, the team visited ninety-one sites
in forty one of the 145 communes of Rwanda and gathered
detailed information about ten others". They go on
to say that "A written note produced by the UNHCR
estimated only that the RPF had killed thousands of persons
a month, but Gersony himself reportedly estimated that
during the months from April to August the RPF killed
between 25,000 and 45,000 persons, between 5,000 and 10,000
persons each month from April through July and 5,000 for
the month of August. In press accounts based on leaked
information, the figure most often cited was 30,000."
Massacre
of unarmed civilian at Kibeho, prefecture of Gikongoro.
UNAMIR, non-government organizations and international
news media witnessed this massacre. More than 8,000 people
died. Pasteur Bizimungu, then president of Rwanda, urged
the international community to accept the death toll of
three hundred people. RPA soldiers removed dead bodies
at night and took them at other locations so that international
news media and non government organizations could not
count them.
Massacres
of tens of thousands unarmed Hutu civilians, mostly women,
children and elderly, by the Rwandan Patriotic Front,
in Kanama in October-November 1997. The Rwanda Patriotic
Army accepted the responsibility for these crimes, but
none was punished or even prosecuted for these crimes
against humanity. To repair the tarnished image of Kagame's
regime, Colonel Ibingira who ordered this massacre was
sentenced to one year of under house arrest.
Massacres
of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, mostly women,
children and elderly in the caves of Nyakinama, Bugoyi,
in 1998. The international media and the international
community confirmed the massacres and Rwandan Patriotic
Army admitted to the crimes. Massacres of hundreds of
thousands of ethnic Hutu civilians villagers, mostly young
boys, women, children, and elderly in the villages across
Ruhengeri and Gisenyi in 1997-1998, by the Rwandan Patriotic
Army. These massacres occurred under the command of General
Kayumba Nyamwasa, the current chief staff of the APR.
He was then the highest-ranking military officer in charge
of military operations in the prefectures of Gisenyi and
Ruhengeri. The international community confirmed the massacres.
Massacres
of an estimated 200,000 Hutu civilians in the refugee
camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, former
Zaire in 1996-1997. The United Nations, the USA, and European
Union confirmed the massacres and the Rwandan Patriotic
Army admitted to these crimes, but none was prosecuted.
These crimes were called "acts of genocide"
by the International Non-Government Independent Commission
set up by the United Nations to inquire on crimes committed
in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The following
military officers participated in the massacres of these
Hutu refugees:
a..
Colonel James Kabarebe, commander of the military invasion
of former Zaire.
b..
Colonel Ibingira;
c..
Lieutenant Colonel Murokore;
d..
Colonel Nzaramba;
e..
Retired Colonel Nduguteye;
f..
Colonel Jackson Rwahama;
g..
Major Jacques Nziza, Director of the Department of Military
Intelligence (DMI;)
h..
Lieutenant Colonel Wilson Rutayisire;
i..
Major Dan Munyuza;
j..
Commander David;
k..
Commander Godfrey Kabanda;
l..
Lieutenant Colonel Kiago
Summary
executions of the soldiers of the ex-FAR (Forces Armees
Rwandaises) and their families after they returned from
the refugee camps of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and Tanzania from 1996. Those who escaped assassination
are rotting in jail. The following listing is not exhaustive:
a..
Colonel Stanislas Hakizimana, assassinated along with
his family, relatives, and neighbors on January 21, 1997;
b..
Lieutenant-Colonel Augustin Nzabanita assassinated while
in prison in Gisenyi on January 23, 1997;
c..
Lietenant-Colonel BEM Antoine Sebahire assassinated along
with his wife;
d..
Major Laurent Bizabarimana assassinated in Nyarutovu on
January 18-19, 1997;
e..
Major Lambert Rugambage assassinated in January 1997;
f..
Major Rutayisire assassinated while in RPF ideological
training known as ingando;
g..
Captain Alexander Mugarura, assassinated;
h..
Captain Theodore Hakizimana, assassinated;
i..
Captain Jean Kabera, assassinated;
j..
Lieutenant Francois Nsengimana, assassinated;
k..
Lieutenant Faustin Nsengiyumva, assassinated;
l..
Lieutenant Edouard Nsengiyumva, assassinated;
m..
Major Martin Ndamage rotting in a military prison;
n..
Major Athanase Uwamungu, rotting in a military prison;
o..
Captain Isidore Bwanakweri rotting in a military prison.
Extrajudicial
executions of detainees by members of the security forces
some of which have been documented by Amnesty International,
for example:
a..
Execution of 12 detainees at Muyira solitary confinements,
prefecture of Butare on January 14, 1997.
b..
Executions of more than 20 detainees at Gisovu dungeons,
prefecture of Kibuye on January 23, 1997.
c..
