1) UN Peacekeepers Day 2013: 149 blue helmets killed in the DRC since 1999; & 2) A Diplomatic Row erupts between Rwanda and Tanzania

1) UN Peacekeepers Day 2013: 149 blue helmets killed in the DRC since 1999

"MONUSCO peacekeepers on patrol.UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti." (MONUSCO photo legend)

(Credits)

Today is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. And Congo, plagued by wars for over two decades now, has the dubious privilege of hosting close to 20,000 blue helmets. 

Lt. Col. Felix Basse, MONUSCO's military spokesman, took that opportunity to remind Congolese and the world that since the initial deployment in 1999 of the much-maligned UN Congo Mission, "first through MONUC and thereafter through MONUSCO, a total of 149 blue helmets have given their lives for the advent of peace" in the Congo--the most recent casualty being the Pakistani peacekeeper killed earlier this month in an ambush  in South Kivu Province. 

With the new Intervention Brigade that is deploying in North-Kivu Province, the toll of casualties among blue helmets is expected to rise.

2) Tanzanian Prez Jakata Jakaya Kikwete triggers diplomatic row with Rwanda over FDLR comment

Tanzanian Prez Jakata Jakaya Kikwete

(Credits)

It just transpired that at a closed-door meeting on Sunday of heads of state of the so-called Framework countries for peace in the DRC in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 50th anniversary of the African Union, Tanzanian President Jakata Jakaya Kikwete bluntly suggested to presidents Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni that Rwanda should consider negotiating with the FDLR and Uganda with the rebel group ADF-NALU for peace to see the light of day in the Great Lakes.  

Kikwete was cautioning the assembled heads of state that the Intervention Brigade, which is led by Tanzania, can't magically end conflict in the region without all the "concerned parties" negotiating.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, known for her undiplomatic mouth and mudslinging, reacted savagely to Kikwete's remarks in a radio interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Monday, branding the Tanzanian president as a sympathizer of the genocidiares. 

"There are many spokespeople for the FDLR," Mushikiwabo said. "Some are ideologically aligned with the FDLR. We stopped the genocide but we didn't stop [its] ideology."

Mushikiwabo, who has the reputation in the DRC of a mudslinger extraordinaire,  is the only person in the region who doesn't see the logic in Kikwete's statement.  

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No Comment: Circling the wagons around UHURU KENYATTA & WILLIAM RUTO (African Union vs. ICC)

(PHOTO 1: AU Chairman & Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn)

(PHOTO 2: ICC Chief Prosecutor & Africa's villain of the century Fatou Bensouda)

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"African leaders have come to the consensus that the process the ICC is conducting in Africa has a flaw. The intention was to avoid any kind of impunity in governance and crime, but now the process has degenerated into some kind of race hunting.


"If you take the example of Kenya, the indictment has come because of the clashes between the two tribes, the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu, but these two clans they came together, and almost 100% elected the president and vice president. What do the ICC need then?

"The ICC has to see to it that it shouldn't chase Africans. Out of those people who have been indicted by the ICC, 99% are Africans. So this shows that there is something flawed within the system of ICC, and we object [to] that."

--African Union (AU) Chair and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, May 27, 2013, Addis Ababa

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PHOTOS CREDITS: nation.co.ke

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After stifling domestic opposition and destabilizing the DRC, the Kagame regime is rewarded with $500m by World Bank

(PHOTO: President Paul Kagame, flanked by  UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and World Bank president Dr. Jim Yong Kim, at Kigali Village Urugwiro, Thursday, May 23, 2013)

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Kinshasa is boiling up with anger after details of the $1b World Bank cross-border trade and development package to the Great Lakes countries are emerging.

The news of the aid boost was announced amid great fanfare Wednesday, May 22 in Kinshasa--the first stopover in the joint trip to the region by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

In Kinshasa, Ban beamed:

"Many countries in Africa are taking dynamic forward strides, and now the people of the Great Lakes region, especially the DRC, deserve their full chance for progress. A peace agreement must deliver a peace dividend."

