DRC
Pastors
Tie Rwanda to
Mai Mai, Say
FDLR No
Menace, Cite
Hege Report
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 5 --
When three
Congolese
pastors took
the podium
at the UN on
Wednesday
afternoon,
their topic
was Rwanda.
They said,
including in a
petition, that
"Rwanda has
created from
scratch
the M23
movement."
Inner City
Press asked if
that is true.
Video
here, from
Minute 27:42.
Didn't
the
Kinshasa
government of
Joseph Kabila
agree in March
2009 to
integrate into
the FARDC army
fighters of
the former
CNDP?
Dieudonne
Mbaya
Tshiakany
acknowledged
that happened,
but argued
that the
integrated
soldiers
refusal in
2012 to be
deployed
elsewhere in
the
Congo, away
from the
Kivus, proved
their point.
The
mutineers
reportedly
complain of
the killing of
50 of their
colleagues in
Dungu, with
the
perpetrator
still in the
FARDC.
Mbaya's
answer
included a
reference to
"new Tutsis"
in North Kivu.
The
Congo has been
a ground zero
of suffering
for too long,
with the UN
despite
spending
having done
too little.
But to some,
it seemed
these pastors
blamed all of
the DRC's
problems on
Rwanda.
Inner City
Press asked
about the mass
rapes in
Wakikale, and
about
the Mai Mai. Video
here, from
Minute 23:04.
Mbaya's
response
was that the
Group of
Experts
report, a/k/a
the Hege
report,
ties Rwanda to
all of
the armed
groups. He
said,
"according to
the report...
Rwanda is not
only behind
the M23
movement but
behind
all these
different
rebel or
militia groups
in the DRC."
He
said that they
repatriate the
FDLR, but
Rwanda
"recycles"
them as
militia into
the DRC.
Mbaya
estimated the
FDLR at 1400
fighters, and
said as Hege
has written
that they are
not a danger
-- or menace
-- to Rwanda.
Inner
City Press
also asked if
the pastors
believe that
Bosco Ntaganda
should be
taken to the
International
Criminal Court
in the Hague.
Video
here, from
Minute 35:45.
Mbaya
replied first
that it is up
to him, then
that if he is
arrested in
Rwanda he will
go straight to
the ICC, while
if arrested in
the DRC
"authorities
will decide."
Tellingly,
they
said that the
order to
arrest Bosco
came after the
mutiny began,
while others
reverse the
order.
Afterward
an
attendee --
not this one
-- asked who
had paid these
pastors'
traveling
expenses. "It
is a
delegation of
32 people,"
Mbaya said.
One of their
party, the
leader of
mosques in the
DRC, has
traveled to
Turkey.
Another, the
Catholic
bishop, is
down in
Washington
"talking with
the American
administration."
Pierre Marini
Bodho said the
next stop is
Canada. Watch
this site.
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