Renegade Congolese General Laurent Nkunda has told the BBC he is now fighting to “liberate” the whole of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nkunda and Rwanda, alongside some other players, have caused around 6,000,000 deaths in Congo over less than the last decade, far surpassing the number who died during the genocide in Rwanda previously. So who all has their hand in this new state of affairs? To help answer that, first let’s trip over to the US State Department for some info about current US-Rwanda relations.
‘In 1998, Rwanda, along with Uganda, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) to back Congolese rebels trying to overthrow then-President Laurent Kabila. Rwandan troops pulled out of the D.R.C. in October 2002, in accordance with the Lusaka cease-fire agreement.
In the fall of 2006, Rwanda broke diplomatic relations with France, following a French judge’s indictment of senior Rwandan officials on charges of having participated in the shooting down of the presidential jet in 1994. Rwanda rejects these charges. Rwanda, along with Burundi, joined the East African Community in 2007.
U.S.-RWANDAN RELATIONS
U.S. Government interests have shifted significantly since the 1994 genocide from a strictly humanitarian concern focusing on stability and security to a strong partnership with the Government of Rwanda focusing on sustainable development. The largest U.S. Government programs are the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative, which aim to reduce the impact of these debilitating diseases in Rwanda. Other activities promote rural economic growth and support good governance and decentralization. Overall U.S. foreign assistance to Rwanda has increased four-fold over the past four years.’
Information provided to us from the US Dept. of State website. And, information about Laurent Nkunda can be found at wikipedia and other sources.
Why is it that we think of there having been a Rwandan genocide, yet nobody in the US talks about there having been a Congo genocide? Part of the reason I think, is simply that US citizens don’t really know that much about any part of Africa, Congo and Rwanda included as well as Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia, the so called Horn of Africa. They tend to want to accept at face value the prettified US Government USAID version of US interventionism in Africa. However, aid to Rwanda involves much more than Macy’s sale items or other such silly little nonsense as highlighted at the USAID site.
US aid to Rwanda is also US interventionism into the affairs of Congo and General Laurent Nkunda is a primary player in what is being bought. In D.R.Congo, Laurent Nkunda Forces On The Offense Again
The US blocked the United Nations from ever having confronted and disarmed Laurent Nkunda and his army, simply because it was part of the Rwanda military in the region, a military allied with the Pentagon. Now, that may be about to unravel into terrible bloodshed once again?
Why is the US playing around in Africa in the first place? Isn’t AFRICOM now the biggest player in the region? How much is Laurent Nkunda really in rebellion against the US? Perhaps he is more allied to the Pentagon than opposed? And maybe the commander of AFRICOM, US General William E. Ward might have the answers to some of these questions, but wouldn’t it be better if we were not intervening into and stroking the flames of Africa’s internecine strife?
Both France and the US need to get out of Africa once and for all. These games for influence in the region are quite deadly to the people that live there.
Touche, Tom.
You would want to go further and investigate the military involvement of the USA with the Tutsi in every East African nation in which they are found, and their unusually high preponderance among the officer cadres, the landed elite and the mercantile class in these countries.
You would probably find very quickly that the observations leading to your astute questions are only the tip of the iceberg.
By the way, is Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni not a Tutsi?
It has been about 4 weeks since I wrote this commentary, AC, and the situation grows much worse once again for the various Congolese peoples. Even as I write this , Nkunda and his forces are probably beginning to enter into Goma. Congo city panics as rebels near http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7697577.stm
and the world waits for Joseph Biden’s gang to take office and do what? Why they will be attacking the Sudanese government and possibly moving US troops directly onto the African continent! Meanwhile, the Democratic Party controlled US ‘Peace’ community sleeps on… and on and on.
This original commentary was written 4 weeks ago, and today Nkunda and his forces will be allowed by the United Nations into Goma. What does one really expect from a US controlled body like the UN? Have people forgotten how they are covering up for Dubya with their ‘mandate’ of support for the US occupation terrorists in Iraq?
Laurent NKUNDA is one among Africa’s Heroes because he forgets himself and his family which needs much assistance from him.He always seeks for peace to every congolese.So, i encourage him and others who are interested
The US government finally reigned in its ally, Rwanda, and then Congo and Rwanda sent a joint force to decommission Nkunda. It is now as if he has vanished off the face of the planet, as he was turned over to the Rwandan government which had sponsored his killings inside Congo. The guy was hardly some saint, Sifa.