Response to Congo Siasa Blog
@muanacongo @congoman and all others brothers
1. First thank you for having a civil discussion. Although
we don't share the same views. I like that this time discussion is at the
arguments level without unnecessary name calling. Ultimately when our country
will be a true democracy it will be the population that will decide between
these visions which one it wants.
2. Regarding the next steps, Muana Congo and Congoman, I
am afraid that the IC (the one you talk with, as IC is diverse) and all the people
sharing your reading of this situation get overrun by reality. There are 2 huge
variables that are not factored in your view:
population’s will and population’s level of exasperation.
Even
if DRC population is known to being quite, outburst of violence similar to
these Kaberebe forces entering Kinshasa in 1998 faced when they were stopped not
by the army but by the population itself should make people think of where the
real power seats.
3. By the time you create this "unity around
Kabila" population and army could be in open rebellion with most of the opponent
in exile.
4. As I have said before, November failed election will
not stop to haunt us, and it has become a distraction for uniting the nation.
I
can sincerely tell you that no one has moved over these elections. From the
population that feels disconnected from Kabila’s power and brands it as cheater
and traitors selling the country " Na Prix Mangondo"; to even people
from Kabila party who are in a repressive mode for strengthening a lame power
and thus are unable to mobilize internally.
5. If you have good memories Mobutu fell for the same
reasons. Population was so fed up that his army did not fight, his generals
were conspiring against him and population watched as spectators. We are now
living the consequences, it was at that moment that Rwandese and their their tutsi/hutu hatred got invited into DRC politics.
6. We are living a similar moment. What is at stake is
the survival of this country and the future of its inhabitants. You cannot always
rule against people will and expecting them to support you, even when people supporting
you mean people supporting themselves. Masses are not so bright, and that is
why we Congolese intelligentsia have to think ahead. We cannot just only have a short sighted vision for this war
- like LDK had when he allied with Rwanda
for the sake of throwing Mobutu out without planning the aftermath - but also
think for the next steps. Otherwise, the next Rwandese will be the Angolans or
the South African. Now, 6 Millions deaths later I don’t think that LDK really
measured the reach his decision would take for the Congolese population.
7. Another consequence of this failed election is the
very situation we have in the east. Why
May-May withdrawn from the 2009 accord? Because they were marginalized and
their force diluted for giving Rwandese all power. May-Mayi have a very bad memories
of Kabila willingness to help Congolese. Elections sent a “whatever you do, I
am the boss” signal meaning Kabila won't change. And the way this war was led,
showed to May May that they were right to not get into the farce, and it
totally destroyed trust to Kabila, his chief of staff and all the FARDC chain
of command. May-May have no trust, ZERO, to Kabila. One May-May once told me
that for him in one side there were the Congoleses: May- May and Fardc soldiers
and in the others Rwandese: M23, Kabila and his ex-CNDP FARDC generals.
8. @Congoman , this is a war of invasion, I agree. The
person you should convince of that is Kabila. Beyond discourse wat has he done?
9. There are 2 ways of reading this situation:
1)
through Kabila feeling like not giving a space to opposition (his sworn enemy,
like you called them) and Kabila deciding to bring in mercenaries from all
Africa for compensating his fear of his own army and population.
2)
To really act as a Congolese and go beyond feelings, look long term and
mobilize internal resources to end all of this nonsense in eastern DRC. We
don't need SADC to fight for us. We need Kabila to pay , feed and supply our
army with ammo!!!!!! That is all we need. However because of November election,
and the way Kabila managed this war, Kabila knows that letting option 2) happening,
means his demise at short or longer term.
10. Since the beginning of this war, when FARDc were victoriously
advancing and fighting bravely, I have been hearing in circle close to Kabila that
these soldiers constitute a menace and that they will never be allowed to return
to Kinshasa. I have read other people saying the same thing in this blog. For
certain people, having a true Congolese forces strong enough to defeat Rwandese
was a bad precedent. Moreover the fact that this force was trained by Belgium
that ensured a diverse recruitment from all the country meant that this force,
unlike the presidential guard, is a loyalty risk for Kabila.
11. Since people have spoken about that what have we seen happening?
We have seen that supply of ammo and food to soldiers in the frontline stopped.
Since the whole world has been speaking about it, did supply resume?
12. Despite not having food and water, for the country, not for Kabila, these
soldiers fought for days and withdrawn from their position only
when they ran out of ammo. I won't speak of the Rwindi "tactical retreat" episode when soliders basically mutinied and asked government to be serious and to provide them means to fight, I won't
speak about betrayal at the highest level of FARDC and the furor of belgian instructor,
that were supervising Congolese troop, at the manner the government was sending
these young men to deaths... A quick internet research will give you plenty of
links speaking of the dire situation the Congolese soldiers has been fighting
in.
13. I personally know some of the people who died in this
war in Bunagana and Rutshuru, not all of them were Kivutians, some of them
never set foot in Kivus before, they were and felt Congolese. For those ones we
have a duty, to never let nonsense like Kivutians will fight better for Congo
than Congolese for other regions. Congoman I'm telling you this because I have
read you writing this before in this blog. Trust Congolese people, Kasaien, Bas
Congolese, Katangese , Equatoriens have died in front lines and even more are
ready to go dying there .
14. We have a paradox situation here, it is like there is a burning house and within that house the head of household has shackled his kids
who wanted to fight the fire and he prefers to call the neighbors to
firefight...... Will the house still be there when neighbors decide to help and arrive, will kids
still be alive within the burning house when neighbors arrive? What are the
motives of the head of the household? I think that in this case the kids have
to free themselves and fight the fire and fight the insanity of their father altogether.
