#Rwanda Genocide 1994

[hicginewsagency]

Kagame blames the world's inaction as Rwanda commemorates the 1994 genocide.

Rwandan president Paul Kagame.  Courtesy image. Getty ImagesRwanda’s President Paul Kagame said the country was “humbled by the magnitude of our loss” Rwanda’s president said the international community “failed all of us”, as he marked 30 years since the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people. President Paul Kagame addressed dignitaries and world leaders who had gathered in Rwanda’s…

[liesmyth]

The utopian premise of the Genocide Convention had been that a moral imperative to prevent efforts to exterminate whole peoples should be the overriding interest animating the action of an international community of autonomous states. This is a radical notion, fundamentally at odds, as so much of the internationalist experiment has proven to be, with the principle of sovereignty. States have never acted for purely disinterested humanitarian reasons; the novel idea was that the protection of humanity was in every state’s interest, and it was well understood in the aftermath of World War II that action against genocide would require a willingness to use force and to risk the lives of one’s own. The belief was that the price to the world of such a risk would not be as great as the price of inaction. [...] And I wondered: Can we imagine such an outcome today?

Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

[t0rschlusspan1k]

In occasion of the 30th anniversary from the Rwandan genocide I couldn't refrain from presenting you with this book I read a couple of years ago. It's a memoir/report by Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist, who worked on the mass graves of the most important massacres in recent history: Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo.

From Penguin Random House Canada:

Published ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, The Bone Woman is a riveting, deeply personal account by a forensic anthropologist sent on seven missions by the UN War Crimes Tribunal. To prosecute charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, the UN needs proof that the bodies found are those of non-combatants. This means answering two questions: who the victims were, and how they were killed. The only people who can answer both these questions are forensic anthropologists. Before being sent to Rwanda in 1996, Clea Koff was a twenty-three-year-old graduate student studying prehistoric skeletons in the safe confines of Berkeley, California. Over the next four years, her gruelling investigation into events that shocked the world transformed her from a wide-eyed student into a soul-weary veteran — and a wise and deeply thoughtful woman. Her unflinching account of those years — what she saw, how it affected her, who went to trial based on evidence she collected — makes for an unforgettable read, alternately riveting, frightening and miraculously hopeful. Readers join Koff as she comes face to face with the human meaning of genocide: exhuming almost five hundred bodies from a single grave in Kibuye, Rwanda; uncovering the wire-bound wrists of Srebrenica massacre victims in Bosnia; disinterring the body of a young man in southwestern Kosovo as his grandfather looks on in silence. As she recounts the fascinating details of her work, the hellish working conditions, the bureaucracy of the UN, and the heartbreak of survivors, Koff imbues her story with an immense sense of hope, humanity and justice.

I also recommend you watch the video and read the articles and posts I shared earlier on my blog to better understand how this horror came to be:

Rwanda: From colonialism to genocide (documentary + article)

Emmanuel Macron's declarations

Some other book recommendations:

[FR] Maria Malagardis, "Avant la nuit"

[FR] Dorcy Rugamba, "Hewa Rwanda: Lettre aux absents"

Fiston Mudacumura, "Born Hutsi: My Imbroglio"

Thank you for your attention.

[reasonandempathy]

Saw this and I actually wanted to add some actual details, in case people didn't know/weren't curious.

US Specific Recessions:

Recession of 1990 and 1991

2000 to 2001 Recession

The Great Recession, from 2007 to 2009 (this does not include the recovery, which took years and arguably never really happened)

The COVID Recession

Genocides:

Rohingya (2016 and ongoing)

Iraqi Turkmen (2014-2017)

Yazidis Genocide (2014-2019)

Darfur (2003 and ongoing)

Congolese (2002-2003)

Hutus (1996-1997)

Rwanda (1994)

Bosnia (1992-1995)

I'm presuming we can all agree he was also referring to Ghaza right now

So yeah. 9 Genocides and 4 major recessions since 1990. If he was born in 1985 there are 3 more genocides (Anfal, Gukurahundi, and Isaaq).

[juliakristeva]

it is suspected that a genocide has occurred in darfur and is ongoing in south sudan. the situation is being compared to rwanda in 1994. black activists have been saying this. i am curious if the genocide in palestine attracts more, in fact pretty much all, attention from the west because it's a narrative in which the west is complicit and can actively center themselves as activists. hard to care about a genocide if you don't feel guilty by association i guess.

