COMPATRIOTS DEMAND NKUNDA RELEASE

"Together with all the CNDP activists within and outside the DRC,
we reiterate our unfailing solidarity and loyalty to
the Major General and Chairman of the CNDP,
Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO."

Press Release from CNDP/Europe
Brussels, February 10, 2009

We, representatives of the National Congress for People’s Defense - CNDP in Europe, express our strong disapproval on the unfounded arrest of Major General Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO, Chairman of CNDP and his placement under house arrest by the Rwandan military authorities since January 22, 2009. As this detention is being extended, we demand his immediate release in order to repair what appears to be an injustice to us.

We wish to declare to the Kinshasa government that the case of Major General Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO, Chairman of the CNDP will only find solutions on the diplomatic and political level as he is a political leader defending the rights of Congolese people in general and the Tutsis Congolese in particular who has been battered by poor governance.

So far, the Kinshasa regime did nothing for the return of Congolese Tutsi, but made alliances with the Rwandan genociders/Interahamwe. This unsafe environment has always prevented the Congolese Tutsis from enjoying their fundamental human rights including the right to live peacefully in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Other populations of the two Congolese Kivu are victims of this disastrous policy.

A short reminder of the historical tragedy in the African Great Lakes Region: since 1994, when the Rwandan genociders/Interahamwe entered in the DRC. The Congolese Tutsis’s calvary then reached its climax. The Rwandan genociders had vowed to complete the "work" of exterminating Tutsis as they had already started in Rwanda. They massacred, raped, pillaged, decimated livestock and forestry, thus producing the first humanitarian disaster in the region.

Therefore, for fifteen years, the Congolese Tutsis were forced into exile in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, the West and elsewhere in the world. Most of them languish in sub-human conditions in refugee camps. Only in Rwanda, the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supports more than 3 major camps: Gihembe (Byumba); Nyabihike (ex Ngaramba); Kiziba (Kibuye), etc.

This is why Major General Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO, Chairman of the CNDP, with companions founded the politico-military movement called National Congress for People’s Defense (CNDP). Then, after some years of struggle for the respect of our fundamental human rights, his arrest, instead of solving the problem has blocked any hope of lasting peace. Indeed, this aggravates the situation of Congolese Tutsis who become hopeless.

We hereby call upon our compatriots who feel concerned by the curse of Congolese people, victims of the Kinshasa regime’s tyranny, to unite all our energies, intellect and imagination so that our country stops to be ridiculed. Our claim for our basic human rights must be heard and recognized by everyone.

Following the facts reported above, we call out the international community to exert pressure on the regime in Kinshasa so that it goes back to the negotiations process started in Nairobi between the government and the CNDP. It is not by creating a rift within the CNDP and demanding the extradition of Major General Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO, Chairman of the CNDP, that we can hope for sustainable peace in the DRC. We demand instead that our leader be regarded as an important partner in the Nairobi negotiations that must resume as soon as possible.

Paths for a lasting peace in the DRC

1) The immediate release of Major General and Chairman of the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO;

2) The continuation of negotiations in Nairobi between the CNDP and the Kinshasa government to solve fundamental problems;

3) The complete disarmament of the FDLR-RUD/Interahamwe;

4) The security, pacification of the two Kivus (North and South);

5) The return of Congolese Tutsi refugees and other Congolese ethnic groups in the land of our ancestors;

6) The right of Congolese Tutsis to live and move anywhere in the DRC;

7) To form an inclusive Congolese National Army, ie without any ethnic discrimination;

8) The integration of senior CNDP cadres within the Congolese administration, ie without any ethnic discrimination.

Together with all the CNDP activists within and outside the DRC, we reiterate our unfailing solidarity and loyalty to the Major General and Chairman of the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda MIHIGO.

Brussels, February 10, 2009
Representative of the CNDP/Europe
Paul MBUGUJE

Press release from CNDP Europe. Brussels, Feb 10, 2009


Congo Hutu gunemen 'on rampage'. BBC, Feb 19, 2009 (...In recent years, Rwanda's western flank was guarded against attacks from the Hutu militias by Congolese rebel Laurent Nkunda. But the Tutsi rebel leader was arrested in January after being invited by Rwanda to discuss the joint military campaign against the Hutu forces....)

NKUNDA RIGHT ON CHINA WRONGS

WHO WAS JUDAS TO NKUNDA?

NKUNDA SAFE LIKE LUMUMBA?

NKUNDA'S CONGO CREDENTIALS

FREE NKUNDA TO FIGHT FOR CONGO

Rwanda puts down Nkunda dissent. BBC, Jan 27, 2009 (....Thousands of Congolese refugees across Rwanda's two main camps - Kiziba in the south, and Gihembe in the north - took to the camps' street on Sunday in a co-ordinated protest. They called the arrest of General Nkunda "illegal", and expressed their anger at the way he was reportedly trapped and arrested. But a joint force of Rwanda police and army dispersed the protesters and many were injured in the skirmishes that followed. "We could not go on with the demonstration as planned as the police and army stopped us," one man in Gihembe camp, which houses about 20,000 refugees, told the BBC. "What we want is that Nkunda is released so that he goes back to DR Congo to continue fighting against the Interahamwe for he's our only hope for any return to DR Congo," he said. "Nkunda was fighting for peace and we cannot understand why he was arrested....")

Laurent Nkunda arrested in Rwanda. London Guardian, Jan 23, 2009. Go to KAGAME HELPING NKUNDA NOT

NKUNDA TELLS JOURNALISTS TELL TRUTH and NKUNDA SAY UN CRIMINALS IN CONGO and NKUNDA SAY CONGO OWNS RESOURCES and KABILA KILLS, RAPES & BLAMES NKUNDA

NKUNDA LAST CONGO INTERVIEW

NKUNDA A TRUE BELIEVER and NKUNDA GUERRILLA'S GORILLA TOURS and NKUNDA CASE FOR REBELLION and KNOW NKUNDA CONGO

NKUNDA PILGRIMAGE RECONCILIATION (August/September 2006 in Nyamitabo, Kitchanga, Nyanzale, Ngungu, Rubaya). See NKUNDA & INTORE HEROES

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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