Gazing in the Congo (DRC): the dark heart of Africa (2006-2017)

[Stan]

I stumbled on this little slide show on Congo history this AM on MSNBC.com. As a "history" it is both selective and sketchy. Still the photos do cover the points they chose to highlight. The photo of Kibumba camp with the three rows of bodies is pretty much etched on my brain--what the photo cannot show is that line was actually on both sides of the road and ran nearly continuously from the northern most camp at Rutshuru through Kibumba 65 kilometers south to Goma.

Tom, Thanks for the interesting memories...

Mobutu Ousted

Anti-Mobutu mobs riot during the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko on May 18, 1997 in Kinshasa, Zaire.

I can almost smell the burning tires, and as I reminisce further, can hear YaYa "tense streets, no trains ran today"

But, the pic "Africa's first world war" is sadly nothing to laugh about.

[Tom Odom]

And the other shoe drops....money for nothing, chicks for free...

Uganda wants $5m for arrest of genocide suspect

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- A Ugandan official says the country wants to claim a $5 million reward offered by the United States for the capture of a Rwandan genocide suspect.

Ugandan minister Isaac Musumba said Thursday the east African nation would welcome any payment for Monday's arrest of Idelphonse Nizeyimana in the Ugandan capital. He will be tried in a U.N.-backed tribunal.

[Tom Odom]

More details on this individual and his arrest. No death sentence via ICTR. Too bad.

Tom

Top Rwandan genocide suspect arrested
Officials accuse ex-intelligence deputy of ordering execution of Tutsi queen

KAMPALA, Uganda - A top suspect wanted for orchestrating the killings of thousands of people in Rwanda's 1994 genocide — including children, hospital patients, priests and even an elderly and revered African queen — has been captured, police said.

Former Rwanda Deputy Intelligence Chief Idelphonse Nizeyimana was arrested Monday in Uganda, police said Tuesday, under an indictment from the Rwanda war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, and direct and public incitement to commit genocide in the systematic slaughter of more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days in 1994.

[Tom Odom]

And the rabbit keeps going, going, going...

Assaults Sustained in E. Congo
Congolese Forces, Rwandan Militias Kill, Displace Civilians

JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 13 -- More than 1,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 900,000 displaced in eastern Congo by Rwandan Hutu militiamen and Congolese forces since January, humanitarian groups said Tuesday.

The report released by a coalition of 84 organizations said that many of the killings were carried out by Rwandan Hutu militiamen. Congolese government soldiers also have targeted civilians, the report said.

[Stan]

And the rabbit keeps going, going, going...

There's always someone in Congo that see things differently. Namely, the President

Despite reports of killings in eastern Congo, according to President Kabila, the region is now enjoying unprecedented peace.

Kabila may soon have new problems from his western flank and a bunch of unemployed diamond miners.

Hmmm, wonder if those Lockheed Electras will be flying them home ?

There's two still around

[M-A Lagrange]

According to reliefweb nearly 35000 angolese have been expulsed from DRC to Angola since January 2009.
This could be linked to the next sea exclusive area law passed by DRC government.
According to that bill, angola is exploiting oil in DRC land...

when it is not East, it is South. And if not, then you have Kabinda...

Gosh I love this country.

[Tom Odom]

There's always someone in Congo that see things differently. Namely, the President



Kabila may soon have new problems from his western flank and a bunch of unemployed diamond miners.

Hmmm, wonder if those Lockheed Electras will be flying them home ?

There's two still around

9Q-CTO 1073 Trans Service Airlift. Withdrawn from use at Kinshasa.

9Q-CUU 1137 Filair. Wreck at Kinshasa.

Wow...I recognize the tail numbers

[Tom Odom]

Why would anyone be surprised? The former FAZ went to Rwanda when the war brokeout in 1990 and was so brutal that the ex-FAR--the military that would assist in the genocide--asked that the FAZ be sent home.

U.N. Official Assails Congo Operation

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 16, 2009

NAIROBI, Oct. 15 -- A top U.N. human rights investigator on Thursday blasted a U.N.-backed Congolese military operation targeting rebels in eastern Congo, calling its results "catastrophic."

"Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, thousands raped, hundreds of villages burnt to the ground and at least 1,000 civilians killed," Philip Alston, the United Nations' special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said in a statement. "In many areas, it is [Congolese soldiers] themselves who pose the greatest direct risk to security."

[Tom Odom]

It woud be nice to have something positive to say on this thread. I am just not sure what that would be...

Rape a weapon of war in Congo, activists say

By George Lerner
CNN

(CNN) -- Rape has turned into a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the number of attacks on women having grown threefold over the past few years, human rights activists said Friday.

Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Christiane Amanpour that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Eastern Congo since 1998, and the condition of women has become more dire as the Congolese army has pressed a military campaign against armed groups in the countryside.

"Rape is being used as a weapon of war in eastern Congo. So we notice and we have documented that when armed groups walk into town, they will rape the women and girls, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, in order to punish the local population," she said. "It's the easiest way to terrorize a community."

[davidbfpo]

Tom and the other contributors here,

I get depressed reading about Zimbabwe and as for the DRC I see no hope.

I know there is no "magic bullet", yes even in Zimbabwe. What does the civilised world do with places like DRC? Containment which is what the UN appears to be doing at a minimum, i.e. it would be worse if the UN was not there (as shown in the First Great Congo War, a few years ago).

Note few who sit at home in the civilised world care for more than a second about DRC, but might ask one day why some nay refugees appear locally. This attitude is so pervasive intervention - certainly in Western Europe - is unlikely to gain public support.