[probablyasocialecologist]

As Israel shut off the electricity, turned off the water, demanded two million people, half of them children, evacuate in 24 hours amidst endless bombing campaigns with the explicit intention of putting civilian safety second to the destruction of Hamas, papers surfaced claiming that Palestinians, with an IQ of only 75, were incapable of governing themselves. Incapable, really, of being human. The role of race science is to identify those humans that do not have to be classified as people. It is as simple as that. And dehumanization, stripping a group of their capacity to be human, their humanity, is the literal foundation of genocide. On Tutsi — “Exterminate the cockroaches” Rwanda, 1994. On Native Americans: “Wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the earth” — United States, 1891 On Armenians: “the Government will view the feeding of such children or any effort to prolong their lives as an act completely opposite to its purpose, since it regards the survival of these children as detrimental.” — Turkey, 1916. On Tigray “They should be erased and disappear from historical records” — Ethiopia, 2021. Twenty years prior to effecting the Holocaust, Hitler said of Germany that the “final aim, however, must be the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether.” And today, in 2023, Israel repeats the same tired story, declaring that they “are fighting human animals” as they rain down thousands of bombs upon an area the size of Rhode Island, destroying hospitals and bakeries and churches in an offensive that declares with every day that passes “the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian”.

[mxdae]

Yeah, wine-effectao3 blocked me, so I'm going to post the source that you've asked for here, @antongarou

And that's not the only genocide Israel had participated in over the years.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25762120

And for all the screeching zionists do about how Israel is a Jewish homeland, zionists definitely seem like they don't want all Jewish populations to flourish.

[soon-palestine]

It weighs on me a lot heavier this year because I’m away from home but also because I, like many, have spent the past 6 months witnessing Isra*l’s intensification of its genocide against the Palestinian people in real time.

My heart is shattered and its pieces are in Rwanda with my people and in particular with my family as we remember the senseless killings of our loved ones (of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) and the many other horrors that were perpetrated as the world watched.

In Palestine, in Sudan, in Congo, in Haiti, in too many places where people continue to witness the murders of their loved ones while fighting for their lives against impossible brutality…as the world watches.

Here on this land with First Nations people who also continue to struggle against a settler colonial state that seeks their annihilation. They are everywhere the lives of people continue to be sacrificed at the altar of power and profit.

I can barely put in words what I have felt watching institutions provide platform after platform to the Isra*li embassy in Rwanda to continue to legitimize the genocide their country is committing in front of all of our eyes

I am especially revolted by all of this in the context of the Isr*eli sale of arms to the genocidal government of 1994 while it was under international embargo…and the continued refusal to unseal the documents pertaining to this

But even on the darkest days I HAVE to believe that we can and should do everything in our power to bring forth a world in which Never Again is a reality everywhere. In which we refuse to allow this to happen to ANYONE ever again because if not then IDK what the point is

May the memories of all of our loved ones be our strength. Tuzahora tubibuka! Palestine will be free! This world will all one day be free!

[sissa-arrows]

Macron said that France could have stopped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, especially with the help of its African allies and its Western allies as well. But he then added that “France did not have the will/desire to do it”.

Apparently he is planning a speech on that specific subject on Sunday.

Dude needs a whole speech and so many words to say that France was an accomplice and active participant in the genocide in Rwanda? Like having the means and ability to stop a genocide but refusing to or “not having the will/desire” to stop a freaking genocide is called being a fucking accomplice.

[aparrotandaqrow]

A lot of folks, especially in the Jewish community, have mixed feelings about Harris picking Walz as her VP over Shapiro. Some wanted Shapiro for the Jewish representation, especially a Jew who is Zionist and yet decries Netanyahu and expresses the desire for peace that so many of us have. Some worried that having two Jews in the White House would provoke yet more antisemitism and possibly even sink the ticket, given the massive surge in leftist antisemitism recently.

Many of us were frustrated and angered by seeing leftists campaign for Walz being the pick over Shapiro more or less entirely because Shapiro is Jewish—and felt a sense of dismay that perhaps Harris had caved to the antisemites.

I'm a Jew but I'm also a Minnesotan. I was glad to see the Walz pick for many reasons unrelated to my Jewish identity or Israel. But I want to also submit that Walz, uniquely among the politicians Harris could have picked, brings something to the table that is desperately important both to the nation more broadly and our community more specifically.

I present as Exhibit A, this archived NYT profile of Walz from back in 2008:

The teacher, Tim Walz, was determined that even in this isolated place, perhaps especially in this isolated place, this county seat of 9,000 that was hours away from any city in any direction, the students should learn how and why a society can descend into mass murder.

...

