Several Rwandan university dons have castigated a report by United Nations Group of Experts on Congo that linked Rwanda to the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In a two page brief availed to the media, the academics argue that under normal circumstances UN could not have relied entirely on Congolese government as the primary source of evidence to prove that Rwanda was aiding M23 because in this case, Congo is an accuser and cannot be a witness in its own case.
"If DRC brought a charge against Rwanda....why then should the bulk of evidence be generated from within its territory?" the group asks in the brief.
Chaired by Prof. Paul Rutayisire, Director of the Centre for Conflict Management at the National University of Rwanda, the 10-member group chronicled DRC crises from the Berlin Conference of 1884 which partitioned Africa, putting some Rwandan communities in the Congo territory.
They say that the credibility of individual members of the UN group of experts, particularly its coordinator, Steve Hege, whom they accuse of being an FDLR sympathiser, was highly questionable.
In several articles prior to his UN appointment, Hege made the case for FDLR, while questioning the legitimacy of the Rwandan leadership.
FDLR is a militia outfit based in eastern Congo whose ranks are composed of mainly participants of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
"Not surprisingly, Steve Hege and his team focused their research on sources sympathetic to FDLR," the dons charge.
A UN group of experts report released recently accused Rwanda of aiding M23 rebels who mutinied against Kinshasa government citing the latter's failure to fulfil its part of the bargain in a 2009 agreement that had brought a semblance of peace in eastern Congo.
Rwanda denied the allegations in a subsequent rebuttal.
And the academics say that Rwanda, a member state of the UN, was not treated fairly because it was denied the right to be heard as provided for under the UN Charter.
"It is unacceptable to conduct an investigation of such magnitude on a UN member state behind its back," the group talks of the clandestine manner in which the experts carried out their investigation.
In reference to DRC's Rwandophone community, the academics note that although some Rwandans were forced into Congo during the colonial demarcation of borders, they have never contested any of the successive governments, yet they have continously been a target of systematic discrimination and mistreatment.
The team seconds the roadmap provided by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) as the way forward for peace in the Congo.
"Publishing of reports aimed at divisiveness rather than unity will only succeed in further inflaming the relative stability being experienced in the Great Lakes region," they warn.
They also advise Congo government to look into accusations of discrimination levelled against it by the Banyamurenge population residing in the eastern part of the country as part of the effort in search of peace.
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When a crime is committed, the evidence is collected on the crime scene and the evidence is used to find the criminal(s). Rwanda committed crimes in Congo and evidences were collected in Congo and they proved that rwanda has been behind it all these years. These dumb so-called "scholars" wonder why the evidences were collected in Congo (the crime scene), seriously? The fact is that 6 million Congolese have lost their lives because of rwanda's evil play in Congo and millions more Congolese displaced, hundreds of thousand women and children savegely raped and it's been proven by many. Congolese need to wake up and rid itself of this cancer from rwanda by any means necessary.
Same thing struck me. Of course the evidence was gathered in the DRC, where else should it be? You must give the Rwandan regime credit for it's media savvy if not it's morals.
This is not to say that Kinshasa should be absolved of blame, whenever too much focus is placed on one target the others escape unseen. However, until the Rwandan dictatorship is stopped from interfering, Kinshasa is going to get a pass for it's own ineptitude.
Stillblue and salnunduso you mentionned that you never heard of banyamulnenge before 1996, stop being ignorant because you are well aware that congo was not a country before 1884 conference of berlin. If you do your research you will find that most of these group of people arrived much earlier than the conference of Berlin. Or you ask fore more info in Rwanda.If you look on the border of rwanda, burundi and uganda you will find that clan or tribes who live along those border are the same. Bagoyi clan which is of bahunde origin, bashi, hema or hima as they are called in rwanda, bagogwe which is a semi nomadic pastoralist tribe and the bakiga tribe in rushuru they live in southwestern uganda with the bahima and north west of rwanda. They are one of the first inhabitants in eastern congo with the batwa(this name is kinyarwanda). Most of the region in north kivu that border those countries i highlighted above are of kinyarwanda-kiga language(e.g ibirunga park, all those volcans name volcan nyamuragira ). You guys you may not be aware of the history in that troubled area but based on biased comments this lead me to conclude that you are ignoring the facts like most of your congoles nazis brotherhood. But let warn you that you will never exclude You will abuse this rwandophone speaking community and live in peace. You will never win this war, leave this people alone. It obvious to me that your ignorent,people like you are the one who call your Prezident Kabila a rwandese. Ask the bashi if there were some rwandese clan living in thise area before 1884 conference of berlin,as their king used to interact with rwandese king, those elder who know the history,they will answer all your question. About Steve Hege, this guy does not beleive that the President Kagame and most of former rwandes refugees who are members of the Rwanda government are rwandese. Let me tell you this, President Kagame is descedent of Abega clan (one of 4 rwandes clanswho provided qeens to Rwanda kings) even the last qeen of Rwanda is his paternal aunt. How can a so called expert of UN dare to miss this. And then those 6 milllions(thi number is questionable, no proven fact or records) who died during the war of congo,most of them died of hunger or at the end of their so called congolese brother. This conflict is congolese business, let warn you that you haven't seen anything yet, those hundrede of thousands rwandese speaking congolese refugeeswho live in uganda, burundi and rwanda or even tanzania they will come back to hunt you until their rights are restored They (rwandophone)are being killed but none talk about it. ignoring the fact won't solve your problems. No one is afraid of you. Bring it on
True
Hello, As far as I know, rwandaphones who leave in Kivu are: 1. Tutsis who were fleeing killings by hutus in 1959 2. Hutus who were running away after commiting mass killing of tutsi and hutu moderates in 1994.
Althouth the people of Kivu has many similiraties as rwandans, ugandans, kenyans and burundians, the rwandaphones were never cut out of Rwanda in 1884 as stated here, this is probably one of those ideas to get the Kivus out of the Congo, it will never happen.
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