The pretext for the first Rwandan and allied forces' intervention in
the Congo was the right of hot pursuit, which is justifiable in
international law.
Then, armed Hutu genocidal maniacs had not only been given shelter on
Congolese soil but also free rein by Mobutu to wage a guerrilla
warfare against the newly established Rwandan regime.
That intervention ultimately resulted in regime change in the Congo.
Rwanda at first denied any direct involvement in its second armed
plundering venture into the Congo, claiming that the armed conflict
was strictly a Congolese civil war.
When this PR talking point became untenable in light of on-the-ground
facts, Rwanda ended up acknowledging the presence of its troops in the
Congo and invoked once again the same principle of the right of hot
pursuit.
After all, the genocidaires and their offsprings had by then morphed
into a vicious terrorist outfit called FDLR--a bane in the Great Lakes
region.
That war was later dubbed by Susan Rice Africa's World War.
Maybe the next military aggression Rwanda seems to be planning will be
called: Africa's First Bloggers-triggered War.
Well, that is, if we are to give credence to the ridiculous and
baseless claims made by Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.
At a press briefing in New York this past Monday, Mushikiwabo claimed
to be shuddering at the alleged pre-genocide "bigotry" now taking
Congo and the Congolese blogosphere by storm.
"This is very reminiscent of the rhetoric just before the genocide
against the Tutsi in 1994," she said. "Certainly Rwanda keeps a very
close watch on that kind of pronouncements."
Adding:
"In our corner of the world, words quickly become deeds and
anti-Rwanda rhetoric carries grave consequences... More hateful
attacks can be feared as calls for Congolese worldwide to 'kill the
Tutsis' are being propagated over the internet."
This is either baseless paranoia or a cunning pre-emptive pretext for
the next Rwandan aggression.
But either way Mushikwabo isn't fooling anyone.
In my view, this is simply a very clumsy maneuver by Rwanda to attempt
exporting to the regional level the well-known trumped-up charge of
"spreading genocide ideology" that it routinely uses to suppress
domestic opposition.
Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is rotting in prison on those very
same vaguely convenient charges.
What's even more worrisome is that Mushikiwabo's claims aren't the
only irresponsible utterances being proffered by Rwandan leaders these
past few days.
At his press conference of last week, President Paul Kagame made the
outlandish claim that last year he was approached by some unnamed
western countries to have Rwanda participate in a black ops mission to
bump Joseph Kabila!
Said Kagame:
"During the period of elections last year, this same international
community was running around. They came to us and said President
Kabila was becoming unserious, was not talking to them and that they
look for him and cannot access him. In the end they asked us if he
should be removed either by elections or other means.
I am going to spill some secrets here. At the end of the day, they
can't do anything. He is elected. Some reality has dawned on them and
they have to put up with him because they like Congo more than the
Congolese."
Today in Kinshasa, at his weekly press briefing, DRC Communication
Minister Lambert Mende was asked more specifically whether he believed
Kagame when he charged that "France [Sarkozy] and the UK [Cameron]"
wanted to have Kabila assassinated last year.
(I don't know through what verification process the journo posing the
question went from Kagame's "international community" to "France and
the UK.")
Strangely, Mende said he took Kagame's wild accusations "seriously."
Mende even used them as a cautionary tale for the Congolese media,
civil society and citizens who hold the west as the paragon of
democracy while some in the west show "no respect for the Congolese
people through their will expressed in democratic elections."
Mende was playing the role of the gullible sucker in the sitcom
written by Kagame.
Mende should have instead questioned the timing of Kagame suddenly and
conveniently spilling his explosive secrets just now.
What did Kagame contemporaneously do with his secrets? Did he share
them with DRC authorities? Did he go to the UN with them? Did he
convene a press briefing to denounce a callous plot against a brother
who'd seen his own father assassinated?
The answer to all those questions is obvious: No!
Kagame was with his back against the diplomatic wall when he made
those unsubtantiated allegations.
But these utterances should be a warning to the DRC and the
international community.
For whenever mystagogue Kagame is thus irrationnally contemptuous of
the DRC and the international community, he's all set to make the DRC
pay for some mysterious wrongs inflicted on him and Rwanda!
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