“The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Mr. Walz said in a recent interview, recalling his approach. “Students understood what had happened and that it was terrible and that the people who did this were monsters. “The problem is,” he continued, “that relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path. You have to make the intellectual leap to figure out the reasons why.”

My ancestors immigrated to the US around the turn of the century from Mariampol, Lithuania and Luboml, Ukraine. When the Nazis arrived in those towns some 40 years later, the Jews there (many of whom would have been my ancestors' relatives) were massacred not by Nazi soldiers, but by their neighbors, who welcomed the Nazis with open arms. You cannot truly help protect the Jewish community from antisemitism if you don't understand this crucial detail about how the Holocaust happened.

So Mr. Walz took his students [...] and assigned them to study the conditions associated with mass murder. What factors, he asked them to determine, had been present when Germans slaughtered Jews, Turks murdered Armenians, the Khmer Rouge ravaged their Cambodian countrymen?

...

They read about civil war, colonialism and totalitarian ideology. They worked with reference books and scholarly reports, long before conducting research took place instantly online.

...

When the students finished with the past, Mr. Walz gave a final exam of sorts. He listed about a dozen current nations — Yugoslavia, Congo, some former Soviet republics among them — and asked the class as a whole to decide which was at the greatest risk of sliding into genocide. Their answer was: Rwanda. The evidence was the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis, the favoritism toward Tutsis shown by the Belgian colonial regime, and the previous outbreaks of tribal violence. Mr. Walz awarded high marks. The next April, in 1994, Mr. Walz heard news reports of a plane carrying the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, being shot down. [...] Mr. Walz’s students, now juniors, saw their prophecy made into flesh and blood.

...

“You have to understand what caused genocide to happen,” Mr. Walz said, with those grim anniversaries in mind. “Or it will happen again.”

Y'all, Tim Walz is not Jewish. He's a white guy who grew up in Nebraska and then lived in one of Minnesota's smaller cities, up until going to Congress and then the Governor's mansion. No, he does not provide us with representation, nor will he ever truly understand what it feels like to be Jewish in America in 2024.

But he gets it. He understands not just academic history but people, and understands that "Never Again" is only feasible if we look at root causes, and strive to nip the factors that lead to genocide in the bud. We have all understood that allyship for Jews is only meaningful if you're here defending us before it gets violent.

Governor Walz represents an opportunity to have someone in the White House, on the national stage, who understands the big picture and the history well enough to actually be able to navigate incredibly complex and painful issues like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, like the regional conflicts within the Arab world, like the experience of progressive Jews in the US who would have found ourselves ostracized and alienated from increasingly hostile leftist movements. I cannot begin to explain how rare it is to have a politician at this level who also carries an experienced teacher's grasp of both history and empathy.

Maybe Josh Shapiro would have also brought that. But honestly, I'm not so sure. Walz may not be Jewish. But I think we're going to find that he'll be an ally, and a deeply learned and wise one at that. And I think we really need that right now.

[old-school-butch]

So it's ok for israel to commit atrocities and genocides just bc other regimes are also committing war crimes? Please be serious

That’s not my argument. Never accept the ‘it could be worse’ argument since it doesn’t help you trying to make things better.

My point is that young people in the west, in particular, have been sheltered from the realities of war and how horrible it is. This has made you vulnerable to propaganda that you repeat above - that this war is full of atrocities and genocide. You can only think that if by being so unaware about what those things look like. There’s also this almost naive belief that - since the world is a fair and just place - that things you ignore can’t be genocide because no one is making a fuss about it. And if someone is making a fuss, then it must be serious. But that’s not true at all. In fact, there are forces in the world that would very much like you to ignore their genocides and focus elsewhere.

The harsh reality is that It’s extraordinarily easy to kill large numbers of people, especially by surprise and especially in small communities.

Let’s reverse the scenario, oct 7th was genocidal in intent, clearly the orders were to kill as many people as possible and kidnap as many as they could transport. In 24 hours, 3000 men killed approx 900 civilians and kidnapped another 200+. Then a military response finally mobilized and resistance started, resulting in more Israeli military deaths - around 300- and the deaths of about 2000 of Hamas fighters as they were overwhelmed.

Imagine israel attacking without warning, going house to house and just killing everyone in sight. Let’s restrict this to small arms, motorcycles and everyone wears civilian clothes or are dressed as Hamas fighters to sow confusion.

But Israel can send 300,000 fighters not 3000. In the first 24 hours the death toll would be near 90000 killed before resistance was mobilized, assuming it even tried. The entire population would be dead in 26 days using nothing but small arms fire.

