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The Right Approach Towards Finding A Durable Solution To
The African Great Lakes Region Crisis
Your Excellency the UN Secretary General,
It is now almost two decades since the terrible situations of war engulfing the African Great lakes Region has erupted caused by the attack from Uganda by Rwandese refugees. This ethnic based war went too far to creating the genocide against Rwandese Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in 1994 (and after) in Rwanda, in the presence of the UN peace keeping force, UNAMIR which failed to protect vulnerable people during and after the genocide. The aftermath of this genocide also indicated the UN's ICTR (the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) failure to bring about social justice and reconciliation among Rwandese people, as it was and is still so biased by only prosecuting suspected Hutu criminals while the Tutsi ones of RPF are still terrorising the entire region.
Your Excellency the UN Secretary general, as the President of a Rwandese major opposition political party embracing members from all ethnic groups, on behalf of vulnerable Rwandese people from all tribes, and on behalf of all Rwandese refugees around the world, I would like to inform the UN and particularly the International Community that the currently unfolding Human crisis in the Eastern DRC will never get a durable solution unless its root cause is properly examined and tough decision are taken.
I believe President Kagame was right when he joked at the International community's approach to the crisis at the press conference in Kigali in early November this year, as he questioned how can someone deals with the urgent humanitarian problem without addressing the root cause. To show how confident and determined he was, He went on to say: "I can assure you if this approach continues, six months down the road we will have another humanitarian catastrophe like this one". His strong feeling of being an invulnerable commander in chief and an ethnic liberator, his lack of human rights understanding, all this influenced his thinking that any decision taken to address the Congolese issue will play in his favour, considering the strong financial, military and moral support he enjoyed and is still enjoying from powerful nations around the world.
I believe this is the right place and the right time that the right people need to carefully take the right decision without taking sides if we are to tackle this ethnic issue and bring about permanent peace in this region. I also believe the FDLR armed militia is a major barrier to lasting peace in the region, but I don't believe in Kagame's military interference into DRC matters as the later is willing to handle the issue diplomatically. I also recommend that in order to enforce total justice, democracy and human rights in Rwanda in order to convince Rwandese people in exile including different armed groups, Kagame's government has no other option than accepting negotiations with all the Rwandese opposition political parties operating in exile.
The UN together with the International Community have the responsibility to put the pressure on the Rwandese government, particularly on President Kagame to immediately stop spreading his aggressive behaviour in the region.
The UN and the International community behaviour of keeping a blind eye and deaf ear towards the unsolved myth surrounding Rwandese genocide, and Kagame's personal and his armed criminals implication in that genocide made him feel that he is an untouchable powerful warrior in the region, and make him defy any call to respect the human rights and his neighbouring countries sovereignty. The DRC has suffered enough during the two Rwanda's incursions and massacres of more than five million Congolese innocent civilian, and did not deserve any other aggression by Rwanda, if not just the scratch in its scars intended to test the level of its perseverance, which of course has the limit.
Your Excellency the UN Secretary General, I believe that the UN and the International Community have very realistic examples and experience form different wars around Africa, such as the most recent one between Liberia and Sierra-Leone. Should Charles Taylor's "Blood Diamonds" issue had been approached with a blind eye and deaf year, how do you think Sierra Leonean and Liberian people would be at the moment? Why then should innocent people from the African Great lakes Region suffer from the "Blood Coltan" by the blood thirsty Kagame, his criminal gangs and allies? The Region is not being destroyed by these Rwandese trained and sponsored terrorists but by all of us who just watch and fail to react. I assure you, your Excellency, that millions of Rwandese and Congolese innocent lives that perished and still perishing in front of our open eyes will never go unpunished.
As a Rwandese freedom, justice and democracy advocate, my message to the International community is that the concerned people from the African Great lakes Region particularly all the survivors of the Rwandese genocide will never give up the fight for fair justice, for this is the place and time that the tide is soon going to turn. The International community's tolerance of Rwandese government's evil behaviour towards its neighbours does and will never solve the region's suffering, but will instead encourage regional dictatorship and suppression of democratic institutions, therefore putting millions of innocent lives at risk such as what is currently unfolding in the eastern part of the DRC.
Banyarwanda political party, on behalf of Rwandese people and in collaboration with Rwandese neighbours and other regional partners, is genuinely happy to request you, your Excellency, to stand firmly on finding the real, suitable and durable solution for the entire region, rather than focusing on individual (ethnic group or country) and/or personal gains in the region.
Hoping my plight to be put under your consideration, your Excellency, I believe that your self styled sense of humour, your mediation effort shown recently during your visit to the region, plus your mandate to global human rights, social justice and democracy will inevitably bring about right results to desperate people in need of lasting peace and stability around the African Great lakes Region.
Yours Sincerely,
Done in Brussels, 10th November 2008
Rutayisire Boniface,
President of Banyarwanda Political Party.
Tel(32) 0488 25 0305
Email: infotubeho@yahoo.fr (yahoo.fr)
Readers Comments:
17 Nov 2008
1.
