Events similar to what preceded the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda are playing out all over again, this time next door in Tshisekedi’s Democratic Republic of Congo. Faced with pressure to negotiate with the M23 movement, Tshisekedi has made it clear he would rather commit genocide against Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese than allow them their constitutional rights as Congolese (which is the reason M23 is fighting.
In a televised speech, Tshisekedi, like Jean Kambanda, Theoneste Bagosora, Frodouard Karamira, and other notorious genocide perpetrators, veiled his call to Congolese youth, asking them to form vigilante groups “to accompany the FARDC” against M23 on the battlefield. This is incitement to crimes against humanity, like the Rwandan genocidaires leaders inciting mobs in 1994. Everyone knows the results.
Currently, a genocide already is underway in Congo, and many Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been massacred in gruesome ways while others are living in terror. Tshisekedi’s incitement will only elevate the genocide machinery to a higher magnitude.
No one should be fooled by Tshisekedi’s heightened bellicose rhetoric about “protection of national sovereignty.” His one and only goal is to mobilize for genocide. Kinyarwanda-speaking Tutsi citizens of the DRC are his target. His principal motive is to create a chaotic situation in the country so that he can use this to make a case for the indefinite postponement of the upcoming elections.
Tshisekedi lacks competence in governance, and his main card to cling onto power (knowing Congolese don’t want him) is to incite genocide. He whips up anti-Rwanda hate as “a selling point” for his cynical project to cling onto power, by postponing the election citing “insecurity.”
The international community should monitor the situation in DRC very closely, to stop the genocide before Tshisekedi’s incitement leads to full-scale genocide.
ellenkampire