International Rally: Rwanda and Uganda Out of Congo!

Members of the Congolese diaspora and supporters will rally at the White House and march to Congress to demand that the U.S. and its UN Ambassador Susan Rice stop blocking peace in the Congo by protecting the Ugandan regime of General Yoweri Museveni and the Rwandan regime of General Paul Kagame, whose Defense Minister James Kabarebe commands the Rwandan and Ugandan backed militia that resumed its war in Congo in April this year. Rallies are planned in other cities around the world on the same day.

This is the transcript of a KPFA Evening News report, broadcast on Sunday, 11.26.2012, with Friends of the Congo’s Kambale Musavuli. Our focus on Sunday was Rwanda in Congo, because the latest UN report identifies Rwandan Defense Minister James Kabarebe as the Commander of the M23 militia in Congo. The report says that Uganda is also behind M23 and that M23’s Bosco Ntaganda reports to Gen. Salim Saleh, Ugandan President Gen. Yoweri Museveni’s brother, and Kale Kayihura, Inspector General of the Ugandan Police. To listen to another KPFA News report, with Black Start Editor Milton Allimadi, which has not yet been transcribed, click: M23 are Terrorists, not “Rebels,” in Congo, says Milton Allimadi-Ann Garrison, KPFA News Reporter, WBAI AfrobeatRadio Producer

KPFA EVENING NEWS ANCHOR ANTHONY FEST: Government sources in the Democratic Republic of Congo said today the government wouldn’t hold further talks with the M23 militia until M23 withdraws from Goma, the eastern Congolese provincial capital it captured earlier this week.  For its part, M23 said it won’t give up the city without a promise of ongoing negotiations. Meanwhile Congolese, Rwandan, and Ugandan activists are asking their allies to sign petitions and call the office of U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to ask her to stop blocking a UN Security Council response to the latest report from a UN Panel on the Democratic Republic of Congo. That panel has documented Rwandan and Ugandan control of the M23 militia. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke to Kambale Musavuli, Student Coordinator and Mining Researcher at Washington D.C.-based Friends of the Congo

KPFA/ANN GARRISON: Kambale, could you tell us why you’re asking your allies to contact U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice?
 
KAMBALE MUSAVULI: We have received many reports that the United States has been a block for peace in the Congo at the United Nations.
where Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, has, numerous times, blocked the publishing of the UN Report.  And in this last resolution that was voted at the Security Council, she literally made sure that Rwanda’s name was off. The resolution that was voted on stated that the Security Council condemned Rwanda in the Congo, and “Rwanda” was removed and changed to “external forces.”  
 
KPFA: The UN [Group] of Experts report also says that James Kabarebe, the Rwandan Defense Minister, is commanding M23 from Rwanda, doesn’t it?
 
KAMBALE MUSAVULI: Yes yes, the report had a diagram of the chain of command, and it’s pretty much commanded from Rwanda, specifically by James Kabarebe, He is the commander of the M23.  
 
KPFA: Could you tell us about the demonstration you’re planning there in Washington on the 28th?
 
KAMBALE MUSAVULI: So on the 28th of November, at 11 am, we are calling on people of good will to join us to demonstrate in front of the White House, and we will walk from the White House to Congress to denounce the U.S. support of Rwanda, in light of the UN report, and demand an end to impunity and to stop the war in the Congo. And this rally is happening around the world. It’s also happening in London. It’s happening in Paris. It’s happening in Brussels. It’s happening in New York and it’s going to be happening in Atlanta, and more cities are coming on.
 
KPFA: And that was Kambale Musavuli, Student Coordinator and Mining Researcher at Washington D.C.-based Friends of the Congo. For more information, see friendsofthecongo.org, sfbayview.com, and blackstarnews.com.  
 
For Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO EMPOWER: Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Global Research, Colored Opinions, the Black Star News and her own website, anngarrison.com, and produces radio for Pacifica’s WBAI AfrobeatRadio and KPFA Evening News.  She also has a YouTube Channel: AnnieGetYourGang, and she can be reached at [email protected].

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