Execution of six detainees at Runda dungeons, prefecture
of Gitarama on February 14,1997
d..
Execution of 10 detainees at Maraba dungeons, prefecture
of Butare on May 7, 1997.
e..
Execution of 15 detainees at Gatonde dungeons, prefecture
of Ruhengeri.
f..
Execution of six detainees at Ndusu dungeons, prefecture
of Ruhengeri on May 10, 1997.
g..
Execution of 95 detainees at Rubavu dungeons and an unknown
number at Kanama dungeons.
The
disappearances of many Rwandan citizens (journalists,
businessmen and ordinary people) and the detention of
Rwandan citizens in private houses. The number of these
prisoners is above 125,000 of whom more than 30 percent
are believed to be innocent.
The
killings of foreign nationals such as Father Valmajo of
Spain, killed at Nyinawimana in April 1994; Father Claude
Simard, a Canadian killed on October 17, 1994; three Spanish
employees of the non government organization Medicos del
Mundo killed on 18 January 1997; Father Guy Pinard, a
Canadian killed on February 2, 1997, Father Curick Vjechoslav
of Croatia assassinated in Kigali in 1998, and Father
Duchamp, a Canadian.
Kagame's
regime has detained 4,554 minors for allegedly taking
part in the genocide. Some were arrested when they were
as young as 8 years old. The children who were under 14
years old when they were arrested have been sharing overcrowded
filthy prisons with adults.
To
accelerate the decimation of the Hutu, General Kagame
's regime has resorted to two strategies. One has consisted
of rounding up Hutu males and sending them to prison for
allegedly participating in the genocide of Tutsi. Today
135,000 Hutu live in filthy crowded prisons where they
die of epidemics slowly. Some have had legs amputated
and others have lost feet or toes. The second strategy
is round up able body Hutu young males and send them to
the front in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
after receiving minimal military training.
According
to a news report broadcast by the Voice of America (VOA)
on July 21, 2000, the UNHCR has recorded an increase of
Rwandan refugees fleeing to Tanzania since the beginning
of this year. This news report says: "The agency
says that for the first six months of this year, an average
of 380 Rwandan refugees a month have sought asylum in
Tanzania. It says the recent big increase in refugees
brings this year's total to three thousand two hundred
forty." A UNHCR spokesperson told VOA that "aid
workers who traveled to the Rwandan border on July 11
were told that bodies had been seen floating in the Akagera
River."
Local
Defense Units (LDU), RPF militias based in all rural areas
are responsible for this flight and murders. Lately they
have been very active in the prefecture of Kibungo where
the RPF has been trying to create a Tutsi land since it
came to power in July 1994. Tutsi who came from Uganda
have occupied houses and banana fields in Kibungo and
chasing out Hutu from their properties. These Hutu have
been relocated into concentration camps euphemistically
called "villages" by the RPF regime. Here we
do not forget those multiple hideous political assassinations
of Gapyisi, Bucyana, Gatabazi before april 1994 and Col.
Lizinde, Seth sendashonga in Kenya and many many others
inside and outside as well.
How
the west will justify more than 3,500,000 deaths! Incredible!
How the UN and other powefull countries will justify,
mass-raping, desappearences, killings of our kids mums,
fathers, brothers and sisters? A financial compansation
could be acceptable????? I am really sceptical!
The
West has, for decades, plundered Africa's wealth and permitted,
and even, assisted in slaughtering Africa's people. The
West has been able to do this while still shrewdly cultivating
the myth that much of Africa's problems today are African
made--we have all heard the usual Western defenses that
Africa's problems are the fault of corrupt African administrations,
centuries-old tribal hatreds, the fault of unsophisticated
peoples. But we know that those statements are all a lie.
We have always known it..."Congresswoman Cynthia
McKinney
"WHAT
A DIFFERENCE AN ELECTION MAKES: OR DOES IT?"
RIGGED
ELECTIONS CAN NOT CLEAN THE BLOODBATH OF GENERAL KAGAME.
This
concerns the record of American policy in Africa over
most of the past decade, particularly that involving the
central African Great Lakes region. It is a policy that
has rested, in my opinion, on the twin pillars of unrestrained
military aid and questionable trade. The military aid
programs of the United States, largely planned and administered
by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA), have been both overt and covert.
Wayne
Madsen is an investigative journalist who has written
for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, and the Intelligence
Newsletter. He is the author of Genocide and Covert Activities
in Africa 1993-1999 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1999),
an expose of U.S. and French intelligence activities in
Africa's recent civil wars and ethnic rebellions. He served
as an on-air East Africa analyst for ABC News in the aftermath
of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr. Madsen has appeared on 60 Minutes, World News Tonight,
Nightline, 20/20, MS-NBC, and NBC Nightly News, among
others. He has been frequently quoted by the Associated
Press, foreign wire services, and many national and international
newspapers.