As it turns, more than half of that money would go to development projects in Rwanda, including a whopping $340m for the mammoth 80-megawatt hydroelectric project at Rusumo Falls, at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania.

The rationale for lavishing such huge aid monies on Rwanda was good governance--a thing that country is praised for having a knack of.

What's more, at their stop in Kigali, Ban and Jim competed in heaping praise on Kagame.

Said Ban:

"I have admiration for President Kagame for his leadership and commitment, not only in the region, but in making his people prosperous."

A sentiment echoed by Jim, who eerily waxed lyrical about Rwandan leadership in combating gender-based violence:

"I have never seen a country approach the issue of gender-based violence as you have. Rwanda demonstrates the best example in women empowerment."

Jim then swooned over Kagame:

"I appreciate your commitment to your people. You are a great inspiration to me [.] I hope many African countries will emulate Rwanda."

Well, for one, in the the DRC, where thousands of women were raped by Rwandan and Ugandan armed goons during the 5-year occupation of the country by Rwanda and Uganda, there's just no way that politicians would be telling people that they'd be emulating the hypocritical and murderous regime of Kagame on any topic--and especially GBV--any time soon.

Secondly, in the meanwhile, not a peep on opposition leader Victoire Ingabire who's rotting in Kagame's Gulag Archipelago. Nor on the two long columns of a couple of hundreds of Rwandan special operators that entered DRC territory last week to reinforce M23 bandits.

Congolese have all but given up on the UN, by the way, from which they have long ago ceased to expect miracles.

People don't even believe that the Intervention Brigade would deliver peace in eastern Congo as UN Special Envoy Mary Robinson keeps insisting that that brigade couldn't possibly replace much needed DRC's security sector reform.

Congolese military sources even claim that when the FARDC had repelled the M23 attacks, some MONUSCO officers attempted to dissuade Congolese commandos from pursuing the insurgents.

"They can keep their fucking money and share it with their Rwandan allies!" a Kinshasa woman snarled on a bus this morning, referring to the World Bank aid package. "Rwanda is doing the bidding of the international community, especially the Americans. But we'll resist to the last man. Jesus is with us!"

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PHOTO CREDITS: newtimes.co.rw

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A prison photo that angers the DRC government

 

(This photo, taken on May 1 at Kinshasa Makala Prison and since gone viral on Congolese blogosphere, has allegedly angered the DRC government)

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This photo shows four men branded as "common criminals" by the Congolese government but described as "political prisoners" or enemies of the state by the opposition.

From left to right: 

1) Eric Kikunda, sentenced to life in prison for conspiring with death-row inmate Firmin Yangambi to set up a militia in northern  Orientale Province;

2) pro-Tshisekedi MP Eugène Diomi Ndongala, who's being prosecuted on statutory rape charges as well as attempted murder on the person of President Joseph Kabila; 

3) former MP Pierre-Jacques Chalupa, sentenced last year to 4 years in prison for carrying a "fake license of acquisition of Congolese nationality, a fake voter's registration card, and a fake Congolese passport"; and 

4) radical opposition politician Gabriel Mokia who's been in prison for more than four years for aggravated assault for trouncing a pro-Kabila pundit live during a  prime-time television political show.

No one knows, however, who painted the Hanukkiya on that prison wall nor the photographer who snapped that picture. 

But the photo, which first appeared on the site of the Brussels-based anti-Kabila radio called "reveil-fm," has since gone viral on Congolese blogosphere, triggering  retributive measures against the four prisoners, according to Patricia Diomi, the Italian wife of Diomi Ndongala.

"They've been subjected for about two weeks now to inhuman, cruel and degrading treatments on account of the diffusion of a photo [featuring] political prisoners Diomi Ndongala, Mokia, Kikunda," Patricia Ndongala told a presser on Thursday, April 16.

Adding:

"The people I just mentioned are denied the right to get out of their cells, [and] are subjected to violent searches. [Prison guards] practically storm their cells everyday. They throw their food on the floor [...]"

