1994 to nowadays… THE FORGOTTEN WAR – THE CAUSES
try {
parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();
} catch (e) {
}
}" style="font-family: arial;">![]("http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zt5qvyoQyJU/SJ2_dctBv4I/AAAAAAAAAC4/7b--Usg8oNI/s320/Kongo.jpg")
International NGOs claim more
than 5.4 million have, so far, been brutally massacred but experts and
doctors on the ground count over 10 Million killed since the wars first
ignited in 1994 – and yet blood still running like water – claiming as
many as 45, 000 lives each month but we rarely hear anything about this!
![]("http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zt5qvyoQyJU/SJ2_dctBv4I/AAAAAAAAAC4/7b--Usg8oNI/s1600-h/Kongo.jpg"){kind=link}
The Causes
try {
parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();
} catch (e) {
}
}" style="font-family: arial;">![]("http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zt5qvyoQyJU/SJ2_kGmoa1I/AAAAAAAAADA/mi7y-hiIGGw/s320/DR+Kongo.jpg")
The
root causes of the unfolding wars are quite complex. However, one
fundamental fact is that they stemmed from the wave of violence
unleashed by Genocide that struck Rwanda in 1994. In Congo, however,
the unfolding wars “officially” begun in 1998 when the late President
Laurent Kabila dismissed the Rwandans and Ugandans military officials
who had helped him end the 32 years reign of President Joseph Mobutu in
May 1997.
![]("http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zt5qvyoQyJU/SJ2_kGmoa1I/AAAAAAAAADA/mi7y-hiIGGw/s1600-h/DR+Kongo.jpg"){kind=link}
This
coincided with growing speculations – one of which was that Rwanda, as
a reward for his role in ousting President Mobutu in May 1997, would
annex (or maintain its military presence) in Eastern Congo because of
the growing security threats a large number of Hutus responsible for
the 1994 Genocide living in refugee camps in eastern Congo paused to
the young republic.
These
unfounded speculations were, in turn, systematically exploited for
political points and popularity – and, as a result, brought about
hostile attitudes and violent languages toward Congolese Tutsis across
the Congo, whom, because of cultural similarities and a shared spoken
language with Rwandan Tutsis, are alleged as privileging ties with the
Rwandan Tutsis regime in Kigali over national loyalty. As a result,
Partially
as a result of all this, the dismissed Rwandan Tutsis and Ugandan
troops, under the pretext of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, went
off, re-grouped and realigned with President Mobutu’s military
disciples and local Congolese Tutsis militia and then launched a bloody
offensive rebellion against the Kabila government, who, equally, under
the same pretext of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, realigned with
local anti-Tutsis armed groups and other regional forces to fight what
they perceived to be a Tutsi hegemony in the Great Lack region.
This
turned the Congo into huge battlefields, which, at some points,
involved 9 regional forces –Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Namibia,
Chad, Sudan, Libya and Zimbabwe, dozens of indigenous armed militias
groups and western based private military companies fighting
spontaneous wars.
As
a result, the whole country, particularly the eastern regions, has been
transformed into hotbeds of barbaric atrocities. No rule of law seems
to exist and life has lost its basic value. Eastern Congo has since
been left at the mercy of tyrannical administration of warlords. It has
been transformed into, what can only be termed as, concentration camps,
where nothing but extreme sexual atrocities, ethnically motivated
persecution and systematic massacres reign.
Unable
to be protected by the Kinshasa government and abandoned by the
international community, those still trapped in this corner of the
world have no hopes but to wait for their time. If lucky enough he or
she will be shot dead, if not, he or she will endure a slow painful
death depending upon the mood of their killers. Some are set ablaze
alive or slaughter by machetes whilst women and young girls are
subjected to the worse public brutal gang rapes that go beyond the mere
meaning of rapes.
(Youth Compass)