It’s August and once again, Congolese ruler Felix Tshisekedi has revived his now-familiar political scam: “genocost”.
One thing Tshisekedi has managed to manufacture during his time as an unelected leader of DRC is a legacy of distraction and manipulation. Genocost is a carefully staged distraction; a narrative built to mask the crimes of his regime and those that came before him. It has no basis either in truth or fact.
It is a fictional genocide, invented to shift blame and attempt to implicate Rwanda in the longstanding turmoil of eastern DRC. The claim is deceitful; that Rwanda committed genocide on Congolese soil for economic gain.
By pointing the finger at Rwanda, Tshisekedi conveniently hides the presence and role of the FDLR: the genocidal militia responsible for unimaginable atrocities. These are the same armed groups his regime is complicit with, sheltering and empowering, while they continue to terrorize civilians. These are the real killers behind the millions of Congolese lives lost.
At the same time, Tshisekedi ignores a much deeper crisis. The DRC is riddled with hundreds of armed rebel groups, many of which were either created or tolerated by Congolese elites to protect illegal mining interests and private power.
What he also erases from history is the root of this chaos. It was Mobutu, Congo’s former dictator, who welcomed genocidaires fleeing Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, giving them safe haven in the eastern part of the country. That decision planted the seeds of decades of conflict.
However Tshisekedi has mastered the art of distraction. He knows how to manipulate public emotion. “Genocost” is his annual emotional trigger. It’s a calculated narrative to whitewash the past, divert public scrutiny, and scapegoat Rwanda in the eyes of the Congolese people.
The truth is, genocost is no genuine “national reckoning”. It is a crude political ploy, one that might sway the uninformed, but crumbles under the weight of facts.
Pure manipulation.
ellenkampire