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CLARE
SHORT: "OH KAGAME IS SUCH A SWEETIE!"
Lokongo Bafalikike
On
30th of July, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his Congolese
counterpart Joseph Kabila signed a peace deal in Pretoria, South
Africa, which provides 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 Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
The agreement has been welcomed by the UN Security Council, the
EU, the AU 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 3.5million
Congolese since 1998 and the looting of Congo's natural and mineral
resources, with 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 is 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 has started
circulating its currency, the Rwandan franc, in the Congolese
territories it controls, where also its national telephone code
applies. Rwandan troops are forcing the local Congolese population
under occupation to sing their country's national anthem and the
Rwandan flag is hoisted at every public places in Rwanda-occupied
territories. Rwanda has therefore already implanted all the symbols
of its national sovereignty on Congolese soil, despite local resistance.
"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 influential country in that region.
The
Daily Telegraph, a London-based daily, on 8th August reported
that critics of Rwandan expansionism have accused Clare Short,
the 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 policy towards Kagame's government,
she replied: "Oh, but he is such a sweetie!".
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 its impoverished economy, and feeding the mobile
phone and the computer chips industry in the West, to name but
a few.
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, 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.
On
the same occasion, Léonard Okitundu, Congo's 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) 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."
A
diplomatic source told New African that Kagame still had more
cards to play now that he could 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.
The
source said: "Kagame will have the last word as far as the
outcome of this agreement is concerned. He will be able to 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.
The
source added: "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. 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 intervene at a time when Kigali
has 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 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.
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