I cite in support of my viewpoint the lack of any temporary momentum to support aid, in Darfur and more pointedly DRC. Look back to 1984, with the brutal footage of starvation in Ethiopia and the reaction with Band Aid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_Aid_(band)

C4 last night had a dreary programme on child rape in Liberia, which I had not realised still has a UN peacekeeping mission.

Answers, if any, on a postcard!

davidbfpo

[Tom Odom]

Tom and the other contributors here,

I get depressed reading about Zimbabwe and as for the DRC I see no hope.

I know there is no "magic bullet", yes even in Zimbabwe. What does the civilised world do with places like DRC?

davidbfpo

Darwin is the only answer I can offer and in a way, one that is happening as an extension of the Rwandan conflict.

Best
Tom

[carl]

Things aren't that bad in the rest of the Congo, not pleasant, but not the continuing horror that is the east. What is different about the east is the human vestiges of the Rwandan troubles, the FDLR. I think if the FDLR were removed, killed, that would be the critical step. Who will take that step I don't know. The FARDC can't, the UN won't and I don't think the Rwandans want all the trouble it would entail for minimum direct benefit to them. So who? You got me.

As far as the FARDC depredations, I wonder if the light of publicity might have an effect. If the UN were to document things to the extent that they named names, this battalion commanded by this guy did this on this date, this platoon did this and these are the names of the people in it, if they documented that and broadcast it on their media outlets and took it directly to little Joe, that might have an effect. Mr. President, this happened and these guys here did it, what are you going to do about it?

Believe it or not, I think publicity does have an effect on these guys. There was a program several years ago to reduce the number of illegal shakedown checkpoints on the Congo river upstream of Kin. All it was was a radio network of mamans reporting that there was a shakedown point here and one there. It reduced the number from over 20 to 1-3 if I remember correctly. If the UN were to do the same type of thing at a greatly intensified level, maybe that would help.

[M-A Lagrange]

Believe it or not, I think publicity does have an effect on these guys. There was a program several years ago to reduce the number of illegal shakedown checkpoints on the Congo river upstream of Kin. All it was was a radio network of mamans reporting that there was a shakedown point here and one there. It reduced the number from over 20 to 1-3 if I remember correctly. If the UN were to do the same type of thing at a greatly intensified level, maybe that would help.

Carl,

I did try to explain that to the UN last year. And I was not alone. Our point was that if you want to lower sexual violence then you have to inform the victimes of what happend on the guys the accused.
Apparently the UN did not want to. They are somehow incapable to just tell the people: you took that action and here are the results.
But yes I would say that is one of the best idea.

[Stan]

As far as the FARDC depredations, I wonder if the light of publicity might have an effect.

Believe it or not, I think publicity does have an effect on these guys.

Although I remain pessimistic, I think you have a point Carl. Until a Zairois literally loses face there will be no affect. The wanted posters for an FBI-style "UN Most Wanted" list would number in the hundreds of thousands beginning with nearly every minister and his minion.

As early as 84, rape was universally accepted even among common folks. My residential guard/gardener casually chatted about his wife being raped by soldiers while they were in Lubumbashi visiting relatives. Instead of exacting revenge, he discussed what the child's name would be

While the "UN's 100,000 most wanted" may be embarrassing, it won't amount to a hill of beans if the upper echelon doesn't do some killing. As for Joe public, they will live in even greater fear than ever before.

[davidbfpo]

The BBC News had a short, thirty minute documentary on DRC yesrerday, mainly on mining, rape and lack of order. Cannot readily find if a podcast is available, menatime here is the report on mining: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8264105.stm

davidbfpo

[Tom Odom]

And my good news for the day:

Clergyman linked to Rwandan genocide seized in Italy

(CNN) -- A Rwandan accused of "complicity" in the massacre of students at the college he headed during the country's genocide 15 years ago has been arrested in Italy, where he served as a clergyman, an international police agency said.

Interpol hailed arrest of Uwayezu as a demonstration of effectiveness of international police co-operation.

Officers from the Italian Carabinieri and Interpol's National Central Bureau in Rome, Italy, arrested Emmanuel Uwayezu -- who had been wanted in Rwanda, the international police organization Interpol said Wednesday in a news release.

Uwayezu, 47, is accused of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. He is in Italian custody and is awaiting extradition to Rwanda.

According to Interpol's statement, the Rwandan arrest warrant says Uwayezu was alleged "to have acted individually and as part of a conspiracy to plan and commit genocide by instigating Hutus to kill Tutsis in the area of Gikongoro, as director of the Groupe Scolaire Marie Merci college in Kibeho."

[Stan]

And my good news for the day:

I had to wonder when you sent me jpegs of Italian-made AP mines fresh outta the wooden cases

Well, at least they weren't ours

[carl]

:While the "UN's 100,000 most wanted" may be embarrassing, it won't amount to a hill of beans if the upper echelon doesn't do some killing. As for Joe public, they will live in even greater fear than ever before.

If the upper echelon could be embarrassed badly enough, I wonder if they would do some killing. If they were constantly confronted by specifics perhaps they could be motivated. Rather than avoiding the cameras, maybe it would be easier for them to knock some people off in public with a lot of show. They would garner a lot of public support for it I think too. It would be viewed with considerable favor by the average Congolese.

Italian land mines and under the table deals with the Taliban, 2. Picking up a genocider, 1. The Italians are still down by one.

[marct]

From CBC.ca

Désiré Munyaneza, 42, was convicted in the Federal Court in Montreal in May on seven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection to his actions in and around Butare, Rwanda, during the 1994 genocide.
more...

[Tom Odom]

I had to wonder when you sent me jpegs of Italian-made AP mines fresh outta the wooden cases

Well, at least they weren't ours

Nope but the Anti-Tank mine that we beached our boat on top of was along with a stash of about five more I inspected