The beginning of a trial of 25 members of an armed group, Rwanda National Congress (RNC), captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo, unmasked just how deep the conspiracy ran, especially involving some of the neighbouring countries that have been at loggerheads with Rwanda. One very interesting thing about this whole trial is that among those on trial are four Burundians and three Ugandans. Stranger still, none of the men were recruited in Rwanda; 14 were recruited in Burundi, eight from Uganda, two in Kenya and one young man was recruited in Malawi, a country that has a sizable number of Rwandans. From the testimonies in court, Burundi and Uganda are allegedly knee-deep in helping the armed group. But Burundi, because of its proximity to RNC’s bases in DR Congo, makes it the ideal go-in-between the rebels and the external world. The capture of the group dealt the RNC one of its biggest blows; its operations in eastern DR Congo, were not only disbanded, but it also compromised its regional backers. It revealed the extent of their destabilisation of Rwanda. One lesson one gets from the incident and previous ones such as the killing of “Gen Sylivestre” Mudacumura and the putting out of circulation of Calixte Nsabimana alias “Sankara” and senior leaders of the FDLR; Rwanda is not an “Insina ngufi” (pushover). But it really enforces the belief that, as long as the international community, beginning with the continental and regional bodies, sit by and do nothing, they will always be treated with the spectacle of ostriches burying their heads in the sand.