In Rwanda in 1994 800,000 people were killed over 3 months with machetes and a few machine guns. The rolling Sudan genocide between 2003-2005 killed 200,000 people, 300,000 raped and 2 million people displaced. World war 2 lasted 5 years and 6 million people were exterminated - plus a peer to peer war was happening at the same time that cost another 75 million lives. The word genocide was invented to describe what happened to Jews in Europe, but systematic killing has been part of human societies forever. We just have more efficient weapons now.

The world is a bad place anon, and you should never take safety and civilization for granted. This is the larger reality I want you to see. you have to realistically look at the numbers and realize that if Israel wanted to kill everyone in Gaza it would have happened by now.

But this misinformation continues to spread, even as the UN finally admits the reports of deaths in Gaza of women and children have been exaggerated, and that in fact many of the dead are Hamas fighters. I won’t go as far as to say no atrocity has been committed by Israel during this campaign - all reports should all be investigated - but I look at the numbers and see Israel at least trying to meet a military standard of conduct against an enemy that would commit genocide if they just had more time.

[zvaigzdelasas]

“We have reached the end of a cycle of French history in which military questions held preeminence in Africa,” Macron said. Henceforth, “there will be no military bases as such,” but “new military partnerships” with African allies.[...]

Macron was not welcomed so warmly in Gabon as he was in the Congo. Protesters in Gabon accused Macron of aiding President Ali Bongo in his reelection campaign, which he denied. He also received criticism in the DRC from President Felix Tshisekedi and opposition activists.   During his visit to Rwanda, he apologized for failing to prevent the 1994 genocide by Hutus against ethnic Tutsis and claims to have founded a commission to look into colonial massacres in Cameroon. In an attempt to regain his glory days in Africa, Macron directed his speeches to the young community, civil society and sometimes heads of African governments. Not only so, but he vowed to get rid of the CFA franc - the West African currency tied to France and promised to replace it with the Eco in 2027. Part of his attempt included being the first French president to repatriate cultural artifacts to Africa.

13 Mar 23

[letz-smoke-zaza]

What is happening in Congo ?

I. INTRODUCTION

Today, it’s been 64 years since the Democratic Republic of Congo is officially an independent country. Yet, Congo, a country that I cherish is going through multiple crises, and particularly a genocide since long time ago.

If you didn’t know it yet, this genocide is orchestrated by Rwanda and Uganda’s governments and militaries, but also congolese militias, composed of rebels named the M23 but funded and sold weapons to notably by European countries. This is happening since near 30 years.

I feel compelled to talk about it since what is happening isn’t talked about enough in mainstream medias. Yes, it is true these last months a lot of people have learned about it and even celebrities expressed their support for the inhabitants of Kivu (the region targeted by the genocide), but fewer people really know what it is about and how destructive it is.

First, how did it happen ?

If you have to know one thing it is certainly that since D.R.C.’s liberation from the kingdom of Belgium the 30th of June 1960, after Lumumba fought for his people’s freedom, he became the prime minister, then was betrayed by his comrades, and finally murdered, since these times, Congolese people almost always been living in between civilians crises, wars, and genocide.

Lumumba before his execution. ⬆️

To simplify, in 1971, Mobutu succeeded a coup d'état and the Democratic Republic of Congo officially became ‘Zaïre’ under Mobutu’s dictatorship. However, Mobutu was kicked out after the first war of D.R.C., opposing the Zaïre and Allies led by Mobutu, and AFLD (The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo) led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his Allies including Uganda and Rwanda.

To understand the origins of the congolese genocide, we have to acknowledge what happened in Rwanda later after the events I just spoke about. Between the 7th April of 1994 and 15th July of 1994, which, in the time span of 3 months, only 3 months and 10 days, 800,000 millions of civilians died. Primarily members of the minority ethnic group Tutsis but also moderate Hutus and Twa were killed by armed Hutu militias. This genocide was supported by Rwanda’s government and still in these days is considered as the bloodiest one in a short time span.

« Although the origins of the mass killing were initially blamed on the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana (whom the Hutu falsely claimed had been murdered by Tutsis), the conflict’s actual origins can be traced to decades prior.

During Belgian rule, the colonial government instituted a separation of Hutus and Tutsis, favoring the Tutsis and placing them in greater leadership roles within the country. The systematic divide led to tremendous resentment in the years that followed, culminating in unresolved tension that provoked the Hutus to steal, rape, and kill for basic human rights. » source : What Was the Biggest Genocide in Human History

The connection with D.R.C. ?

