*USA** condemns renegade groups FAR/Interahamwe: but who are they? ** ***

 

By AfroAmerica Network.

 

November 16, 2007.

 

AfroAmerica Network has obtained the lengthy “Congolese and  Rwandan  Joint Communiqué Against Armed Presence in Eastern DRC”, signed in  Nairobi, on November 9, 2007 by the Congolese Foreign Affairs Minister  Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi, the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Charles  Murigande, the UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios,  the European Union (EU) Envoy Roeland van de Geer  and the USA Envoy  Timothy Shortley.  The communiqué outlines the responsibilities of each  of the involved parties, including the DRC, Rwanda, and the  international community.

 

In reaction to the Congolese and Rwandan Joint Communiqué, the USA St ate  Department released a remark, obtained by AfroAmerica Network on  November 13, 2007. The USA Government welcomes the signing  of the Joint  Communiqué, while insisting on  the fact that it is “a new opportunity  to end the armed presence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo of  former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-Far) and rebel Interahamwe implicated in  Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.” The release insists that the USA government  condemns “continuing attacks on innocent civilians in eastern Congo,  especially by illegal armed groups such as the forces of renegade  Congolese General Laurent Nkunda, as well as the ex-FAR and Interahamwe.”

 

While one can always guess who the Rwandese and Congolese are, there  is  confusion on who the international community and the ex-FAR/Interahamwe  represent.

 

*International Community:  is it the USA, EU, and UN?*

 

 From the list of the signatories of the Communiqué, it is clear the   USA, EU, and UN have vested interests and a stake in the political saga  being played in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. But do they represent  the international community? Do their interests match the common good  sought out by the world body as a whole or the needs  of the peoples in  the Great Lakes, Congolese and Rwandans in particular? How about the  past failures by the UN, the USA, and EU in tackling the tragedy in the  region? Where are France, Belgium, and China? How about Russia?  What is  going with the MONUC? Is the recent firing or termination of MONUC  leaders related to the communiqué or going to address MONUC’s  inabilities to deal with the situation?

 

Many questions, very few or no answers, and the always elusive  international community.

 

*The Elusive Ex-FAR and Interahamwe*

 

Who are Ex-FAR and Interahamwe? The answer to this question has become  more complex with the increasing imbroglio in the region. Depending on  the pursued agenda and occult motives anyone finds a convenient answer.   That is perhaps why the Kigali government was quick to jump on the  joint  communiqué and the USA release and include all its arm ed  opposition groups,  while nowhere in the communiqué or the USA Statement  remarks, is mentioned the Rwandan known armed opposition groups, such as  Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR). It will not be surprising  if the Rwandan government soon includes other armed opposition groups  not implanted in the DRC, such as the Rally for Unity and Democracy  (RUD-Urunana) or Rally for the Rwandan People (RPR).

  In fact, the Kigali Government has the peculiar habit of labeling anyone  opposed to the regime as an ex-FAR or Interahamwe genocidaire, including  Tutsis themselves.  For example, Kigeli, a former Rwandan Tutsi king   exiled in the USA,  was recently qualified of interahamwe  and  divisionist with genocidaire intent by leaders in Kigali, following an  interview with BBC in which he declared that to him, Rwanda belongs to  all Rwandans, including those armed groups fighting the government.  Likewise, the former Speaker of the Rwandan Parliament, Joseph  Sebarenzi, also exiled in USA and himself a Tutsi or the Tutsi  journalist Deo Mushayidi, exiled in Europe were on several occasions  accused of espousing the ex-FAR/Interahamwe ideology.  Mushayidi’s  criticisms were so pointed and accurate that the enraged Rwandan  President Kagame had to intervene with a public statement condemning the  journalist. Leaders and official media then went on the rampage accusing  Mushayidi of being an interahamwe and a genicidaire associate.

 

The “ex-FAR Interahamwe” qualification of the armed opposition by Kigali  is consistent with Kigali’s policies. The Kigali government attempted  the same stratagem when in June 2007. During a meeting of the Tripartite  Plus held in Lubumbashi, the Rwandan list transmitted to Uganda,  Rwanda,  Burundi, and DRC included the names of the leaders of the three  armed opposition groups: FDLR, RUD-Urunana, and RPR.  For example, the  list included the leader of the Tutsi armed opposition group, RPR, Major  Gerard Ntashamaje. Kigali’s officials tried to convince the Tripartite  Plus members that Major Gerard Ntashamaje, a Tutsi and former member of  the ruling RPF and former officer within both the Rwandan Patriotic Army  and Rwandan Government Forces, was an ex-FAR Hutu trained in the “Ecole  Superieur Militaire (ESM).  Gerard Ntashamaje never attended the ESM,  was never a military in the ex-FAR and joined the armed guerrilla  movement, RPA, well before 1993, where he raised in rank from a simple  soldier to Major.

