return home of thousands of Rwandan troops at Goma in eastern Congo,
in this file photo taken on February 25, 2009")
***
One passage of the interview Rwandan Defense Minister Gen. James
Kabarebe gave to Belgian reporter Colette Braeckman and published on
August 29 hit Kinshasa residents like a sucker punch.
In that interview, Gen. Kabarebe confirmed to Braeckman that Rwanda
had "two special forces companies [in Rutshuru], alongside two
Congolese special forces companies. They've been there for two years
and they're still there."
(Address Page: blog.lesoir.be/colette-braeckman/2012/08/29/cartes-sur-table-les-quatre-verites-du-general-james-kabarebe/)
The claim that Congolese authorities would greenlight Rwandan troops
on Congolese soil after the doomed FARDC-RDF joint operations
code-named Umoja Wetu and Kimia II was at first dismissed as the
ravings of a war-monger gone soft in the head.
For all Kinois knew, Rwandan troops had officially kissed goodbye to
the Kivus in 2009 after a disastrous campaign.
Gen. Kabarebe's seemingly preposterous claim was therefore met with
disbelief and laughter.
Then the very next day, Friday, August 29, Kinois who tuned to their
most reliable source of information--Radio France Internationale
(RFI)--were shocked to hear that Gen. Kabarebe had indeed told the
truth after all.
Rwanda was withdrawing its 280-strong special forces operators from
Rutshuru and they'd be crossing into Rwanda on Saturday "Following
consultations with the DRC and MONUSCO," quoting a statement released
by the Rwandan Defense Ministry.
And DRC Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Alexandre Luba Ntambo
matter-of-factly confirming this news as if the presence of Rwandan
troops on Congo territory was common knowledge quickly turned the
shock of Kinois into searing anger.
In their anger, Kinois Residents of the Republic aren't particularly
nice to President Joseph Kabila.
Kinois are even talking about a conspiracy between Kagame and his
"baby brother" Kabila to balkanize the DRC--unearthing the old
conspiracy theory that casts Kabila as a Rwandan golem.
They don't buy that there were Congolese Special Forces sidekicks
breaking bread and living in esprit-de-corps with Rwandan special
operators while other Rwandans and their M23 proxies were beating the
bloody hell out of other Congolese troops.
They even think it's a ploy concocted by the US and force-fed to
MONUSCO to bail out Kagame who's been screaming there was no single
Rwandan soldier on Congolese territory.
Still some other Kinois claim that absent the pressure applied by
MONUSCO, the DRC wouldn't be basking in the current diplomatic
condemnation of Rwanda.
Be that as it might, Keeping this post-Kimia II & Umoja Wetu joint
Rwanda-DRC military operations under wraps was a new low in
miscommunication.
A cavalier contempt for citizens!
A quip by a Kinois journo encapsalutes best this political, security,
and communication malpractice on the part of the DRC government:
"Welcome to the Democratic Opacity of Congo!"
***
PHOTO CREDITS: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
Via: trust.org
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