DRC:The Alleged FDLR Abuses Are False, MONUC Has Been Challenged to Provide Evidence

By Callixte Mbarushimana
February 20, 2009
Paris

(Press release)

The information spread by agents of Kigali who have infiltrated the UN on the alleged FDLR abuses in DRC is false.

The Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) inform the public, the media and the International Community that the information published by the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) and relayed by Ms. Michèle Montas, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General in her briefing of February 18, 2009 and by some news agencies that the combatants Abacunguzi were surrounded by the coalition of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and the Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC) is totally false.

The FDLR invite all those who want to know the truth about the balance of this war to check in hospitals of Goma and Gisenyi the number of military injuries and deaths in the morgues. Then they will understand whom of the FDLR or the armed coalition RPA /FARDC is encountering insurmountable difficulties in this unnecessary, senseless and unjust war.

The FDLR encourage the RPA/FARD coalition and MONUC to stop publishing lies in the media about the so-called members of the FDLR killed in this war or voluntarily repatriated to Rwanda. The truth will soon or later burst into the open.

The FDLR are convinced that any loss of lives in this war is unnecessary and should be avoided at all costs and call upon members of the FARDC and the RPA to refuse to go to die in a useless, unjust and senseless war, without issue and whose interests go far beyond their understanding.

The information from MONUC that the brave fighters Abacunguzi have engaged in looting, abductions, rape and murder are completely false and unfounded, and are only intended to tarnish the image of the FDLR and their leadership.

Rather, it is the military coalition formed by the RPA and the FARDC supported by elements of MONUC who are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity including robbery, rape, destruction of property, forced displacements of civilians, the use of people as human shields, harassment of people, and trampling on the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law against both the Rwandan Hutu refugees in DRC and the indigenous Congolese people accused of sympathizing with the FDLR.

Is the hunt down of Rwandan Hutu refugees in DRC, their deportation in Rwanda in a nazi style not a crime against humanity? Is the current use of prisoners of war in the campaigns against the FDLR on the airwaves of Radio Rwanda, different Congolese radios, and even on Radio Okapi not a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law?

It is surprising to note that when charges increase to stigmatize the failure of MONUC to protect civilians of the DRC from armed attacks by the promoters of the Rwandan and Congolese genocide i.e. the RPA, officials of MONUC fire from everywhere. The charges coincide with the denunciations by Rwandan refugees, the Congolese people of all provinces and a majority of Congolese members of parliament, of the suspicious and lethal role consisting of using UN forces in the DRC as backup forces to the armed coalition by some officials of MONUC.

The FDLR challenge MONUC and other organizations that question the conduct of the FDLR to provide evidence to support their allegations.

Specifically, the FDLR declare that the so-called massacre of 100 people in Pinga allegedly committed by the FDLR as MONUC said never happened. Similarly, the famous alleged massacres of Kashebere and Remeka or in South Kivu which were echoed by several media never took place.

The FDLR inform the public and the media that the Rwandan Patriotic Army, in collaboration with the elements of PARECO, has committed massacres in Katoyi, Masisi territory, in January 2009, and that massacre should not be falsely attributed to the FDLR. The FDLR invite once again the UN Security Council to establish immediately an independent international commission of inquiry in charge of shedding light on the serious violations of human rights taking place in the Kivu, to identify their perpetrators and bring them to book.

The FDLR remain convinced that MONUC should move away from the cynical pre-emptive war undertaken by the Congolese authorities allied to those of Rwanda and stop all attacks while trying to attract the support of international opinion by a series of lies.

The Kigali officials and their sponsors infiltrated in MONUC currently resorting to disinformation and deceit forgetting that facts are stubborn and that the adventure undertaken by the gravediggers of the people of the Great Lakes Region of Africa cannot defeat peoples led by the spirit of justice and self-determination to regain their rights, must understand that the truth will always prevail over falsehood and good over evil, and that if they do not want to respond one day of their crimes before justice, they would do better to engage fully, faithfully and impartially in their mission.

The FDLR urge their brave freedom fighters "Abacunguzi" to remain united and determined to ensure the protection of civilian populations and continue to demonstrate their discipline in order to face the challenges imposed by the enemy.

The FDLR remain convinced that the war imposed by the regimes in Kigali and Kinshasa does not solve the political problem of Rwanda and call again upon any peace-loving people to support an inter-Rwandan dialogue for the final resolution of this political problem.

The FDLR remain committed to peace and remind Rwanda and the DRC that it is not yet late to stop the dirty ongoing war in the eastern DRC.

Note: Callixte Mbarushimana is Executive Secretary of the FDLR