"The Congolese government seems to be saying that Nkunda is the problem.
They seem to be building the case against him.
This is a case of lack of logic, lack of fairness.
Nkunda is someone who says, 'I'm here because these forces kill my people.
Please, deal with these forces. . . .'
But instead of dealing with what caused him to be what he is today,
you want to deal with him."

CONGO WRONG ON NKUNDA

"It's like saying, if we didn't have these Tutsis,
the ex-FAR would not have people to kill.
It is an ugly way of seeing things."
~ Rwandan Foreign Minister

To Orwell Today,
re: LUMUMBA-LIKE LAURENT NKUNDA

Dear Jackie,

You can like, love, even cry for Laurent Nkunda but for the majority of Congolese People, especially Hutus living in Kivu, your hero is a war criminal. For me he is a genocidaire. He is killing children and women in Rutshuru, Kitchanga, Masisi.

I hope that one day he will be brought to justice and respond to his crimes.

Check out this link:

Congo war criminal left operating by govt, UN. afrol News, Feb 1, 2007

Best regards,
Kamanzi

To Kamanzi,

Laurent Nkunda is NOT a war criminal. In reality, he's a warrior AGAINST criminals. He's the head of an army that opposes other armies that are committing genocide against his people - the Tutsis of Eastern Congo. He's the only one standing up to the Rwandan Hutus (and their Congo Army and UN Army supporters) who are continuing with the genocide of Tutsis left unfinished in 1994. If Nkunda's opponents succeed in their war against Tutsis in the Congo, they'll next move against the Tutsis in Rwanda.

Will the world then say that, in defending itself, Rwanda is guilty of war crimes?

I don't think so, because the world has seen what happened to Rwanda's Tutsis and moderate-Hutus when there was no one there on their side until the "rebel" army of Paul Kagame - the RPF - "came to the aid of their country".

In our previous email exchange I proved to you that what you said about the RPF Army at Kibeho was lies and that the Hutu Army and its Interahamwe were behind the KILLED AT KIBEHO.

You and your group - the "Paternariat Intwari of CNA-Ubumwe, FDRL-CMC and PDN" - also accuse Rwanda's general - who has been appointed as Deputy Commander of the AU/UN forces to Darfur - of being a war criminal in the Congo. And again you've been proven wrong, as articles quoted explained. See HUTUS HATE RWANDA IN DARFUR.

I notice in today's news that your organizations - the ones whose press-releases you sent me - have admitted they are a group of Rwandan Hutus who hate the present government in Rwanda and plan to join as one to overthrow it:

Rwanda: Guerrillas, Political Opposition to Merge. Rwanda News Agency, Aug 28, 2007 (...Brussels based Paternariat Intwari of CNA-Ubumwe, FDRL-CMC and PDN of former Rwandan Defense Minister Gen. Ben Habyalimana and journalist Deo Mushayidi say they want to merge with the guerrillas to oust the Kigali government....)

So now things are out in the open and the whole world can see that the war in Eastern Congo is being waged by Rwandan Hutus and their Congolese and UN supporters against Tutsis and their protector - Laurent Nkunda - as a step toward returning to Rwanda to overthrow the government.

It never ceases to amaze me how the United Nations forces - wherever they are - always either remain neutral and do nothing (except 'pick up the pieces'), or they take sides helping the bad guys. The 17,000 UN-force in the Congo (MONUC) isn't stopping genocide of Tutsis in the Congo, just as they didn't stop genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. Is war, to the UN, nothing but a "make-work project" like what Orwell described in the Ministry of Plenty?

Sitting on the sidelines ten thousand miles away - watching another genocide unfold - I've definitely chosen sides. I'm with (in my prayers and my pen) the armies of Laurent Nkunda in the Congo and Paul Kagame in Rwanda. "Let's hope" (to quote Rwanda's Foreign Minister) "that which is just will prevail."

