Ten years after Rwandan Hutu extremists massacred their country’s Tutsi minority, ethnic Tutsis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have claimed they are the target of a new genocide and threatened Kinshasa with war if nothing is done about it.
Dissident General Laurent Nkunda — who on June 2 led a group of soldiers into the eastern town of Bukavu, near the border with Rwanda, saying he was seizing the provincial capital to protect his fellow Banyamulenge, DRC ethnic Tutsis with historic ties to Rwanda — was the first to make accusations of ethnic massacres in eastern DRC.
A week after seizing the town, Nkunda withdrew his accusations and his men.
But on Sunday, he indirectly revived the claims of massacres when he threatened Kinshasa with war if it did not set up a commission to investigate the alleged ethnic slaughter in Bukavu.
The DRC army denied on Monday that its soldiers had taken part in massacres in Bukavu, calling the accusations ”lies and excuses” for Nkunda to plunge the country into another war.
And on Wednesday, the head of the human rights branch of the UN mission in DRC, Monuc, said that after a visit to Bukavu that there had been ”no planned massacre” in the town.
”Massacres did indeed take place but you cannot say that a particular community was targeted,” said Roberto Ricci.
To back up his argument, he cited the cases of 26 people who received gunshot wounds in late May in Bukavu. Eleven of them died of their injuries, said Ricci, but none of the injured or dead were Banyamulenge.
”The genocide culture is not part of Congo,” said Ricci.
Nkunda and other dissident officers ”have imported ideas that are alien to the Congolese culture …by talking about things that have no place in Congo, if you ask me,” he said.
He pointed out that, sadly, every community in Bukavu had seen its members raped, robbed and killed. But they have also shown great solidarity with the Banyamulenge, making Nkunda’s allegations seemed nonsense.
But, despite denials from several sides of Nkunda’s accusations of slaughter — Human Rights Watch added its voice to the genocide nay-sayers on Sunday — a key Banyamulenge leader, Benoit Mubanda Kadage, has jumped on Nkunda’s bandwagon.
Mubanda, who is head of the Banyamulenge community in the eastern towns of Bukavu, Uvira, Goma, and Minembwe, the capital, Kinshasa, and the ethnic group’s diaspora, said in a statement published in the press Wednesday that events in Bukavu ”constitute acts of genocide”.
He asked the transition government, which came into being a year ago and is supposed to guide DRC to democratic elections, to ”recognise and strongly condemn the acts of genocide committed against members of the Banyamulenge community”.
The government must also establish who was responsible for ”ordering these acts” and bring to court high-ranking military officials in the military region that includes Bukavu ”for war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Mubanda also called on the international community to ”recognise that acts of genocide” were committed in eastern DRC, and urged ”Banyamulenge… to suspend their participation in the transition institutions in the event of the government not satisfying the demands we have put to them”.
But transition lawmaker, Enoch Ruberangabo Sebineza, also a member of the Banyamulenge community, has taken an entirely different tack.
He denounced Nkunda and the other dissident soldiers in eastern DRC as ”true criminals, whom the Banyamulenge community does not need”.
Meanwhile, it was announced on Wednesday that a Southern African Development Community (SADC) troika is to go to the DRC on Sunday to assess matters after a failed coup attempt in that country.
Lesotho Foreign Minister and troika chairpersson Mohlabi Tsekoa announced the trip in Maseru. South Africa and Mozambique are the other members of the troika.
”The Inter-State Politics and Diplomacy Committee (ISPDC) of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (OPDSC) has noted some instability in the DRC,” Tsekoa said.
”While peace continues to prevail, of late, there has been unwelcome armed military activities, particularly in the eastern part of DRC, that can revive the cycle of violence.”
On June 10, rebel forces attempted a military coup in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa and also tried to take over the eastern town of Bukavu. The government army managed to contain the uprising.
DRC president Joseph Kabila reportedly blamed Rwanda for backing the insurgents.
Tsekoa said: ”The SADC will not tolerate and allow unconstitutional change of a government in the region.”
The mission would visit Kinshasa, Bukavu and Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
”We hope to meet with President Kabila and others he may want us to meet. We will also meet Bukavu governor and others.”
Tsekoa said the visit to Rwanda was essential because that country was a neighbour of the DRC and there were suspicions that it assisted rebels.
”It is also believed that some of those rebel soldiers come from Rwanda. In Kigali, we have asked that country’s foreign minister to arrange for us to meet the President of Rwanda,” said Tsekoa.
He said a troika report on findings and recommendations in the DRC and Rwanda would be handed to Lesotho Prime Minister and OPDSC chairman Pakalitha Mosisili.
Mosisili would present the report to a SADC summit of heads of state and government to be held in Mauritius in August.
”We are optimistic that peace and stability would have been achieved in the DRC by then,” said Tsekoa.
Lesotho’s term as OPDSC chair would end in August and the summit would elect another member for the post.
Currently, Lesotho is deputised by South Africa while Mozambique formed part of the troika because of its status as the immediate past chair of the organ. – Sapa-AFP