The fact over 2,000,000 Rwandan fled the country during or immediately after the genocide, in the people who emigrated were members of the Hutu ethnicity, some of them being genociders. They took refuge in Nord-Kivu, in D.R.C. , at the border of Rwanda. They were scared because at that time Tutsi gained the power over the country and Hutus feared they would take their revenge, that is why they left Rwanda.

Nord-Kivu on a map. ⬆️

« The Congo-Kinshasa government agreed to repatriate Hutus involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide if Rwanda agreed to remove its forces from the Kivus, the land Rwanda has controlled since 1998. 

Furthermore, the resource-rich nature of the DRC also makes the area prone to conflict, further placing the Hutus at risk. One can not be optimistic, therefore, in the near-term prospects of DRC Hutus to live in relative peace and security. » Assessment for Hutus in the Dem. Rep. of the Congo

Then, happened the second war of D.R.C. from 1998 to 2003, which killed from 183,000 to 4 or 4,5 millions of people due to starvation and illnesses.

« According to the Kigali government, the Hutu refugee camps formed after the genocide fell under the control of the Interahamwe Hutu militias, to which many genocides belonged, and helped by the Hutu members of the former Rwandan army, they planned to regain power by force.

According to other actors, the presence of Rwandan troops in the DRC was motivated by the project to plunder mining resources in the region. This is confirmed by a UN report requested by the Security Council which indicates, from the interviews conducted by the expert group, that the Rwandan army remained mainly to obtain goods. The report also describes the strategy of the armed groups present in the area to plunder resources from the subsoil for their benefit, in a context of massacres and rape. » source : Deuxième guerre du Congo

Players of the DRC team, during semi-final of the CAN. ⬆️

II. GENOCIDE

As I said it before, genocide been going on for 26-27 years to be exact. Kivu is mainly targeted for its ressources of Coltan, Cobalt, Diamonds and Gold since the M23 and Rwandan military took control of the mines we named "blood mines" because of the deaths they cause. It had been estimated more than 40,000 children are forced to work in mines in Nord-Kivu.

Coltan and Cobalt are both materials used in computers, phones, most electronics devices in general. Both have in common to be materials mined in Nord-Kivu in unethical ways, it’s literally slavery, workers aren’t paid and are forced to work for the militias and Rwanda. Which later on sell these ressources to the whole world and steal Congolese’s ressources. Yet, talking about natural ressources D.R.C. is one of, if not the first, richest country in the whole world. And if Nord-Kivu is so coveted by entreprises AND countries in commercial interests, it’s because this place holds 70% of world’s Cobalt, as for Coltan it’s about 60%. That is also why medias and other countries’ presidents are silent. They know that if they speak up, they will lose partnerships with Rwanda, Uganda and rebels… when you grasp that fact, you are able to understand why violation of human rights, war crimes, child work, sexual crimes, literally slavery is condoned by the whole world. You can finally understand why the world try to silence congolese people : it’s easier to act as if their struggles didn’t exist and exploit them rather than helping them out, that is how cruel the world is.

Let’s not forget about rebels and soldiers who actively terrorize inhabitants, steal them, torture them for fun and influct painful deaths to them. They train children and give them weapons to help them, children, they don’t even know better! Women, children and men are trying to escape their own villages in the Northeast region of D.R.C. to go somewhere else. Millions of displaced people are in makeshift displacement camps, particularly in Goma. Around 600,000 congolese can be found in there, living in unsanitary conditions and earning money mainly through donations and local organizations.

The 3rd of May, at least five rockets exploded in the southwest of the capital of North Kivu (Goma), killing at least 18 people, 32 were injured, including 27 seriously, most of them were women and children. Congolese people struggle to escape these places, struggle to get access to food, struggle to access water and fill their vital needs since mainly militias of rebels and Rwandan soldiers run the zones with weapons and threaten to kill, kidnap, torture and rape anyone who wouldn’t listen to their orders or do something that displease them.

III. SEXUAL VIOLENCES

(TW : that can be very disturbing or triggering for some people to read this, as said in the title, I’m going to talk about sexual assaults, rape and a slight mention of necrophilia(?).)

Let’s not forget about the sexual violence who occur in Nord-Kivu, like in every wars and genocides, soldiers and rebels take advantage of vulnerable situations and poverty to rape women. Women and girls are coerced into doing sex work to ensure their income, buy food and shelters from the same rebels who abuse them. We estimated 48 women get raped by HOURS (source). During two weeks of April 2011, more than 670 victims (more like 1152) of sexual violence were taken care of in the East of D.R.C.