Mr.
Madsen is also the author of a motion picture screen play
treatment about the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. He
is a former U.S. Naval Officer and worked for the National
Security Agency and U.S. Naval Telecommunications Command.
A
LINGERING QUESTION ON ASSASSINATIONS
"The
present turmoil in central Africa largely stems from a
fateful incident that occurred on April 6, 1994. That
was the missile attack on the Rwandan presidential aircraft
that resulted in the death of Rwanda's Hutu President
Juvenal Habyarimana, his colleague President Cyprien Ntaryamira
of Burundi, Habyarimana's chief advisers, and the French
crew.
The
massacres of more than 500, 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus
after the assassination of President Habyarimana on April
6th, 1994 were followed by a mass-slaughters orchestrated
by the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government
that resulted in the deaths of 500,000 mostly Hutu refugees
in Rwanda and neighboring Zaire/Congo.
No
one has even identified the assassins of the two presidents
let alone sought to bring them to justice. There have
been a number of national and international commissions
that have looked into the causes for the Rwandan genocide.
These have included investigations by the Belgian Senate,
the French National Assembly, the United Nations, and
the Organization of African Unity. None of these investigations
have identified the perpetrators of the aerial assassination.
In 1998, French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere launched an
investigation of the aircraft attack. After interviewing
witnesses in Switzerland, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Russia,
Bruguiere apparently has enough evidence to issue an international
arrest warrant for President Kagame. A former French Judge,
Thierry Jean-Pierre, now a Member of the European Parliament,
in an entirely separate and private investigation, came
to the same conclusion that Kagame was behind the attack.
The United States government must come to its senses,
as it did with past intelligence assets like Sadaam Hussein,
Alberto Fujimori, General Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos, and
Manuel Noriega, and support a judicial accounting by Kagame.
If it is proven that U.S. citizens were in any way involved
in planning the assassination, they should also be brought
to justice before the international war crimes tribunal.
Immediately
after the attack on the presidential plane, much of the
popular press in the United States brandished the theory
that militant Hutus brought it down. I suggest that following
some four years of research concentrating on the missile
attack, there is no basis for this conclusion. In fact,
I believe there is concrete evidence to show that the
plane was shot down by operatives of the RPF. At the time,
the RPF was supported by the United States and its major
ally in the region, Uganda. Prior to the attack, the RPF
leader, the current Rwandan strongman General Paul Kagame,
received military training at the U.S. Army Command and
General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Many
of Kagame's subordinates received similar training, including
instruction in the use of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs)
at the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range at Luke Air Force
Base, Arizona. It was Soviet-designed SAMs that were used
to shoot down the Rwandan president's airplane. By its
own admission, the U.S. Defense Department provided official
military training to the RPF beginning in January 1994,
three months before the missile attack on the aircraft.
In
testimony before the French inquiry commission, former
French Minister for International Cooperation Bernard
Debre insisted that the two SAM-16s used in the attack
on the aircraft were procured from Ugandan military stocks
and were "probably delivered by the Americans . .
. from the Gulf War." He was supported by two former
heads of the French foreign intelligence service (DGSE)
Jacques Dewatre and Claude Silberzahn, as well as General
Jean Heinrich, the former head of French military intelligence
(DRM). Former moderate Hutu Defense Minister James Gasana,
who served under Habyarimana from April 1992 to July 1993,
stated before the French inquiry that his government declined
to purchase SAMs because they realized the RPF had no
planes and, therefore, procurement of such weapons would
have been a waste of money.
The
contention by French government officials that the RPF
was responsible for the aerial attack is supported by
three former RPF intelligence officers who disclosed details
of the operation to UN investigators. The three informants
were rated as Category 2 witnesses on a 4-point scale
where 1 is highly credible and 2 is "true but untested."
The RPF informants claim the plane was downed by an elite
10-member RPF team with the "assistance of a foreign
government." Some of the team members are apparently
now deceased. A confidential UN report on the plane attack
was delivered to the head of the UN War Crimes Tribunal,
Judge Louise Arbour of Canada, but was never made public.
In fact, Arbour terminated the investigation when details
of the RPF's involvement in the assassination became clear.
The UN now denies such a report exists. Michael Hourigan,
an Australian lawyer who first worked as an International
War Crimes Tribunal investigator and then for the UN's
Office of Internal Oversight Services, confirmed that
the initial war crimes investigation team uncovered evidence
of the RPF's involvement in the attack but their efforts
were undercut by senior UN staff.
After
the former RPF intelligence team revealed details of the
attack, they were supported by yet another former RPF
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