Author: b_igi_adm1n

While I’m trying to see what the outcome will be of the high-level discussions on the crisis in the DRC, held in margin of the UN General Assembly, some trends have become increasingly annoying for most African observers, including me.

After all the progress made by the African Union (AU) and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the so-called International Community, through its press corps and politicians, simply chose to act as if it never happened and instead proposed another one of those ‘one size fits all’ solutions they always seem to have in store for Africa.

The idea that a solution could originate from the region simply seems unacceptable in some circles. Case and point: the Chicago Tribune’s latest exclusive report on how Secretary of State Hilary Clinton “pressed the two feuding countries to end the crisis”.

The report only highlights Secretary Clinton’s initiative- a welcomed move – but failed to mention anything about the important strides made by African Heads of State contributions and Secretary Clinton’s apparent lack of awareness on the progress made at the ICGLR.

This naturally takes me back to President Kagame’s intervention at the UN General Assembly, as he once again denounced the international community’s parachuted solutions and their failure to provide lasting solutions in everlasting conflicts.

The following passage clearly illustrates the President’s assessment of the Congo situation;

— One, we must appreciate that many conflicts are caused when people are, or feel excluded from full participation in the affairs of their country, particularly around issues that affect their everyday lives.

— Secondly, deep analysis of specific political and cultural contexts of any given conflict is key to lasting solutions. Too often, the inclination is to parachute into a situation with ready-made answers based on superficial examination of the conflict’s dynamics, doing considerably more harm than good, despite the intentions.

There is no one-size-fits-all remedy; these issues are complex and should be approached as such for the best possible outcome.

— And finally, it is increasingly obvious that local or regional initiatives aimed at resolving conflicts yield more positive results because those involved have a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.

Their proximity to the conflict makes them more invested in a comprehensive resolution, and enables the necessary support for whatever process is agreed upon. We need to see these initiatives strengthened. We should be highlighting root causes as we address conflicts.”

Neither Secretary Clinton nor any Chief Editor West of the Eastern seaboard seem to connect with this truly African perspective on how to go about solving any given conflict… which brings us back to square one and the US and UN perspectives.

The problem with those is their absolute disregard of the interests of frontline actors such as the countries in the region and the people involved in the conflict.

The root causes are being ignored by black mailing the rebels and reducing the problem to being of Rwanda’s doing.

Every member of the international community has declared that there was no room to negotiate with the M23 insurrection; how quickly they forget that these so-called rebels are the very same ones who, under the leadership of Laurent Nkunda, repeatedly defeated government troops without any outside help.

Nothing has changed under the Congolese sun since March 23, 2009 (date from which the mutineers derived the ‘M23’ acronym); President Kabila never implemented the provisions of their peace agreement and unilaterally decided to maintain the status quo.

How do you find a lasting solution while excluding half of the equation, full-fledged Congolese nationals with legitimate concerns and the determination to fight for them?

Or is the International community shying away from its own responsibilities by throwing Rwanda under the bus, hoping to have President Kagame clean up the mess of their own making?

And this, while Rwanda has just received all the praises for achieving the Millennium Development Goals before the ultimate deadline of 2015, as defined by the UN.

Topping up, Rwanda is the 6th top contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions on the planet. Aren’t all these threats to freeze or cut future aid not contradicting the UN’s own vision of conflict resolution and development?

Everyone seems to want to move out of this embarrassing situation but no one wants recognize regional process that has already achieved more than any international initiatives, and has more credibility that the notoriously onerous international alternatives to the regional process that has definitely way more advantages and credibility than the International initiatives which have undoubtedly been way too costly colossal failures.

Meanwhile, the mechanisms proposed by the AU are being implemented and deserve everyone’s support.

It is interesting to point out that the process initiated by the ICGLR and the AU includes the kind of recommendations expressed by the Rwandan President at the UN.

The US or the UN will have to take in consideration African initiatives. The African Union and ICGLR’s efforts usher in a new era of African solutions to African problems… or should I be so bold as to call this the ‘audacity of hope’?

No nation state is built on sentiments and putting things out of context. Time and space factors so are objective and subjective ones interplay to bear fruits.

Before one pours sentiments out and attack innocent Rwandans on the streets of Belgium because some M23 are fighting in DRC, there is need to think twice.

Suffice it to say that most people in DRC and Rwanda are not aware of what is going on in DRC.