Daer RK,
Response to the author of Banyarwanda Political Party Letter to UN Boss,
The concerns raised by the chairperson of exlied Rwandese are sincere, and in deed a permanent solution is needed for the entire Great Lakes region. However, it would be helpful if the author put forward his/their proposals for example, how do they think the UN could cause a permanent changein the region, not only addressing the Kagame/Kigali factor.
For my part, I would back up suggestions proposed by Paul Collier, clearly outlined in his book entitled, " The Bottom Billion: Why Poor States are Poor and What Can be Done to Get them Out." Briefly, Paul outlines the causes as being the conflict trap, the natural resources trap, landlockedness with bad neighbors and bad governance with bad policies. We can come out of the traps if those issues were rectified.
I recommend members to take some time and read that book, there is good stuff on failed states in general.
Mo Tata
17 Nov 2008
2.
Dear editor, dear readers! It is totally a shame not only for individuals but for the whole African great lakes community, as to how the so called educated people in this part of Africa are the most unwise members of our own society. I really don't know the reason why but I suspect it may be because of targeting the big loaf that they decide to make a U turn around the truth and reality, and choose to just sympathize propaganda and unrealistic ideologies.
Dear readers and specifically my people from the African great lakes region, should we be more wise and don't just follow the hearsays especially when it comes to Rwandese politics. To me it is a shame when a writer throws his full support to an invasion of another country's sovereignty, causing horrible massacres such as what happened and is still happening to the DR Congo at the moment. Is it really wise to eliminate more than five millions innocent lives just to protect a quarter million of people? or can there be any other approach to solve the crisis than just supporting militarism and confrontation? Do we believe we (Africans)are the losers?
The writer said
that The UN failed its mandate. Did it fail really? I don't think so. Unless if we don't know what the UN actually means. Please be aware that the letter 'R' was omitted to cover up its real mission. We don't have to be told in order to understand; instead we have to understand from what we see. It is actually the 'URN'(United Rich Nations), which is a one way pipeline from the unfortunate to the fortunate; from the ignorant to the wise; and from the poor to the rich. Those who discover this secret, then abide by it and keep it confidential are the only one who can develop a good rapport with the big masters and succeed to cling to power for life. It doesn't matter what they do and how they do it, what matters is just ensuring the safety of the one way pipeline flow.
So when you people try to convince your fellow that Interahamwe want to eliminate their fellow Tutsi, or when you try to support the carnage in the DR Congo by linking it to the genocide in Rwanda, you delude yourself by forgetting that time is the most powerful weapon, where the invulnerable becomes the loser and the weaker becomes the triumphant. Lets just accept it because this is the time and place, but be aware that the tide won't delay to turn. Today may be the survival of the fittest, but tomorrow could be the survival of the 'rightest'. The world is now in its evolution moment and change has taken root. It won't just end there but will reach everywhere.
From the beginning of times to the arrival of colonialism, great lakes Africans and particularly Rwandese people were living together without any scratch. Today our so called scholars, instead of seeking to intervene and support our fellow brothers and sisters, orphans and widows under starvation, you decide to add the nail in the coffin by allying yourself to and supporting the game of the bloody gold, coltan and diamonds in the Eastern DRC by Kagame who knows what he is doing (protecting a one way pipeline flow), and doesn't care about the meaning of life.
The misunderstanding between Kigali and Paris today is not because France had its hand in the genocide (many others also did and are still heavily active), but because Kigali has been very partial or biased in securing the one way pipeline. Kagame's diplomacy has been so weak that he didn't know how to navigate Between the French and English relationship, not even knowing France's role in the European community. He just thought he can survive by only serving his long time English masters and blockading his major French foe. He deluded himself by wanting to become the best friend of Europeans and push to alienate France. He just thought that Europeans are like great Lakes Africans who accept any lift from the wind and sometimes make it wrong to be taken by the storm. Europeans know surely that blood is heavier than water and will never take it for granted.
French victims of the Rwandese turmoil are starting to take a toll on Kagame's government, this will be followed by the Spanish, then the Canadian one after. When our African intellectuals look at the way things are unfolding, they start to speculate that it is Western arrogance. It is really not. It is instead Western value of brotherhood. Today Eastern Congolese people are being slaughtered because of Coltan and we Africans are chanting 'yes yes' Tutsi must be protected.
Our Tutsi ethnic group have been living there for thousands of years and nothing happened to them. Why then is it like this today? The Tutsi people do not only live in north Kivu but every where in the two Kivu provinces and the Katanga. Why only those in north Kivu have to be protected? The FDRL are said to be every where in the Kivu, in Uganda, in Tanzania and all around the world; for example these FDRL have been using Ugandan passports to travel around Europe and USA, why only DRC has to be invaded? The answer is simple, because of its oil along lake Albert, its coltan, gold and diamonds on its border with Rwanda and Uganda. Otherwise lets forget about Interahamwe and the threat against Tutsi. But please don't forget that 'Change' is at hand and we will all test it. Thanks.
Muhinda Ryangombe.
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