Save Congo From Western-Sponsored Genocide

Congo has already lost more than five million civilians after earlier invasions from Uganda and Rwanda. In 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Uganda liable for crimes against humanity and looting in Congo.

[Black Star News Editorial]

World leaders don’t want a repeat in Congo of the Rwanda-type genocide of 1994, which occurred four years after Uganda sponsored an invasion of Rwanda in 1990 and exacerbated traditional tension between Tutsis and the majority Hutus.

Sixteen international statesmen have sent an urgent appeal to the European Union (EU) asking for immediate armed intervention to prevent genocide in Congo.

In this instance, a Rwanda and Uganda-backed terrorist, Laurent Nkunda, has launched new fighting, forcing thousands of Congolese to flee from their homes.

Refugees arriving in Uganda report that Nkunda’s forces have killed their relatives. This news should come as no surprise; Nkunda’s chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda,
was already indicted in April 2008 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges; it’s only a question of time before Nkunda himself is also indicted.

In 2002, Nkunda was a leader of another rebel army, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD). When some soldiers mutinied in Kisangani, 150 of them were beheaded; their bodies were thrown into the Congo River, according to Human Rights Watch. This is the same man who now says he wants to “share” power with Congo’s elected president Joseph Kabila.

This time, Nkunda’s sponsors in Rwanda, Uganda and overseas should also be brought to book.

Congo has already lost more than five million civilians after earlier invasions from Uganda and Rwanda. In 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Uganda liable for crimes against humanity and looting in Congo and awarded $10 billion compensation; not a penny has been paid, and instead there is more bloodshed and destruction.

Those leaders that signed the letter appealing to the EU include Bishop Desmond Tutu and ambassador Jan Egeland, the former Under Secretary general for humanitarian affairs at the United Nations.

The signatories say it will take too long for the United Nations to deploy additional troops for the 17,000 peacekeepers already stationed in Congo and the EU should intercede.

In separate remarks, Egeland has made it clear that there is a double standard when it comes to dealing with crises in Africa. “There was not this indecisiveness in the Balkans, Iraq or the wider Middle East,” he has said.

Let’s hope the involvement of the 16 global leaders will generate some proper media attention –not the fawning propaganda by The New York Times and the BBC glorifying the terrorist army in recent weeks– and shame the world into acting on behalf of the people of Congo, who are victims of foreign terrorist armies acting on behalf of Western mining and mineral interests.

 

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