To most of the world, Rwanda has gotten a lot more publicity and sympathy for its genocide problems. In 1994, 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and supportive Hutus were systematically exterminated in a bout of ethnic cleansing from extremist Hutus. Many of those casualties were thrown into the very lake I swim in every day, Lake Kivu. Many people stop the history though when the Rwandan Tutsis pushed the Rwandan Hutus from the country, and set up a tolerable government to everyone who was not part of the Hutu killers.
There are a couple things to notice from this opening paragraph. The first is that I keep saying Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus. That’s right, but there are also Congolese Hutus and Tutsis as well. As many people know, when countries were formed, someone sitting in a chair in Europe dipped his pen in the ink and with a 3 inch line on a map changed the political climate of Africa. These political climates ignored where the original groups of people were, often separating tribes and people groups in different countries and also lumping tribes and people groups in one country and all of a sudden not being many tribes or people groups, but one “unified” people under a country’s flag.
The second thing to notice is that the Rwandan Tutsis pushed the Hutus out of the country. Where did they push them? Well into the Congo of course. Long columns of Hutus marched into the Congo, right through Goma, fearing the backlash from the new Tutsi government. Their fears are well founded as the Rwandan government is still seeking Hutu participants in the genocide and is bringing them to justice.
The third thing is that Rwanda gets a lot of publicity with 800,000 people killed. They probably get a lot of publicity because it was a systematic genocide. This is in contrast to the 4 million people killed in the last 10 years or so in the Congo, after the genocide in Rwanda. 4 million people. Many, if not most of the casualties were civilians, who like the Rwandan Tutsis that were massacred, had no say in the matter, and no power to stop it. 800,000 vs. 4 million, and until I was coming to the Congo, I knew very little about it. That conflict supposedly ended in 2002. That was the “official” end of the civil war of the Congo, but that’s not where the story stops. From that conflict, and from the tribal conflicts of the Hutus and the Tutsis, today violence is still erupting, and increasing again, and the citizens are the ones who bear the burden.
After the Hutus arrived in the Congo, Rwanda knew they were there. So did other neighboring countries with indigenous Tutsi populations. To “protect” their populations from further atrocities, the Congo civil war began as the Tutsis were now trying to wipe out the Hutu extremists so they could not act again. At its height the conflict actively involved 8 African nations and numerous militias and militant groups. Fighting was for many reasons, but the civilians suffered. Millions displaced and many that died were from disease and malnutrition that would have been prevented without war. The armies are not paid in the Congo. They have to steal food and otherwise acquire payment from the people. They are supposed to get paid, but they usually don’t. And somehow, in all of this, there was a massive attack in women, to terrorize the population and utterly destroy anything that existed before. This war sees abuse on women and rape not comprehendible to the human mind (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07congo.html?hp).
The conflict was supposed to be over in 2002, but it continues today. It is a more localized conflict now with a lot of the western half of the country fairly stable and struggling with its own problems of resource mismanagement and extreme corruption (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321036&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/), but the battle still rages in the eastern half. Today’s problems involve a rebel general, Laurent Nkunda, and the problems are linked to the Rwandan crisis yet again.
Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi and he accuses the government of allying with the Hutus. He has been around for a long time, but various measures to make peace and try new things have moderated or increased his violence throughout the years. Earlier this year, or late last year, he tried to make a march on Goma and the UN intervened, attacking with helicopter gun-ships, stopping him and killing hundreds of rebels. I actually met one of the pilots who claimed to be part of the mission and if they try and do it again “we’ll kick em again and show them their place.” (I’m skeptical of his actual involvement in the conflict, but it was a good quote none the less. He seemed to have no problem inflating what he actually did to impress the ladies I was with, but his sentiment is largely held, that if they come to Goma again, the UN will get actively involved). The UN will protect the provincial capital Goma, but it is powerless to stop the conflict at large both due to non-involvement issues and because the conflict is so widespread even the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world is vastly undermanned.
The government of the Congo has repeatedly denied siding with the Hutus, and the government of Rwanda denies supporting Nkunda. No one really knows for sure though. Rwanda has repeatedly made statements saying they would not be opposed to entering the Congo in force to stop Hutus they think could endanger Rwandans. While I’ve heard nothing officially one way or the other for Rwandan involvement, it appears the Congolese government might be siding with Hutus to put down Nkunda (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7023708.stm). Nkunda attacks because the government supports the Hutus and the government uses the Hutus to help beat back Nkunda because they can’t handle him on their own. It’s a vicious cycle of which came first, but either way, the fighting still exists today.
The fighting continues along Hutu and Tutsi lines. The conflict is not over and continues to get worse. Civilians are still fleeing the areas, flocking to refugee camps in Goma and nearby cities. All the while, HEAL Africa continues to get more and more women who need vaginal fistula repairs because of the epidemic of brutal rape. There was a very tentative peace treaty signed on September 5, and since the end of the month it has been non-existent. Yesterday Nkunda said he had enough of negotiations and was going to continue active fighting on many fronts (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321394&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/). It’s hard to tell what’s going on here because there is very little media in Goma, but this is my understanding of the conflict now.
What is needed is for the kingdom of God to reign in the Congo instead of the different warlords and cruel militias. Please pray for the Congo.
No comments:
Post a Comment