~ Jackie Jura

Reader says that for many Congolese "banyarwanda", Nkunda is their Hope

Guerrillas, Political Opposition to Merge
Rwanda News Agency, Aug 28, 2007

As Tripartite Plus army chiefs map out strategies to do away with Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) guerrillas in D R Congo, political opposition parties in Europe have announced a plan to cooperate with the rebels, RNA reports. Brussels based Paternariat Intwari of CNA-Ubumwe, FDRL-CMC and PDN of former Rwandan Defense Minister Gen. Ben Habyalimana and journalist Deo Mushayidi say they want to merge with the guerrillas to oust the Kigali government.

"Those people (FDLR) are fighting because they have a reason. So because we all have the same case we want to come together to solve the same cause", Mushayidi said yesterday on a BBC great lakes program. The FDLR are Rwandans, the RPF are also Rwandans and all the parties you hear about are Rwandans as well - so all we are saying is that we have the right to meet, he said.

Army chiefs from the four-member countries under the tripartite plus commission framework are in Kigali for a two-day meet. The countries are Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and DR Congo. "More pressure is needed to flush out FRDL and ex-FAR insurgents that are undermining peace and security not only in Rwanda but also the Great Lakes Region," Dr Charles Murigande - Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister told delegates that included US Defence and Military Attache in Kigali Maj. Ronald Miller. "Although we have much success to celebrate in the joint effort to end insurgency in the region, ex-FAR/Interahamwe that participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which about a million people were massacred are very active in the DRC."

In attendance are Rwandan army chief Gen. James Kabareebe, DRCs Gen. Deodone Kayembe and the Burundian army boss Godfrey Niyombare and the DRC UN mission - Monuc - Liason Officer in Kigali Mr. Joe Felli. The Ugandan Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Aronda Nyakairima was represented by the Ambassador to Rwanda Richard Kabonero. In the previous meeting in April, Rwandan officials managed to get agreement giving Congo two months to crack down on a host of FDLR forces, Uganda militia groups and Burundian Hutu forces roaming free in the dense forests of its mineral-rich east.

In early August, a senior DRC army officer said military operations against FDLR were to be suspended in an effort to avoid further ethnic tension in the lawless Kivu region....

The public record of these parties operating outside the country - Alliance for Democracy and the National Reconciliation (ADRN Igihango), Initiative for Dialogue (GID), Union of Rwandese Democratic Forces (UFDR) and the Rwanda Democratic Alliance - RDA Isangano - has been tarnished by the conduct of their leaders, a 2006 Great Lakes Center for Strategic Studies (GLCSS) assessment of the region says. The UK-based think-tank says most of them worked with the government after the 1994 genocide and were engaged in gross misconduct. Government has also publicly accused some of them of incompetence, corruption and divisionism. The center says the only viable option for these parties operating outside Rwanda is to return and help in the reconstruction of their nation. However, the groups have vowed to return to overthrow the government.

"Their continued rhetoric as a means of gaining sympathy from the international community will only serve to negate positive policies the government of Rwanda is initiating as well as tarnishing its image", the assessment released July 14 2006 notes. The Executive Secretary, Rwandan Consultative Forum of Political Organization Mr. Anicet Kayigema has accused opposition political parties operating outside the country of basing their political platform on ethnic ties and promoting one group over another. "Our political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination," GLCSS quotes him and he recalls that that this was one of the causes of the 1994 genocide.

