{"id":11817,"date":"2013-11-19T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T10:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11817"},"modified":"2013-11-19T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T10:59:16","slug":"defeat-of-m23-may-be-orchestrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11817","title":{"rendered":"‘Defeat of M23 may be orchestrated’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Refugees,<\/a>
Refugees, DRC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u2018Defeat of M23\u2019 was perhaps orchestrated, says Andre Vltchek,\u00a0an investigative journalist. The situation in the\u00a0DRC is unpredictable, and exceptionally volatile<\/p>\n

Reports suggested that the UN grew tired of the insurgents, and the M23 gunmen were pinned down in the hills bordering Rwanda and Uganda. They were shelled mercilessly and crushed.<\/p>\n

The final peace accord has not been signed because the Congolese delegation refused to enter the ceremony room in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, claiming there is no point in signing any agreement in view of the fact that M23 no longer exists.<\/p>\n

This is the story, or at least that is how the story has been told in London and Washington.<\/p>\n

Vltchek is acquainted with the city of Goma, said the capital was once called the \u2018Riviera of Kivu\u2019. He was once kept in detention there,\u00a0several floors underground, interrogated by Congolese intelligence agents<\/p>\n

Goma is so full of natural gas it could explode at any moment without warning and perhaps kill tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

Arthur Tewungwa, a Ugandan businessman and an opposition figure told him that \u201cmost knowledgeable observers of the problems pertaining to the eastern DRC are aware that Kagame and Museveni have been the main architects of the chaos that has prevailed in the region.The myriad of so-called rebel groupings are \u2018Frankensteins\u2019 created by them to enable the pillage of the region amidst the semblance of chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congolese immigrants in South Africa have made similar remarks. They say M23 was created by president Kabila himself.<\/p>\n

A leading expert on the DRC, and one of the former UN genocide investigators, Keith Harmon Snow, spoke about the role of foreign companies in the present situation:<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, multinational corporations operating in Eastern Congo under the media radar, but soaked in Congolese blood, include Banro Gold, Casa Mining, Randgold, Mwana Africa, Loncor, Anglo-Gold Ashanti, Kilo Gold, and Moku Gold. These corporations benefit from having the Rwandan Tutsi in Kinshasa (Kanambe) and have deep ties to the criminal extortion, money-laundering, racketeering and theft behind the plunder and depopulation in the Great Lakes countries. The United Nations Forces (MONUC, MONUSCO) and the Rapid Intervention Forces (note the heavy presence of South African troops and South African mining companies in Eastern Congo) serve the corporate agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Tokyo, Ms. Masako Yonekawa, formerly the head of the UNHCR Goma Office in eastern DRC, confirmed on camera, during a discussion: \u201cWell, Rwanda has been getting a lot of assistance from the US Government and the UK, so that\u2019s why they were able to build up their military power\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Vltchek asked her whether there was indifference on the part of the superpowers towards the suffering of the Congolese people, and she replied that it was intentional. It\u2019s because they had a very strong economic interest\u2026 the natural resources in the Congo, they were all to the benefit of the world economy.<\/p>\n

Noam Chomsky, discussed Rwanda and DRC with Vltchek in Boston in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cEastern Congo is where probably the worst atrocities in the world are taking place\u2026 Who do you point the finger at? Oh, they may have been killed by militias? But behind the militias are multinational corporations and governments, but they are a stage removed. You don\u2019t see the multinational corporations that are using the militias to slaughter people so that they can get access to the coltan that Westerners use in their cell phones. It\u2019s indirect, and a lot of the atrocities and crimes that you are describing have that problem,\u201d Chomsky said.<\/p>\n

Some insiders, including Keith Harmon Snow, are not even convinced that M23 has actually been defeated:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt present, the propaganda system is again trotting out the refrain that \u2018rebels in Congo have been defeated.\u2019 The latest so-called \u2018rebels\u2019 – the M23 forces – are actually Rwandan government troops, not rebels. Reports now appearing in the Western mass media are that the \u2018M23 rebels\u2019 have \u2018surrendered in Uganda\u2019, or \u2018turned themselves in\u2019 in Rwanda. This is nonsense, since these are Rwandan defense forces. The varying incarnations of \u2018rebels\u2019 in eastern Congo have always been backed by Museveni (Uganda) and Kagame (Rwanda), in turn backed by the USA, UK and Israel. M23 is the same: another predominantly Tutsi army serving the Tutsi\/Hema elites, not the people of Uganda or the people of Rwanda\/Burundi.<\/p>\n

Media reports have exaggerated the fighting between Congolese troops (FARDC) and their UN partner army, the Rapid Intervention Forces, against the M23. Most M23 were warned in advance of an impending assault and they fled to Rwanda and Uganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers aren\u2019t precise, but it is generally agreed that between 8 and 10 million Congolese people died between 1994 and the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is talking about the Rwandan genocide,\u201d Congolese Presidential candidate Ben Kalala once told me. \u201cSome 800,000 people died there. I am sorry for them, because they are human beings. But in the Congo 8 million people died: women, children, elderly\u2026 So what is the world waiting for?\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the genocide never get out because Tony Blair was serving as personal adviser to the Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and has friends and allies like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and numerous other political, as well as economic and religious leaders.<\/p>\n

Right now the situation in Rwanda, Uganda and DRC is unpredictable, and exceptionally volatile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation in Kigali is extremely tense, right now\u201d, an Asian diplomat based in East Africa, who asked not to be identified, explained to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere is also very confusing\u2026 Security is beefed-up and it is clear that something may happen any moment. There are rumors that the West may let Kagame fall soon and replace him with a more suitable puppet\u2026 And of course he knows; he is extremely smart, and cunning, unlike Museveni. That is why he is putting up fortifications around himself. He needs those M23 people around him, in case of war! He needs them back! It is almost certain that there will be a conflict here soon\u2026 Next year is the 20th anniversary of the \u2018genocide\u2019 and of the RPF taking over the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another regional showdown is most likely approaching. In East and Central Africa, what is called peace could actually be just another battle in a never-ending war.\u00a0– RT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u2018Defeat of M23\u2019 was perhaps orchestrated, says Andre Vltchek,\u00a0an investigative journalist. The situation in the\u00a0DRC is unpredictable, and exceptionally volatile Reports suggested that the UN grew tired of the insurgents, and the M23 gunmen were pinned down in the hills bordering Rwanda and Uganda. They were shelled mercilessly and crushed. The final peace accord … Continue reading “‘Defeat of M23 may be orchestrated’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[492],"tags":[949,447,2192,182,290,1415],"class_list":["post-11817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-drc","tag-genocide","tag-m23","tag-rwanda","tag-uganda","tag-un"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/refugeesdrc.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11819,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions\/11819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}