Patricia Diomi was threatening to go on a hunger strike as of Monday, May 20 if the carceral conditions of her husband didn't improve by then.

One can easily understand the alleged shenanigans pulled by the government, for the photo shows that electronic devices are "smuggled" with ease and in broad daylight into Kinshasa so-called maximum security prison. 

What's more, it also shows that prisoners who can afford to bribe the warden and his minions could spend long, boring days inside the walls of Makala Prison.

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PHOTO CREDITS: reveil-fm.com

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Two Damning Reports on the DRC: The Dance with Death & The mystery of the elusive Congolese wolfram

(PHOTO: "Women fleeing to Goma, 2008"; Photo by Walter Astrada; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas)

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Among the bevy of damning reports and statistics on Africa that came out this week, two reports released by the London-based NGOs Save the Children and Global Witness were particularly devastating for the DRC.

The first report is the annual report Save the Children has been issuing on Mother's Day for the past 14 years.

This year, it's titled "Surviving the First Day: State of the World's Mothers 2013." Its foreword is written by Melinda Gates, "Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

The title of one chapter of the report reads like the title of a gory Hollywood B-movie: "The most dangerous places to be born," while the appendix gives the "14th Annual Mothers' Index & Country Ranking." 

And its opening lines are stuff redolent of horror yarns (to be delivered in a voice-over in the dramatic barytone of a James Earl Jones):

"The birth of a child should be a time of wonder and celebration. But for millions of mothers and babies in developing countries, it is a dance with death."

(http://www.savethechildrenweb.org/SOWM-2013/files/mobile/mobile.html#1)

The beat of this dance with death is especially syncopated in the DRC, says the Report, which, at rank 176, is at the very bottom of the world's Country Ranking.

The last 10 countries in those deadly purlieus include, in worsening order, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Nigeria, Gambia, Central African Republic, Niger, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and the DRC!

How the hell does the DRC, once again, in international ranking systems, find itself in this sordid neighborhood? 

This is the very question Save the Children tackles in its annual report:

"Why is Democratic Republic of the Congo last?

"In DR Congo, levels of maternal mortality, child mortality, educational status, poverty and women's participation in parliament are among the very worst in the world. Unlike most other countries in the bottom 10 which perform substantially 'better' on at least one indicator, the DR Congo performs poorly (i.e. in the bottom 12 percent of countries) across all indicators. This consistently poor performance on all five indicators causes DRC to rank last."

I went through this report in its French version with two female academics at Kinshasa University. They were firstly incensed by what they called the "Western mania of serial ranking systems." 

They then singled out two criteria in the ranking system of the Report--"women's participation in parliament" and "educational status"--to dismiss it as yet another installment in Congo-bashing.

"Does Save the Children seriously think that there are more Somali women in parliament than Congolese women?" those women fumed. "And the notion that Somali women are more educated than Congolese women is simply laughable!"

Be that as it might, for these educated Kinoises, the only truth contained in that Report is what Melinda Gates says about Rwanda and a few other overachieving countries in her foreword:

"In many individual countries, progress has been even more dramatic. Barely a decade ago, in 1999, 1 in 5 Rwandan children died before turning 5. In 2011, the  child mortality rate in Rwanda had fallen to 1 in 20. Other law income countries, such as Malawi, Bangladesh and Nepal have also made significant progress against enormous odds. It is now possible that all four countries will meet the 2015 United Nations' Millennium Development Goal (MDG 4) of reducing child deaths by two-thirds since 1990."

This kind of achievement realized by Rwanda doesn't particularly impress Congolese who point to the ongoing Rwandan project of destabilization of the DRC aimed at facilitating the systematic and massive looting of Congo's resources. 

The argument goes on along these lines: These resources stolen from the Congo are then used and invested in Rwanda to obtain the kind of achievements praised by Melinda Gates. If only the Western sponsors of Rwanda would leave the DRC alone, the latter would readily achieve the same kind of impressive feats!