« The vast majority of victims are women and more than half of them say they were attacked by armed men. This happens most of the time "during their travels outside the sites of displaced persons, in search of firewood and food," says the medical organization. » source : RDC autour de Goma, "48 victimes de violences sexuelles par jour"

For feminist organizations, these are feminicides, nothing else other than that. Women and children are especially targeted. White feminists would never talk about what happen to congolese women daily, nor palestinians women. We want women to be free, the violence they go through is not a war weapon that should be used. Wars shouldn’t happen at all. They shouldn’t feel unsafe and dehumanized when they’re going through hardships in their own countries, they shouldn’t feel like they are left out and damned to go through this without any support.

« Most attacks are related to living conditions in the camps. Displaced women find themselves without money, without resources, they are forced to go into the bush to find something to eat or earn a small income » deplores Daddy Ngeve, a midwife, doctors Without Borders.

« There are girls, some of whom are minors, who work in houses of tolerance. They receive between 500 and 2 000 francs [17 to 67 euro cents - editor’s note], » alarms Yvette Shakira, a lawyer at Dynamique des femmes juristes (DFJ), an organization committed to the protection of women.

A lot of congolese women see sex work as their only way out from extreme poverty and I would even say death. They see prostitution as their only way to pay food, water, get access to the most basic healthcare, shelters for themselves, their children and their families. They often get STDs like HIV from lack of protections, serious health issues and deaths through rapes…

What is even sadder is that these women are rejected by their own family, which comfort them into keeping the silence and not telling their relatives about what happened to them.

« "In 9/10 cases, the husband leaves his wife and leaves her in charge of the children. This pushes women to hide the rapes they have suffered", admits Yvette Shakira. "If it happens to his mother, his sister, the man defends them, if it happens to his daughter he takes the lead and asks for justice, but when it happens to his wife, he denies her instead of protecting her." »

source : RDC : à l’ombre du conflit, les femmes en proie à une hausse des viols.

Manyotisi, 32, holds her 6-month-old son, Merveil. He was conceived during a group rape while she was looking for food. She already has two children, but decided to keep Merveil. “He is innocent. I love him,” she said. ⬆️

« In North Kivu, 76% of the victims received by MSF were raped by armed men, the others having been assaulted by civilians. » source : RDC : à l’ombre du conflit, les femmes en proie à une hausse des viols

Testimony of Fatouma, a victim of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC (in French without English subtitles) ⬆️

translation : "They forced me to rape my mother’s c0rpse, to eat her flesh in the presence of my children." - Desiré Goyabaki, M23 survivor. ⬆️

IV. HOW TO HELP ?

If you want to help Congo, first, being aware, as I said, that Coltan and Cobalt are both materials used for electronics devices is a good start. I know in such a society it’s impossible to get rid of them, but if you are ready to change something - at least in your own habits to reduce the consequences - then there’s advices :

- you could stop buying VAPES, those are bad for health anyway and, on top of that, requires Coltan, which is mined by children. To me, that doesn’t worth buying e-cigarettes, even less at humans lives cost.

- avoid electronic cars, it also requires cobalt and on top of that those cars’ batteries are as bad for environment as average cars, except it does pollute in another way.

- for computers, phones, TVs etc. try to keep them as long as you can. It will save you money and you don’t need the newest phones or the newest electronics devices. If yours work fine, then keep them and you will be able to pay yourself other things instead. Refurbished devices are also a really good idea to save money AND be able to buy new things.

- Make donations if you can and if you got enough money. Obviously, if you struggle for your own needs, it’s only fair to privilege your own life. But if you have some money here and then and are sure about where the money is going to, then you can do this.

- Finally, spread awareness. I’m not telling you to give all the details of D.R.C. history to your relatives. But if you have some friends, siblings, parents, talk to them about what happen. The more people know, the more people are invested. That’s a small thing, but it could change everything.

V. CONCLUSION

I am feeling powerless when I see how live congolese people in Kivu, but most of the matters I mentioned concern the whole country, or at least, big parts of it, ESPECIALLY for sexual abuse.

The president does nothing, because like in many African countries if not almost all, they are corrupt and pushed by greed not to do anything for their countries and the security of their inhabitants, but it’s much bigger, reflecting on the impact of past colonialism and neo-colonialism, how European countries, USA and most generally world powers step on African, Asian, Middle Eastern countries and care so little about what happen there even when it’s serious and cost millions of lives. That is why after multiple transgressions of human’s rights, they never spoke up about it as it should be spoken about by the whole world’s medias.

