rangers of the Virunga National Park--account below)
***
Listening to DRC Media and government's spokesperson Minister Lambert
Mende this past week talk to a pool of journos gathered around him on
a TV set, you'd think the man has done quite some serious thinking on
the conduct of war and come up with a theory that has improved on that
of Baron Carl von Clausewitz.
The novelty in war theory proffered by Mende is that, in it, there are
no concepts such as attack, counter-attack or resistance.
"We disengaged [from Bunagana and other localities] to spare civilians
a bloodbath!" he said with a straight face. "Had the army stayed and
resisted, the towns occupied by M23 would've been razed to the ground,
especially that those people are using civilians as human shilelds!"
Really!
Well, let's now push Mende's absurd theory to its equally most absurd
consequences.
The insurgents attack Goma, and the troops retreat to spare civilians
gore and mayhem.
The M23 then attack and seize Bukavu, and city after city thereafter,
till they show up at the gates of Kinshasa.
What would the government do at this stage of the game?
Simple! According to Mende's theory, the whole army and the entire
government would then cross to the right bank of the Congo River, to
Brazzaville, the nearby capital city of the other Congo, no doubt to
spare the Kinois a bloodbath!
Mende is an intelligent and well-educated man. At one point in his TV
appearance, he seemed to realize the absurdity of his own argument.
For, pressed by journos, the man snapped: "A l'impossible nul n'est tenu!"
That is: One can't do the impossible!
Tee-hee!
***
The Virunga National Park is back online after its computer and
electronic wirings and electrical fittings were "fried" by a lightning
strike about a week ago.
In point of fact, the thunderbolt could've killed Dr Emmanuel de
Mérode, the Park's chief warden.
Here's how Dr de Mérode recounts the dramatic lightning event in his
post logged Thursday, July 19:
"We have finally managed to secure a reasonable Internet connection.
"We've enjoyed a string of enjoyable experiences: I was struck by
lightning, which had me staring blankly at my fried computer for about
25 minutes (not that I remember any of it), then there was food
poisoning and finally a massive tooth ache."
"Enjoyable experiences," Dr de Mérode says?
If anything, the conservation efforts at the Virunga National Park
would have come to a sudden oblivion had this conservation hero met
his early demise by lightning.
In a post published yesterday, Dr de Mérode unwittingly and
retroactively contradicts Mende's preposterous war theory.
Instead of retreating to spare gorillas and other wildlife a blood
bath as would have Mende's war theory, here we see 14 rangers and 12
FARDC troops fiercely standing their ground and repel an attack by "a
large FDLR militia unit."
Here's Dr de Mérode's blow-by-blow account of the heroic feat of arms
by his rangers and those nameless FARDC heroes:
"Yesterday [Friday, July 20], just before dawn, our position of 14
rangers at Nyakakoma came under heavy attack by a large FDLR militia
unit.
"One soldier of the Congolese army and three militiamen were killed
during the attack that lasted about four hours.
"At 5am a unit of around 30 militiamen moved in on our patrol post
that had been established to protect the fishing community at
Nyakakoma.
"Fortunately, those that were holding the night time watch were awake,
and they were able to return fire immediately and defend the position
for an hour.
"A PKM machine gun position had recently been placed at the ranger
post, which probably saved them.
"After an hour and a half, our rangers began running out of
ammunition, and pulled back into the settlement, where they were
joined by 12 soldiers from the Congolese army.
"At 8am they launched an offensive and a very violent confrontation followed.
"A soldier was killed by enemy fire, and the commanding officer was
wounded in the foot.
"The counter-attack was successful and they were able to push back the FDLR.
"The bodies of three militiamen were found at our patrol post after
the rebels had fled.
"[Ranger] Rodrigue arrived from the Lake with reinforcements and is
pursuing the militia.
"Our first assessment is that they were looking to attack the fishing
settlement to pillage the population.
"Our thoughts are with the family of the soldier who died during the attack."
Indeed!
***
PHOTO CREDITS: world.guns.ru
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