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The second report to come out this week seems to give ammunition to this line of argument.

The briefing report was released on May 7 by Global Witness and is entitled "Putting principles into practice: Risks and opportunities for conflict-free sourcing in eastern Congo."

(http://www.globalwitness.org/library/new-investigation-global-witness-reveals-high-level-military-involvement-eastern-congos-gold)

The report charges that Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda continue to siphon resources out of Congo with impunity. 

The new system set in place to cheat on the transparency mechanisms of Dodd-Frank is quite sophisticated. The commonly used techniques consists in basically laundering minerals stolen from the Congo in broad daylight, so to speak.

Burundi is the traffic hub for Congo's stolen gold before its shipment to Rwanda, Dubai or other Asian markets.

Besides, the extraction and trade of gold and other minerals remain highly militarized in the Congo--with FARDC senior officers and militia groups either directly engaged in mining operations or imposing hefty taxes on artisanal miners; thus preventing local communities from benefiting from mining activities.

Impunity is so rampant that the infamous Gen. Gabriel Amisi aka Tango-Four is still playing a major role in the illegal mining trade:

"Despite being suspended from the army in November 2012 for supplying arms to rebel groups, including the Raia Mutomboki, General Amisi has continued to profit from the gold produced at Omate [South Kivu]."

This is just a small illustration of the way Congolese officials are now colluding with foreign interest groups to plunder their own country.

A vast scale pillage in the extractive sector in the DRC has just been showcased in the 2013 African Progress Report unveiled by the African Progress Panel at the World Economic Forum being held in Cape Town.

According to a Mail & Guardian, the Panel "analysed five privatisation deals involving the sale of [DRC] state-owned assets to foreign investors operating through offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and other jurisdictions. 

"The panel estimated that the losses sustained in these deals, through the under valuation of assets, was $1.3-billion – more than double the DRC's health and education budget. 

"This was in a country with the sixth highest child mortality rate, endemic malnutrition and seven-million children, out of a total of 11.2-million, not attending school."

(http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-10-report-corruption-weak-governance-costing-africa-billions)

The Global Witness briefing establishes that neighboring countries are also busy--if not busier--bleeding Congo dry.

The most astounding case is the one involving the wolfram extracted in the Congo but tagged and traded by Rwanda, a case featured in one of the boxes of the briefing:

"Where does all the wolfram go?

"There are no registered wolfram exporters in Bukavu and there have been no official wolfram exports from South Kivu province since 2010. However provincial mining authority reports seen by Global Witness show that wolfram is mined at Lunkutu (Walungu), Bitale (Kalehe), Minembwe (Fizi) and on the island of Idjwi. [...]

"Global Witness received three independent accounts from regional mineral traders describing how Congolese wolfram is smuggled into Burundi and from there transits through Rwanda for export."

The mystery of the elusive Congolese wolfram shows how Rwanda flouts the new system of tagging and transparency that purports to stem the flow of blood minerals from the Congo.

What's more, it also provides circumstantial motives as to why Rwanda is fueling military conflict in eastern through its armed proxies, including the M23.

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PHOTO CREDITS: Via artblart.com

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M23 opts for shoot-to-kill policy for its deserters

PHOTO 1: "A joint team (Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa) arrives in Goma on a reconnaissance mission ahead of the deployment of the Intervention Brigade in eastern DRC, 12 March 2013. Photo by Sylvain Liechti." (MONUSCO photo legend)

PHOTO 2: Rwandan propaganda claims that these guys killing time at Ngoma Interment Camp in Eastern Province, Rwanda, are among the 689 defeated fighters of the pro-Bosco Ntaganda M23 faction.

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No one in the DRC is fooled any longer by the bombastic communiqués being fired urbi et orbi by the M23, including the most recent one, appointing two new so-called administrators for the territories of Nyiragongo and Rutshuru.

Everyone here knows that bad, deleterious morale is tearing the bandit outfit asunder.

