There is currently hope for peace talks after the Congolese government finally agreed to dialogue with M23 and neighbouring Rwanda through Angola's mediation.
But peace talks only make sense if the actual causes of the 30-year war are finally uncovered and eliminated. Otherwise the fighting will flare up again immediately.
Misjudgements prevent solutions
It is a misjudgement on the part of many media outlets, politicians and Christian aid organisations that M23 is concerned with securing mineral resources in Eastern Congo or Rwanda is concerned with conquering territory.
This falls far too short and prevents a solution just as much as the German government's blatantly wrong decision to stop development aid for neighbouring Rwanda.
More than 400 journalists, lawyers, researchers and university professors from all over the world have recently written an open letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They complain that the misinterpretation of the conflict is exacerbating tensions and fueling hate speech.
They call on the United Nations not to make the same tragic misjudgement as during the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, when the UN withdrew its UNAMIR troops despite clear signs of a looming genocide.
As a result, an average of 10,000 defenceless Tutsis were slaughtered every day for 100 days. Now, according to the letter, the one-sided focus on the M23 and Rwanda ignores the atrocities committed in broad daylight against Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi).
The Rwandan community in Germany has also written a letter to Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) stating that such punitive measures undermine African-led initiatives and encourage the Congolese government in its pursuit of a military rather than a diplomatic solution.
Where the causes lie
Many causes of conflict go back to the Berlin Conference in 1894/95, when Africa was divided up between the superpowers regardless of ethnic groups, and the Western territory of Rwanda, which was much larger at the time, was carved up between Belgium and Germany.
The Banyamulenge, among others, are still suffering today. They live mainly in the east of today's Congo, but like the Tutsi in Rwanda (in former times), they are labelled as 'intruders' and murdered.
'As early as 2021, Genocide Watch raised the alarm that a 'slow genocide' has been taking place against the Banyamulenge since 2017, unnoticed by the international press.
In 2022, researchers Felix Ndahinda and Aggee Shyaka Mugabe documented in detail in the renowned 'Journal of Genocide Research' how hate speech against the Banyamulenge, among others, is shared thousands of times on social media.
This extends to the highest government circles. For example, Justin Bitakwira, a Member of Parliament and personal friend of President Felix Tshisekedi, who held various ministerial positions, declared that every Tutsi is a 'born criminal'.
He asked whether the God who created the Tutsis was the same God who created the Congolese. The fighters of the FDLR, who are taking action against the Banyamulenge and Rwanda, also justified their terror with texts from the Old Testament and prophecies that God is fighting for them and that they will liberate Rwanda.
The statutes of the terrorist organization state, 'All members of the FDLR must believe in, respect and fear God.' Since they were founded in 2000, they have celebrated church services before their massacres and mass rapes.
The UN Special Envoy for Genocide Prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, declared in 2022 that she was 'deeply concerned' that the current violence was a 'warning signal' that 'hatred and violence are spilling over into genocide on a grand scale'.
Many investigations have revealed systematic persecution, destruction of homes, cattle theft, torture, rape and murder of Banyamulenge.
The goals of M23 and Rwanda
The M23 sees itself, also in view of the failure of the UN mission MONUSCO, as a protection force for the threatened minority, including Banyamulenge and other Kinyarwanda-speaking groups.
Experts such as Hans Romkema, who has been researching the Great Lakes since 1996, call the argument that it is about mineral resources "not valid". A few million dollars would not compensate Rwanda for the impending damage to its image.
Instead, the country and the militia wanted to protect themselves from the FDLR militias that had emerged from genocides. The statement by aid organisations that Rwanda is "boycotting peace negotiations" is false.
While the African heads of government, including the Rwandan president, were discussing the security situation in eastern DRC at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Congolese President Tshisekedi was calling for sanctions against Rwanda at the Munich Security Conference. Instead of seeking a regional solution, he was spreading hate speech.
Romkema names three basic problems that need to be solved: Firstly, Congo lacks stable governance and an army that serves the country and not one person or party. Secondly, there are no equal rights for Congo's Tutsi, who are discriminated against as foreign invaders. And lastly, ending the FDLR rebellion.
Most of our media outlets are failing once again and will have to apologise publicly once again, as some did after 1994. Because they have failed to focus attention on the decades of hate propaganda and the signs of a genocide against the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese.
Added to this is the failure of our government, which is sanctioning Rwanda instead of the real perpetrators of this crisis who are President Tshisekedi and his co-rulers and the FDLR rebels.
M23, A rebel group that wants to protect the Kinyarwanda-speaking minorities in the Congo and demands more say in the east of the Congo. These minorities include the Banyamulenge.
The DRC government is scapegoating these minorities for current developments. The M23 named themselves after 23 March 2009, when the government broke the agreement with the M23's predecessor organisation, the CNDP.
The Author has been for years, researching about the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and is a committed supporter of the survivors.
Wolfgang Reinhardt
Source : https://en.igihe.com/opinion/article/is-there-a-looming-genocide-in-the-drc
