The suffering of Congolese is a shame to Africans

“Over a period of 20 years three quarters of a million Ugandans perished at the hands of governments that should have protected their lives (…) I must state that Ugandans (…) felt a deep sense of betrayal that most of Africa kept silent (…) the reason for not condemning such massive crimes had supposedly been a desire not to interfere in the internal affairs of a Member State, in accordance with the Charters of the OAU and the United Nations. We do not accept this reasoning because in the same organs there are explicit laws that enunciate the sanctity and inviolability of human life.” Those were the ringing words of then Revolutionary President, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, in his maiden speech to the 22nd Ordinary Session of Heads of State and Government of the OAU in July 1986, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Only six months in power after a brutal five year guerilla war, Museveni impressed many with his willingness to raise intra-continental issues without wrapping his words in prose and diplomatic lingua. Members of the “Dictators’ Social Club”, the OAU, particularly the “old Turks” like Mobutu, Bongo, Banda, Eyadema, Moi and Boigny were amused by the antics of the new “kid on the block”. Many people hoped his speech might kindle a change in approach for the OAU to African abuses, by African criminals in government, under the pretext of ‘the internal affairs of the sovereign nations’. Unfortunately only President Aferwerki of Eritrea seemed to have concurred with what Museveni had said because in his address to the 29th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU held in Cairo in June 1993, he stated that the OAU had failed the people of Africa and the people of Eritrea and was therefore a useless organization. The people of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Congo Republic and many others have suffered under their respective governments’ heavy handedness or ineffectiveness and the excuse for lack of regional and or International efforts to save the lives and dignity of these people has been the OAU’s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of members states. Tanzania under Nyerere, for example, was criticized for ‘meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign Uganda’ when it toppled Dictator Idd Amin, his total disregard for the human rights of Ugandans notwithstanding. Regional groups like ECOWAS, for example, intervened in Liberia and Sierra Leone because Nigeria was willing to foot the bill, at a cost of one million dollars per day at one time, in the case of Sierra Leone. AU’s “progressive” approach under the Constitutive Act of the Union (the Act) provides for the right of the Union, in certain cases, to intervene in a member State and for the right of a member State to request such intervention. Article 4 of the Act provides for: “(h) the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity”; and “(j) the right of Member States to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security”.No group of people has suffered in Congo’s recent history like ethnic Tutsis. Their problems seem to have started with the passing of the 1971 Citizenship Decree by Mobutu granted citizenship to Banyarwanda who had arrived as refugees from 1959 to 1963. Whereas the decree concerned the refugees, Tutsi Congolese who lived in south and North Kivu were later grouped together with the former as “foreigners” and beneficiaries of the decree. The 1981 Citizenship Bill stating that only people who could prove descent from someone resident in Congo in 1885 would qualify for citizenship was meant to deny many Congolese of their citizenship. After the 1991 Sovereign National Conference Mobutu implemented the Mission d’Identification de Zairois au Kivu using the Berlin Conference as a yardstick. In 1993 between 10,000 and 20,000 died as a result of ethnically motivated disturbances in north Kivu with the Division Specialle Presidentialle (DSP) and Guard Civile supporting different ethnicities which culminated in the declaration by the Commission led by Mabweni Vangu declaring that all Banyarwanda in North and South Kivu were foreigners and must leave Zaire. In 1995, the then co-speaker of parliament Anzuluni Mbembe signed a resolution that all Banyamulenge; referring not only to the inhabitants of Mulenge in the Itombwe Plateau but all ethnic Tutsis in Zaire were recent refugees who must leave and issued the lists of names of Tutsi who must be expelled from Zaire. The influx of armed genocide criminals supported by Mobutu saw the looting of property and finally the wide scale massacres of Tutsi which in part started the war that ousted Mobutu. In 1998, Kabila Sr. armed indigenous people like the Barega and Babembe into the Mai Mai Militia together with defeated Ex-FAR institutionalized the ethnic cleansing which persists to this day. Mbusa Nyamwisi, who was leading RCD-Kisangani faction and later as minister in the Kabila government, openly called on the Congolese people to; “Kill Tutsis wherever they may be.” The massacres of ethnic Tutsis in Eastern Congo and even where they went to seek refuge, particularly the infamous Gatumba Refugee Massacre on 13th August 2004 at the hands of command of FNL- PALIPEHUTU under the command of Agathon Rwasa, is an offshoot of the said ethnic persecution. Whereas the problem of FDRL-Interahamwe may be blamed on French Operation Turquoise, the international community who accommodated and fed armed refugees so close to their country of origin and the Mobutu regime which allowed armed refugees to enter its territory with arms, the continued suffering of Congolese Banyamulenge in the region should be blamed on the regional countries and the AU in general. Despite the fact that MONUC, the world’s largest peacekeeping mission joined hands with FRDC in operations against FDRL-Interahamwe ethnic persecution continues to send more people into neighbouring countries as refugees. In future someone may express a deep sense of betrayal as Museveni did twenty three years ago that most of Africa and the neighbours in particular kept quiet as criminals raped, looted, maimed and killed civilians in Congo. Ends