World Watches as Rwanda and Uganda Violently Assault and Dismember Congo
AFRICANGLOBE – The violent plundering of Congo’s immense riches which began under King Leopold of the Belgians continues by outsiders as the world watches and even acquiesces to the criminal attacks.
The slaughter of women and children — the mass rapes of even infants are viewed merely as collateral damage. Today the theft is committed by Rwanda and Uganda through their proxy mercenary army called M23which has reportedly committed war crimes.
The United Nations in a report released last week says M23′s chain of command leads to Rwanda’s minister of defense, Gen. James Kabehere, who of course reports to the president Gen. Paul Kagame. The report says the command chain passes through Rwanda’s military chief of staff Charles Kayonga and that it involves Gen. Jacques Nziza permanent secretary in the defense ministry and Gen. Jacques Nziza who provides strategic advice and oversees logistical support.
The nominal M23 leaders on the ground, Bosco Ntaganda, already indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Sultani Makenga, all report to the real commanders in Rwanda and in Uganda the UN report shows.
In Uganda, the UN report says, M23 reports to Uganda’s Presidential Advisor on Military Affairs Gen. Salim Saleh, who is also brother to his boss, President Yoweri K. Museveni; M23 also reports to Uganda’s national police commander Gen. Kale Kayihura.
Just days before the release of the UN report implicating the military leadership of Rwanda and Uganda, they ordered their proxy army to attack and seize the Congo city of Goma as a cynical negotiating ploy. M23 cleared their path to Goma with artillery fire; heavy weapons which presumably they were able to conceal in the bush and not acquire from Rwanda?
The UN has a 17,000-strong peace-keeping force in Congo yet this army stood by and allowed M23 to seize Goma. The UN army said its mandate is to protect Congo’s civilians and not to engage forces such as M23. How then would the UN protect civilians?
M23′s atrocities against civilians, including massacres and rapes, have been well-documented by Human Rights Watch, which has also called on the U.S. to be more forceful in publicly denouncing the atrocities and calling for sanctions against Rwanda and Uganda.
Yet Congo is so weak that today the negotiations to resolve the crisis is cynically being held in Uganda, whose ruler Gen. Museveni, is one of the masterminds of M23. So in the short run, at least, Gen. Kagame and Gen. Museveni have accomplished their goal. Both believe that even after instigating the attack on Goma by the M23 army, by acting as if they are reining an independent army, they will make it difficult for the United Nations to indict Rwanda’s and Uganda’s leadership.
When Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor backed marauding brutal militias during Sierra Leone’s civil war he was later indicted, arrested and tried by an international Special court. Taylor was convicted this April and in May was sentenced to a 50 year term. The evidence gathered against the political and military leadership of Rwanda’s and Uganda’s direct support of M23 is even much more stronger.
OCG 