Editor, AS Friedrich Schiller said, “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain”. There is nothing we can do against the fecklessness of the DR Congo’s leadership who continue to push their looting/raping/murderous army into provocation after provocation against a country that never provokes but does not permit others to violate its sovereignty and has a first-class professional defence force to ensure would-be provocateurs think twice. But what can one do against the ridiculousness of the DRC military who know from all previous experience they will always come off the worse in any clash with the Rwandan military but never seem to learn to stop their violations of Rwandan borders, security and sovereignty? Is the problem here, perhaps, a matter of moral hazard in its purest meaning; the belief that they face no consequences from provoking Rwanda because they have their foreign benefactors (MONUSCO-FIB) in the theatre of operations ready to rush to their rescue if they get themselves into a thoroughly sticky situation, with others waiting in the wings to run to reinforce those already on the ground? Whatever the case, nobody is doing Kinshasa or the poor sods it is sending against a professional force on its own territory by encouraging Kinshasa to think they can provoke Rwanda by invading its territory, terrorising Rwandan citizens and stealing their property and get away with it. It reaches a whole new level of provocation when it is found out, as was the case on Wednesday, that among the attackers in FARDC uniform were Rwandan FDLR fighters carrying Congolese military identity cards claiming places of birth in Eastern DRC. Those who are encouraging the Congolese to engage in these kinds of provocations are not doing them any favours. But will they ever learn? I doubt it. Where the Congolese are concerned, even the gods threw up their hands long ago and said: Basta! Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda Reaction to the story, “Rwanda warns DRC against provocation” (The New Times, June 12)
