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A Forgotten War

Dec 02, 2012 Editorial

 

The defining scene of Africa in the western imagination is from Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”:  Kurtz dies in the jungles of the Congo mumbling ‘The horror! The horror!” But the horror was not what Kurtz had seen; it was what he, as a European, had done to the peoples in the Congo. His papers, after all, were entitled, “Suppression of Savage Customs”. But sadly, the Congo has never stopped experiencing ‘horror’ and at this time, a two-decade war is again heating up.
Unique in being the personal property of King Leopold of Belgium in the 19th century, what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo became a colony of Belgium between 1908-1960. By the time of independence, the Cold War was in full bloom and the names Moishe Tsombe, Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, are signposts in the west’s determination to control the mineral-rich country, almost the size of the entire Western Europe. War became endemic in the region, with 5.8 million dying since 1998.
The latest onslaughts have at their base a mineral, as usual. The rebel group M23 seeks to overthrow the government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At issue is the mineral coltan, which is used in mobile phones. The eastern region of the DRC has been embroiled in war for the last decade and a half, with rebels and government soldiers alike, going on murderous rampages. The conflicts are partly triggered by the enmity between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, and partly by competition over land, natural resources, mines and huge sums of money.
On November 21, M23 captured the DRC town of Goma, and defying an African Union deadline, they have refused to withdraw. The M23 rebels are trying to gain the support of the local population. They are portraying themselves as a peacekeeping power that will finally bring calm and security to the region. For them, the important eastern city of Goma is the bridgehead from which they intend to capture the entire country. But even if the group doesn’t succeed, the DRC could be split apart.
DRC’s ongoing tragedy began in Rwanda, its neighbour to the east. In 1994, Hutu militias began attacking members of the Tutsi ethnic group, killing about 800,000 people in only 100 days. This genocide is Central Africa’s original catastrophe. A Tutsi army under current Rwandan President Paul Kagame drove the Hutu killers to the west and into the Congo jungles. With support from Uganda, the Rwandan army pursued the militias into Congo. The official justification for the incursion into Congolese territory was to protect Tutsi living in Congo.
But once they were in Congo, Rwandan troops joined forces with Congolese rebels and advanced to Kinshasa, where they overthrew the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Laurent Désiré Kabila, the father of the current president, was named president in his place. Suffering guilt over what they had allowed in Rwanda, the west, especially the US, has given strong backing, including massive aid to Kagame since 1994.
Unfortunately Kagame has continued interfering in the affairs of the DRC. Even after officially withdrawing its troops, Rwanda remained involved, supporting various rebel groups with weapons, money and logistics. In 2006, Rwanda cooperated with the rebel group headed by General Laurent Nkunda, whose troops went on a terrible rampage. International pressure eventually forced Rwanda to withdraw its support for Nkunda. He was arrested and, following a peace treaty in 2009, his troops were absorbed into the Congolese army. The UN has a peacekeeping operation in DRC: over 20,000 personnel and an annual budget of close to $1.5 billion
However, last spring, several hundred former Nkunda men deserted and established the M23 group in the jungle, naming it after the date of the peace treaty, March 23, 2009. M23 maintained a camp on the border with Rwanda and the latter secretly supplied them with weapons, uniforms, radios and navigation equipment. While yesterday M23 retreated out of Goma, they still control eastern DRC.
Only the US and Rwanda’s western backers can stop this unnecessary bloodletting.

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