Bosco Ntaganda’s Surrender In Rwanda: What Must Be Different This Time In The Congo
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march312013/bosco-ntaganda-km.php
By: Kambale Musavuli
On March 26, 2013, war crimes suspect Bosco
Ntaganda appeared for preliminary proceedings before the International Criminal
Court (ICC) as the judges set the date for the case “The Prosecutor v. Bosco
Ntaganda” to begin September 23, 2013. The ICC had taken him into custody on
March 22 and escorted him to the ICC detention center in The Hague
(Netherlands) after it was confirmed by both the Rwandan government and the US
Department of State that the Rwandan native Bosco Ntaganda surrendered himself
voluntarily to the US embassy in Kigali, Rwanda and asked to be sent to the
ICC. Of the twenty-one arrest warrants the ICC has issued to individuals, he is
the first to surrender voluntarily for trial. Bosco Ntaganda has two ICC
warrants (2006 & 2012) against him for war crimes and crimes against
humanity, accused of child soldier use, murder, rape and sexual slavery; he is
being charged on seven counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against
humanity by the ICC prosecutor.
Bosco Ntaganda is the third high-profile veteran
of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and Rwanda-backed militia leader in the
eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to have fled to Rwanda after having committed heinous crimes in
the Congo.
Jules Mutebesi, formerly of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), did the
same in 2004 while Laurent Nkunda continued the illicit Rwanda-backed network
under the guise of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)
in 2006. In 2009, when global pressure built on Rwanda to cease its support of
the CNDP and its leader Laurent Nkunda, Rwanda placed Laurent Nkunda under
house arrest (he remains under house arrest in Rwanda) and replaced him with
Bosco Ntaganda. Today, due to pressure, Bosco Ntaganda has been removed from
the equation and Sultani Makenga now stands to take Bosco’s place presiding
over the same Rwanda-backed illicit network that has been a fixture in the
eastern provinces of the DRC for the past 15 years.
Sultani Makenga
It is vital for the
global community to understand that Bosco Ntaganda neither acted alone nor as a
“rebel” in the sense that many portray him, but as a Rwandan proxy.
It has been a common political tactic, on Rwanda’s part, to install top
military officials in the Congolese military. When Rwanda first invaded the DRC in
1996, for instance, it installed James Kabarebe as the Congolese Army Chief of
staff. Kabarebe, who is currently Rwandan Minister of Defense, was named in the
November 2012 UN Group of Experts Report as among the top level officials in the
Rwandan government orchestrating and commanding the M23 militia in the DRC. He
was also responsible for replacing Laurent Nkunda with Bosco Ntaganda as head
of the CNDP in 2009.
Bosco Ntaganda has been transferred to the ICC
and many wonder what secrets he will reveal. The fate of this individual and
the content of his testimony during the trial may divert attention from the
real question at hand: will the global community
allow the Rwanda-backed illicit network in the eastern provinces of the DRC to
remain intact? As clearly shown when Mutebesi and Nkunda were removed from the
field, the military aggression in the region does not require Bosco
Ntaganda to continue its operations. Moreover, both Bosco and Makenga took up
arms against the Congolese people and Makenga is under U.S. and U.N. sanctions
for the use of child soldiers and other crimes, reminding us that the issue is
not Bosco alone, but the network and/or system that produces the likes of
Bosco, Mutebesi, Nkunda, Makenga and a host of others. The DRC’s current
president, Joseph Kabila, who lacks legitimacy, is complicit in preserving this
network rather than laying the groundwork for peace and security in the
country. He utilized the network to intimidate voters and appropriate the 2011
elections. Will he once again enter into a deal with yet another Rwanda-backed
militia leader–Sultani Makenga–leaving the illicit network intact and
operational?