I took a lot of time to write this. But I rushed the end to post this EXACTLY on the 30th June. Don’t hesitate to tell me if there is (serious) typos or ask me if you think I need to add context and historical informations and I’ll try to do so.

Thanks for reading all this 🫶🏽

[portraitsofsaints]

Our Lady of Kibeho

Feast day: November 28

Our Lady of Kibeho is the name given to Marian apparitions concerning several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, south-western Rwanda.  The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, possibly foretelling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Our Lady of Kibeho became the first and only Vatican-approved Marian site in Africa.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[mariacallous]

Next week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will deliver recommendations to the Security Council on protecting civilians in Sudan. Few moments could be more important during this vicious conflict. We fear it is on the road to becoming a repeat of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The war in Sudan is a cruel struggle across the vast expanses of the country between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of paramilitaries, mercenaries, and allied militias, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Sudan’s official military. The RSF was once known as the janjaweed, the notorious devils on horseback responsible for the worst atrocities of the 2003-2005 Darfur genocide, and for the past five months, the RSF and its allies have been laying siege to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

We know that the creation of a full-fledged, multidimensional peacekeeping mission isn’t politically feasible at this moment. But the gravity of the situation calls for the consideration of innovative ideas, many of which have been suggested by Sudanese voices, human rights experts, and peacekeeping specialists.

A nimble multinational or African Union-led protection force with troops provided by willing countries could be mounted with a mandate to protect civilians. The recent deployment of a Kenya-led multinational force in Haiti demonstrates that missions with specialized mandates can be established. With 2.8 million people in and around El Fasher trapped with no option to escape or receive assistance, and with the possibility of ethnically targeted killing on the horizon, the U.N. must act now.

We both have spent years grappling with the Rwandan tragedy. One of us was the force commander who led the U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) leading up to and during the 1994 genocide and authored a book called Shake Hands with the Devil. The other was a researcher for the investigative report into the genocide by the African Union (then known as the Organization of African Unity) and a member of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue negotiation team in 2000-2002.

Bitter experience has taught us that mass atrocities are only a surprise to those who aren’t paying attention.

‘‘Each case of modern genocide has taken the world by surprise,” the African Union report into the Rwanda Genocide concluded. “Even when, in retrospect, it is clear that unmistakable warning signs and statements of intent were there in advance for all to see.”

We must heed the warning signs.

RSF forces have burned dozens of villages of the ethnic Zaghawa people. Famine has been declared in parts of North Darfur. Local militias and armed groups allied with the SAF have so far been able to hold off capture of the city by the RSF. But both the RSF and the SAF have routinely engaged in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. No one is safe.

If El Fasher falls, the RSF would be free to conduct a wave of ethnically targeted killing that could be much larger and more lethal than anything it has done before during the 18-month war in Sudan.

“The world cannot afford to stand idly by as El Fasher descends into chaos,’’ said Alice Wairimu Nderitu, U.N. special advisor on the prevention of genocide. ‘‘We act now to prevent a disaster of unimaginable proportions.’’

A harrowing new report from the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Sudan accuses both sides of ‘‘large-scale violations’’ of human rights and international humanitarian law. ‘‘Many of these violations amount to international crimes,’’ the report stated.

The report is explicit that ‘‘children are paying a very heavy toll in the conflict.’’ Both the SAF and the RSF are accused of killing and maiming children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals. The RSF has recruited and used children in hostilities and committed rape and other forms of sexual violence against them. The report cited ‘‘multiple credible reports’’ that the SAF ‘‘has played a role in the training and arming of children who have joined the popular mobilization.’’

In Darfur, the RSF has conducted a wave of ethnically motivated violence against non-Arab groups that some have concluded amounts to genocide. In an April report, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre argued that ‘‘clear and convincing evidence’’ revealed that the RSF and its allied militias ‘‘have committed and are committing genocide against the Masalit’’ people.

In June, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 2736, which cited ‘‘credible reports of ethnically motivated violence’’ committed by the RSF in El Fasher and the West Darfur capital of El Geneina, between April 24, 2023, and June 19, 2023. The El Geneina killings provide a preview of what the RSF has planned for El Fasher in North Darfur.

During the El Geneina campaign, the RSF committed ‘‘killings, torture, and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as looting, pillage, and destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population,’’ according to the FFM report. One estimate put the number of deaths in El Geneina between 10,000 and 15,000.

