Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the ruler of DRC has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fortnight. To start off, Tshisekedi walked out of the Francophonie Summit, which took place on 4 and 5 this month, like a petulant child whose parents refused him a lollipop, why? Because French President Emmanuel Macron, in a speech during which he mentioned a number of wars roiling the world, said nothing about the ongoing conflict in DRC. In his deluded mind, Tshisekedi expected Macron to speak up about that conflict – a purely Congolese affair – by denouncing Rwanda, and making everything the fault of the Rwandan head of state. In other words, Tshisekedi expected the president of France to behave like his mouthpiece Patrice Muyaya. Who is to tell the DRC president that statecraft isn’t something conducted as if it were quarrels in Quartier Matonge? Tshisekedi expected Macron to get up on the podium to articulate the kind of deranged Congolese regime misinformation that attempts to implicate Rwanda in a conflict whose cause in fact is the doing of Tshisekedi. It’s the latter whose campaign of ethnic cleansing against Congolese Tutsi communities in the east that’s the real problem, as any objective observer will see. It’s the Tshisekedi regime’s crimes against humanity in the Kivus, which prompted fighters from the pastoralist, herder communities there to take up arms – as the M23 movement – to defend themselves (and their rights as Congolese citizens). Yet when Macron spoke out against hate speech, and incitement to hate of the kind that Tshisekedi regime lackeys such as Justin Bitakwira spew against a section of the Congolese population, Tshisekedi saw red. His frustrations have grown as his forces have failed to dislodge the M23. With that in Tshisekedi’s mind, Macron’s clear moral stance on the issue must have stung to the core. M23 has successfully been resisting attacks by Tshisekedi’s military, the FARDC, and against its FDLR proxies (the terrorist group of Rwandans whose ultimate goal is to re-invade Rwanda and finish the genocide they started). That has driven the Tshisekedi regime bonkers. Their endless clamour that “M23 is Rwandan” – an allegation that started as a face-saving strategy, by turning Rwanda into a scapegoat – appears to be getting them nowhere. France certainly isn’t buying it. And it’s not only France. The entire world now is onto Tshisekedi and his cabal, and isn’t listening to their propaganda any longer. No one seems ready to accommodate their now old and boring antics of whining “Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda!” at every turn, rather than taking ownership of their own faults or failures. Macron, rebuffing Tshisekedi's stubbornness in presenting himself as perennial victim (to invented crimes) insists Kinshasa resolve its differences diplomatically and peacefully, through talks with M23 as detailed in the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes. France isn’t alone in that stance. The United States, which Kinshasa has been pestering day and night “to impose sanctions on Rwanda”, too seems to be fed up with the firehose of lies and petulance from Kinshasa. Washington’s advice to Tshisekedi is the same as everyone else’s now: resolve matters through diplomacy, and a good place to start should be the Luanda (or Nairobi) peace processes. A press release issued by the US Mission to the UN on October 7 quoted US Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, telling the Democratic Republic of Congo to “remain steadfast in its commitment to the Luanda Process.” The communication was issued in advance of a UN Security Council Meeting on the situation in the Great Lakes Region. Of course everyone knows Kinshasa has no commitment to the Luanda Peace process, let alone “remain steadfast” to it. If you allow me to interpret, what the Americans were telling DRC in diplomatic speak was: we don’t want to listen to your counterproductive, disruptive words any longer. Act responsibly! As if to shatter any lasting illusions in the minds of the Kinshasa regime honchos, the US representative’s statement added: “we emphasise the importance of fully implementing the de-escalation plan agreed upon at the technical level between the DRC and Rwanda.” So then no blank checks from those quarters then, Monsieur Tshisekedi? What could the man do, walk out of the UN in protest at the US stance? That would be of as much help as him walking out on Macron! The question Tshisekedi must ask himself at this point is, is he going to have issues with everybody in the world? Even Russia is telling him to consider adhering to the Luanda Peace Process. The Congolese president must be feeling cornered, the world narrowing on him. Tshisekedi must wake up and smell the coffee. He is the only one that will be held accountable for his acts, if he persists in his erroneous ways.