Although there has been a recent increase in
focus and attention on the region and the U.S. has acknowledged on several
occasions the destructive role that its allies Rwanda and, to a lesser extent,
Uganda have been playing in destabilizing the eastern provinces of the DRC, the
administration has clearly hit the threshold of its willingness to hold these
client states to account-a threshold that is too low to exert the pressure
needed for significant change. The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice,
effectively reinforced the Obama administration’s official stance when she
recently stated that, while the U.S.
recognizes that Rwanda
has been “negatively involved” in the DRC, holding them accountable is
“complicated.” Complexity is not a viable reason to continue
“business-as-usual” when the result is widespread suffering. Rwanda and Uganda,
both led by strongmen and lauded in the international community, have invaded
the Congo twice and
consistently sponsored militia groups inside the Congo
resulting in the death of millions of Congolese civilians, and yet the
political will of the United
States and the global community to hold them
accountable remains lamentably weak.
Congolese people are seeking peace and justice.
Trying Bosco Ntaganda at the ICC may lead to some measure of justice for the
crimes perpetrated at his behest; however, it appears that his backers in Rwanda may very
well be let off the hook yet again and allowed to continue their military
aggression against the DRC. While the drama has been unfolding in Rwanda, Paul Kagame has been on an image
rehabilitation tour in the U.S.,
getting support from Harvard
University, Coca-Cola,
the World Bank, and long-time supporter and Civil Rights icon, Andrew Young.
Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Howard G. Buffet, son of
multi-billioniare Warren Buffet, have been on a public relations offensive to
cleanse Rwanda’s
image of any association with criminal activity in the DRC.
Public propaganda and promotional appeals must
not be allowed to cover for Rwanda’s
destructive role in the region. Though support for Paul Kagame and the Rwandan
regime exists at the highest levels of government and industry in the West,
volumes of studies and reports from 1997 continuing to present day have
established the verity of their longstanding aggression against the DRC. The
responsibility of those working for peace in the region remains to acknowledge
the body of evidence and to put pressure on Rwanda to cease its sponsorship,
support, and backing of illicit networks in the DRC that have visited untold
suffering upon the people of Congo. When searching for solutions, it is vital
to examine recent history for ways to avoid feeding cycles of violence. The
Congolese government must not integrate the Rwanda-backed M23 network into the
Congolese military as it did in 2009, which laid the foundations of the current
crisis, or we will face a similar problem in another few years.
Militia leaders who have fled to Rwanda
after having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the DRC should
face justice. Figures such as Laurent Nkunda Batware, Jean-Marie Runiga,
Baudouin Ngaruye and Jules Mutebesi would be a good start. As a result of the
UN-created Peace Framework for the DRC, former Irish Prime Minister, Mary
Robinson was appointed as UN Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region. As Special
Envoy, Prime Minister Robinson can seize the opportunity to push for these
other war criminals in Rwanda
to face justice. This would send a signal to leaders in the region that the
global community is finally serious about combating impunity and lack of accountability
in the DRC.
Since President Obama’s 2009 Speech in Ghana, where he declared that the U.S. was ready to support “strong institutions”
and not “strongmen” in Africa, many have been awaiting this much-needed shift
in U.S.
foreign policy. Unfortunately, the declaration rings hollow, especially to the
nearly one million Congolese who have been displaced since Spring 2012,
because, in spite of all the mayhem and suffering that Rwanda’s strongman, Paul
Kagame has sponsored in the DRC, he continues to receive strong support and
backing from Washington and a plethora of powerful institutions and individuals
in the West. The arrest of Bosco Ntaganda should not be seen as a solution, but
as a test of the global community’s political will to help dismantle the
destabilizing networks in the eastern provinces of the DRC that produces the
likes of Bosco Ntaganda.
Bio: Kambale Musavuli is the spokesman for the
Friends of the Congo.
He is featured in the short film “Crisis in the Congo:
Uncovering the Truth,” an abbreviated version of the upcoming documentary
looking at the role of Rwanda
and Uganda
in the upheaval in the DRC.