According to numerous accounts, some of these individuals have run away from responsibility as well as justice. As former head of the Rwanda Journalists Association (ARJ), Mr. Deo Mushayidi stands accused to have fled the country in the year 2000 with funds meant for the organisation. The UN agency UNESCO had been funding the organisation along with the Press house in Kigali. President Paul Kagame told journalists in June last year that opposition parties and individuals operating abroad have not got any potential to jeopardize Rwanda's relations with the donor community. And indeed, contrary to threats to withdraw aid as is the case when donor countries are unhappy with the course of events in any country, Rwanda is tapping massive monetary support generously with praises of superb performance. "Let me hope you know all these people who claim to have fled political persecution; don't you know that (Deo) Mushayidi run away with money of his colleagues in the media organizations? And for Rwigema, don't you remember him stealing people's cattle? How about his scandals when he was still the Minister of Education?" he asked, and added: "for Habyarimana I don't really know why he escaped." Mr. Rwigema Celestin was a former Prime Minister and Gen. Ben Habyarimana acted as Defence Minister before fleeing claiming witch-hunt.

Interview with Charles Murigande, Rwandan Foreign Minister
by Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post, Aug 2, 2007

...Q: How big a threat do you consider the ex-FAR?

A: According to our intelligence and MONUC [the U.N. mission in Congo], these are people who are still armed, in military formation, and have commanders at the level of division, brigade, company and battalion. It is a very well organized army, estimated to be from 6,000 to 10,000 strong. . . . We also have information that they've been recruiting and training. . . . I do not know any country in the world which would not be worried about having a force 8,000 strong, well trained -- and a force determined to harm you -- on your border. . . . I do not even think bin Laden commanded such a huge military force. The fact that this force is not about to fight and defeat us does not mean it is not a threat. Bin Laden was never in a position to fight and defeat the U.S., but he was still considered a threat. I wonder why people don't apply the same logic when it's a situation that doesn't effect them.

Q: So how do you deal with the problem of the FLDR?

A: We think that a level of forceful disarmament must be applied. We need to break the grip of the commanders. The problem is, who should apply that force? Who should carry out this forceful disarmament?...

Q: What is Rwanda's relationship to Laurent Nkunda, [a renegade Congolese general]?

A: Rwanda has no relationship with Nkunda. In 1994, when the genocidal forces came to eastern Congo, they did not abandon their genocidal ideology. They began a campaign of ethnic cleansing, killing Tutsis in North Kivu including the parents of Laurent Nkunda. . . . As long as these ex-FAR are around, [the Tutsis] have nowhere to go unless they can defend themselves. And that led to Nkunda. And if you look at what caused Nkunda, the problem was when he refused to be deployed. He said, how can I leave when my people are threatened? He said, no, I can't be deployed. He said, I will be in the army if I am deployed here, where my people are threatened. . . . So that's the problem. Of course because Nkunda is [a speaker of the Rwandan language] and a Tutsi, it is easy for people who do not do a deep analysis to conclude that there's no way Rwanda could not be sympathetic to his case. And then they conclude there's a relationship between Rwanda and Nkunda. Rwanda cannot establish a relationship with such a person, but we can understand why Nkunda is Nkunda. We can understand his argument. Because at least he and the people he is with would be willing to die to protect their people. Which is not the case with everyone. . . . The major root cause of instability in eastern Congo is the ex-FAR. It is the inaction and irresponsibility of the international community that has created this mess here. The Congolese government seems to be saying that Nkunda is the problem. They seem to be building the case against him. This is a case of lack of logic, lack of fairness. This is someone who says, I'm here because these forces kill my people. Please, deal with these forces. . . . But instead of dealing with what caused him to be what he is today, you want to deal with him. It's like saying, if we didn't have these Tutsis, the ex-FAR would not have people to kill. It is an ugly way of seeing things. But, let's hope that which is just will prevail.

Q: What about the suggestion some analysts have made, that the Congolese army might use the ex-FAR to attack Nkunda . . . ?

A: A lot of people are worried that as has happened in the past, the government forces might link up with the ex-FAR and I know the ex-FAR would not be unhappy with an opportunity to kill Tutsis. If that happens, that will start worrying us seriously. And that is the message we have been giving. . . . That might be a disaster. Because we are also able to fight.

RWANDA'S GOOD MAN KAGAME and HOW KAGAME BECAME LEADER

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

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
HOME PAGE
website: www.orwelltoday.com