Josh Kron
19 October 2009
A political manifesto allegedly written by former Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda just days before he was arrested by the Rwandan Government surfaced for the first time last week.
In the manifesto, Gen Nkunda details his political and military ambitions, past relations with Rwanda, and his determination to rearrange national borders in the region.
Gen Nkunda, the former head of ethnic Tutsi rebel group National Congress for the People's Defence that threatened to topple the Congolese Government this time last year, was arrested in late January by Rwandan troops invited in the Congo, heralding a new peace between the two countries.
A preamble to the document claims the manifesto, which says was found by Nkunda's family after he was arrested, was being made public in response to tense a standoff last week between Congolese Tutsi refugees in Burundi and the Burundian army over their freedom to return to Congo.
In the document Gen Nkunda emphasises the CNDP's rise as an organically Congolese movement rather than a proxy of the Rwanda Government, saying his rebellion "never has received a single table, single cartridge, much less single directive," from Kigali.
At the same time, he outlines his insurgency along ethnic Tutsi lines, citing his admiration for, sense of kinship and occasional acquaintance with the current Rwandan regime, including its senior military.
Since 2004, Gen Nkunda claimed, he had been in Rwanda's capital Kigali only once, in early 2007.
At the time he claims to have been in contact with the chief of Rwanda's army, flying in army helicopters, and called Rwandan President Paul Kagame the "unofficial mediator" of the eastern Congo conflict, specifically in the protection of minority Tutsi in Congo.
"Rwanda is a neighbour of mine, whose national language, culture and ethnic composition are identical to those of my Community-Chefferie original Bwishya," Gen Nkunda says in the document translated from French.
He also argued that "intangible borders" had separated what otherwise be a natural nation of eastern Congo, Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi.
He argues ethnic Hutu and Tutsi people have lived in the three "transvolcanic" countries.
For the last 15 years, eastern Congo has suffered foreign invasion, mass insurgency, and an unsteady insecurity scarred further famine and volcanic eruptions.
The situation, sparked by the mass influx of Rwandan Hutu genocide-committers in 1994, reached crescendo between 1999 and 2001 when eight African nations partook in a continental war.
"The CNDP is therefore a direct response to the Sun City agreement," referring to the 2001 peace agreement that obliged Rwanda and Uganda to leave Congolese soil, ending the war.
Many of the soldiers remained. With each transformation, they have pulsed deep in to eastern Congo's provinces, targeting the FDLR and occupying mineral-rich land.
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thanks Jesus ! As a congolese who live in UK. clearly I can suggest that Rwanda authorities have to realise that our destin is to live together as neighbour because we share bonders.therefore, for some one like Laurent Nkunda who killed five millions of Congolese like fishes ???? please God forgive him and all congolese alike.
The world need to know that Nkunda is a criminal all these revelations are polical and support the interests of those who manufactured them and want now to clear the bloody hand of rwanda in the Congo war. we, the people of Congo we will never forget, and we are so bitter and what makes it more bitter is that Joseph Kabila trying to show the world that he has forgiven and forgotten and trying to engage the all nation in a reconciallation of lips with Rwanda even when our hearts are still bleading. 15 years after the Genocide of Rwanda which saw more tutsis killed than hutus are the Tutsis ready to forgive? no,no, no.Kabila and kagame should know that you can cheat all the people sometimes but you cant cheat all the people all the Time. if Rwanda cant send Nkunda to Congo then let them send him to the ICC. justice should and will be achieved blood of 8millions will never be shed in vain.
True congolese people are not surprised by these revelations. The ultimate goal of Congo enemies is to break the country in small entities and this will be resisted by the people no matter what form or strategy the enemies come up with. Congo must and will be a strong nation, in its current limits, in the heart of Africa.We are alert!