Damn took a while to even find Moba, Stan. It is south of Kalemie on Lake Tanganyika, which is funny because I don't recall this being the area where the Congolese Tutsis, or Banyamulenge,came from in the first place. I thought they were from further north. Then again you never really need a good reason to riot in the Congo...
Best
Tom
If I recall correctly, the Banyamulenge (the French and Belg called them collectivité Barundi...it was far easier to pronounce in FrenchOriginally Posted by Tom Odom
) began life as Burundi Tutsi immigrants and later in the 1900s sought work and settled in South Kivu. Later ethnic violence from Burundi's Hutu would drive more into Kivu (I'm guessing late 60s).
Our drivers often spoke about the Barundi stealing jobs from the Zäirois (as if the Zäirois were dying to get jobs or for that matter, work for a living).
All Africa reports: Calm Returns After Anti-Banyamulenge Demo.
So Tom, What do ya think ? Nothing left to steal or drink"After a day of looting, stone-throwing and break-ins into offices, the town is now calm and the last group of UN staff being evacuated is at the airport," Eusebe Hounsokou, the head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in DRC, said on 2 August from Lubumbashi, the provincial capital.
At the JRTC we would call it a tactical freeze or pause--stop long enough to let them resupply and resume operations. Works in Louisiana, will work in the CongoSo Tom, What do ya think ? Nothing left to steal or drink
that is true on the 60's surge but there were earlier when the Tutsi King controlled much of this area. Dissident Tutsi family groups moved outward to get away from the King's power and stayed where they were after that power receded. We are talking the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
best
Tom
Congo - Des milles collines ?
For Tutsis of Eastern Congo, Protector, Exploiter or Both?
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 6, 2007
Video and more at the link...Villagers said that earlier this year Nkunda hoisted a flag and declared his mountain fiefdom a new country: Land of the Volcanoes.
KICHANGA, Congo -- On the way to the mountain headquarters of renegade Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda, there are villages patrolled by Laurent Nkunda's police and checkpoints where Nkunda's soldiers demand that truck drivers pay a tax to support their leader's cause.
Local residents can settle disputes these days in Nkunda's courts or attend church with a priest appointed by Nkunda, who is wanted on war crimes charges but lately has been wearing a button that reads "Rebels for Christ."
Tom, Looks like he forgot his Ray-bans, rappel seat and carabiner. But then, perhaps he's not airborne qualified
Last edited by Stan; 08-06-2007 at 07:48 AM.
Never a good sign referring to yourself in the 3rd person...I wonder what Tom Odom would think?"Is it really Nkunda who is the problem?" asked Nkunda, who carries a gold-tipped baton and often refers to himself in the third person. "They want to keep me as the problem so that they can explain all the problems in Congo through Nkunda. . . . But I will protect myself, and I will protect these small number of Tutsis who are here."
Charles, I know. He is quite adroit and when it comes to the international relations game, there is no one better. See this interview for an example."Rwanda cannot establish a relationship with such a person, but we can understand why Nkunda is Nkunda," Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande said in an interview. "We can understand his argument."
Armed with a sense of righteousness fortified by visiting American evangelical Christian groups, Nkunda has in recent months been carrying out attacks against village after village.
One has to wonder which evangelicals have hooked up with Nkunda.
Best
Tom
Uganda, DRC Talk Over Interahamwe Threat
From The New Times, Rwanda's First Daily "The presence of Interahamwe militias in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was given much priority during talks between Kampala and Kinshasa early this week."
Strange, they've only been there for the greater part of 2 decades, but then...
The development follows an attack in south western Uganda on August 9 by suspected Interahamwe. Three people were killed when machete-wielding armed men speaking a mixture of Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili attacked Butogota Trading Centre, according to government. The assault on Uganda was the third in less than two weeks.Greater details at the link...The DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda are members of the Tripartite. "Negative forces is the key thing on the agenda in September," Kiyonga said soon after meeting MPs on the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee at Parliament. But he said their strength "is of a nuisance level" that would not threaten to overrun any establishment in the region. Most of the negative forces including the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (or Interahamwe/ex-FAR) and NALU have been blacklisted by the Fusion Cell in Congo that brings together members of the Tripartite Plus Commission and the United States.