In her address before the Security Council in August, Sudanese expert Kholood Khair called for a ‘‘mission to protect civilians,’’ noting the ‘‘vast majority of Sudanese people entirely exposed during the ongoing conflict, and vulnerable to atrocities committed by the RSF, SAF, and allied militias.’’ Citing a ‘‘total absence of protection for women and girls,’’ more than 250 Sudanese and African women signed an open letter calling for international and regional actors to ‘‘close the protection gap.’’

In his report providing civilian protection recommendations, which he will deliver on Monday, it is imperative that Guterres pushes for the establishment of an independent and impartial force with a strong mandate even in the absence of a cease-fire.

The multinational force we are proposing in Sudan could, initially, have targeted responsibilities to establish safe ‘‘green zones’’ or safe corridors for civilians to facilitate the delivery of lifesaving aid. It could support local self-protection efforts and establish boundaries to safeguard agricultural activities. Only fully vetted personnel subject to civilian oversight should be deployed.

Over time, the force could expand to encompass other responsibilities. It could monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as address the war’s systematic use of rape as a weapon  and grave violations against children. It could collaborate with the local responders who are doing heroic work to aid Sudanese people in distress, notably the mutual aid networks (and Nobel Peace Prize nominees) known as emergency response rooms. It could engage in data gathering, creating monitoring and early warning systems, and offer support for civilian and civil society documentation of war crimes and human rights violations.

In the long run, the force could partner with and support a broad peace process, assist in the reimposition of civilian governance, and contribute to the creation of accountability mechanisms. The challenges facing Sudan are many. But we know that a durable peace will come only when the men with guns are supplanted by Sudanese civilians, including women, youth, and other underrepresented groups, who are free to build a society of equity and inclusion.

Guterres has the opportunity to make a bold choice on Sudan. He should call upon the Security Council to take swift action to protect a desperate population ravaged by war.

The U.N. made a tragic mistake in waiting too long to respond to the genocide in Rwanda. It must not do so again.

[beardedmrbean]

Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of Rwandan President Kagame, has been barred from standing in next month’s presidential election.

Only Mr Kagame and two other politicians - Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party and independent Philippe Mpayimana - were cleared by the electoral body.

Ms Rwigara, who was also disqualified from the 2017 poll, took to X, formerly Twitter, to express her disappointment to Mr Kagame.

“Why won't you let me run? This is the second time you [have] cheat[ed] me out of my right to campaign,” she said.

The 42-year-old, who is the leader of the People Salvation Movement (PSM), had earlier told the BBC’s Newsday programme that she had hoped to be a able to stand this time round.

"I'm representing the vast majority of Rwandans who live in fear and are not allowed to be free in their own country,” she said.

“Rwanda is portrayed as a country where the economy has been growing. But on the ground, it's different. People do lack the basics of life, food, water, shelter."

But on issuing its provisional list of candidates, the electoral commission said Ms Rwigara had failed to provide the correct documentation to show she had no criminal record.

It also said she had failed to show she had enough support nationwide to stand.

"On the requirement for 600 signature endorsements, she did not provide at least 12 signatures from eight districts," Oda Gasinzigwa, the electoral commission chief, was quoted as saying.

Another reason the commission gave was that Ms Rwigara had failed to prove she was Rwandan by birth. She once held Belgian citizenship but surrendered that in 2017 before her last bid to become a candidate.

But Ms Rwigara has told the BBC that she was born in Rwanda and dismissed all the other grounds for the rejection of her candidacy.

A total of nine applications to stand for president were received by Rwanda's National Electoral Commission. Their final list will be announced next Friday as it still considering appeals lodged earlier in the process – though at this stage it is too late for the PSM leader to appeal.

In 2017 she was barred following accusations of forging the signatures of supporters for her application.

Ms Rwigara was imprisoned for more than a year but acquitted in 2018 over charges of inciting insurrection and forgery. She said the charges were politically motivated.

In March, a Rwandan court blocked efforts by prominent opposition figure Victoire Ingabire to lift a ban on her running in the presidential election.

She was freed in 2018 after spending eight years in prison for threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide.

In Rwanda, people who have been jailed for more than six months are barred from running in elections.

The two cleared candidates - Mr Habineza and Mr Mpayimana - were also the only candidates approved to stand against Mr Kagame in the 2017 election.

Mr Kagame is running for a fourth term, which could extend his presidency to nearly three decades should he win.

He won the last presidential election in 2017 with nearly 99% of the vote.

The 66-year-old president has faced criticism from rights groups for cracking down on the opposition.

But he has always fiercely defended Rwanda's record on human rights, saying his country respects political freedoms.