The DRC and Rose Kabuye

These 2 events have been dominating the news in Rwanda recently. They have a connection which goes back to the genocide, as most things over here do.

Let me see if I can sum them up as I've learned about them.

When I arrived here in September, Eastern DRC was safe. In fact the day I arrived, 2 of my housemates were actually spending the weekend in Goma. You could travel across the border, climb an active Volcano and see the mountain Gorillas for half the price as Rwanda. It sounded like a pretty cool trip so I figured I'd do it while I was here.

However, recently Eastern DRC has broken down.

During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Hutu majority killed approximately 750,000 minority Tutsi's. As the Tutsi-led RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) charged down from Uganda towards Kigali to take the capital and end the genocide, millions of Hutus fled to Eastern DRC. Some fled because they were in fact Interahamwe, the genocidaires. Others fled because they were afraid they'd be mistaken for Interahamwe. Even some Tutsi's fled to DRC trying to get away from the advancing (fleeing) Hutus.

So the RPF takes Kigali. This was by no means the end of the genocide. One of the first things the RPF did when it got to Kigali was to attack and smash the turquoise zone, the area protected by the French army which was feeding and protecting genocidaires. The fundamental mistake the French commited during the genocide was to mistake this conflict as a 'war,' as opposed to what it really was, a planned murder of an entire ethnic people. Plus, the French backed the Interahamwe, aka the bad guys.

In the 14 years since the genocide, every single nation, including the United Nations has apologized for their role - or lack of a role - in the genocide. The only nation to never apologize is France. And France was probably the worst contributor, supplying the Interahamwe with weapons to "exterminate the cockroaches." France is stubbornly sticking to their colonial guns.

In 2006 a court in France issued an indictment for Rose Kabuye, a former member of the RPF (the army that took Kigali), former mayor of Kigali and current close advisor to the president. She was indicted along with 8 other Rwandans by the French court who said that she was part of the group that shot down the former president in 1994 which sparked the genocide. Its currently a mystery as to how that plane went down over Kigali, but the French courts have decided that the RPF was responsible.

As soon as this news came out, Rwanda said "thats it." They kicked out the French ambassador and relations have been cold at best since. The French were indeed bold considering their role in the genocide to then begin to make judgements about the current Rwandan government. So a few weeks ago Ms. Kabuye was arrested in Germany under EU law and extradited to France on Wednesday. Rwandans are NOT happy. In fact, the whole country shut down on Wednesday. My office closed and I was actually advised to stay home and indoors as the entire country was demonstrating against the French government and what they called "political manipulation of international justice by certain Western countries." I even got a text message from the local phone company with instructions for the protest. The whole country is not happy with this.

To be honest, I see their point. I'd be pretty pissed at the French too. First they back the genocidaires, then they try to impose their own ignorant system of justice on a government that is actually working here. Enough is enough. These imperial ties must end.

So, back to the DRC. Back to 1994. We essentially now have the same mess over there which caused the genocide. Huge groups of Interahamwe and huge groups of Tutsis. Remember that 1994 was not the first time Tutsi's had to flee from rampant murder. So millions of Tutsis were already living in Eastern DRC when the Rwandan Hutus and Tutsis poured across the border. Plus, colonial country lines were never drawn with tribal groups in mind anyway. Often when the British, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese drew lines in Africa, they drew them right through the middle of tribal heartlands, essentially splitting a tribe in half on arbitray colonial lines. So what does the UN do? Well the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) sets up camps and feeds and houses everyone. Good guys and bad guys. These camps eventually become 'bases' for the Interahamwe who begin making cross-border raids into Rwanda, killing Tutsis and trying to continue the genocide. This goes on for years. And it continues in Eastern DRC today.

Flash forward to today. General Laurent Nkunda is the 'rebel,' 'guerilla' commander in Eastern DRC who is apparently causing all the mess there. He's a Tutsi who is sick of the Interahamwe Hutus continuing to murder his people. So, he's fighting back now. So he says. But we also hear reports of some bad stuff his army may or may not be doing.

So who knows whats really going on?

One thing you can learn is that the UN doesn't necessarily know what its doing. They certainly didn't know what they were doing in 1994 or since. Plus with the ridiculous amount of mineral wealth in Eastern DRC, trust me, plenty of people are getting rich from this continued conflict. The truth is the situation is complicated. I am hesitant to believe anyone who has 'the answer,' to this problem. But then again, does anyone really care? Its Central Africa after all...