I knew a Congolese woman from Moba. Her family had a cattle farm in the area before they were all run out in the late wars. We picked her up in Lubumbashi and landed in Bujumbura on the way back to Kin. She was very nervous in Bujumbura and said if she left the airport she was afraid they would kill her.
She told me that when she was a girl she had to run for her life twice. Both times a neighbor came and told them the soldiers were coming so her mother took her into the bush and they stayed there for months. They went into the bush with the clothes they were wearing and what they had in their pockets. She said they slept on the ground drank from streams, ate what they could find and what people from villages would give them.
I never realized until talking with that woman how all those millions of displaced Congolese died.
"Rwanda cannot establish a relationship with such a person, but we can understand why Nkunda is Nkunda," Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande said in an interview. "We can understand his argument."
In Kinshasa, the conventional wisdom was that Nkunda was Rwanda's man in the Congo.
Congolese have fled into Uganda
Reuters reports - Ugandan army says 10,000 refugees flee Congo
A Ugandan military spokesman said the refugees feared renewed clashes between Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) troops and forces loyal to General Laurent Nkunda after Nkunda organised an anti-U.N. demonstration that turned into a riot.
"Approximately 10,000 people have come from the Congolese side fearing renewed violence ... local district authorities and aid organisations are trying to help them," said Uganda's army spokesman for western Uganda, Lieutenant Tabaro Kiconco.
Kiconco said the refugees told officials in Uganda's Kisoro District that they expected more fighting after villagers, urged on by Nkunda's men, rioted on Tuesday in protest against U.N. troops they said failed to protect them from militias.
More pressure is needed to flush out FRDL and ex-FAR insurgents
Rwanda's News Agency covers the abysmal results of talks held in April, where Rwandan officials thought they managed to get an agreement - telling the DRC to crack down on FDLR forces in hiding.
More at the link and also at Allafrica.comAs 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.
Nkunda Hands Over FDLR Rebels to UN
From All Africa via Kigali's New Times, "Congolese rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has handed over 50 war captives of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) to the UN Mission in DR Congo, Monuc."
The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc) urged "renegade troops fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo to integrate into the country's regular army. The call on Saturday came as the UN humanitarian chief told Al Jazeera that the Nord-Kivu province is suffering from a level of violence and brutality not seen anywhere else in the world".We handed them over to MONUC because we want to prove to the UN that we are fighting FDLR who are being supported by DR Congo Government," Nkunda's spokesman Rene Munyarugerero said by telephone from North Kivu yesterday.
Prevalence of rape in East Congo described as worst in the world - Washington Post, 9 Sep.
The prevalence and intensity of sexual violence against women in eastern Congo are "almost unimaginable," the top U.N. humanitarian official said Saturday after visiting the country's most fragile region, where militia groups have preyed on the civilian population for years.
John Holmes, who coordinates U.N. emergency relief operations, said 4,500 cases of sexual violence have been reported in just one eastern province since January, though the actual number is surely much higher. Rape has become "almost a cultural phenomenon," he said.
"Violence and rape at the hands of these armed groups has become all too common," said Holmes, who spent four days in eastern Congo. "The intensity and frequency is worse than anywhere else in the world."
The chronic sexual violence is just one facet of a broader environment of insecurity that still defines eastern Congo after a decade-long war that killed an estimated 4 million people, mostly from hunger and other effects of being driven from their homes ...
Even as far back as 1994, sexual violence in the eastern province was seen as an integral part of the war. The military forces involved in these acts were often rewarded by their leaders, government officials or powerful patrons.
In Rwanda, soldiers raped women as part of a general attack, while they killed and injured civilians and pillaged and destroyed property.
As long as such a sick climate exists with no form of punishment, females will continue to be targeted.
Echoing Stan....
