Radio-Trottoir proved true by leaked new classified UN Report: Rwanda's saber rattling in eastern DRC by proxy of warlord Ntaganda

The Congolese grapevine of Radio-Trottoir is once again proved true.





Radio-Trottoir had it, since the new

round of violence broke out in North-Kivu in early May, that Rwanda

was behind Jean-Bosco Ntaganda and his militia.





According to Radio-Trottoir, the Rwandan regime, which once thrived on

the windfall of its bloody experiment in military entrepreneurship on

Congo resources, will forever be a clear and present danger to the

DRC.





Rwanda is being helped in this enterprise, still according to

Radio-Trottoir, by the inane and incoherent security policy of the DRC

government.





Radio-Trottoir points for instance to the fact that that proving

grounds and training centers for artillery, airborne, and commando

regiments shut down more than a decade ago at the fall of Mobutu have

still to be reopened. Moreover, the Congolese Air Force that once

boasted well-trained combat pilots and French Mirage fighter planes is

in a sorry state today.





Radio-Trottoir and some opposition politicians have even gone as far

as to accuse the Congolese government of being in cahoots with Rwanda

and warlord Ntaganda.





Now, a new classified UN report leaked to the BBC and The New York

Times alleges that Rwanda has been arming, recruiting Rwandan citizens

(including kids), training them, and incorporating them into the

militias of the Rwandan-born warlord Ntaganda.





And this destabilization of eastern Congo has been planned and

implemented since February of this year, the classified UN Report

charges.





Last Wednesday, Congolese Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo--

uncharacteritically for Congolese officials who are usually fearful of

provoking Rwanda, but still shying away from calling a spade a

spade--said that Ntaganda's militias have a "rear base in a

neighboring country" and called on "all concerned states [in the

region] to avoid" backing up "negative groups."





As per usual, Rwanda has dismissed the UN Report as either "rumors" or

as "false and dangerous claims."





Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo lashed out at the United

Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO),

whose military intelligence helped gather intelligence on Rwandan

involvement for the confidential UN Report.





Said Rwandan Foreign Minister Mushikiwabo:





"This billion-dollar-a-year operation [MONUSCO] makes up one quarter

of the UN's entire peacekeeping budget, and yet it has been a failure

from day one."





Mushikiwabo went on to say:





"Instead of pursuing its mandate to eradicate the FDLR menace and help

stabilize the region, MONUSCO has become a destabilizing influence,

primarily concerned with keeping hold of its bloated budgets and

justifying its ongoing existence. Rwanda has received several refugees

who are severely wounded and traumatized as a result of the UN's

failure to protect civilians in eastern DRC."





Well, heaping insults on MONUSCO won't do. And Louise Mushikiwabo can

continue to scream her denials on behalf of her government till her

voice gets hoarse.





The fact remains, however, that:





1) Rwanda had occupied for 5 long years the very same Congolese

territory where the FDLR still operates today, and "failed to

eradicate the FDLR menace."





Rwanda failed because its occupying focused instead on plundering

mineral and forest resources of the Congo--a plunderous military

entrepreneurship that resulted in the deaths of more than 5 million

Congolese civilians!





2) Already in December 2008, when then Ntaganda's boss, warlord

Laurent Nkunda, with the same militiamen, was putting to fire and

sword the same region, Daily Telegraph war reporter David Blair

uncovered what he called "a long-standing tradition" of Rwanda

recruiting its own "demobilised" soldiers and officers, re-training

and arming them, and having them join Laurent Nkunda's CNDP militias

on Congolese soil.





(See David Blair's article, titled "DR Congo rebels recruited from

Rwanda army," Telegraph, 18/12/2008.)





In the meantime, Radio-Trottoir offers this invaluable piece of

conventional wisdom to the powers that be in the Congo:





Don't blame Rwanda for taking advantage of your own failure to build a

dissuasive army able to ward off Rwanda and its proxies in the Kivus.





As long as Congo will remain THE weakling in the tough neighborhood of

the African Great Lakes region, callous bullies like Rwanda will

continue to trample on its sovereignty!