what actually happened in Rwanda/congo?
words can reflect or conceal realities.
there were two wars.. the first 1996-97 saw few pitched battles and an unknown number of hutu regugees were slaughtered.
the second war 1998—2004 .. there are estimated to be some several million casualties.
the congo wars are distinct though related to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. that was one event that showed the real nature of the u.n. the congo is another.
the ‘newsreports’ at the time were at times graphic but basically shallow. and obviously never went near getting to the causes of the conflict.. just machete wielding maniacs slaughtering hutu women. it was portrayed as a civil war . it reminded me of the reports of the united nations monitoring the genocide in bihatch and other places in yougoslavia.
so what was the war in congo about?
there are whispers about very dirty wars in the congo from many years ago. there were certainly machete wielding maniacs but there was more to it than that. much.
congo.. formerly Zaire (formerly Belgian congo) is rich in mineral and other resources (diamonds). had been under the heel of mobutu a dictator who followed the typical pattern of head of state in a one party post colonial regime. despite association with the usa, mobutu’s legitimacy had become severely eroded. so that by 1996 a group calling itself the afdl began military action. it was later admitted by Rwanda that the rwandans had instigated it. it was not just a civil war. it is way more complex.
the first congo war ended with the overthrow of mobutu . it began with the influx of 2 million hutu refugees from Rwanda fearing genocide after tutsis ( a rival group) took over the state. these hutus had participated in the genocide against the tutsis earlier that year in Rwanda and continued their atrocities from camps in eastern Zaire.. mobutu supported the hutu extremists. anti-mobutu forces, many of them tutsis , united wth Laurent kabila a self proclaimed Marxist/maoist, as front man for the afdl.. (alliance of democratic forces for the liberation of Zaire.). Rwanda and uganda gave active support. kabila took Kinshasa from mobutu who fled to morroco.. kabila began trying to reorder the country. kabila wanted to distance himself from being perceived as a puppet of the rwandans so then instructed the tutsis who had fought with him to go back to Rwanda and Uganda.. they then tried to kill kabila. and the second congo war happened.
the second congo war began in august 98 and went officially till july 2003 but has not been resolved. by 2008 it had killed 5.4 million (wiki) mostly starvation/disease. millions more became refugees in neighboring countries.
rebel forces in congo were quick to destabilize the new state which was saved by the support of several neighboring African states. Rwanda Uganda and Burundi sponsored armed groups that took control of resource-rich eastern provinces.
president kabila (apparently changing sides) sought support from the hutus to counter the tutsi’s and Rwandan regional aspirations. rebel groups were making gains by 98 and Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola supported the kabila government. chad libya and sudan joined later. a multisided war began. many of the participating countries cannot support large forces/confrontations so the battles were guerrilla/ militia style and irregular. civilian casualties and undisciplined troops.
after nelson Mandela entered the argument there was a cease-fire among some of the rebel groups. non-African states were very reluctant to become involved.
in jan.2001 kabila was assassinated. his son joseph replaced him.
in april 2001 a u.n. panel accused Uganda rwnda and Zimbabwe of exploiting congo resources.. (diamonds, gold etc.) (its kinda beyond cynical)
joseph seems to have been able to bring a measure of security to the country. a peace accord was signed with rwanda in 2002 and its soldiers withdrew.
reluctance of rebel groups to cede power continued to destabilize but elections were held in 2006.. the fragility of the state is underlined with human rights abuses and violence (rape, murder and cannibalism). uncontrolled militias chaos. people, mostly children are dying as we write. the most monstrous part of it is the inaction of the united nations.
it is like hell came to earth. but was hushed up in the hope noone would notice.
congo itself is a framework of error. and a symbol of the white and other man’s dirty secret of exploitation of Africa. it reflects the shortcomings of the international system from prince Leopold of Belgium to us sponsored mobutu to the hard-line ineffectualism of the u.n. today. it is where international catastrophes have concentrated. the world has ignored it with failure to act in the Rwandan genocide and failure to act in the collapse of congo…… the un is supposed to represent the world’s values. u.n irrelevance in the face of massive human rights abuse. they should be tried for criminal negligence. the usa opposed intervention and refused to recognise genocide and invasion citing strategic irrelevance . france supported the hutus!!!! there was the backdrop of conflict between Clinton and Boutros ghali. its totally sick.
a litany of non-decision and non-intervention. someone permitted this to happen. . allowing them to go free is in itself an outrage.
glib self-satisfied punks.. let your self-loathing be complete.
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