Good
Morning, Mr. Obama.
Can I talk to you for a minute? We're just a couple of kids who would like to be kids. The problem is that we live in the Congo, one of the most minerally rich countries in the world. You see, you Americans, Europeans, and Chinese are hungry for our natural resources and we don't have a government that is capable of protecting us from your corporation's efforts to get thos e resources. As they arm and back various groups, we die. We die by the millions. Almost 10 million of our parents, brothers, sisters, and friends have died from violence associated with outsiders quest for access to resources since 1995. We only want peace. We only want to know what it would be like to laugh and play. We only want to know what it would be like to be held and loved by our parents. We ask that you, please, use what ever powers that you have to ask your government and associated business interests to stop supplying weapons. Stop fomenting war. Stop pursuing unfair trade advantages on Africa's resources. Thanx. Dr. Jamil Bey
Can I talk to you for a minute? We're just a couple of kids who would like to be kids. The problem is that we live in the Congo, one of the most minerally rich countries in the world. You see, you Americans, Europeans, and Chinese are hungry for our natural resources and we don't have a government that is capable of protecting us from your corporation's efforts to get thos e resources. As they arm and back various groups, we die. We die by the millions. Almost 10 million of our parents, brothers, sisters, and friends have died from violence associated with outsiders quest for access to resources since 1995. We only want peace. We only want to know what it would be like to laugh and play. We only want to know what it would be like to be held and loved by our parents. We ask that you, please, use what ever powers that you have to ask your government and associated business interests to stop supplying weapons. Stop fomenting war. Stop pursuing unfair trade advantages on Africa's resources. Thanx. Dr. Jamil Bey
FIRST READ:
Britain withdraws aid from UGANDA, But why is it still playing cat and mouse games with RWANDA: Is Greening Imitating Andrew Mitchell’s double standards on Rwanda
Chaos by Design: When aggressors become mediators: When wolves pretend to be sheep: The US supports Museveni Congo mediation: M23 rebels capture Goma as the UN looks on: Kabila and Kagame fly to Kampala for talks
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/11/chaos-by-design-when-aggressors-become.html
UN+UN peace keeping in Congo =American New World Order: UN security council condemns Goma takeover by M23 rebels: Rebels accused of gross human rights violations: DR soldiers surrender to M23 rebels
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/11/unun-peace-keeping-in-congo-american.html
Bishop Jean Marie Runiga, Becomes a spokes person for the M23: Using Confusion, misinformation and disinformation to Hide the Central role of USA, her allies and client states in the Conflict in the ‘Democratic’ republic of Congo(DRC)
Bishop Jean-Marie Runiga the spokes person of M23 rebels admits visiting Kampala but says they will not leave Goma
Fighters reveal Rwanda's Congo meddling
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20545653
29 November 2012 Last updated at 18:09 GMT
he fall of Goma was an embarrassing moment for the United
Nations peacekeepers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Many at the UN believe the rebel movement, which calls itself M23, has been receiving help from Rwanda.
The Rwandan government denies backing the rebels.
But the BBC has heard evidence that suggests Rwanda's support for the growing rebellion in the eastern DR Congo may be more widespread than previously thought.
The city of Bukavu lies on the southern tip of Lake Kivu, some 200km (125 miles) to the south of Goma.
There we met two young men, from DR Congo's minority Tutsi ethnic group, who told us about how the rebel movement they had joined had recently been given money by Rwanda.
"We got it [the money] from the Rwanda government," Captain Okra Rudahirwa told us.
"They sent money every month, like $20,000 [£12,500], or sometimes $15,000."
With the money they were able to buy food, uniforms and medicines.
'Instructions'
There in 2010 they had joined the political wing of a group, the Congolese Movement for Change, which was fighting for a better life for the people of eastern DR Congo.
Only in July did they go into the bush with its armed wing to fight the Congolese army.
Capt Rudahirwa and his colleague, Col Bestfriend Ndozi, thought they were part of a home-grown movement.
"Then our chairman came with a delegation from the government of Rwanda, saying that the movement has been changed, that we had to follow the instructions of the Rwanda government," Capt Rudahirwa said.
Col Ndozi said the group, which consisted of around 35 men, was then put in contact with a senior M23 commander, a Col Manzi.
He urged them to co-ordinate with M23 in order to open up a second front against the Congolese army.
"Manzi told us that the Rwandan army had given him the authority to support us and to command us," Col Ndozi said.
"He ordered us to continue our fight, just as M23 were doing in the north, so that together we would demoralise the government."
The men said they decided to abandon the fight once they realised the scale of Rwandan involvement.
Now they say they are in the process of re-integrating into the Congolese army.
The Rwandan government declined to comment on the allegations.
But many of the details of this account, including dates and the names of intermediaries, tally with separate research conducted by the UN.
After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, many of the killers who masterminded the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus fled across the border into DR Congo.
Since then, Rwanda has invaded its much larger neighbour on at least two occasions.
The FDLR, as the extremist Hutu militia is now known, is still active, though it no longer represents a serious threat to Rwandan national security.
But less than 20 years since the genocide, that apocalyptic event continues to a large extent to inform the Rwandan government's world view, from its intolerance of dissent at home, to its desire to exert some control over the chaos on its western border.
And so the conflict is spreading.
Rape
rising
Instability breeds lawlessness, armed groups operate with near impunity, and
civilians bear the brunt.
He said he had been in the bush without sex for so long.
Then he raped me ”
Eme, not her real name, was assaulted in July.