The only woman ever tried for crimes against humanity was the former Rwandan government's Minister for Women and Family Affairs Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. She organized rape gangs as part of the genocide and led them in the field. Some 250,000 women were raped and those that survived the genocide are still dying from AIDS.
All of this has particular import in a societal structure that has been stood on its head; Rwanda today is a society dominated by women because of the losses in males suffered in the genocide.
What got me the most in Goma was that this behavior continued in the camps against Hutu women; rapes were common and we saw the evidence as the refugees crossed the border.
Tom
Glad you posted that, Tom
I read most of the articles in sincere disbelief...Yes, they were mostly bleeds, copy and paste.
Somewhere along all this Investigative Reporting, even the UN neglects to mention that a Minister's Wife (then) in her late 40's - That is a Female for the uninitiated - orchestrated global rape and death.
Granted, it was taking place well before her involvement, but certainly not at the alarming rate of today. It's as if two or even three generations of Hutu will have to die before Pauline's inexplicable actions will finally end.
Moreover, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a former Rwandan Minister for Women and Family Affairs, is also the first woman ever charged with encouraging rape as an instrument of genocide. She is accused of being one of the most zealous organisers of the 1994 genocide. Her trial at the International Tribunal for Rwanda resumes this month in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. She had been a minister for two years when the killings started. Given the charges against her, and the ferocity with which she allegedly
urged the Interahamwe militia to slaughter Tutsi "cockroaches" - old
women and unborn babies included - she stands accused of working to eliminate part of the very section of society she was duty-bound to protect and help.
DR Congo SITREP and 850 more Peacekeepers on the way
OCHA North Kivu Humanitarian Situation Report - 12 Sep 2007
India to send 850 peacekeepers to CongoCONTEXT
The Congolese army, Laurent Nkunda’s troops and FDLR/Mayi-Mayi remain on their positions in and around Sake and following the cessation of hostilities agreed on September 6th, despite some breaches reported in Ngungu and Rubaya, in Masisi district.
A UN vehicle (MONUC) was stoned on September 11th in Nyamilima, in Ruthsuru district. No one was injured, but this incident keeps increasing insecurity on all UN staff as there is a risk of confusion among the population between MONUC and UN agencies.
MONUC has appealed to all parties in conflict to respect the cessation of hostilities and find a peaceful solution to the situation.
POPULATION MOVEMENTS
In the past days, most of the population from Sake and Ufumandu (Masisi territory) has moved east towards Mugunga, and south along the Kivu Lake shore and Minova in South Kivu. Access to these areas is less restricted than in areas north or west of Sake.
NEW DELHI: India is sending a fresh contingent of 850 military personnel to Congo to bolster its UN peacekeeping troops presence in that country to over 4,666 personnel.
A battalion of the 6th Sikh Light Infantry would leave here on September 16 to take up peacekeeping responsibility in the Southern Katanga region of the strife-torn country.
The Sikh troops, who would replace those of the Rajputana Rifles, were today given a farewell by the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Susheel Gupta.
More Displaced in North Kivu As Fighting Resumes
A two-week peace treaty, nearly a world record was almost too hard to take.
AllAfrica via UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, 25 September 2007
Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC).
"The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in Kichanga [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial capital]," Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September.
"The number of people forced to flee violence this year in the DRC's North Kivu province has passed the 300,000 mark, the highest level in over three years," said UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Jens Hesemann.
more on Congo violence
From the NYT, 7 October 2007:
I found this particularly striking (and reminiscent in its way of the "night commuters" of northern Uganda sleeping in the bush to avoid LRA abduction and abuse):Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence, and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations, 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the total number across the country.
“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.”
The United Nations peacekeepers here seem to be stepping up efforts to protect women.
Recently, they initiated what they call “night flashes,” in which three truckloads of peacekeepers drive into the bush and keep their headlights on all night as a signal to both civilians and armed groups that the peacekeepers are there. Sometimes, when morning comes, 3,000 villagers are curled up on the ground around them.
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