Radio Okapi reports for instance that in this past month of April alone, 87 M23 fighters had surrendered to MONUSCO forces.

The short term outlook for M23 was so dire with this personnel depletion that it has just set up an ambush point about 30 meters from the entrance of a MONUSCO base at Kiwanja for the purpose of shooting to kill its deserters!

This situation is a far cry from what prevailed on the ground just two months ago.

Then, leaders of the M23 outfit of doppengänger anticitizens were sending threatening letters to parliaments in South Africa, Malawi, and Tanzania.

In those missives riddled with egregious grammatical errors and typos, these cross-border criminals were telling lawmakers of those countries to pressure their respective governments to renege on their pledge to contribute troops to the MONUSCO Intervention Brigade... or else!

That was then, when these modern-day highwaymen were still basking under the fresh  reinforcements of their ranks by Rwandan combatants and troops from the defeated splinter pro-Bosco Ntaganda M23 group who'd apparently been sent back by Rwanda to northeastern DRC.

By the way, Rwanda still dismisses as "rumors" reports alleging that Rwandan insurgency micromanagers sent back into the Congo fighters of the defeated wing of M23.

And to dispel those rumors, the Rwandan Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs, Séraphine Mukantabana, has now picked the habit of taking diplomats accredited to Kigali on sightseeing tours of Ngoma Interment Camp in Eastern Province, Rwanda, where those alleged M23 erstwhile fighters are supposed to be sheltered.

Minister Mukantabana is even swearing these days that those defeated M23 fighters have all but given up on their razzias into the DRC by producing one exemplar of the "oath" these bandits are supposed to have "freely" written.

The exemplar being shown around is the one written by one of the M23 lead criminals, which reads:

"I, Jean-Marie Rugerero Runiga, hereby willingly genuinely and permanently renounce all political activities that can be associated to armed groups."

Sick humor no doubt as the "oath" is about renouncing "political activities"; not military activities--though some M23 ex-fighters present at Ngoma Interment Camp include some of the most vicious M23 military chiefs of the ilk of renegade Brig. Gen. Baudouin Ngaruye and Col. Innocent Zimurinda.

And just as recently Rwanda was seeking that the DRC grants citizenship to all Rwandan refugees who are on Congolese soil, Minister Mukantabana now wants the UNHCR to "expedite" the "status change" from armed insurgents to refugees for those international bandits.

Now, the Rwandan desperate strategy is to clamor that the crisis in eastern DRC can't be resolved militarily. 

Which means that M23 renegades have to be reintegrated into the FARDC and be given the military command of the North-Kivu Province.

When M23 and their Rwandan sponsors still seemed to have fallen prey to their own propaganda of invulnerability and of MONUSCO's supposed military incompetence and alleged duplicity with Rwandan FDLR terrorists, they were MONUSCO-bashing all over the place.

Now the narrative is somewhat muddled, though you still encounter now and then that MONUSCO-bashing vein.

For instance, as recently as April 30, the Kigali-based daily New Times was recycling this MONUSCO-bashing narrative in an article penned by Edwin Musoni announcing the visit to Rwanda of former Irish president Mary Robinson, newly appointed UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Musoni's article reads in part:

"Currently, the UN Mission in DR Congo maintains close to 20,000 peacekeepers but they have been accused of maintaining a friendly relationship with top commanders of genocidal group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda [.]"

(Source: http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?a=66433&i=15343)

Now that MONUSCO Intervention brigage is set to be deployed, Rwandan diehard warmongers need to be told by the DRC government and the international community in no uncertain terms that they should stay within the confines of Rwanda.

On the other hand, peddlers of death of the likes of M23 bandits have shown enough to the world that they don't care a whit about Congo and Congolese citizens. 

Therefore, doppelgänger anticitizens of the likes of Runiga should be instead seeking Rwandan citizenship instead of a change of status to Refugees from the DRC.

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PHOTO CREDITS: PHOTO 1: monusco.unmissions.org; PHOTO 2: newtimes.co.rw

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