 

The list was later rejected by other countries, as not consistent with  the objectives of the Tripartite Plus. Kigali was asked to produce a  more relevant list, with clear and justified accusations.  In the  Nairobi communiqué, Kigali was again asked to comply with the requirement.

 

It is important to remember that, whether the international community,  the US, EU, DRC, and Rwanda like it or not, the  ex-FAR/Interahamwe/Laurent Nkuda phenomenon is a symptom of a deeper  problem. These renegade groups are the stench of a decaying situation in  the Great Lakes region. One cannot suppress a stench without eliminating  the root cause. It has always been argued by experts that the root cause  is the political situation in the Great Lakes Region, Rwanda in  particular. Regardless of the culprit, the root must be uprooted.  

*Where are the other armed groups: FDLR, RUD-Urunana, RPR?*

 

 From the speeches, remarks, media releases and political rendez-vous   by the current Rwandan leaders,  a consistent theme emerges: Rwandan  leaders are afraid of the emergence of an armed rebellion. They know it;  they know that any organized and steadfast armed rebellion would be the  beginning of the downfall of the regime. They know they have to use all  means to preempt any organized insurgency.

 

In a recent report by the reputed International Crisis Group (Congo:  Bringing Peace to North Kivu, Africa Report N°133, 31 October 2007) the  ICG remarks: “/Major offensives by the mixed brigades against the FDLR  eventually prompted collapse of the mixage process. .. The mixed  brigades lacked logistical support, while the FDLR fought well and  sustained few casualties. The FDLR temporarily went to safer locations  deeper inside Virunga Park and Walikale territory but returned once the  brigades withdrew/.”

 

The Rwanda government knows that, despite official statements to the  contrary, the armed apposition groups constitute a real military threat  if and whenever they decide to fight the Rwandan army.  

ICG reports adds: /“The FDLR’s aim officially continues to be to force  the Rwandan government to peace talks. .. The transformation into a  criminal, money-making enterprise has led to internal clashes over  spoils. In 2004, a struggle for control of trade routes and markets  around Rusamambo in North Kivu led to the creation of a splinter faction  led by Colonel Musare. Although he initially approached MONUC for  repatriation, he soon allied with a new Rwandan exile movement, the  Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD). In June 2007, a senior FDLR  gathering in Kalonge proposed reconciling the two branches.”/

 

ICG views these economic activities as criminal money-making schemes.  What if these activities were aimed at funding a protracted rebellion?

 

Furthermore, according to the ICG, FDLR and RUD-Urunana may be seeking  to form an alliance. It would be interesting to see what that alliance  would produce and how it will affect the security in Rwanda. In fact  with the alliance, a Hutu/Tutsi group -RUD-Urunana and RPR- implemented  in Rwanda and the FDLR based in DRC would form an armed coalition  against the Tutsi led Rwandan government. With that alliance, one may  wonder how the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Murigande and  Ambassador Richard Sezibera would accuse the armed opposition for being  Hutu extremists or being a Congolese problem. That is perhaps what  worries Charles Murigande and Paul Kagame the most.

 

Recently, the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Charles  Murigande   commented that the threat by ex-FAR Interahamwe cannot be eliminated by  moving them away from the DRC-Rwanda borders.  “/They walked all way  from Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Central  African Republic, Kamina, Kinshasa, and congregated in Kivu, bent on  invading the country. Thye did it once, when they were weak and

vulnerable, they can do it again./” Murigande argued.

 

  AfroAmerica Network agrees with Charles Murigande on that. One cannot  suppress the stench without eliminating the source of the stench. It  happens that the source of the stench is the political situation inside  Rwanda. As any source of stench, the prevailing political situation will

continue to attract groups bent on cleaning the landscape.

 

But until the FDLR, RUD-Urunana, and RPR coalesce, Charles Murigande has  a breathing room. A room in which the air certainly stinks, but is still

breathable.