Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

DRC: Pepe Kale's response to the article "A turn for the better in Congo?"

By Pepe Kale

The following is a comment written by Pepe Kale to the article A turn for the better in Congo? published in The Independent on Wednesday February 25, 2009.

The arguments in this article are very weak. The article starts by mentioning how artificial the borders are in Congo. This is the case in most if not all of African countries. This is therefore a non-argument. I invite the author to survey 99% of the people in the Kivu area and they will tell you without hesitation that "we are Congolese FIRST and FOREMOST." I am one of those 99%.
The article also fails to mention the fact that we, the general Congolese population, have REJECTED Rwanda's participation in the latest joint military operation. We have demanded their return to Rwanda as soon as possible. In addition, this whole operation has been carried out by the war criminal Paul Kagame and his proxy war criminals Bosco Ntaganda and the CNDP soldiers who are terrorizing the Congolese population.

The author of this article seems out of touch with the situation on the ground. The population in Kivu HATES Nkunda, the CNDP, and their sponsors from Rwanda: Paul Kagame and James Kabarebe. These war criminals have traumatized innocent populations, raped, killed, amputated, sodomized, and abducted children into their armies. We do not want these terrorists in the Kivu territory. When they come in we flee away. Has the author noticed the number of displaced people in the Kivu provinces? The fact that the Congolese parliament overwhelmingly rejected this joint military operation speaks for itself.

I myself have lost many family members to the CNDP and their Rwandan allies. Thousands of other Congolese have lost many family members too. Recently, an aunt of mine and her family members were shipped to Rwanda as part of this operation. The operation was a big sham. How can they ship a Congolese family to Rwanda and then claim that they are repatriating Rwandan rebels. This is ridiculous and I hope the author will go out and search for the truth instead of going out of his way to praise Kagame and the operation that flopped. Also, mark my words but this military operation is the end of president KABILA.

One more thing I would like to mention is that most of the representatives of the Congolese civil society, the clergy, and the Congolese PARLIAMENT have rejected this operation. There will be no lasting peace unless the Rwandan troops leave Congo and let the Congolese people manage Congo for their own people. We all say enough is enough on the looting of the Congo’s resources in the guise of chasing the FDLR rebels. Now that as the author claims the operation against the FDLR was a 'SUCCESS', please let the Rwandans leave our territory for good. No more looting of our resources.

Related Materials:
Rwanda, the key to peace in Democratic Republic of Congo
DRC: Failure or Victory, the FDLR rebels keep disappearing in the wild
North Kivu: The Rwandan troops are pulling out

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 9:56 AM