The ordinary folk apart, even the educated class may not give convincing food for thought on what is going on. It has been so dramatic an about turn that most people in Rwanda are wondering what is going on.

When Mobutu got overthrown, president Museveni in his speech on the inauguration of the late president Desire Kabila said that at last the hole that had separated the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean was sealed.

This implied that the regime of Mobutu with reactionary tendencies was over and the people of East Africa and central Afria/west Africa were going to interact. That the obstacle had at last been removed. Alas! It was not going to be.

What is transpiring in DRC now has objective and subjective conditions within the time frame that precipitated it. One thing sums it all-fallacious frameworks on which things have been built.

King Leopold of Belgium in a dramatic move declared Congo (DRC) his private property.

The Congo Free State as found in wikipedia the free encyclopedia,was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. That It covered the present DRC.

Leopold the II’s administration is said to have been infamous because of brutality.

Indeed Belgian colonialsm in Africa is known to have been brutal.

Kiboko which has a taint in Rwandan history was a Belgian colonial tool which partly soured relations among Rwandans.

A British Consul Roger Casement is said to have engineered the arrest and punishment of Whites who got involved in cold-blooded killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903, including one Belgian national for causing the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives.

Roger Casement’s famous 1904 report estimated ten million people who died. According to him, indiscriminate “war”, starvation, reduction of births and tropical diseases caused the country’s depopulation.

From 1960 to 1965 Congo (DRC) is said to have been in a very unstable state. That regional tribal leaders held far more power than the central government.

1960 parliamentary elections saw Patrice Lumumba, the nationalist emerge as prime minister. Joseph kasavubu, who was pro-west, became president.

On 5 July 1960 Congolese soldiers mutinied against their European officers. On 11 July 1960 , Katanga, seceded under Moise Tshombe. The United Nations is said to have sent 20,000 peacekeepers to protect Europeans in the country and restore order.

Western paramilitaries and mercenaries, often hired by mining companies to protect their interests, are also said to have been sent. Kasai is also said to have announced its independence on 8 August 1960.

In the turn of events, Lumumba the nationalist got assassinated. Mobutu was propped up by the west and executed the task for them given the cold war dynamics.

One Simba Rebellion of 1964-1965 had half the country taken by the rebels. Mercenaries from Europe, US and Belgium in particular got called in by the then Congo government which saw the rebellion defeated.

When the cold war ended, pressure from within and from without got exerted on Mobutu. Domestic protests and criticism of his human rights record by the international community increased in late 1989 and early 1990.

The economy was not in good shape coupled with corruption in government and massive embezzlement of government funds for self aggrandizement.

As afore realized, DRC the nation state has been to an extent a fallacy.

This is explained by the fact that the central government in succession has been lacking in capacity to pull the country together as explained by traditional means of self defence.

Individual communities in their traditional set up all along devise means to defend themselves because of lack of security system operating from the centre.

Across time what is now DRC has been the making of external factors given world dynamics.

First the scramble for Africa(Colonialism), the cold war which saw the suppression of nationalism which would have brought another Nyerere on the scene in DRC and now the present government which was born out of the accident of history.

It is an open secret that Rwanda by 1996 was going to witness a locust type of invasion.

The genocide forces in an attempt to regain power in Rwanda, just like any other defeated system but with a distinguishing philosophy of wanting to come back and finish off even what was remaining, had prepared itself. They got defeated but their remnants remain in form of FDLR in DRC.

Camps were kept near the border of fled mother country contrary to international law which requires that refugees be taken far from the mother country borders.

This gets done for both the security of the refugees and the mother country. To make matters worse camps became militarized.

When the H hour dawned for the Genocide forces to attack, Rwandan forces in legitimate self defence along side Congolese who were against Mobutu, made a preemptive attack and thwarted the imminent attack on Rwanda.

The beginning of the end of Mobutu regime started. Indeed within seven moths he was no more.

The present government was born of outside intervention without internal revolutionary force capable of taking advantage of the situation. Without a Patriotic national army across the entire territory of DRC, it is hard to avoid civil strife.

People will always devise means of self defence. Rwanda (Rwandans) is not responsible for this. It is DRC internal dynamics mainly responsible.

Congolese in Brussels or elsewhere should blame themselves and their government not the government of Rwanda or Rwandans.

The international community,the regional groupings including SADC need to grasp the objective and subjective realities in DRC, contextualize and then arrive at sustainable solutions.