Fighting in eastern Congo between rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and government troops resumed in August despite a ceasefire agreement signed in January. For more than a decade, east Congo has remained a tinderbox of ethnic tensions. The renewed fighting has reportedly displaced more than 100,000 people. Innocent Rwandans either living in eastern Congo, on business trip or at universities have reportedly been tortured on accusations that they spy for Nkunda. A Rwandan student at Institute Supérieur Audio Visuelle (I.S.A.V) in Bukavu, where he is doing a degree in mechanical engineering was expelled recently. The fourth year student was expelled on account of his nationality. The view of your columnist is that blaming Rwandans doing business in eastern Congo for the mess in the DRC is just to play the proverbial ostrich. The problem in eastern Congo is not caused by the 32-year old Rwandan Jean Claude Mugwaneza who was recently hounded to destruction because he was tall and speaking Kinyarwanda like Nkunda. Fighting will always be there as long as Congo allows negative forces in the region to use its territory and maim or rape innocent civilians. Conflict will occur in eastern Congo as long as the FDLR is not stopped from persecuting Nkunda’s people. Rwandans like Mugwaneza will be inconvenienced or even killed because they are tall or speak Kinyarwanda like Nkunda but this will not help address the real problem on the ground. Mugwaneza, a resident of Kamembe in Rusizi district, now in hospital nursing torture wounds says he was handed 200 strokes of the cane by Congolese soldiers in Inguba Commune. Mugwaneza now suffers pains in the back, head, stomach, limbs and he is vomiting blood. He cannot sit properly. He had reportedly gone to Congo to buy a phone. He says one evening, government soldiers with guns - two rifles and four pistols -descended on him, accusing him of being Nkunda’s spy. When denied, his tormentors said all Rwandans support Nkunda. The soldiers caned him and then rest. Then they would come back whip him. They also insisted that he should not cry and if he did? They would lose count and start again from zero. “That day, they beat me thoroughly using batons and hit all my joints, legs, arms and feet until I bled,” Mugwaneza said. At first, the soldiers had wanted Mugwaneza be given 400 strokes but after the bargain, they ended up caning him 200. Who says being tall or speaking Kinyarwanda is a serious crime in eastern Congo? Ssuuna2000@yahoo.co.uk