"I was on my way to the farm," she remembered.
"I saw two young men. One had a gun and was wearing a military uniform," she said.
"He said he had been in the bush without sex for so long.
"Then he raped me. When he had finished he handed me over to his colleague.
"I told them: 'I'm sick', but they just carried on."
Some of the victims at the hospital are as young as six years old.
A woman in her seventies was also recently brought in.
One woman told us: "We are all afraid. Since July, the rapes have started again."
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
This fight, between the rebels and the loyalist army, is essentially a struggle between armed groups.
It is a tussle over territory and access to the lucrative mineral trade.
It is a fight from which very few stand to benefit, aside from the men with the guns themselves and the politicians, Congolese and foreign, who control them.
Rwanda cancels exiles’ passports
http://www.inyenyerinews.org/politiki/rwanda-cancels-exiles-passports/
December 1, 2012
The government of Rwanda has cancelled the passports
of several key opposition leaders in exile, rendering some of these people
stateless.
This comes after allegations that the government has been responsible for the attempted murder and harassment of its opponents in exile.
This comes after allegations that the government has been responsible for the attempted murder and harassment of its opponents in exile.
Nicole Fritz, executive director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, has slammed the move as an “explicit violation of international law”, because exiles have been denied a nationality and rendered stateless.
Kennedy Gihana, the secretary general of the Rwandan National Congress in South Africa, whose passport was cancelled, told the Mail & Guardian that the act was unfounded. “We never committed crimes,” said Gihana. “The only crime we have committed is that we are discontent with the way the country is being run. Those without alternate passports cannot leave the country. They cannot go back to Rwanda. So what now?”
When asked why the passports had been cancelled, Vincent Karega, high commissioner of Rwanda to South Africa, said that the reasons could only be disclosed to the individuals concerned. However, he said that “many reasons” could have motivated it. These could range from a person being implicated in “crimes” in Rwanda to a person having refugee status, which, he claimed, “is incompatible with having a passport”.
However, according to Fritz, it is not true that refugees cannot hold a passport, but only that they cannot use their passport once they have been granted refugee status.
The alleged harassment and attempted murder of various opposition leaders (see timeline, right) have sparked fear in the lives of the Rwandan National Congress members.
“I have to look over my shoulder on a daily basis,” said Gihana.
Being harassed
“They have hired people to follow us, to know where we sleep, who we meet, what we do.”
Gihana said he is one of many people who live in fear.
“It is not me alone. It is happening all over. Others are being harassed. They are being sent [threatening] text messages on their phones. There is no Tutsi in exile who is a member of the Rwandan National Congress who is not a target.”
Gihana claimed that, even though Rwandan president Paul Kagame is also a Tutsi, he targets fellow Tutsis who oppose his government and congress members in Rwanda are also being targeted. “Kagame’s regime doesn’t know who is a member of the congress and who is not. So they are using intelligence services to track what the people are saying – in the bars, in the transport, in the taxis, in the internet cafes, in the hotels.”
Gihana, who practises as a lawyer in South Africa, said his Rwandan-based family members are also being targeted. “They have taken their land, they are being dragged into the Rwandan military intelligence office every day,” he said, adding that his father-in-law is too scared to talk to him.
“That is the kind of fear that Kagame… [has instilled in Rwanda]”
However, according to Karega, these are “mere allegations levelled by individuals with a political vendetta”. Gihana’s claims, he said, are entirely based on hearsay. “Rwanda spends its major resources on productive activities for poverty reduction, not for monitoring fictitious threats. We don’t see those [people] who are raising these allegations as a voice with a credible agenda.”
According to Karega, Gihana’s allegations come from a “tiny group of disgruntled former officials”.
Gihana believes that the Rwandan National Congress is a “revolution”. Although there is “no barometer” to measure the number of the congress supporters in Rwanda, Gihana is confident that it is “growing rapidly”.
He believes the growing popularity of the Rwandan National Congress is because it appeals to the unity of all tribes. “We are trying to make sure that this country belongs to all of us – regardless of which tribe we come from. The national congress’s aim is to heal the wounds of the past. What we want is reconciliation – real reconciliation.”
A recent United Nations report implicates Rwanda’s defence minister in the M23 rebel group that invaded the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a fortnight ago. According to Gihana, the Rwandan government was targeting the area because it was a border where the opposition, such as the Rwandan National Congress, could attack.
Fritz Nganje, researcher for the Institute for Global Dialogue, told the M&G: “there is little doubt… of Rwanda’s interference in the eastern DRC, to promote both its security and economic interests. Rwanda has a genuine cause to defend its government and territory from the threats of rebel groups operating from the east of the DRC.”
Karega dismissed these claims. “There was no need for Rwanda to invade Congo when both governments were conducting joint operations to tackle the prevalence of multiple armed groups in the DRC,” he said.
Changing perception
Nevertheless, according to Amy Niang, who lectures in international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, decisions by Kagame’s traditional financial backers to decrease aid to the country signal the once supportive West’s changing perception of his regime.
Partly due to a “guilt-ridden conscience”, the United Kingdom and the United States have heavily supported the Kagame government, said Niang.
Nganje agreed, citing the US and UK backing of Rwanda’s 1996 invasion of the DRC.
However, “such support has been toned down”, due to accusations against Rwanda for its “violent looting” of the place, Niang said.
The US decision to cut aid to Rwanda could be a turning point, she continued.
“This decision might signal an end to the exceptionality treatment and reverence for [Paul Kagame] – one of Africa’s most intriguing leaders.”
