The DRC is a hot bed for more than 100 marauding armed groups that have been killing, raping, pillaging, and terrorizing Congolese citizens in Eastern Congo for decades. However, the world is always in mute mode and indifferent to these atrocities. The world looks the other way when the Congolese army, working hand in hand with FDLR genocidaires fire rockets into Rwanda and destroys lives and property. Until M23 rebels shake things up and the whole world jumps into hyper mode, impulsively condemning Rwanda without any verification.
It beats logic that the FDLR, a group of genocidaires designated as a global terrorist outfit operating in Congo with the ultimate ambition of coming back to Rwanda to commit genocide again, has been completely forgotten and the focus has shifted to the M23 rebels who have been conveniently tied to Rwanda as a diversion by Congolese leaders whose aim is to externalize the conflict and thereby dodge the responsibility of dealing with it. Sadly, the international community has failed to see this ruse and has swallowed hook lines, and sinkers.
The Congo leaders have pounced on this global ignorance and milked the victim status to the last drop by crying louder and louder to attract the attention of the international community. The Congolese leaders have mastered the art of deception and they have been staging all sorts of theatrics all for the benefit of the international community, who have also failed to look beyond the whining to see the huge pile of a mess from where the current problems emanate.
The M23 rebels are a mere symptom of a huge problem that originates from mediocre statecraft. While the Congolese leaders would like to be seen by the international community as victims of their immense natural wealth, the reality is that conventional national governance is almost nonexistent. That is why anyone who wishes to form an armed group thinks of Congo as the best bet. That is why genocide perpetrators fled there and found comfort for decades. That is why Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese are persecuted with impunity and denied their nationality.
The only time the Congolese government shows some semblance of life is election season when they come out to compete against each other on who bashes Rwanda the most because they know quite well that Rwanda bashing is a vote magnet. The biggest disappointment in all this is the fact that the international community has failed to open its eyes and press the Congolese leaders to take serious charge of the country to avert a regional catastrophe.