15. I believe in Congolese people solving Congolese
problem, nobody will serve our interest better than ourself. It is our blood
that has to flow to protect our fatherland. And the supreme commander of
Congolese armed force (Kabila) must help those of us who are ready to make the
ultimate sacrifice instead of fighting us through disguise.
16. Division in our society is not like people will want
the world to think. Politician are encouraging certain stereotype about
west/east but these are mostly ways to give them legitimacy based on where they
come from instead of what they have done. We have our cohabitation issues, but the understanding that our society
is diverse is very well entrenched in Congolese people mind. Mixed marriage is
basically the norm, nowadays. Today political choices are mostly based on
economical interests instead of regional/tribal origins. November elections
provisory results that I had (I know that real results will never be known)
from independent and inteligence sources clearly show that. Still I agree, now
is kind of everybody who has his own results, and again an occasion that could
have been used to show that congolese society has evolved in the right
direction in term of cohesion and congolese identity was missed.
17. You can genuinely think that calling mercenaries from
over Africa will solve the issue, I strongly doubt. And all these others
countries have the same information that we have. Do you really think that they
are taking kabila seriously? They know
that sending troops will be to protect Kabila regime and they won't do that
just for the love of Congolese. They will want payments.....
18. Personally after talking with the part of IC I know, I
understand that there is nothing much to expect from IC if Congolese themselves
don't start a dynamic. IC can accompany a movement but cannot outwardly change
a reality. And within IC there are many competing interest, any side can get support
from different side of IC...
19. I'm afraid that the pragmatic solution consisting of “Uniting
around Kabila” and “compelling Kabila to comply to some minimum” won't work. And
if it is implemented it won’t change life of congolese. As this solution ends
up to giving Kabila a blank check to run the country. No, IC will prevent
Kabila to change constitution, not a single African dictator has been stopped
to change constitution. There could be sanctions that won’t hurt Kabila and his
cronies, but they will be useless to make him change direction, just look at
Kagame...Doing that will cause even more
frustration and when this frustration will explode, I'm very afraid of what will come out of this.
20. I agree with Eole, you are seriously under estimating
Kabila and his entourage commitment to remain in power... They have no
willingness to increase political space. We will need to have kisangani to fall
before they realize they need help from within Congolese society. From their
office they rule totally disconnected from reality of the people. They are
ready to make Mobutu mistakes and go to exile when they military lose power.
21. This power is extremely corrupted from within. Kabila
might love this country, what I seriously doubt (in fact I don’t sincerely
thinks that he has any sort of connection with DRC population), but that does
not make him competent to run the country. If he made the mistakes he made but
still loved the country, then ok, he is just an incompetent Congolese president
loving this country and he should leave space for a competent individual who equally
loves this country. Kabila is not Congo, he is not the only one of us who can
run this country who has inner truth.
22. Kabila has to start serious political gesture, if he
does not start quick, he might seriously be surprised and we as well. Something
is changing in congolese people mindset. Too too much deaths and humiliation.
When it will blow it will go in all directions and I'm not sure that it will
benefit Congolese.
23. My last point will be around ethnicity and the tutsi
feeling of being always in danger. Sometime we must ask ourself, and even the
leaders of the tutsi community must start asking themselves, where are we
going?
24. In the last 15 years or so, since the Rwanda Genocide,
the immensity of the people who died were killed directly or indirectly because
of the leaders of the tutsies community. When these leaders were perpetrating
or supporting or covering up this massacre with the western power turning a
blind eye, what were they thinking? That the others people would love them?
Like a dog that you kick and that always comes back to you?
25. Since 1994 Tutsies protection has been the reason for
wide scale massacre of other ethnic groups and here we are talking about
millions. In fact, tutsi leaders are responsible of more deaths than their own
number, tutsi population in Great lakes is approximated between 8- to 10
million (in DRC they are less than 1%), and the number of deaths in DRC alone directly
or indirectly related to tutsi leaders killings is around 5 to 6 millions!!!!
26. Tutsi is the most sur-represented ethnic group in the
DRC institution while not representing 1% of the population. Tutsi have been
rulling Kivus since 1996, through RCD, CNDP, Ntaganda and Co. But it is never
enough…..What did tutsies leaders have done to make their community live
peacefully with their neighbors in the area they controlled? Why is it always
the other fault that cohabitation is bad?
27. Tutsi security or feeling of security will not come
from the barrel of the gun, and it has become a lame reason for killing and
killing and destroying other people’s life. Tutsi security will come from :
1)
Accepting the
truth and asking for forgiveness and accepting forgiveness from others , in
this case a verity and reconciliation program should be put in place.
2)
Congolese Tutsi
to feel Congolese and stop using Rwanda as an excuse, and I know that many of
them are very against Kagame politics, we have Congoles tutsies and they are congolese
as I am, but nonsense like Ntaganda who is a Rwandese citizen being called
Congolese must stop;
3) A strong states that guaranty people’s right. NO
MORE IMPUNITY.
28. For the last 15 years Kagame has set the speed of the
great lakes tragedy and I don’t think that anything good came out of it,
instead of more killings, more hatreds and life destruction, It is time to try
something else. Something very simple still difficult to implement but that has
long lasting value: truth and accountability.
29. Kabila is part of Kagame system, he has to go. Not for
the IC but for the Congolese.